904 research outputs found
The design and evaluation of non-visual information systems for blind users
This research was motivated by the sudden increase of hypermedia information (such as
that found on CD-ROMs and on the World Wide Web), which was not initially accessible
to blind people, although offered significant advantages over traditional braille and audiotape
information. Existing non-visual information systems for blind people had very
different designs and functionality, but none of them provided what was required according
to user requirements studies: an easy-to-use non-visual interface to hypermedia material
with a range of input devices for blind students. Furthermore, there was no single suitable
design and evaluation methodology which could be used for the development of non-visual
information systems. The aims of this research were therefore: (1) to develop a generic,
iterative design and evaluation methodology consisting of a number of techniques suitable
for formative evaluation of non-visual interfaces; (2) to explore non-visual interaction
possibilities for a multimodal hypermedia browser for blind students based on user
requirements; and (3) to apply the evaluation methodology to non-visual information
systems at different stages of their development.
The methodology developed and recommended consists of a range of complementary
design and evaluation techniques, and successfully allowed the systematic development of
prototype non-visual interfaces for blind users by identifying usability problems and
developing solutions. Three prototype interfaces are described: the design and evaluation
of two versions of a hypermedia browser; and an evaluation of a digital talking book.
Recommendations made from the evaluations for an effective non-visual interface include
the provision of a consistent multimodal interface, non-speech sounds for information and
feedback, a range of simple and consistent commands for reading, navigation, orientation
and output control, and support features. This research will inform developers of similar
systems for blind users, and in addition, the methodology and design ideas are considered
sufficiently generic, but also sufficiently detailed, that the findings could be applied
successfully to the development of non-visual interfaces of any type
The Lived Experience of Virtual Environments: A Phenomenological Study
This is study of the experience of virtual environments (VE) in the context of safety training. Research involves participants from two companies who use VEs for safety training in hazardous work environments. The research approach is phenomenology. The key findings of the study show how the users actively form the VE experience. These insights will be useful for VE research and development
What does Motivated Mean? Re-Presenting Learning, Technology, and Motivation in Middle Schools via New Ethnographic Writing
This article offers a critique of the way middle schoolers are often positioned as generalizable objects that can be acted upon to produce measurable increases in motivation and learning. The critique invites a reconsideration and cultural analysis of some of the dominant discourses and perceptions of technology, young adolescence, and the study of motivation. The use of New Ethnographic Writing—a method that performs a cultural critique via extended scenes connects to the roles and status of motivation, technology, and educational research methods deployed within public schools. Coupled with weak theory, this approach offers a way to understand young adolescents as navigating and wayfaring within complex everyday ecologies that escape notions of developmental level, test scores, motivational indices, and GPA calculations. New Ethnographic Writing and weak theory invite a productive re-orientation to the interactions that take place every day in schools. This invitation comes via a methodological sideways move that draws on non-representational theory and literary non-fiction to form a mode of address that makes relational and momentarily cartographic types of knowing and understanding possible
High Precision Touchscreens: Design Strategies and Comparisons with a Mouse
Three studies were conducted comparing speed of
performance, error rates, and user preference ratings for
three selection devices. The devices tested were a
touchscreen, a touchscreen with stabilization (stabilization
software filters and smooths raw data from hardware), and
a mouse. The task was the selection of rectangular targets
1, 4, 16, and 32 pixels per side (0.4x0.6, 1.7x2.2,
6.9x9.0, 13.8x17.9 mm respectively). Touchscreen users
were able to point at single pixel targets, thereby
countering widespread expectations of poor touchscreen
resolution. The results show no difference in performance
between the mouse and touchscreen for targets ranging
from 32 to 4 pixels per side. In addition, stabilization
significantly reduced the error rates for the touchscreen
when selecting small targets. These results imply that
touchscreens, when properly used, have attractive
advantages in selecting targets as small as 4 pixels per size
(approximately one-quarter of the size of a single
character). A variant of Fitts' Law is proposed to predict
touchscreen pointing times. Ideas for future research are
also presented.
(Also cross-referenced as CAR-TR-450
Effects and applications of video games and virtual environments
The widespread use of virtual environments in today’s society leads to the importance of researching how using these virtual environments affect us, as well as how we can best use them. Video games are a very commonly used type of virtual environment/application of virtual environments. Video game research is rife with conflicting results, from studies into training, effects on emotion, to effects on visual attention. Chapter 2 considers the impacts of playing video games on visual attention and shows that the effects depend on the type of attentional process measured, and the video game genres played. Chapter 3 looks at how studies measure video game experience, and suggests a more sophisticated measure, including video game genres and platforms. This chapter also considers to what extent different video game genres are linked to different cognitive skills. Chapter 4 covers research between video game playing, task switching, and impulsivity. Chapter 5 shows that home video game playing (i.e. on home console platforms) affects both implicit memory and explicit memory, but mobile video game playing does not. Recent technological advances allowed the development of a newer form of virtual environment, virtual reality. Virtual reality has become more popular over the last few years in manufacturing and entertainment industries. However, studies into applying virtual reality to educational settings are limited. Chapter 6 presents a study that tests the effects of virtual reality on learning. The results show increased motivation and engagement with learning materials, when xxiv compared to learning with textbook-style or video materials. Chapter 7 compares learning in virtual reality, mixed reality and traditional lecture style modalities, and finds that participants report higher levels of engagement in both Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality conditions, and higher levels of positive emotions in the Virtual Reality condition. Implications for how individuals are affected by both of these types of virtual environments is discussed, including how they can be applied to learning
A framework for the design of usable electronic text
This thesis examines the human issues underlying the design and usability of electronic
text systems. In so doing it develops a framework for the conceptualisation of these
issues that aims to guide designers of electronic texts in their attempts to produce usable
systems.
The thesis commences with a review of the traditional human factors literature on
electronic text according to three basic themes: its concern with perceptual,
manipulatory and structural issues. From this examination it is concluded that
shortcomings in translating this work into design result from the adoption of overly
narrow uni-disciplinary views of reading taken from cognitive psychology and
information science which are inappropriate to serve the needs of electronic text
designers.
In an attempt to provide a more relevant description of the reading process a series of
studies examining readers and their views as well as uses of texts is reported. In the
first, a repertory grid based investigation revealed that all texts can be described in
reader-relvant terms according to three criteria: why a text is read, what a text contains
and how it is read. These criteria then form the basis of two investigations of reader-text
interaction using academic journals and user manuals.
The results of these studies highlighted the need to consider readers' models of a
document's structure in discussing text usability. Subsequent experimental work on
readers' models of academic articles demonstrated not only that such models are
important aspects of reader-text interaction but that data of this form could usefully be
employed in the design of an electronic text system.
The proposed framework provides a broad, qualitative model of the important issues
for designers to consider when developing a product It consists of four interactive
elements that focus attention on aspects of reading that have been identified as central to
usability. Simple tests of the utility and validity of the framework are reported and it is
shown that the framework both supports reasoned analysis and subsequent prediction
of reader behaviour as well as providing a parsimonious account of their verbal
utterances while reading. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the likely uses of
such a framework and the potential for electronic text systems in an increasingly
information-hungry world
User Interfaces for Personal Knowledge Management with Semantic Technologies
This thesis describes iMapping and QuiKey, two novel user interface concepts for dealing with structured information. iMapping is a visual knowledge mapping technique based on zooming, which combines the advantages of several existing approaches and scales up to very large maps. QuiKey is a text-based tool to interact with graph-structured knowledge bases with very high interaction efficiency. Both tools have been implemented and positively evaluated in user studies
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