Analyzing Turkish e-government websites by eye tracking

Usability studies provide essential information about users' views and perceptions of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of given online services. Nowadays, e-government web sites become popular. Therefore, there is a need for usability testing to specify the usability problems and to make the services of the e-government more usable. The purpose of this study is to investigate usability of some Turkish e-government services. The study examined usability of five Turkish e-government web sites: Ministry of National Education - Student Information System (eokul), Ministry of Justice - National Judicial Network Project (UYAP), Turkish National Police: Vehicle Search System, Social Security Institute: Service Details and General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre. It was conducted with nine participants. This study is a case study with mixed design methodology, in which both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed and combined. Quantitative data were collected through an eye-tracker, a pre-test questionnaire of participants' demographics and previous utilization of egovernment web sites and a post-test questionnaire. Qualitative data were collected through both semi-structured individual interviews and observation during test. The study results identify the usability problems encountered while using government services. The study concludes with specific recommendations for improvement of e-government services in Turkey. © 2013 IEEE

The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns

Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research

Application of Kansei Engineering Method in the development of e-Government job portals

Nowadays, companies often find it difficult to predict consumers’ needs and requirements and have been looking for ways to quantify customers’ impression on their products. Kansei Engineering (KE) is a method originated from Japan that could be used in achieving the companies’ goal. This method is often used in humanoriented product development to generate products with improved economic value. In this study, Kansei Engineering is applied in website development. This study reveals that e-government websites in Malaysia have lower usability values among the others website domains. There is a significant potential of improving the usability value of the e-Government job portals by implementing a effective usability testing methodology on them. This study aimed to use usability as a testing method by applying Kansei Engineering in the evaluation of e-Government job portals in Malaysia. This study proposes to improve the quality of job-seeking website managed by Malaysia government by measuring the user experience of the website users. The research is aimed to address the dominant factors that affect the impression of a user on the website as well as to compare the design elements of other sample job-seeking websites. Methodologies devised from the investigation are based on proven and existing approaches by other researchers of the same field. Thus, recommendations obtained and analysis of the results shall be useful to guide the improvement of existing job portals to better serve the good cause of its existence

Consumer attitudes, perceptions and motivations on innovative non-alcoholic drinks in Italy and Turkey

openL'obiettivo principale della tesi è stato quello di ideare una strategia di marketing per il posizionamento di una bevanda innovativa - succo d'uva frizzante biologico - in Italia ed in Turchia, basata sullo studio del packaging e del nome del brand. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, la tesi è stata sviluppata in quattro studi indipendenti ma correlati tra di loro: (i) una panoramica generale del settore delle bevande in Turchia, (ii) il ruolo della morfologia della bottiglia nella percezione del consumatore; (ii) lo studio di marche, forme di bottiglia e di etichette appropriate per i mercati italiani e turchi; (iv) l'impatto di specifici imballaggi sul comportamento visivo dei consumatori e delle loro risposte emotive all’assaggio del prodotto. Il primo studio suggerisce che, il consumo occasionale di bevande alcoliche, il crescente interesse nei confronti di bevande sane sono le principali preoccupazioni dei consumatori, mentre le elevate imposte, le restrizioni e le leggi sulla vendita di prodotti alcolici rappresentano le problematiche attuali del settore, di conseguenza nuove bevande analcoliche potrebbero avere una possibilità nel mercato turco. I risultati complessivi delle seguenti tre studi sul packaging suggeriscono che le varie parti che compongono la morfologia di bottiglia non sono ugualmente rilevanti, e sia nella etichettatura e che nell'imballo di una bevanda, molta più attenzione dovrebbe essere data alla spalla della bottiglia che che rappresenta la parte centrale. Forme rotonde per bottiglia ed etichetta sono le più adatte per il succo d'uva spumantizzato biologico secondo sia per i consumatori italiani che per quelli turchi però diversi approcci di due popolazioni verso i nomi di marca deve essere considerata durante l'inserimento in questi mercati. Per quanto riguarda l’analisi delle espressioni emotive dei partecipanti, si rileva un impatto maggiore verso le caratteristiche sgradite del prodotto piuttosto che per quelle gradite.The main aim of the thesis was to help designing a marketing strategy to position an innovative drink – organic sparkling grape juice – in Italy and Turkey by focusing on packaging designs and branding. To achieve this goal, the thesis is constructed upon four independent but interrelated studies: (i) a general overview of the beverages sector in Turkey, (ii) the role of morphology in the bottle perception of the consumer; (iii) appropriate brand name, bottle and label shapes for Italian and Turkish markets; (iv) impact of packaging features on visual behaviour of consumers and their emotional responses to product tasting. The first study suggests that occasional alcoholic drinks consumption, increasing awareness about healthy drinks as the main concerns of consumers and high taxes and restrictions with laws on the sale of alcoholic products as current sector issues, innovative non-alcoholic drinks might have a chance in the Turkish market. Overall results of the following three packaging studies suggest that the different parts that make up the bottle morphology are not equally relevant, and in the labelling and packaging of a drink, much more attention should be given to the shoulder which represents the middle part. Round shaped bottle and label are more adapted for organic sparkling grape juice according to both Italian and Turkish consumers. However, different approaches of two populations towards brand names should be considered while entering into these markets. The bottle shape has a strong impact on capturing the attention of the consumer but its interaction with label shape and the product name is more significant. With reference to emotional expressions of the consumers, product disliking has more impact than liking. Considering these results of packaging studies, optimisation of the packaging features might allow to better capture the attention of the consumer as it is the overall first impression that a consumer has about a drink exposed on a shelf.SCIENZE AGRARIE, ALIMENTARI ED AMBIENTALIembargoed_20181001Ozturk, EmelOzturk, Eme

A Heuristic Evaluation of Iraq E-Portal

The integration of Information Technology (IT) and Communication Technology (CT) creates Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which has changed the citizens’ lives and the manner they interact. Therefore, the governments around the world took serious steps to adopt and implement ICT to provide the best services to their citizens. However, these governments have focused only on adoption and implementation of these new technologies and not so much on their usability aspect. This paper aims to investigate the usability of e-portal in Iraq based on the citizens’ standpoint. The e-portal in Iraq has seen a decline of the number of citizens who visit the portal to conduct transactions electronically, which is due to the improper design that does not attract the citizens and stakeholders to browse and use it. Moreover, this study is based on a heuristic evaluation, which aims to capture citizens’ standpoint of usability on this e-portal. The results indicated that out of 10 principles, 5 and 7 were inappropriate design

Usability Of Grant Websites

Website usability is a widely explored area in the professional writing field, and many different types of websites have been analyzed for usability. However, grant websites have not been studied from this perspective. According to Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice (2010), a website’s usability centers around considerations of page layout, navigation, functional web design elements, pictures, and advertisements. This study explores how 2 items from this list – page layout and functional web design elements criteria -- are presented in two national grant websites, grants.gov and grantwatch.com, and two local grant websites, arc.gov and cfwnc.org. In this study, I attempt to find out how national and local grant websites differ in terms of usability. I found that usability is higher in the local grant websites according to the chosen criteria and that the functional web design elements criteria were non-problematic across all four websites

Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on twitter data

Twitter is a useful source for detecting anti-vaccine content due to the increasing prevalence of these arguments on social media. We aimed to identify the prominent themes about vaccine hesitancy and refusal on social media posts in Turkish during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we collected public tweets (n = 551,245) that contained a vaccine-related keyword and had been published between 9 December 2020 and 8 January 2021 through the Twitter API. A random sample of tweets (n = 1041) was selected and analyzed by four researchers with the content analysis method. We found that 90.5% of the tweets were about vaccines, 22.6% (n = 213) of the tweets mentioned at least one COVID-19 vaccine by name, and the most frequently mentioned COVID-19 vaccine was CoronaVac (51.2%). We found that 22.0% (n = 207) of the tweets included at least one anti-vaccination theme. Poor scientific processes (21.7%), conspiracy theories (16.4%), and suspicions towards manufacturers (15.5%) were the most frequently mentioned themes. The most co-occurring themes were "poor scientific process" with "suspicion towards manufacturers" (n = 9), and "suspicion towards health authorities" (n = 5). This study may be helpful for health managers, assisting them to identify the major concerns of the population and organize preventive measures through the significant role of social media in early spread of information about vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes

Cyber-Gezi: How the 2013 Taksim Gezi Park protests in Istanbul subverted historical neoliberal domination, violence, and revealed President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan’s repressive cyber-authoritarian goals

My project is organized around the 2013 Gezi Park protests, and the political, cybernetic, and cyberspatial developments that followed them. My argument is that through cybernetic, political, and legal means, President Erdogan of Turkey has failed to present alternatives to the Turkish people which would positively answer their expressed desires for change. My research method is one of comparison and analysis, as well as referring to virtual images by which I hope to provide a visual representation of models used to explain cybernetic expressions of power organization, communication, and expression. My project will hope to explain how internet users in Turkey found themselves in their position, use political and cybernetic means to analyze that position and the subsequent development of Turkish internet legislation, which I will demonstrate serves only to repress digital protest from then on

Social Networking and Misinformation Challenges: Moroccan Students in Tertirary Education as a Case Study

This paper focuses on examining how Moroccan university students approach the various social networking sites, including their self-perceived capacities to critically analyze and evaluate digital content in general and online news and information more specifically. The paper poses several research questions that all aim to investigate the issue under examination. This empirical endeavor used the survey as a research instrument to gather data, and presented a number of conclusions and recommendations for the Moroccan policy makers, stakeholders, and all concerned parties. The study further reported that most respondents advance by critically evaluating social media content and largely deploying various efficient verification measures and techniques. In the same vein, the majority of respondents highly rated their digital media perceived self-efficacy. Almost two thirds of the participants postulate that higher educational institutions should incorporate digital literacy skills in their curricula and syllabi