Designing an Adaptive Web Navigation Interface for Users with Variable Pointing Performance

Many online services and products require users to point and interact with user interface elements. For individuals who experience variable pointing ability due to physical impairments, environmental issues or age, using an input device (e.g., a computer mouse) to select elements on a website can be difficult. Adaptive user interfaces dynamically change their functionality in response to user behavior. They can support individuals with variable pointing abilities by 1) adapting dynamically to make element selection easier when a user is experiencing pointing difficulties, and 2) informing users about these pointing errors. While adaptive interfaces are increasingly prevalent on the Web, little is known about the preferences and expectations of users with variable pointing abilities and how to design systems that dynamically support them given these preferences. We conducted an investigation with 27 individuals who intermittently experience pointing problems to inform the design of an adaptive interface for web navigation. We used a functional high-fidelity prototype as a probe to gather information about user preferences and expectations. Our participants expected the system to recognize and integrate their preferences for how pointing tasks were carried out, preferred to receive information about system functionality and wanted to be in control of the interaction. We used findings from the study to inform the design of an adaptive Web navigation interface, PINATA that tracks user pointing performance over time and provides dynamic notifications and assistance tailored to their specifications. Our work contributes to a better understanding of users' preferences and expectations of the design of an adaptive pointing system

Trustworthiness of Web Services

Workflow systems orchestrate various business tasks to attain an objective. Web services can be leveraged to handle individual tasks. Before anyone intends to leverage service components, it is imperative and essential to evaluate the trustworthiness of these services. Therefore, choosing a trustworthy service has become an important decision while designing a workflow system. Trustworthiness can be defined as the likelihood of a service functioning as it is intended. Selection of a service that satisfies business goals involves collecting relevant information such as security mechanisms, reliability, performance and availability. It is important to arrive at total trustworthiness, which incorporates all of the above mentioned multi-facet values relevant to a service. These values can be gathered and analyzed to derive the total trustworthiness of a service. Measuring trustworthiness of a service involves arriving at a suitable value that would help an end-user make a decision for the given business settings. The primary focus of this thesis is to gather relevant details and measure trustworthiness based on inputs provided by the user. A conceptual model was developed after extensive literature review to identify factors that influence trustworthiness of a service. A mechanism was created to gather concept values for a given service and utilize those values to calculate trustworthiness index value. A proof-of-concept prototype was also developed. The prototype is a web-based application that implements the mechanism to measure the trustworthiness of the service. The prototype was evaluated using a scenario-based analysis method to demonstrate the utility of the trustworthiness mechanism using three different scenarios. Results of the evaluation shows that trustworthiness is a multidimensional concept, the relevant conceptual values can be collected, a trustworthiness index value can be calculated based on the gathered concepts, and a trustworthiness index can be interpreted to select the most relevant service for a given requirement

Improving online food safety communication: The role of media

Food safety is important as foodborne illness outbreaks cause great economic and societal losses. Efforts to protect public health and reduce foodborne illness outbreaks will not be fully effective unless the resulting information is communicated to consumers. However, food safety communications have not been particularly satisfactory (Worsfold, 2006). If food safety information were more accessible, consumers would be more likely to use it (Worsfold, 2006). In this regard, the Internet presents great possibilities for communicating food safety information to the public. But media’s role has been largely overlooked in existing literature. When the lack of research is combined with consumers’ increasing interest in food safety (Food Safety News, 2016), the need to understand media’s effect is pressing. To further the understanding of media’s role in influencing food safety communication outcome, three progressive studies were conducted. The first study explored consumers’ preferences, motivations, information needs, and information usage. The second study examined consumers’ experience interacting with websites used for food safety communication and mapped website characteristics to users’ perceptions. The third study investigated the relationships among website characteristics, perceptions, efficacies, and behavioral intention, and tested the impact of media on communication outcomes. Results of Study 1 revealed that the Internet was consumers’ preferred media choice for food safety communication. Among Internet-based platforms, websites were most preferred. Media, information, and source characteristics interact in influencing consumers’ experience with the websites and later communication outcome. Thus, it is important to maintain or improve information quality while offering media functionalities that reduces users’ efforts in information seeking. Study 2 showed that consumers go through a two-stage process in food safety communication. First, consumers are informed (usually passively) about an outbreak. Then, after the risks and threat are evaluated, consumers become motivated and actively seek out additional information to make decisions and protect themselves. Additionally, in Study 2, the link between website characteristics and consumers’ efficacy perceptions was established. It was also discovered that the relationships among efficacy components were complex and probably nonlinear. In Study 3, relationships among website characteristics, perceptions towards such characteristics, efficacy perceptions, and behavioral intention were evaluated and tested statistically. It was discovered that website characteristics, through efficacy perceptions, influence consumers’ intention to use the communicated information. The results offered support that media is indeed important and influential and that it works together with information quality to shape consumers’ behavioral intention. More specifically, features on websites that directly related to searchability (e.g. search box and site map) and saliency (specific information about foods and locations involved) were perceived to be most influential and should be specially considered in website design and maintenance

Enhancing portuguese public services: prototype of a mobile application with a digital assistant

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Audiovisual e Multimédia.A inteligência artificial (IA) está a transformar a forma como interagimos com a tecnologia, incluindo a forma como os cidadãos acedem e interagem com os serviços públicos. Portugal desenvolveu uma estratégia nacional para a adoção da IA, a fim de melhorar a experiência e o envolvimento dos cidadãos, com destaque para a inclusão digital e a digitalização da administração pública. Apesar dos progressos, o país está atrasado em relação a outros países da União Europeia no que respeita à transformação digital. Para simplificar e modernizar os serviços públicos, Portugal introduziu o portal ePortugal, que inclui o chatbot “Sigma” e uma assistente virtual, que neste momento ainda se encontra numa versão de teste. A adoção de sistemas de IA conversacional, como os assistentes de voz e os chatbots, tem o potencial de reduzir os encargos administrativos, melhorar a acessibilidade e aumentar a participação dos cidadãos. Este projeto visa conceber uma aplicação móvel para o ePortugal, que inclui uma assistente digital equipada com funcionalidades de texto e voz.ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we interact with technology, including how citizens access and engage with government services. Portugal has developed a national strategy for AI adoption to improve the citizen experience and engagement, with a focus on digital inclusion and the digitalization of public administration. Despite progress, the country lags behind other European Union countries in digital transformation. To simplify and modernize public services, Portugal has introduced the ePortugal portal, featuring a chatbot named “Sigma” and a virtual assistant that is currently being tested. The adoption of conversational AI systems, such as voice assistants and chatbots, has the potential to reduce administrative burdens, improve accessibility, and enhance citizen engagement. This project aims to design the ePortugal mobile application, featuring a digital assistant equipped with both text and voice functionalities.N/

Teachers’ Knowledge, Use, and Opinions of Online Resource Centers for Evidence-Based Practices for Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities represent a group of students who are frequently most in need of high-quality instruction in order to meet the academic goals consistent with their non-disabled peers (Kretlow & Blatz, 2011). Despite the existence of several easily accessible, free online resources and federal mandates in laws such as those in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004), research has found that teachers still fail to implement evidence-based practices in their instruction (Cook, Smith & Tankersley, 2012). The purpose of this study was to measure the level of knowledge held by teachers about online resource centers, their use of five particular online resource centers, and their opinions of the value of the resources at these sites. To this end, 410 teachers in one suburban district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States were invited to participate in a quantitative survey. This instrument was developed by the researcher for the purpose of this study. Results indicated that the majority of teachers lacked familiarity with these online resource centers. However, those who were familiar and had used such resources reported them as being somewhat to very valuable in determining instructional practices for students with learning disabilities

Assisting the accompanying partner: A dramaturgical explanatory study of dual career couples offices

This study is a mixed methods explanatory sequential design framed in resource dependency theory that uses Goffman\u27s dramaturgical analysis to explore how the dual career couples offices address issues, serve constituencies, and relate to the broader institution. The researcher examined schools with dual career offices by using the Higher Education Dual Couple Network [HEDCN]. In Phase I of the study, the researcher surveyed HEDCN affiliates regarding their dual career offices. In Phase II of the study, three schools from the HEDCN sample were selected through purposeful sampling for site visits which included in-depth, one-on-one interviews, observations, and artifact analysis. The research concludes with a discussion of potential, effective strategies gleaned from the data analysis that academic institutions might use to implement their own dual career office. Every institution wants to hire competitive faculty and administrators. Having a dual career office supports these institutional efforts. Based on the vast literature review, artifacts, and the findings of this study, the researcher arrived at the following dual career office suggestions: maintaining a healthy host office relationship, having a connected dual career director, providing abundant dual career services, including refining assistance to ranked faculty and administrator partners for two years, and completing a yearly evaluation

School Counselors\u27 Perceptions Of Their Role In Assisting Students With College Preparedness

Access to quality precollege counseling is a crucial component of students\u27 post-secondary educational planning. High school counselors provide educational planning and guidance to students which make them a valuable commodity to obtain information for students contemplating their postsecondary options (Hoyt, 2001). School counselors are situated as the focal point for students and their parents to obtain the information needed for academic and financial college preparedness. The research problem was ascertaining a descriptive definition of the elements that comprise the roles of the school counselor in student post-secondary preparedness. As well as determining if there are factors that enhance or inhibit the counselor from effectively performing the roles. A qualitative study using in-depth phenomenological interviews was chosen to obtain a descriptive definition of the school counselor\u27s role in assisting students with college preparedness. This study obtained the perceptions of five school counselors with five or more years of experience in providing precollege counseling to students in high school. The results revealed six themes for successfully assisting students with the launch from high school to post-secondary pursuits

Experiences of medical practitioners regarding the accessing of information at the point-of-care via mobile technology for clinical decision making at public hospitals

Medical practitioners are often unable to access medical and health information at the point-of-care, thus preventing them from providing quality healthcare. Family Health International 360 (FHI) provided medical practitioners with a locally relevant, reliable, and accurate comprehensive library of medical information on mobile computing devices (MCDs), at the point-of-care, as part of a project in collaboration with the Department of Health in the Eastern Cape Province. As part of the latter project, Ricks (2012:7) conducted an investigation into the impact that accessing health information at the point-of-care, via MCDs, had on the clinical decision-making practice of medical practitioners and professional nurses in public hospitals and primary healthcare settings in the Eastern Cape Province. The researcher identified a gap in the aforementioned study and was thus motivated to conduct this study to explore and describe the experiences of medical practitioners at public hospitals in further detail by conducting a qualitative study, as the previous study was quantitative. The purpose of this study was therefore to explore and describe the experiences of medical practitioners regarding the accessing of information at the point-of-care, via mobile technology, for clinical decision making at public hospitals. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used. The research population comprised medical practitioners who were using MCDs to access information at the point-of-care for clinical decision making. Purposive sampling was used to select the research sample. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the necessary research data. Tesch’s steps were used to analyse the data. The principles for ensuring trustworthiness and ethical considerations were adhered to throughout the study. Two main themes and six sub-themes emerged in relation to the experiences of medical practitioners regarding the accessing of information at the point-of-care, for clinical decision making, via mobile technology. The main findings of the research highlighted the benefits and challenges that were experienced by the medical practitioners when using the MCDs for accessing information at the point-of-care for clinical decision making. The study concludes with recommendations pertaining to the areas of practise, education and research

The impact of digital technologies on sustomer experience in experiential tourism

Masteroppgave i International Business and Marketing - Nord universitet 202