Communicating product user reviews and ratings in interfaces for e-commerce: a multimodal approach

This paper describes a comparative empirical evaluation study that uses multimodal presentations to communicate review messages in an e-commerce platform. Previous studies demonstrate the effective use of multimodality in different problem domains (e.g. e-learning). In this paper, multimodality and expressive avatars are used to communicate information related to product reviews messages. The data of the reviews was opportunistically collected from Facebook and Twitter. Two independent groups of users were used to evaluate two different presentations of reviews and ratings using as a basis an experimental e- commerce platform. The control group used a text-based with emojis presentation and the experimental group used a multimodal approach based on expressive avatars. Three parameters of usability were measured. These were efficiency, effectiveness, user satisfaction, and user preference. The result showed that the two approaches performed similarly. These findings provide a basis for further experiments in which text, emojis and expressive avatars can be combine to communicate a larger volume of reviews and ratings

Adding, Retrieving and Browsing Content in Social Media and E-Journalism

This thesis explores the use of avatars with facial expressions in social media and e-journalism communication interfaces. This thesis involved three experimental conditions. In the first experimental condition a survey (n=34) and an experiment (n=25) were carried out in order to explore the central problems faced by users during adding and retrieving comments and methods to overcome those problems. The survey intended to find out the position users took towards these metaphors. 25users from the Aljazeera Channel in Doha, Qatar took part. The first experimental condition consisted of two interfaces, TARCS (traditional adding and retrieving comments system) and CMARCS (classification multimodal adding and retrieving comments system). This was carried out in order to assess users' perception of unique text with graphic classification and multimodal in an EARCS (electronic adding and retrieving comments system) interface in the presence and absence of an interactive context. This was implemented in order to assess the role of these unique classification interfaces in a news comment in the term of usability. In the second experiment, forty users evaluated the use of the VARCS (visual adding and retrieving comments system) and MMARCS (multimodal adding and retrieving comments system). Both interfaces evaluated the effect on public opinion as media study and effectiveness, interactivity and user satisfaction in HCI studies. The third experimental condition consisted of one study that investigated the impactbility and usability of facial expressions compared text with graphic and multimodal metaphors. Sixty six users from Al-Arabiya Channel in Dubai, UEA took part in these two experiments. The results obtained show that users had some problems with adding and retrieving comments in social media such as missing data and lack of organisation. Also, the new classification performed better and faster under an interface that implemented avatars with specific facial expressions compared to a textual interface and multimodal. Practical guidelines were also introduced to provide assistance to multimedia designers who use avatars with facial expressions in e-journalism interactive systems as well as its impact on the public opinion.Ministry of High Education in Saudi, the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau, Al-Jazeera Channel, MBC Group and Al-Arabiya Channe

The role of edutainment in e-learning: An empirical study.

Impersonal, non-face-to-face contact and text-based interfaces, in the e-Learning segment, present major problems that are encountered by learners, since they are out on vital personal interactions and useful feedback messages, as well as on real-time information about their learning performance. This research programme suggests a multimodal, combined with an edutainment approach, which is expected to improve the communications between users and e-Learning systems. This thesis empirically investigates users’ effectiveness; efficiency and satisfaction, in order to determine the influence of edutainment, (e.g. amusing speech and facial expressions), combined with multimodal metaphors, (e.g. speech, earcon, avatar, etc.), within e-Learning environments. Besides text, speech, visual, and earcon modalities, avatars are incorporated to offer a visual and listening realm, in online learning. The methodology used for this research project comprises a literature review, as well as three experimental platforms. The initial experiment serves as a first step towards investigating the feasibility of completing all the tasks and objectives in the research project, outlined above. The remaining two experiments explore, further, the role of edutainment in enhancing e-Learning user interfaces. The overall challenge is to enhance user-interface usability; to improve the presentation of learning, in e-Learning systems; to improve user enjoyment; to enhance interactivity and learning performance; and, also, to contribute in developing guidelines for multimodal involvement, in the context of edutainment. The results of the experiments presented in this thesis show an improvement in user enjoyment, through satisfaction measurements. In the first experiment, the enjoyment level increased by 11%, in the Edutainment (E) platform, compared to the Non-edutainment (NE) interface. In the second experiment, the Game-Based Learning (GBL) interface obtained 14% greater enhancement than the Virtual Class (VC) interface and 20.85% more than the Storytelling interface; whereas, the percentage obtained by the game incorporated with avatars increased by an extra 3%, compared with the other platforms, in the third experiment. In addition, improvement in both user performance and learning retention were detected through effective and efficiency measurements. In the first experiment, there was no significant difference between mean values of time, for both conditions (E) & (NE) which were not found to be significant, when tested using T-test. In the second experiment, the time spent in condition (GBL) was higher by 7-10 seconds, than in the other conditions. In the third experiment, the mean values of the time taken by the users, in all conditions, were comparable, with an average of 22.8%. With regards to effectiveness, the findings of the first experiment showed, generally, that the mean correct answer for condition (E) was higher by 20%, than the mean for condition (NE). Users in condition (GBL) performed better than the users in the other conditions, in the second experiment. The percentage of correct answers, in the second experiment, was higher by 20% and by 34.7%, in condition (GBL), than in the (VC) and (ST), respectively. Finally, a set of empirically derived guidelines was produced for the design of usable multimodal e-Learning and edutainment interfaces.Libyan Embass

Multimedia Communication in e-Government Interface: A Usability and User Trust Investigation

In the past few years, e-government has been a topic of much interest among those excited about the advent of Web technologies. Due to the growing demand for effective communication to facilitate real-time interaction between users and e-government applications, many governments are considering installing new tools by e-government portals to mitigate the problems associated with user – interface communication. Therefore, this study is to indicate the use of multimodal metaphors such as audio-visual avatars in e-government interfaces; to increase the user performance of communications and to reduce information overload and lack of trust that is common with many e-government interfaces. However, only a minority of empirical studies has been focused on assessing the role of audio-visual metaphors in e-government. Therefore, the subject of this thesis’ investigation was the use of novel combinations of multimodal metaphors in the presentation of messaging content to produce an evaluation of these combinations’ effects on the users’ communication performance as well as the usability of e-government interfaces and perception of trust. The thesis outlines research comprising three experimental phases. An initial experiment was to explore and compare the usability of text in the presentation of the messaging content versus recorded speech and text with graphic metaphors. The second experimental was to investigate two different styles of incorporating initial avatars versus the auditory channel. The third experiment examined a novel approach around the use of speaking avatars with human-like facial expressions, obverse speaking avatars full body gestures during the presentation of the messaging content to compare the usability and communication performance as well as the perception of trust. The achieved results demonstrated the usefulness of the tested metaphors to enhance e-government usability, improve the performance of communication and increase users’ trust. A set of empirically derived ground-breaking guidelines for the design and use of these metaphors to generate more usable e-government interfaces was the overall provision of the results.Saudi Arabia Embass

Multimodal E-Commerce: A Usability and Social Presence Investigation

This thesis investigates empirically multimodal socially interactive e-commerce interfaces. The overall hypothesis is that multimodal social interaction will improve the usability of e-commerce interfaces and increase the user‘s feeling of social presence, decision making and product understanding when compared to an equivalent non-multimodal socially interactive interface. The investigation consisted eight conditions in three experimental phases. The first experimental phase investigated non-socially interactive, static-socially interactive, and interactive-socially interactive interfaces (three conditions) using an e-commerce platform with a dependent sample of users (n=36). The second experimental phase continued with the comparative evaluation of a further two conditions based on the results of the first phase. An audio and an avatar-based socially interactive conditions were evaluated with two independent groups of users (n=18 for each group). The third experimental phase investigated three socially interactive conditions. These were text with graphics, auditory stimuli, and avatars. The results demonstrate that socially interactive metaphors in e-commerce interfaces improved the ability of users to use presented information effectively, make decisions in comparison to non-social or static social interactive interfaces. An avatar-based socially interactive e-commerce interface improved the user‘s social presence. A set of empirically derived guidelines for the design and use of these metaphors to communicate information in a socially interactive atmosphere is also introduced and discussed

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past decade or so, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of relatively recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of Natural Language Processing, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.Comment: Published in Journal of AI Research (JAIR), volume 61, pp 75-170. 118 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

A new approach to particle swarm optimization algorithm

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The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation