Evaluating usability of e-commerce sites by tracking eye movements

The majority of existing e-commerce design guidelines has been derived by conducting heuristic evaluations, without reporting the involvement of the users themselves. This research provides clarification on a number of existing web design guidelines for e-commerce sites based on empirical studies with users. Four studies were conducted and each study focused on a specific set of design guidelines as found in the literature. A combined qualitative and quantitative approach has been used, including a state-of-the-art technique, eye tracking. The eye movement data were complemented by user-profile data elicited through background questionnaires and user-perception data as captured through semi-structured interviews. The first study investigated users’ initial impressions of homepages of e-commerce sites. The second study examined users’ adaptability to persistent or varied placement of design elements. The third and fourth studies explored the effect of the presentation format of e-commerce web pages: the first in terms of the proportion of images, and the second in terms of how key icons related to an e-commerce transaction were presented. On the whole, the results of the studies corroborated existing design guidelines, but they also identified potential refinements. The thesis contributes both methodologically and empirically to Human-Computer Interaction. The combined methodological approach enables insight into the user experience that spans behavioural aspects such as visual search behaviour and visual search performance data, and subjective aspects such as user expectations and preferences. The empirical outcomes amplify the design guidelines from a user’s perspective

Cross-Modal Interface Design in Crisis Control Systems: The Role of Gender

Leading human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers recognize a fundamental difference exists between men and women. Some HCI research has been done regarding gender differences in hand-eye coordination for interactions with computer touch display interfaces, navigation through virtual environments (VE) and language in computer-mediated communication. In these previous studies, gender differences were found in the use of words and language in computer-mediated communication and in navigation strategies for VE but no gender-related differences were found for the hand-eye coordination needed to effectively use a touch display. The current study used a cross-modal (auditory-visual), dual-task, computer interface to examine gender differences in crisis control simulations. For the primary task of alarm monitoring, no gender differences were found for average or maximum response and completion times. Likewise, no gender differences were found in terms of error rates for the primary task or the number correct on the secondary task. However, in terms of minimum response and completion times for alarm monitoring, gender differences were found

A study of enhanced and interactive online communication service : focusing on e-mail interface

Application of online communication services such as e-mails, e-cards and instant messaging are very useful tools as nonverbal communication for online users. Computer technology has been developing powerful engine tools to be able to convey messages using various methods. Although e-card and instant messenger in online communication services have developed significantly in both visual and functional approaches, it was discovered that e-mail hasn\u27t improved much even though the number of users has significantly increased compared to other services. The purpose of this study is to improve e-mail service both visually and interactively. This research is specifically focused on proposing a new environment for an e-mail program. Incoming and outgoing shows a great interaction between sending and receiving messages based on organized interface and functions. Outgoing is significantly improved and more useful for creating various types of messages. For instance, the user can create messages in terms of different interface environments depending on the formal or informal types of messages. Moreover, the user can classify e-mail into different categories such as personal, business and short memos. There is another consideration with creating kinetic messages in order to make them more personal and unique based on e-card service. In addition, the user can express messages by using kinetic typography based on different typefaces, colors, sounds, and motions. These elements are basic and simple categories in order to be able to create dynamic text messages. The prototype design shows different application tools for online users allowing them to create messages with multiple options. Thus, this research will address potential online communication services in the future

Establishing fundamental theories for internet atlas realisation with application in the Brazilian primary education system

This thesis addresses a research programme that aimed to provide an open standard methodology for publishing Brazilian local primary school atlases on the World Wide Web. It also aims to contribute to the use of computer laboratories provided to Brazilian primary schools by the Brazilian government. Using a local school atlas as the source of information, a Web-based prototype of the School Atlas of Rio Claro (SP) was developed in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). SVG is a vector-based standard for publishing interactive graphics on the Web validated by the Web Consortium. This prototype was tested with a group of Brazilian primary school teachers. The test was conducted with fourteen teachers, all of them were familiar with the paper version of the School Atlas. During weekly meetings, the participants took notes to discuss and reflect about the practices held in school with loca l maps. The main test carried out with teachers was to prepare a paper activity based on the atlas content. The idea behind this activity was to foster teachers to leave a passive role as mere users and interact with the product in a more active fashion. In order to enable them to take full advantage of simple digital tools they were briefly trained to capture screen, use image editing software (they were instructed on the use of Paint, an image editing application available in Windows), and to copy text from the atlas. The results demonstrated that the teachers were keen to interact with the product and, although reproducing some common practices of paper atlas use, they revealed a deep interest on the use of the Internet as a medium for education and the prototype itself. A second test was carried out with a group of atlas developers. They were given a time frame of two weeks to develop an SVG-based atlas using the methodology proposed in this research. They completed the task within the time frame propose d however they indicated that more specific training should be desirable; this finding indicates the need to introduce digital map publishing as a subject to be taught in geosciences undergraduate courses in Brazil. It is believed that open standard methodology proposed here can be applied to other cities also developing local atlases for early geographical education

Interactive documentary and its limited opportunities to persuade

John Grierson’s classic definition of documentary as the ‘‘creative treatment of actuality” emphasizes both the genre’s indexical link to reality and the maker’s perspective on this reality. In recent times, a substantial number of so-called ‘‘interactive” documentaries has seen the light of day. In this paper, one dimension of such online documentaries, namely the freedom of users to access content via different paths of navigation as well as to skip material, is discussed from the perspective that a documentary, in a necessarily subjective way, attempts to convince the viewer of something. Interactivity limits the maker’s opportunities to do so

Children and computers: the development of graphical user interfaces to improve the quality of interaction

The development of educational multimedia since 1994 has been characterised by a rapid expansion of new technologies. In the context of an exciting and controversial exploration of techniques, research into how children used computers in the classroom had been limited. The thesis therefore included a wide-ranging study into factors informing a deeper understanding of the way 5 to7-year-old school children use interactive computer programs. The thesis originated in contextual studies undertaken by the researcher in classrooms. The contextual research raised issues that are not the common ground of educational multimedia practitioners. These issues were explored in depth in the literature review. The thesis tested the potential improvements in interface design - an interactive educational CD-ROM using audio and visual resources from a BBC School Radio music series. The focus was not the music content or the teaching of the subject. The results of testing the research tool that used observation of groups of three children, interviews with individual children and teachers were summarised and improvements identified. The aim was to seek answers to the question 'How can the quality of computer interface interaction be improved?' Improvements were considered by enhancing the quality of interaction through greater depth of engagement by using the computer mouse to move icons on the computer screen. In the process of contextual research the following issues were raised: the need for teachers to have a method of mediating the content of educational CD-ROMs, the physiological demands made on children in terms of eye search; the difficulties they encountered using navigation metaphors; and the potential of pseudo 3-D perspective interfaces. The research re-evaluates the relationship between children and computers in the familiar context of groups of three children using computers in the primary classroom, and resulted in a coherent set of suggestions for a more effective holistic paradigm for the design of multimedia programs that takes into account practical realities in classroom environments. .

Multimodal information presentation for high-load human computer interaction

This dissertation addresses the question: given an application and an interaction context, how can interfaces present information to users in a way that improves the quality of interaction (e.g. a better user performance, a lower cognitive demand and a greater user satisfaction)? Information presentation is critical to the quality of interaction because it guides, constrains and even determines cognitive behavior. A good presentation is particularly desired in high-load human computer interactions, such as when users are under time pressure, stress, or are multi-tasking. Under a high mental workload, users may not have the spared cognitive capacity to cope with the unnecessary workload induced by a bad presentation. In this dissertation work, the major presentation factor of interest is modality. We have conducted theoretical studies in the cognitive psychology domain, in order to understand the role of presentation modality in different stages of human information processing. Based on the theoretical guidance, we have conducted a series of user studies investigating the effect of information presentation (modality and other factors) in several high-load task settings. The two task domains are crisis management and driving. Using crisis scenario, we investigated how to presentation information to facilitate time-limited visual search and time-limited decision making. In the driving domain, we investigated how to present highly-urgent danger warnings and how to present informative cues that help drivers manage their attention between multiple tasks. The outcomes of this dissertation work have useful implications to the design of cognitively-compatible user interfaces, and are not limited to high-load applications