Investigating User Needs for Bio-sensing and Affective Wearables

Bio-sensing wearables are currently advancing to provide users with a lot of information about their physiological and affective states. However, relatively little is known about users' interest in acquiring, sharing and receiving this information and through which channels and modalities. To close this gap, we report on the results of an online survey (N=109) exploring principle aspects of the design space of wearables such as data types, contexts, feedback modalities and sharing behaviors. Results show that users are interested in obtaining physiological, emotional and cognitive data through modalities beyond traditional touchscreen output. Valence of the information, whether positive or negative affects the sharing behaviors

Usability testing in a library web site redesign project

An intuitive library information gateway is critical to meeting the information needs of library users in the digital age. This article describes the process involved in redesigning a library Web site. In addition to first determining the goals and requirements for the library Web site, a user and task analysis was conducted for defining the library\u27s user base and types of tasks which users might be performing at the site. Usability testing methods, such as observational interviews, provided fresh insights about how users are interacting with the library Web interface as they approach various information seeking tasks. These usability studies uncovered problems related to unclear terminology, proper use of color, size and location of navigational links, and the need for context sensitive help, built-in redundancy, and clear and consistent navigation

Cognitive walkthroughs in the evaluation of user interfaces for children

This paper describes a case-study, dealing with the application of the cognitive walkthrough as a method of evaluating an interface built for children. We performed the walkthrough and tested the interface with children aged between 5 and 7 years old. Given our goals and the scope of this study, the cognitive walkthrough proved as a reliable source of indications about usability problems on an interface aimed at children

Evaluating the End-User Experience of Private Browsing Mode

Nowadays, all major web browsers have a private browsing mode. However, the mode's benefits and limitations are not particularly understood. Through the use of survey studies, prior work has found that most users are either unaware of private browsing or do not use it. Further, those who do use private browsing generally have misconceptions about what protection it provides. However, prior work has not investigated \emph{why} users misunderstand the benefits and limitations of private browsing. In this work, we do so by designing and conducting a three-part study: (1) an analytical approach combining cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluation to inspect the user interface of private mode in different browsers; (2) a qualitative, interview-based study to explore users' mental models of private browsing and its security goals; (3) a participatory design study to investigate why existing browser disclosures, the in-browser explanations of private browsing mode, do not communicate the security goals of private browsing to users. Participants critiqued the browser disclosures of three web browsers: Brave, Firefox, and Google Chrome, and then designed new ones. We find that the user interface of private mode in different web browsers violates several well-established design guidelines and heuristics. Further, most participants had incorrect mental models of private browsing, influencing their understanding and usage of private mode. Additionally, we find that existing browser disclosures are not only vague, but also misleading. None of the three studied browser disclosures communicates or explains the primary security goal of private browsing. Drawing from the results of our user study, we extract a set of design recommendations that we encourage browser designers to validate, in order to design more effective and informative browser disclosures related to private mode

Collective awareness platforms and digital social innovation mediating consensus seeking in problem situations

In this paper we show the results of our studies carried out in the framework of the European Project SciCafe2.0 in the area of Participatory Engagement models. We present a methodological approach built on participative engagements models and holistic framework for problem situation clarification and solution impacts assessment. Several online platforms for social engagement have been analysed to extract the main patterns of participative engagement. We present our own experiments through the SciCafe2.0 Platform and our insights from requirements elicitation

Developing a virtual zoological museum

Abstract. This is a documentation of our work developing a virtual zoological museum. Although it’s challenging to create a virtual museum that lives up to the original, Unity3D and virtual reality technology are utilized in order to provide experiences that a traditional museum cannot. As we aim to digitize the museum that once was in University of Oulu, different ways of designing an educating and engaging virtual museum visit are explored. The animals of the museum can be interacted with, being able to play back animations and audio while also providing information in text form. An interactive forest was also developed as a more natural and lively environment. Furthermore, 360° photos of local forests were added to improve the representation of nature. Virtual reality support was programmed for Oculus Rift, allowing movement and interaction as if one was there in real life. In order to achieve a comfortable experience, some performance optimization has been done to reach stable frame rates. We evaluated users’ sense of presence, experienced Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP), system usability and content quality. Based on our tests, users found the virtual museum visit enjoyable and immersive overall despite being distracted by some aspects, like the quality of the display. Users were also mostly satisfied with the environments and the quality of the animals. Experienced Game Transfer was low, however. All in all, this concept for creating a virtual museum has appeared to be successful, and it could be developed further.Virtuaalisen eläintieteellisen museon kehittäminen. Tiivistelmä. Tämä on dokumentaatio virtuaalisen eläintieteellisen museon kehittämisestä. Vaikka onkin haastavaa luoda virtuaalinen museo, joka on verrattavissa alkuperäiseen, hyödyntämällä Unity3D:tä ja virtuaalitodellisuusteknologiaa on mahdollista tarjota kokemuksia, mitä perinteinen museo ei pysty. Digitalisoidessamme sitä museota, joka Oulun Yliopistolla ennen oli, tutkimme erilaisia keinoja kehittää opetuksellinen ja kiinnostava virtuaalimuseovierailu. Museon eläimet ovat interaktiivisia, pystyen toistamaan animaatioita ja ääniä sekä antamaan tietoa tekstin muodossa. Interaktiivinen metsä luotiin tarjoamaan luonnollisemman ja elävämmän ympäristön. Lisäksi 360° kuvia paikallisista metsistä lisättiin parantaakseen luonnon edustusta. Virtuaalitodellisuustuki lisättiin Oculus Rift:ille, sallien liikkumisen ja vuorovaikuttamisen kuin olisi siellä todellisessa elämässä. Luodakseen mukavan kokemuksen, sovelluksen suorituskykyä on optimoitu saavuttaakseen vakaan kuvan päivitystaajuuden. Evaluoimme käyttäjien läsnäolon tunnetta, koettua Game Transfer -ilmiötä (GTP), järjestelmän käytettävyyttä ja sisällön laatua. Testien perusteella käyttäjät kokivat museovierailun miellyttävänä sekä immersiivisenä yleisesti ottaen, vaikka jotkin piirteet, kuten näytön laatu, häiritsivät. Käyttäjät olivat myöskin pitkälti tyytyväisiä ympäristöihin ja eläinten laatuun. Koettu Game Transfer oli kuitenkin vähäistä. Kaikenkaikkiaan tämä virtuaalimuseo konsepti vaikuttaa toimivalta, ja sitä voisi kehittää pidemmälle

Of Models, Rationales and Prototypes: Studying Designer Needs in an Airborne Maritime Surveillance Drawing Tool to Support Audio Communication

International audienceIn this work, we seek to understand the needs of interaction designers involved in industrial system engineering processes. While current research offers a set of methods and tools for them, we believe that more empirical user studies focusing on designers are needed, in particular to support how model-based activity analysis may inform their decisions. Our designers’ need analysis is conducted through participatory design and contextual inquiry, and applied through a real use-case project: a distributed tactile tool for airborne maritime surveillance. Thanks to this study, we report on our insights on the usability problems and needs related in particular to scenario-based modeling, model-based design rationales and design-based model refinement

OpenEssayist: an automated feedback system that supports university students as they write summative essays

OpenEssayist is an automated, interactive feedback system designed to provide an acceptable level of support for students as they write essays for summative assessment. There are two main components to the system: (1) a linguistic analysis engine and (2) a web application that generates feedback for students The main pedagogical challenge in the e-assessment of free text is how to provide meaningful “advice for action” in order to support students writing their summative assessments. We have built a first working version of the system in which we use unsupervised graph-based ranking algorithms (following Mihalcea & Tarau, 2005) to automatically extract key words, phrases and sentences from student essays. We have developed several external representations of these summarisation techniques. For examples, key words and key phrases can be viewed in a word cloud or in a dispersion graph, and they can be explored and organised into groups. Holistic approaches have also been tested using ‘mash ups’ where key words and key sentences are highlighted in context in the essay itself, helping students to investigate the distribution of key words and its potential implications for the clarity of the narrative. This paper will report the findings from our pilot studies of the interactive models associated with the summarisation techniques

A human-centered design methodology to enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of connected health systems: a three-phase methodology.

peer-reviewedDesign processes such as human-centered design, which involve the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and iterative nature of human-centered design can often present a challenge when design teams are faced with the necessary, rapid, product development life cycles associated with the competitive connected health industry. We wanted to derive a structured methodology that followed the principles of human-centered design that would allow designers and developers to ensure that the needs of the user are taken into account throughout the design process, while maintaining a rapid pace of development. In this paper, we present the methodology and its rationale before outlining how it was applied to assess and enhance the usability, human factors, and user experience of a connected health system known as the Wireless Insole for Independent and Safe Elderly Living (WIISEL) system, a system designed to continuously assess fall risk by measuring gait and balance parameters associated with fall risk. We derived a three-phase methodology. In Phase 1 we emphasized the construction of a use case document. This document can be used to detail the context of use of the system by utilizing storyboarding, paper prototypes, and mock-ups in conjunction with user interviews to gather insightful user feedback on different proposed concepts. In Phase 2 we emphasized the use of expert usability inspections such as heuristic evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs with small multidisciplinary groups to review the prototypes born out of the Phase 1 feedback. Finally, in Phase 3 we emphasized classical user testing with target end users, using various metrics to measure the user experience and improve the final prototypes. We report a successful implementation of the methodology for the design and development of a system for detecting and predicting falls in older adults. We describe in detail what testing and evaluation activities we carried out to effectively test the system and overcome usability and human factors problems. We feel this methodology can be applied to a wide variety of connected health devices and systems. We consider this a methodology that can be scaled to different-sized projects accordingly.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

An augmented reality learning toolkit for fostering spatial ability in mathematics lesson: Design and development

Previous research claimed that integration of augmented reality on educational settings helps to improve academic achievement of students in collaborative learning environments, as well as to improve their retention and ability to translate this within other environments. Since augmented reality is still considered relatively novel technology in educational fields, there is an inherent need for research-based guides to design effective and feasible augmented reality tools for school-based learning. The main aim of this study was therefore to design and develop an augmented reality learning toolkit to foster spatial ability in middle school students using mobile devices. The study was conducted in two parts, as preliminary research and a prototyping phase. The findings guided the characteristics for designing an augmented reality learning toolkit with a set of spatial tasks aimed at middle school students. In light of the results, it can be inferred that the students were able to use this designed toolkit to perform their spatial ability through given spatial tasks since the students encountered no technical difficulties with the final toolkit prototype, and that they were able to use the toolkit assuredly. In conclusion, the study showed that augmented reality seemed helpful in enhancing the usage of mobile devices, not just for the reading of books, communication or playing games, but also as a support mechanism for the learning of mathematics. Thus, the augmented reality toolkit developed in this study presents a new way for students and/or teachers to use mobile devices in the learning and teaching of mathematics