Análise da qualidade de uso e interface com o usuário de softwares brasileiros de apoio à nutrição clínica

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar um comparativo de qualidade de uso e interface com o usuário de dois softwares nacionais utilizados para avaliação do estado nutricional e prescrição dietética de pacientes com alimentação via oralThe objective of this article is to show a comparative of using and interface quality between two Brazilian softwares used to nutritional state and dietetic prescription assessment on patients with oral alimentationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Usability of Intranet Alma

Usability testing is a productive and reliable method for evaluating the usability of software. Planning and implementing the test and analyzing its results is typically considered time-consuming, whereas applying usability methods in general is considered difficult. Because of this, usability testing is often priorized lower than more concrete issues in software engineering projects. Intranet Alma is a web service, users of which consist of students and personnel of the University of Helsinki. Alma was published in 2004 at the opening ceremony of the university. It has 45 000 users, and it replaces several former university network services. In this thesis, the usability of intranet Alma is evaluated with usability testing. The testing method applied has been lightened to make its taking into use as easy as possible. In the test, six students each tried to solve nine test tasks with Alma. As a result concrete usability problems were described in the final test report. Goal-orientation was given less importance in the applied usability testing. In addition, the system was tested only with test users from the largest user group. Usability test found general usability problems that occurred no matter the task or the user. However, further evaluation needs to be done: in addition to the general usability problems, there are task-dependent problems, solving of which requires thorough gathering of users goals. In the basic structure and central functionality of Alma, for example in navigation, there are serious and often repeating usability problems. It would be of interest to verify the designed user interface solutions to these problems before taking them into use. In the long run, the goals of the users, that the software is planned to support, are worth gathering, and the software development should be based on these goals.Käytettävyystestaus on tuloksellinen ja luotettava menetelmä ohjelmistotuotteen käytettävyyden arviointiin. Sen suunnittelu, toteutus ja tulosten analysointi nähdään kuitenkin tyypillisesti aikaa vievänä ja käytettävyysmenetelmien soveltaminen yleisesti vaikeana. Siksi käytettävyystestaus priorisoidaan kiireisissä ohjelmistotuotantoprojekteissa usein konkreettisempien asioiden alle. Intranet Alma on Helsingin yliopiston opiskelijoille ja henkilöstölle tarkoitettu sisäinen verkkopalvelu, joka julkaistiin syksyllä 2004 yliopiston avajaisten yhteydessä. Alman käyttäjiä on 45 000, ja se korvaa useita yliopistolla aiemmin käytössä olleita verkkopalveluita. Tässä pro gradu -työssä intranet Alman käytettävyyttä arvioidaan käytettävyystestauksella, jota on kevennetty huomioiden erityisesti aloituskynnyksen madaltaminen. Alman käytettävyystestauksessa kuusi opiskelijaa ratkaisi Alman avulla yhdeksän testitehtävää. Tuloksena saatiin joukko konkreettisia käytettävyysongelmia, jotka esiteltiin testauksen tuotteena syntyneenä testitulosraporttina. Suoritetussa käytettävyystestauksessa tingittiin testauksen tavoitelähtöisyydestä. Lisäksi järjestelmää testattiin vain suurimman käyttäjäryhmän edustajilla. Käytettävyystesti paljasti ansiokkaasti yleisiä tehtävä- ja käyttäjäriippumattomia ongelmia. Toisaalta testaus jätti tarpeen jatkoselvitykselle: löydettyjen yleisten käytettävyysongelmien varjoon jää tehtäväkohtaisia ongelmia, joiden selvittäminen vaatii käyttäjien tavoitteiden huolellista selvittämistä. Alman perusrakenteessa ja keskeisessä toiminnassa, esimerkiksi navigoinnissa, on vakavia ja usein toistuvia käytettävyysongelmia. Näiden ongelmien ratkaisut on hyvä varmentaa ennen käyttöönottoa. Pidemmällä aikavälillä käyttäjien tavoitteet, joita järjestelmän halutaan tukevan, kannattaa kartoittaa, ja pohjata tuleva ohjelmistokehitys näihin tavoitteisiin

Development and Specification of Virtual Environments

This thesis concerns the issues involved in the development of virtual environments (VEs). VEs are more than virtual reality. We identify four main characteristics of them: graphical interaction, multimodality, interface agents, and multi-user. These characteristics are illustrated with an overview of different classes of VE-like applications, and a number of state-of-the-art VEs. To further define the topic of research, we propose a general framework for VE systems development, in which we identify five major classes of development tools: methodology, guidelines, design specification, analysis, and development environments. Of each, we give an overview of existing best practices

An investigation into the learnability of object-oriented case tools for computing education

The use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools for teaching object-oriented systems analysis and design (OOSAD) has many potential benefits, but there are also several problems associated with the usage of these tools. A large portion of these problems relate to the usability and learnability of these tools. Learnability is one of the most important attributes of usability and refers to the capability of the system to enable the user to learn its application. The main research question that this study aims to address is “How can the learnability of OO CASE tools for computing education in South Africa be evaluated?”. In order to answer this question several frameworks for evaluating CASE tool usability and learnability were investigated. One of these frameworks, as proposed by Senapathi, was selected as being the most appropriate for evaluating CASE tool learnability for computing education. This framework maintains that the learnability of a CASE tool is dependent on context of use factors such as the tool used, as well as user characteristics such as gender. The primary aim of this research was thus to validate Senapathi's framework for CASE tool learnability in a South African context. A secondary aim of the research was to extend the implementation of the framework in order to enable the comparison of two CASE tools and to support the inclusion of other user characteristics. An experiment was performed at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in 2006. The participants recruited for this experiment were second year computing students at NMMU. During this experiment, the learnability of two OO CASE tools, namely IBM's Rational Software Modeller and Microsoft's Visio, was evaluated and compared. The quantitative and qualitative results supported Senapathi's results and showed that her framework could be used to evaluate CASE tool learnability and could be adapted to evaluate two CASE tools. The results also showed that the majority of the participants rated the learnability of Microsoft Visio higher for both tasks and that the main reasons participants preferred Visio was due to its simplicity, familiarity and recoverability