On the Importance of UX Quality Aspects for Different Product Categories

User experience (UX) is a holistic concept. We conceptualize UX as a set of semantically distinct quality aspects. These quality aspects relate subjectively perceived properties of the user interaction with a product to the psychological needs of users. Not all possible UX quality aspects are equally important for all products. The main use case of a product can determine the relative importance of UX aspects for the overall impression of the UX. In this paper, the authors present several studies that investigate this dependency between the product category and the importance of several well-known UX aspects. A method to measure the importance of such UX aspects is presented. In addition, the authors show that the observed importance ratings are stable, i.e., reproducible, and hardly influenced by demographic factors or cultural background. Thus, the ratings reported in our studies can be reused by UX professionals to find out which aspects of UX they should concentrate on in product design and evaluation

Quality of experience in affective pervasive environments

The confluence of miniaturised powerful devices, widespread communication networks and mass remote storage has caused a fundamental shift in the user interaction design paradigm. The distinction between system and user in pervasive environments is evolving into an increasingly integrated loop of interaction, raising a number of opportunities to provide enhanced and personalised experiences. We propose a platform, based on a smart architecture, to address the identified opportunities in pervasive computing. Smart systems aim at acting upon an environment for improving quality of experience: a subjective measure that has been defined as an emotional reaction to products or services. The inclusion of an emotional dimension allows us to measure individual user responses and deliver personalised services with the potential to influence experiences positively. The platform, Cloud2Bubble, leverages pervasive systems to aggregate user and environment data with the goal of addressing personal preferences and supra-functional requirements. This, combined with its societal implications, results in a set of design principles as a concrete fruition of design contractualism. In particular, this thesis describes: - a review of intelligent ubiquitous environments and relevant technologies, including a definition of user experience as a dynamic affective construct; - a specification of main components for personal data aggregation and service personalisation, without compromising privacy, security or usability; - the implementation of a software platform and a methodological procedure for its instantiation; - an evaluation of the developed platform and its benefits for urban mobility and public transport information systems; - a set of design principles for the design of ubiquitous systems, with an impact on individual experience and collective awareness. Cloud2Bubble contributes towards the development of affective intelligent ubiquitous systems with the potential to enhance user experience in pervasive environments. In addition, the platform aims at minimising the risk of user digital exposure while supporting collective action.Open Acces

Human factors in developing automated vehicles: A requirements engineering perspective

Automated Vehicle (AV) technology has evolved significantly both in complexity and impact and is expected to ultimately change urban transportation. Due to this evolution, the development of AVs challenges the current state of automotive engineering practice, as automotive companies increasingly include agile ways of working in their plan-driven systems engineering—or even transition completely to scaled-agile approaches. However, it is unclear how knowledge about human factors (HF) and technological knowledge related to the development of AVs can be brought together in a way that effectively supports today\u27s rapid release cycles and agile development approaches. Based on semi-structured interviews with ten experts from industry and two experts from academia, this qualitative, exploratory case study investigates the relationship between HF and AV development. The study reveals relevant properties of agile system development and HF, as well as the implications of these properties for integrating agile work, HF, and requirements engineering. According to the findings, which were evaluated in a workshop with experts from academia and industry, a culture that values HF knowledge in engineering is key. These results promise to improve the integration of HF knowledge into agile development as well as to facilitate HF research impact and time to market

Landscape approaches for ecosystem management in Mediterranean Islands

This book presents a series of essays, drawing on the twm concepts of ecosystem management and landscape approaches, to elucidate and reflect on the present situation and future evolution of Mediterranean islands. This publication brings together contributions from Mediterranean individuals, non-Mediterranean individuals, islanders and non-islanders there is, after all, no geographical limit on who and what we can learn from. The essays presented here each contribute a specific perspective on the future evolution of Mediterranean islands. This book presents a series of essays, drawing on the twin concepts of ecosystem management and landscape approaches, to elucidate and reflect on the present situation and future evolution of Mediterranean islands. This publication brings together contributions from Mediterranean individuals, non-Mediterranean individuals, islanders and non-islanders; there is, after all, no geographical limit on who and what we can learn from. The essays presented here each contribute a specific perspective on the future evolution of Mediterranean islands. Following this introductory chapter, the first section of the book focuses on the contributions that can be made by the discipline of landscape ecology. loannis Vogiatzakis and Geoffrey Griffiths first explain the concepts and relevance of landscape ecology, also presenting and discussing a range of applied tools that can facilitate landscape planning in Mediterranean islands. Louis F. Cassar then reviews the 'offshoot' discipline of restoration ecology, making a strong case for offsetting the environmental damage inflicted on natural ecosystems over millennia of human occupation, with constructive efforts to effectively restore and/or rehabilitate ecosystems. The two following chapters bring the socio-economic dimension into the discussion. Godfrey Baldacchino first presents two contrasting paradigms for the development of island territories, reviewing the dual influences of ecological and economic factors, and exploring ways in which the two can be brought together in successful development strategies. Gordon Cordina and Nadia Farrugia then address the demographic dimension of development, presenting a model to explain the economic costs of high population densities on islands. The third block of chapters expands on the relevance of social and cultural dynamics to the management of Mediterranean Islands. Isil Cakcï, Nur Belkayali and Ilkden Tazebay explain the evolution of the concept of a 'cultural landscape', focusing on the challenges of managing change in landscapes with strong heritage values. The chapter concludes with a case study on the Turkish island of Gökçeada (lmbros), which is experiencing major challenges in balancing the conservation of a cultural landscape on the one hand, and the management of inevitable change, on the other. Elisabeth Conrad then discusses the role of social capital in managing the landscape resources of Mediterranean islands, reviewing the potential for this intangible social fabric to facilitate or impede the sustainable evolution of island territories. The fourth section includes four chapters, each of which addresses a different aspect relevant to policy development and implementation in Mediterranean islands. Salvino Busuttil presents an essay outlining the political influences on the management of coastal landscapes, the latter so relevant to Mediterranean island territories. The essay derives from the author's professional experience in various policy-related institutions for environmental management within the Mediterranean region. Maggie Roe then reflects on issues of landscape sustainability, focusing on the neglected aspect of intelligence. She discusses ways in which landscape research, knowledge and understanding can feed directly into frameworks for 'sustainable' landscape planning. In the subsequent chapter, Adrian Phillips takes from his substantial experience with international landscape policy, reviewing the gradual emergence of international and national landscape 'tools', to draw out lessons for application in Mediterranean islands. In the final chapter of this section, Riccardo Priore and Damiano Galla present a comprehensive discussion of the European Landscape Convention, the first international instrument to focus exclusively on landscape. The authors explain the innovative character of this convention, and discuss its potential implementation in Mediterranean islands. The publication concludes with a series of case studies, highlighting specific constraints, experiences and opportunities in different Mediterranean islands. Theano Terkenli explores the landscapes of tourism in Mediterranean islands - perhaps no other industry has played such a fundamental role in shaping the evolution of Mediterranean landscapes in recent years. The author reviews the theoretical relationship between landscape and tourism across Mediterranean islands, before focusing on the specific case of the Greek Cycladic islands. In the following chapter, Alex Camilleri, Isabella Colombini and Lorenzo Chelazzi present an in-depth review of the context and challenges being faced on a number of minor Mediterranean islands, namely those of the Tuscan archipelago (Elba, Giglio, Capraia, Montecristo, Pianosa, Gorgona and Giannutri), and Comino, the latter forming part of the Maltese archipelago. The comparison between these various islands enables an appreciation of both commonalities across these islands, as well as considerations that are specific to the context of each in dividual island. JeremyBoissevain then adopts an anthropological lens to review the cautionary tale of landscape change in Malta, exploring underlying causes of landscape destruction and limited civil engagement. In the subsequent chapter, Jala Makhzoumi outlines the richness of Mediterranean islands' rural landscapes, focusing on olive landscapes in Cyprus. Her research demonstrates the economic and ecological robustness of various olive cultivation practices, and whilst warning of several threats to such sustainable regimes, she outlines strategies for reconfiguring our approach to rural heritage, in order to integrate such assets into sustainable development strategies. Finally, Stephen Morse concludes the section with an evaluation of sustainable development indicators, and the contribution that these can make towards enhancing the management of Mediterranean island territories. He illustrates his arguments with reference to the two island states of Malta and Cyprus. To conclude, in the final chapter of this publication, we review key insights emerging from the various chapters, and summarize considerations for ecosystem management and sustainable development in Mediterranean Islands. We truly hope that this publication makes some contribution towards safeguarding the "magic' of Mediterranean islands, whilst embracing their dynamic characteristics.Published under the patronage of UNESCO and with the support of the Maltese National Commission for UNESCOpeer-reviewe

Machine Learning Algorithm for the Scansion of Old Saxon Poetry

Several scholars designed tools to perform the automatic scansion of poetry in many languages, but none of these tools deal with Old Saxon or Old English. This project aims to be a first attempt to create a tool for these languages. We implemented a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) model to perform the automatic scansion of Old Saxon and Old English poems. Since this model uses supervised learning, we manually annotated the Heliand manuscript, and we used the resulting corpus as labeled dataset to train the model. The evaluation of the performance of the algorithm reached a 97% for the accuracy and a 99% of weighted average for precision, recall and F1 Score. In addition, we tested the model with some verses from the Old Saxon Genesis and some from The Battle of Brunanburh, and we observed that the model predicted almost all Old Saxon metrical patterns correctly misclassified the majority of the Old English input verses

Social psychological correlates of expected school drop out among mainland Puerto Rican females.

The aim of this study was to examine variables that relate to dropping out of school among mainland Puerto Rican, adolescent females. It was hypothesized that risk of drop out from high school in this sample would be related to a number of psychological variables--acculturation, sex role attitudes, and adjustment. Sixty-five adolescent, Puerto Rican females, enrolled at the tenth and eleventh grade level at a public secondary school in Western Massachusetts completed a series of instruments. Ss were administered the Behavioral Acculturation Scale (Szapocznik, Scopetta, Kurtines & Arandalde, 1978) to establish level of acculturation. Sex-role attitudes were measured by the Traditionalism Scale (Soto, 1979). The Symptom Checklist-90 (Derogatis, 1977) was used to assess the degree of mental health symptomatology. Drop-out risk was measured by a scale designed especially for this study, as well as items derived from the Alienation Index Inventory: School Subscale (Turner, 1975). The data were analyzed using primarily t-test, Pearson correlation and discriminant analysis. The Behavioral Acculturation Scale and Symptom Checklist-90 were found to be highly reliable and valid for use with the adolescent, Puerto Rican female sample. The Traditionalism scale in its original version was converted into two scales: Traditional Values Scales and Liberal Values Scales, due to inter-item correlations. Significant relationships were found between the level of traditional sex-role attitudes and the degree of Obsessive-Compulsion. Ss reporting a low level of traditional values obtained higher scores on this symptom cluster. A significant relationship was reported between degree of symptomatology and Drop out Risk. Ss high in level of Drop out Risk obtained higher scores on the Anxiety subscale and reported a high level of symptomatology. This finding does not reflect adequately the experience of adolescent, Puerto Rican females due to the fact that adolescents at high risk for dropping out may generally manifest a high degree of symptomatology, i.e., Anxiety. The results of the discriminant analysis did yield marginal support in tapping the experience of acculturation in differentiating the high from the low risk groups in drop out from high school. A profile of the Puerto Rican adolescent female at risk for dropping out was presented based on the discriminant analysis. The most important factor found to contribute to drop out risk was the educational experience at the secondary level which did not acknowledge and address the needs of a bilingual-bicultural female. The female at risk reported a high level of Phobic Anxiety. Ss enrolled at the tenth grade level were identified as a high risk group. Limitations were mentioned regarding the Traditionalism Scale (Soto, 1979). This unequivocally identifies the need for the adaptation, development and standardization of a scale that addresses the experience of Puerto Rican females on the mainland. An educational implication would be to provide a Puerto Rican female counselor to bolster the role of education in overall development of the adolescent female. This would provide a model and support and reinforce their Puerto Rican ethnic identity. This individual could also provide training and consultation to the school personnel in meeting the unique bilingual-bicultural needs of Puerto Rican adolescent females. A clinical implication would be to develop a counseling model to promote adjustment in Puerto Rican females and to enhance their bicultural survival skills. These students could also benefit from skills in network utilization to enable them to seek out sources of information and support

THEMES IN MODERN AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Festschrift for Tekeste Negash

none2Modern African Historiography State and Society Reflection on Basis Themes in African Studies and MethodologiesopenLars Berge; Irma TaddiaLars Berge; Irma Taddi

Reading the City. Developing Urban Hermenutics

Städte bezeugen in vielfältiger Weise soziale Gegebenheiten und kulturelle Prak- tiken. Sie schreiben lokale Traditionen fort, erzeugen Neues und dienen zugleich als Projektionsfläche von Wünschen und Hoffnungen. Städte sind Landschaften aus Zeichen. Man kann diese dekodieren, mithin lesen. Der interdisziplinäre Band reflektiert die Lesbarkeit des Städtischen und versammelt Beispiele urbaner Hermeneutik aus der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaft, der Literatur-, Medien- und Filmwissenschaft und der Architektur- und Städtebautheorie.Cities bear witness to social reality and cultural practices in a variety of ways. They create and re-create local traditions, they generate new things and, moreover, they provide a surface for the projection of hopes and desires. Cities are landscapes made up of signs. As such, they can be decoded and read. This quality of the urban, its readability, provides this interdisciplinary volume with its focus. It brings together contributions to urban hermeneutics from social sciences, cultural studies, literature, film and media studies as well as approaches rooted in theories of architecture and urban planning