A feasibility test of an online intervention to prevention dating violence in emerging adults

Dating violence in emerging adults is a significant problem and few prevention programs based on the developmental needs of this age group have been developed. Our research team developed an online dating violence prevention program called WISER (Writing to Improve Self-in-Relationships) for emerging adults. The program is based on narrative therapy principles and uses structured writing techniques. A single group pre-post feasibility test of WISER was conducted with 14 college women. WISER was demonstrated to be feasible and acceptable and to show promise as an effective program to decrease dating violence in this population

Development and validation of an integrated model for evaluating e-service quality, usability and user experience (e-SQUUX) of Web-based applications in the context of a University web portal

Text in EnglishDevelopments in Internet technology and pervasive computing over the past two and half decades have resulted in a variety of Web-based applications (WBAs) that provide products and services to online users or customers. The Internet is used not only to transfer information via the web but is increasingly used to provide electronic services including business transactions, information-delivery and social networking, as well as e-government, e-health and e-learning. For such organisations, e-service quality, usability and user experience are considered to be critical determinants of their products’ or services’ success. Many studies to model these three concepts separately have been undertaken as part of broader studies of software quality or service quality modelling. However, to the current researcher’s knowledge, none of the studies have focussed on proposing an evaluation model that integrates and combines the three of them. This research is an effort to fill that gap. The primary purpose of this mixed-methods research was to develop a conceptual integrated model for evaluating e-service quality, usability and user experience (e-SQUUX) of WBAs and then contextualise it to evaluation of a University web portal (UWP). This was undertaken using an exploratory sequential research design. During a qualitative phase, an extensive extensive systematic literature review of 264 relevant sources relating to dimensions of e-service quality, usability and user experience, was undertaken to derive an integrated conceptual e-service quality, usability and user experience (e-SQUUX) Model for evaluating WBAs. The model was then empirically refined through a sequential series of validations, thus developing various versions of the e-SQUUX Model. First, it was content validated by a set of four expert reviewers. Second, during the quantitative phase, in the context of a University web portal, a questionnaire survey was conducted that included a comprehensive pilot study with 29 partipants, prior to the main survey. The main survey data from 174 particiapants was used to determine a validated model, using Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), followed by producing a structural model, using partial least square – structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). This version consisted of the components of the final e-SQUUX Model. Consequently, the research enriches the body of knowledge on IS and HCI by providing the e-SQUUX Model as an evaluation tool. For designers, developers and managers of UWPs, the model serves as a customisable set of evaluation criteria and also provides specific recommendations for design. In line with the Exploratory sequential design of mixed methods research, the findings of the qualitative work in this research influenced the subsequent quantitative study, since the potential Likert-scale questionnaire items were derived from the definitions and meanings of the components that emanated from the qualitative phase of the study. Consequently, this research is an exemplar for developing an integrated evaluation model for specific facets or domains, and of its application in a particular context, in this case, a University web portal. Keywords: e-service quality, usability, user experience, evaluation model, integrated model, exploratory factor analysis, partial least square – structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), mixed methods research, Exploratory sequential design, quantitative study, qualitative study, validation, Web-based applications, University web portalInformation SystemPh D. (Information Systems

An Investigation of the Impact of Task-Types on the Reactivity of the Concurrent Think-Aloud in Usability Testing

The Concurrent think-aloud (CTA) is primarily used to understand users’ task based cognitive processes. However, is not without limitations. CTA procedures varies widely among practitioners. Also, it has been known to cause reactivity: an artificial change in task performance. This is problematic because it may alter the accuracy of task performance. Also, research on reactivity within usability testing have shown mixed findings. Thus, conclusions cannot be drawn to attest to whether reactivity occurs due to varying administration procedures and therefore we must now consider its relationship to other test-based factors. This research will be the first to systematically investigate the impact of task-type on reactivity of the CTA and the first to systematically investigates practitioners working habit in terms of their views on reactivity when using CTA in practice. Three studies were conducted, the first study investigates the Impact of task-types on the Reactivity of CTA and uses a mixed design. The results suggest that, thinking aloud during usability testing does not cause reactivity, and task type does not impact concurrent think-aloud. However, sensemaking tasks increase mental demand. The second study investigates the impact of task-type on two different think-aloud protocols and uses a mixed design. The result indicates that, the classic think-aloud method led to more successful task completion and no reactivity, while the explicit instruction produced fewer successful task completions and a higher mental workload. The explicit instruction produced less verbalisation, resulting in fewer relevant explanatory utterances, contradicting expectations. The third study uses an interview method to explores practitioners' experiences, views on reactivity and challenges when using the think-aloud method within usability testing. These studies demonstrates unequivocally that CTA should not be abandoned in usability studies as it provided valuable think-aloud data and helped identify usability issues. Additionally, practitioners should not replace the traditional think- aloud approach with explicit instruction, as explicit instruction had a greater influence on participants' behaviour. Ericsson and Simon's recommendations should be used for concurrent data collection, as it ensures data validity and generates the same type of data as explicit instruction while reducing reactivity

Enabling Structured Navigation of Longform Spoken Dialog with Automatic Summarization

Longform spoken dialog is a rich source of information that is present in all facets of everyday life, taking the form of podcasts, debates, and interviews; these mediums contain important topics ranging from healthcare and diversity to current events, economics and politics. Individuals need to digest informative content to know how to vote, decide how to stay safe from COVID-19, and how to increase diversity in the workplace. Unfortunately compared to text, spoken dialog can be challenging to consume as it is slower than reading and difficult to skim or navigate. Although an individual may be interested in a given topic, they may be unwilling to commit the required time necessary to consume long form auditory media given the uncertainty as to whether such content will live up to their expectations. Clearly, there exists a need to provide access to the information spoken dialog provides in a manner through which individuals can quickly and intuitively access areas of interest without investing large amounts of time. From Human Computer Interaction, we apply the idea of information foraging, which theorizes how people browse and navigate to satisfy an information need, to the longform spoken dialog domain. Information foraging states that people do not browse linearly. Rather people “forage” for information similar to how animals sniff around for food, scanning from area to area, constantly deciding whether to keep investigating their current area or to move on to greener pastures. This is an instance of the classic breadth vs. depth dilemma. People rely on perceived structure and information cues to make these decisions. Unfortunately speech, either spoken or transcribed, is unstructured and lacks information cues, making it difficult for users to browse and navigate. We create a longform spoken dialog browsing system that utilizes automatic summarization and speech modeling to structure longform dialog to present information in a manner that is both intuitive and flexible towards different user browsing needs. Leveraging summarization models to automatically and hierarchically structure spoken dialog, the system is able to distill information into increasingly salient and abstract summaries, allowing for a tiered representation that, if interested, users can progressively explore. Additionally, we address spoken dialog’s own set of technical challenges to speech modeling that are not present in written text, such as disfluencies, improper punctuation, lack of annotated speech data, and inherent lack of structure. We create a longform spoken dialog browsing system that utilizes automatic summarization and speech modeling to structure longform dialog to present information in a manner that is both intuitive and flexible towards different user browsing needs. Leveraging summarization models to automatically and hierarchically structure spoken dialog, the system is able to distill information into increasingly salient and abstract summaries, allowing for a tiered representation that, if interested, users can progressively explore. Additionally, we address spoken dialog’s own set of technical challenges to speech modeling that are not present in written text, such as disfluencies, improper punctuation, lack of annotated speech data, and inherent lack of structure. Since summarization is a lossy compression of information, the system provides users with information cues to signal how much additional information is contained on a topic. This thesis makes the following contributions: 1. We applied the HCI concept of information foraging to longform speech, enabling people to browse and navigate information in podcasts, interviews, panels, and meetings. 2. We created a system that structures longform dialog into hierarchical summaries which help users to 1) skim (browse) audio and 2) navigate and drill down into interesting sections to read full details. 3. We created a human annotated hierarchical dataset to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of our system’s hierarchical text generation performance. 4. Lastly, we developed a suite of dialog oriented processing optimizations to improve the user experience of summaries: enhanced readability and fluency of short summaries through better topic chunking and pronoun imputation, and reliable indication of semantic coverage within short summaries to help direct navigation towards interesting information. We discuss future research in extending the browsing and navigating system to more challenging domains such as lectures, which contain many external references, or workplace conversations, which contain uncontextualized background information and are far less structured than podcasts and interviews

High-street fashion brand communication amongst female adolescents

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The nature of high-street fashion brands amongst female adolescents is a combined set of fast fashion movements and early adopter demands within a compressed timeframe. This research has investigated the need for a communication plan to appropriately deliver the brand message for this sector. There are a number of information barriers for high-street fashion brands to build customer value and differentiate the core values of their brands from competitors because of 1) imbalanced strategic communication implementation particularly in the encoding process, 2) ambiguous interpretation of target audience behaviour as a key disseminator of brand messages and 3) a lack of an integrated communication approach to complement the brand building communication plan. Accordingly, there is a need for a brand building communication framework to formulate and direct the female adolescent perceived values within a limited time based on mutual understanding and shared requirements between a high-street fashion brand and its target audience. Moreover, a strategic plan using an integrated brand-building communication in the encoding process which optimises the contribution of the audience must be developed. This research has revealed that high-street fashion brands should concentrate on consumer self-construal, consumer-brand congruence and consumer-brand relationships of female adolescents in order to clearly construct brand messages which match audiences’ values and lifestyles. Due to the needs for informative cooperation amongst the target audiences, the brand-building communication strategy as a persuasive medium, which encourages audiences and prospects to initiate interactivity with the high-street fashion brand, was thoroughly examined in the empirical study. A conceptual model of a high-street fashion brand-building communication was developed and evaluated by means of design research methodology and soft systems methodology. The proposed model explains the platform of brand-building communication strategy in the encoding process for the high-street fashion market. A number of advantages are offered: Firstly, brand managers may use the model to overcome the barriers to integrate a fashion brand communication strategy. Secondly, it can enhance the recognition of fashion brand-building communication. Thirdly, the model offers an approach to leverage customer-brand relationships by means of the communication process. Fourthly, it allows the description of a holistic view of brand message construction in the encoding process. Finally, it offers a strategy to integrate online and off-line communications