Mobile application usability heuristics: Decoupling context-of-use

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights are reserved by the Publisher. This is the accepted manuscript version of a conference paper which has been published in final form at ttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58634-2_30Context-of-use is a vital consideration when evaluating the usability of mobile applications. Thus, when defining sets of heuristics for the usability evaluation of mobile applications, a common practice has been to include one or more heuristics that consider context-of-use. Yet, most evaluations are conducted within usability labs. Consequently, the aim of this research is to question the utility of attempting to include inherently complex areas of context-of-use within limited sets of mobile application usability heuristics. To address this, a mapping study uncovered six sets of heuristics that can be applied to mobile application usability evaluations. A within-subjects empirical test with six Human-Computer Interaction practitioners evaluated a well-known travel mobile application using three sets of the mapped heuristics. The study found that the common practice of including context-of-use within mobile application usability heuristics is an ineffective approach

Innovating Contract Practices: Merging Contract Design with Information Design

The work and expertise of contracts professionals are vital to the operations of modern organizations and the global economy. Strategic planning as well as everyday transactions can be conceived, developed, secured, and implemented through contractual relationships. This accelerating importance and functionality of contracts is not matched, however, by their traditional format or drafting process. Indeed, their mission-critical value is not fully appreciated by decision makers. Many opportunities offered by contracts remain unexplored if contracts are seen merely as legal tools needed only in case a dispute arises. A fresh approach to contracts and contracting is called for. Drawing on the Authors’ research into user-centered contract design, contract visualization, and proactive contracting, this paper explores how contract practices can be innovated. The early results of our work in progress indicate that information design, embedded into contract design, has the potential to change fundamentally the way organizations define, shape and manage their trading relationships, offering unexplored opportunities for both research and practice

Innovating Contract Practices: Merging Contract Design with Information Design

The work and expertise of contracts professionals are vital to the operations of modern organizations and the global economy. Strategic planning as well as everyday transactions can be conceived, developed, secured, and implemented through contractual relationships. This accelerating importance and functionality of contracts is not matched, however, by their traditional format or drafting process. Indeed, their mission-critical value is not fully appreciated by decision makers. Many opportunities offered by contracts remain unexplored if contracts are seen merely as legal tools needed only in case a dispute arises. A fresh approach to contracts and contracting is called for. Drawing on the Authors’ research into user-centered contract design, contract visualization, and proactive contracting, this paper explores how contract practices can be innovated. The early results of our work in progress indicate that information design, embedded into contract design, has the potential to change fundamentally the way organizations define, shape and manage their trading relationships, offering unexplored opportunities for both research and practice

Un wiki sémantique basé sur le CIDOC CRM

International audienceCet article présente l'état actuel d'une expérience d'utilisation d'une ontologie de domaine (le CIDOC CRM, relative à la documentation muséographique) comme langage de représentation des connaissances. Les utilisateurs sont des étudiant-e-s de première année de licence STEM, qui pour moitié se destinent à l'informatique, et aux mathématiques ou à la physique pour l'autre moitié. Cette expérience se compose de séances de cours et de travaux pratiques, destinés à appuyer un projet d'écriture collective d'une histoire (ou un jeu) dans un hypertexte appuyé sur les technologies de ce qu'on appelle aujourd'hui le Web 2.0. Par groupe de [1], 2, 3 ou 4, les utilisateurs finaux modélisent, structurent, rédigent et mettent en forme l'histoire (ou le jeu) qu'il-elle-s ont librement choisi de raconter. Leur hypertexte est mis en œuvre dans un wiki sémantique hébergé sur Internet et le public visé est d'abord l'ensemble des étudiant-e-s et leurs réseaux d'" ami-e-s ". La plus grande partie du CIDOC CRM est utilisée comme noyau ontologique auquel les étudiant-e-s accrochent les classes et les propriétés du domaine représenté. En plus des enjeux liés à l'édition collaborative, certaines difficultés de l'expérience sont liées à la rigueur requise dans la structuration et l'édition des connaissances. L'hypothèse est faite que le CIDOC CRM fournit une base de départ stable et extensible, et qu'une fois payé le prix d'entrée au CRM, celui-ci permet de guider assez naturellement l'utilisateur final dans la lecture comme dans l'écriture de l'histoire. Cette expérience avait été conçue notamment dans le but d'attirer des élèves (notamment du sexe féminin) vers les études d'informatique. Très peu d'étudiant-e-s remettent en cause leur choix initial et donc l'approche " marketing " visée par ce cours n'obtient pas le succès escompté. Par contre, le domaine de la gestion des connaissances rencontre un réel succès, ce qui pourrait indiquer que, toutes proportions gardées, certains principes et artefacts de ce cours pourraient contribuer à la diffusion des ontologies et du Web sémantique en général, et du CIDOC CRM en particulier

An approach to the integration of accessibility requirements into a user interface development method

It is a legal requirement in many countries to ensure accessibility for Web applications. Although there are numerous regulations and standards regarding accessibility in the development of user interfaces, accessibility is nevertheless quite difficult to achieve, let alone to maintain at a high level of quality throughout the development process. This difficulty is due to diverse factors including, but not limited to, the lack of proper development methods, authoring tools and accessibility training for user interface development professionals. In an attempt to offer a solution to these difficulties, this paper proposes a methodological approach for the integration of accessibility requirements into a user interface development method based on User Interface Description Language (UIDL) or, more specifically, on the USer Interface eXtensible Markup Language (UsiXML) framework. The proposed strategy involves the integration of accessibility requirements into design primitives of the user interface development method. This paper focuses on accessibility requirements related to navigation in the Task Model, Abstract User Interface Model and Transformation Model. The application of the approach shown for the SPA4USXML tool also includes a proof of concept and validation of the proposal. The study shows that accessibility requirements included at the design stage in the modelling of user interfaces can be systematized through mechanisms such as new transformation rules and the use of support tools such as SPA4USXML. As a result, the quality of accessibility can be guaranteed by taking advantage of developments in technologies based on User Interface Markup Languages such as UsiXML.This research work has been partly funded by the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government and by the Research Network MAVIR (S2009/TIC-1542 (www.mavir.net), and MULTIMEDICA Project (TIN2010- 20644-C03-01). In addition, RM enjoys a PhD scholarship from the Research Staff Training Programme of the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government. We thank the INREDIS project, which has been the foundation for this work. We also want to thank the members of the ITEA Project for providing us with the documents of the UsiXML specificationPublicad

Webstorm - Utilização de Web e Brainstorming num contexto de Webart

A internet sempre foi considerada pelos artistas como uma nova forma de expressão, a natureza não material, a ausência de barreiras geográficas e a mais fácil captação de público permitiu o surgimento de um novo tipo de arte, a Web art. É neste contexto que se propõem o projecto webstorm, que tem como principal objectivo representar visualmente as ideias escritas por um grupo acerca de um determinado tema, utilizando o brainstorming electrónico, e a Web como técnica e repositório de imagens respectivamente. Como suporte aplicacional do projecto, foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta que faz uso das mais recentes tecnologias para as aplicações Web, as “Rich Internet Applications”, mais concretamente o “Ajax”, tornando-a mais fácil e amigável de utilizar. Para a obtenção de opiniões e resultados foram efectuados testes à aplicação, após estes são apresentadas as conclusões do projecto Webstorm.Artists always considered the internet as a new form of expression, of an immaterial nature, without geographical barriers and therefore broadening interaction with the public, this brought about a new form of art, Web art. It is this context that Project Webstorm is proposed, it’s primary objective is to visually represent a group’s written ideas about a certain subject or theme, using electronic brainstorming for processing and the web as a repository of images. As applicable support for the project, a tool has been developed which uses the most recent technologies for web applications, such as “Rich Internet Applications”, or “Ajax” to be more precise, thus making it more user friendly. Opinions and results were gathered by testing the application, prior to these the conclusions of Project Webstorm are presented

The Genre of a Grant Proposal in the Modern Teaching Context: Challenges and Possibilities

Nowadays attaining a grant is a criterion of success for an early-career researcher and an important indicator of effective work of a university as a research-based and corporate institution. During its thirty-year history in Russia, grants have become a traditional and even routine practice for every Russian PhD student and an early-career researcher. Like their international colleagues, Russian researchers often don’t get sufficient support from their scientific advisor and an academic writing expert. A few attempts to improve current situation have been made in a number of research universities. One of such cases is a course “Grant Writing” that has been recently implemented in the English-language writing-intensive program of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The complex aim or the paper can be explained by the multidimensional nature of a grant. After characterizing a grant proposal as an up-to-date text genre in the international and interdisciplinary context in the framework of Genre Field Analysis, we consider the full process of applying for a grant in real-life environment and classroom settings. Finally, in the lens of Critical Genre Analysis, the qualitative analysis of the introductory sections of Russian grant proposals is conducted. The modern genre theory gives the basis for using a combination of methods in our research. In the lens of Genre Field Analysis, the sociopragmatic approach to the grant proposal provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the modern practices of applying for a grant, while Critical Genre Analysis may contribute to the deeper understanding of the text production mechanisms. The synthesis of theory and practice and its role could be seen in the qualitative analysis of grant proposals written by PhD students, attendees of the course “Grant Writing” at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The findings give evidence for insufficient disciplinary expertise and substitution of one genre – a grant proposal – by another one, more familiar for Russian students, – a research paper and an abstract. The obtained results testify in favor of the implementation of the course “Grant Writing” as well as other genre-based courses deeply rooted in the cross-disciplinary context and aimed at developing the researcher competence

Social networking sites as platforms to persuade behaviour change in domestic energy consumption

This MSc project addresses the following research question – “Can online social networks such as Facebook facilitate the motivation and behaviour change to reduce energy consumption in the home?” An investigation into the role of social interaction in social networks provides evidence to support the research question. The project undertook an extensive literature review and identified a gap in current knowledge regarding energy monitoring systems that are socially enabled. A participatory design workshop was then held to generate initial concept ideas and prototype interfaces. A final system using the Facebook application platform was designed and implemented by the author called Wattsup. An experimental design was then developed to evaluate the system which involved recruiting eight households for an eighteen day trial. This was supplemented with a qualitative study of comments generated by users and also in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that the users of the Wattsup energy application integrated in Facebook assisted the participants in reducing their energy consumption. Types of energy information displayed in the application were both live and historical measurements as well as Co2 emissions, publicly viewable to participants and others on their personal Facebook friends list. Public viewing was implemented for comparison purposes as well as introducing peer pressure and competition amongst like-minded friends. Further analysis of the participant’s social interaction activity with the energy application revealed higher awareness of their energy usage behaviour was present. Positive effects of the results were lower energy costs and fewer Co2 emissions released upon the environment from the participants by using the socially enabled energy application. To test the theory of a positive effect of social interaction on domestic energy consumption, two Facebook energy applications were developed by the author. One of the applications contained socially enabled features, while the other displayed only the participant’s personal energy usage with no social features or capability to view other participant’s energy information