Usability testing on game interface design using video-based behavior analysis

The objective of this study is to quantitatively incorporate user observation into usability evaluation of game interface design. In this study, an experiment was conducted to monitor and record users' behavior using built in videocam. The experiment was done after the user play "A Garuda" game. All the character movement controlled by user were captured and recorded for comparative analysis. There were about 20 people involved as a subject for this experiment. The data from video recordings were coded with Noldus Observer XT in order to find usage patterns and thus to gather quantitative data for analyzing the GUI effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. The result of user's interaction towards the design of game's GUI able to give additional information for the game designer to develop a better responsive game toward its usability. The effect of user's control and emotion that can be seen from user's face will give the information needed to be considered in game development. Previous studies mostly focusing on evaluating the usability with performance measures by only looking at task results. Thus, at the end of this study, a method is proposed by incorporating user observation into usability evaluation of game design interfaces

Comparative Usability Study of Two Space Logistics Analysis Tools

Future space exploration missions and campaigns will require sophisticated tools to help plan and analyze logistics. To encourage their use, space logistics tools must be usable: a design concept encompassing terms such as efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. This paper presents a usability study of two such tools: SpaceNet, a discrete event simulation tool and a comparable spreadsheet-based tool. The study follows a randomized orthogonal design having within-subjects evaluation of the two tools with 12 volunteer subjects (eight subjects with space backgrounds, four without). Each subject completed two sessions of testing, each with a 30-45 minute tutorial and a two-part space exploration scenario. The first part tests the creation a model to verify a simple uncrewed mission to lunar orbit. The second part tests the evaluation of an existing model to improve the effectiveness of a crewed mission to the lunar surface. The subjects completed a questionnaire after each session and a semi-structured interview following the second session. The study results indicate that the SpaceNet tool is more efficient for portions of the model creation task including modeling multi-burn transports and the spreadsheet tool is more effective for the model evaluation task. Qualitative evaluation indicates subjects liked the graphical nature and error-detection of the SpaceNet tool, but felt it took too long to edit information and appeared as a “black box.” Subjects liked the ability to view the entire model state within the spreadsheet tool, however were concerned with limited dynamic state feedback and underlying modeling assumptions. Future tools should combine the best features, including allowing modification of the entire model from a single interface, providing visibility of underlying logic, and integrated graphical and error-checking feedback.United States. Dept. of DefenseUnited States. Air Force Office of Scientific ResearchAmerican Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship32 CFR 168aSamsung Fellowshi

Designing and Publication of Interactive E-Book for Students of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University: An Empirical Study

The present study aims to keep pace with the rapid developments in the field of e-learning which includes the widespread use of e-books. Therefore, the authors conducted a pilot study on (55) faculty members from various disciplines, they assured the importance of e-books in education and the need for them. Accordingly, the authors designed and published their book "Education Technology: Foundations and Applications" as an interactive application on apps platforms by using a design model that was developed by the authors, and by adopting a list of (28) standards divided into four domains to ensure the quality of the design and development of the e-book according to educational and technological standards. Thereafter, female students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of e-books and their self-efficacy in using it were identified by (44) female students of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The results indicate that the students have the basic skills necessary to download and read e-books and take advantage of its characteristics, additionally, they believe in its usefulness and are satisfied with it as they intend to continue using e-books in the future. Keywords: Designing. Publication, interactive, e-book, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman Universit

Tuhm : uma ferramenta de apoio para testes de usabilidade

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação) — Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Ciência da Computação, 2021.A avaliação heurística é um processo muito importante na execução de testes de usabil- idade. Através dela, o especialista pode encontrar erros que afetam a usabilidade do usuário. Entretanto, a avaliação heurística se trata de um processo moroso. Com isso, há a necessidade de se criar meios que ajudem o processo de avaliação. O objetivo deste tra- balho é desenvolver uma ferramenta para apoiar o especialista de usabilidade no processo de avaliação. Foi realizada uma revisão da literatura com a finalidade de encontrar estu- dos relacionados às heurísticas de usabilidade e as ferramentas desenvolvidas para realizar avaliação heurística. A partir das heurísticas identificadas na literatura, foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta para auxiliar o especialista na avaliação de usabilidade. Em seguida, para validar a ferramenta foi realizado um estudo de caso onde os especialistas avaliaram a usabilidade de um aplicativo móvel. No processo de avaliação, os especialistas foram divididos em dois grupos, um grupo utilizou a ferramenta proposta durante a avaliação das heurísticas de usabilidade e o outro grupo que realizou a avaliação manual do aplica- tivo. A divisão em dois grupos possibilitou uma comparação dos resultados obtidos com a avaliação. Nossos achados revelam que a utilização de uma ferramenta de avaliação de usabilidade tornou o processo de avaliação mais rápido e objetivo. Além disso, possui uma fácil utilização, tendo um formato rápido de entrada de dados e uma organização e categorização dos problemas encontrados. Nossos achados também revelaram uma di- ficuldade dos especialistas na leitura do conjunto das heurísticas de usabilidade, pois se trata de um conjunto muito extenso, logo, foi identificada a necessidade de melhorar a ap- resentação das heurísticas de usabilidade. A ferramenta demonstrou-se adequada quanto ao seu objetivo, uma vez que apresentou as heurísticas de usabilidade e suas respectivas sub-heurísticas, facilitando o processo de avaliação das heurísticas de usabilidade durante a avaliação pelos especialistas. Assim, a utilização de uma ferramenta de avaliação de us- abilidade apoia os especialistas de usabilidade durante o processo de avaliação heurística.A heuristic evaluation is a very important process in execution usability tests. Through it, the specialist can find errors that affect the user’s usability. However, the heuristic evaluation is a lengthy process. Thus, there is a need to create means to help the evaluation process. The objective of this work is to develop a tool to support the usability specialist in the evaluation process. A literature review was carried out in order to find studies related to usability heuristics and the tools developed to perform heuristic evaluation. From the heuristics identified in the literature, a tool was developed to help the specialist in the usability evaluation. Then, to validate the tool, a case study was carried out where specialists evaluated the usability of a mobile application. In the evaluation process, the specialists were divided into two groups, one group used the proposed tool during the evaluation of the usability heuristics and the other group performed the manual evaluation of the application. The division into two groups allowed a comparison of the results obtained with the evaluation of the two groups. Our findings reveal that the use of a usability evaluation tool made the evaluation process faster and more objective. In addition, it is easy to use, having a fast data entry format and an organization and categorization of the problems found. Our findings also revealed a difficulty for specialists in reading the set of usability heuristics, as it is a very extensive set, therefore, the need to improve the presentation of the usability heuristics was identified. The tool proved to be adequate for its purpose, as it presented the usability heuristics and their respective sub-heuristics, facilitating the usability heuristic evaluation process during the specialist evaluation. Thus, the use of a usability evaluation tool supports usability specialists during the heuristic evaluation process

Using tablet devices to control complex home appliances

Internet of things has made connected devices and appliances widely available and tablet devices are common household items. This study focuses on technical user interface design challenges and requirements for user interface design of controlling complex home appliances with tablet devices. There is a literature review about available controlling technologies and usability heuristics related to tablet and mobile devices. An Android test application was created and tested with four test users to find out how well those heuristics work and are covered. That application was tested against the regular user interface of a dishwasher and task completion times and errors were noted down. Test users were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding the heuristics and how well the implementation performed. Tablet devices should be evaluated using regular usability heuristics, but besides them they require mobile specific heuristics, such as easy of input, screen readability and glancability, physical interaction and ergonomics and privacy and social convention taken into account. The results showed that a tablet user interface was able to outperform its regular counterpart in task completion times and in number of errors. The implementation also covered those heuristics in a more comprehensive way. But among test persons the most benefit was with users who were familiar with tablets and not with dishwashers. A test user who wasn t familiar with tablets but was with dishwashers performed tasks faster and with fewer errors with regular user interface. In conclusion a tablet user interface enabled users who were familiar with tablets to perform tasks faster and with less errors. Those users were also more satisfied with a tablet user interface than a regular one. On the other hand a test user with little experience of tablets and familiarity with dishwashers was able to perform tasks faster an with less errors with the regular user interface. A tablet user interface was able to offer extra benefits and efficiency to users, but regular user interface should be also available to satisfy users who are not familiar with mobile devices

A Usability Evaluation Framework for

Currently, more than two billions people access the Web for various purposes. The majority are people without programming or modelling background. Part of these people (called end-users) also likes to create their own Web applications to meet their daily needs. Mashup Makers are tools to create such end-user’s Web applications. As such, Mashup Makers could become the dominant environment for end-user development of Web applications. Existing Mashup Makers promise that creating a Web Mashup is very easy and just a matter of a few mouse clicks. However, there is no evidence that this is indeed the case. On the contrary, research has already revealed usability problems with Mashup Makers. Therefore, this thesis concentrates on the usability of Mashup Makers as development environments for Web applications for end-users. Usability is a key issue for the success of software artifacts, and especially if the artifacts are intended for non-technical users. Therefore, we target the achievement of a consolidated approach, model, and framework for the evaluation of the usability of Mashup Makers for end-users. Such a framework will not only allow evaluating the usability of existing Mashup Makers, but it will also provide key issues concerning usability (ie usability impact factors) that developers of Mashup Makers and of other future end-user development tools can take into consideration when developing new tools

Selected Papers from IEEE ICASI 2019

The 5th IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation 2019 (IEEE ICASI 2019, https://2019.icasi-conf.net/), which was held in Fukuoka, Japan, on 11–15 April, 2019, provided a unified communication platform for a wide range of topics. This Special Issue entitled “Selected Papers from IEEE ICASI 2019” collected nine excellent papers presented on the applied sciences topic during the conference. Mechanical engineering and design innovations are academic and practical engineering fields that involve systematic technological materialization through scientific principles and engineering designs. Technological innovation by mechanical engineering includes information technology (IT)-based intelligent mechanical systems, mechanics and design innovations, and applied materials in nanoscience and nanotechnology. These new technologies that implant intelligence in machine systems represent an interdisciplinary area that combines conventional mechanical technology and new IT. The main goal of this Special Issue is to provide new scientific knowledge relevant to IT-based intelligent mechanical systems, mechanics and design innovations, and applied materials in nanoscience and nanotechnology

Descomplicando o uso do telefone celular pelo idoso: desenvolvimento de interface de celular com base nos princípios de usabilidade e acessibilidade

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Florianópolis, 2012A exclusão digital dos idosos provocada pela falta de usabilidade dos equipamentos eletrônicos é algo que pode ser contornada se as empresas vissem o idoso como um usuário potencial que possui dificuldades e limitações. Este trabalho estuda a relação do idoso com o celular, que é o equipamento eletrônico que mais cresce em vendas no mundo, e estabelece algumas recomendações que podem ajudar a melhorar esta interação. Este trabalho investiga o uso do celular pelo público idoso a fim de identificar as suas necessidades, dificuldades e a sua compreensão quanto aos ícones, nomenclaturas e agrupamento das funções. Para isso foram utilizados questionário de satisfação, arranjo de cartas e teste de compreensão de ícones. Com isto, foram identificadas recomendações de usabilidade e acessibilidade para a interface do celular e projetado um conjunto de interfaces do celular voltado ao idoso. Concluiu-se que os idosos precisam de funções fáceis de entender, terminologias mais claras e sem duplo sentido, além de uma interface mais amigável e funções agrupadas de acordo com a sua compreensão.Abstract : Digital exclusion of the elderly caused by lack of usability of electronic equipment is something that can be circumvented if companies saw the elderly as a potential user that has difficulties and limitations. This paper studies the relationship of the elderly with the cell phone, which is the fastest growing electronic equipment in sales worldwide, and provides some recommendations that can help to improve this interaction. This work investigates the use of mobile phones by elderly in order to identify their needs, difficulties and their understanding about the icons, classifications and grouping functions. It was used a satisfaction questionnaire, card sorting and comprehension test icons. Usability and accessibility recommendations were identified for the mobile interface and it was designed some cell phone interfaces to the older people. It was concluded that older people need easier functions, clearer terminology without double meaning, besides a friendlier interface and functions that are grouped according to their understanding

“I’d like to thank the Academy”: an analysis of the awards discourse at the Atlantic Schools of Business conference

The awarding of prizes has become embedded in all aspects of our society, including academic conferences. This paper views the awards discourse at the Atlantic Schools of Business Conference through a poststructural lens with an eye to understanding how the presentation of awards at the conference can aid in, or possibly detract from, the continued success of this long-lasting, unique, and much-loved academic event