Testing of a novel web browser interface for the Chinese market

This paper compares the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons from leading software providers with those of a culture-specific design. This online study was conducted in Taiwan and involved 103 participants, who were given three sets of web browser icons to review, namely Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh Safari, and culturally specific icons created using the Culture-Centred Design methodology. The findings of the study show that all three sets have generally high recognition rates, but that some icon functions (e.g. Go/Visit and Favourite) in all three sets have poor recognition rates and are considered inappropriate

Testing of a novel web browser interface for the Chinese market

This paper compares the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons from leading software providers with those of a culture-specific design. This online study was conducted in Taiwan and involved 103 participants, who were given three sets of web browser icons to review, namely Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh Safari, and culturally specific icons created using the Culture-Centred Design methodology. The findings of the study show that all three sets have generally high recognition rates, but that some icon functions (e.g. Go/Visit and Favourite) in all three sets have poor recognition rates and are considered inappropriate

Symbiosis between the TRECVid benchmark and video libraries at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Audiovisual archives are investing in large-scale digitisation efforts of their analogue holdings and, in parallel, ingesting an ever-increasing amount of born- digital files in their digital storage facilities. Digitisation opens up new access paradigms and boosted re-use of audiovisual content. Query-log analyses show the shortcomings of manual annotation, therefore archives are complementing these annotations by developing novel search engines that automatically extract information from both audio and the visual tracks. Over the past few years, the TRECVid benchmark has developed a novel relationship with the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision (NISV) which goes beyond the NISV just providing data and use cases to TRECVid. Prototype and demonstrator systems developed as part of TRECVid are set to become a key driver in improving the quality of search engines at the NISV and will ultimately help other audiovisual archives to offer more efficient and more fine-grained access to their collections. This paper reports the experiences of NISV in leveraging the activities of the TRECVid benchmark

ENHANCING USERS’ EXPERIENCE WITH SMART MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The aim of this thesis is to investigate mobile guides for use with smartphones. Mobile guides have been successfully used to provide information, personalisation and navigation for the user. The researcher also wanted to ascertain how and in what ways mobile guides can enhance users' experience. This research involved designing and developing web based applications to run on smartphones. Four studies were conducted, two of which involved testing of the particular application. The applications tested were a museum mobile guide application and a university mobile guide mapping application. Initial testing examined the prototype work for the ‘Chronology of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah’ application. The results were used to assess the potential of using similar mobile guides in Brunei Darussalam’s museums. The second study involved testing of the ‘Kent LiveMap’ application for use at the University of Kent. Students at the university tested this mapping application, which uses crowdsourcing of information to provide live data. The results were promising and indicate that users' experience was enhanced when using the application. Overall results from testing and using the two applications that were developed as part of this thesis show that mobile guides have the potential to be implemented in Brunei Darussalam’s museums and on campus at the University of Kent. However, modifications to both applications are required to fulfil their potential and take them beyond the prototype stage in order to be fully functioning and commercially viable

The History of the iPad

The purpose of this paper is to review the history of the iPad and its influence over contemporary computing. Although the iPad is relatively new, the tablet computer is having a long and lasting affect on how we communicate. With this essay, I attempt to review the technologies that emerged and converged to create the tablet computer. Of course, Apple and its iPad are at the center of this new computing movement

I-pot: a new approach utilising visual and contextual cues to support users in graphical web browser revisitation.

With a quarter of the world’s population now having access to the internet, the area of web efficiency and optimal use is of growing importance to all users. The function of revisitation, where a user wants to return to a website that they have visited in the recent past becomes more important. Current static and textual approaches developed within the latest versions of mainstream web browsers leave much to be desired. This paper suggests a new approach via the use of organic visual and contextual cues to support users in this task area

User Interaction with Linked Data: An Exploratory Search Approach

NoIt is becoming increasingly popular to expose government and citywide sensor data as linked data. Linked data appears to offer a great potential for exploratory search in supporting smart city goals of helping users to learn and make sense of complex and heterogeneous data. However, there are no systematic user studies to provide an insight of how browsing through linked data can support exploratory search. This paper presents a user study that draws on methodological and empirical underpinning from relevant exploratory search studies. The authors have developed a linked data browser that provides an interface for user browsing through several datasets linked via domain ontologies. In a systematic study that is qualitative and exploratory in nature, they have been able to get an insight on central issues related to exploratory search and browsing through linked data. The study identifies obstacles and challenges related to exploratory search using linked data and draws heuristics for future improvements. The authors also report main problems experienced by users while conducting exploratory search tasks, based on which requirements for algorithmic support to address the observed issues are elicited. The approach and lessons learnt can facilitate future work in browsing of linked data, and points at further issues that have to be addressed

Application of the LBS and GIS Integration in Scenic Area

Development of smart scenic spot has received great attention from individuals and enterprises. This paper focuses on the LBS application in resort management and wants to get an innovation technology applying example in China tourism industry. The LBS can embed in the original GIS platform in OCT east, and then it can provide the added-value service such as promptly catch the visitor location, navigate tour itinerary, schedule scenic transportation shuttle. The new findings in this program is a new system model that integrated GIS and LBS has been put to use, therefore, a LBS service network covering the whole OCT East area can be developed. Through the design, field experiment and simulation tests of this model, the program is proved viable for the promotion in the services of OCT East, and could increase the scenic quality of service, enhance visitor satisfaction Keywords: LBS, Scenic Areas, GIS, Mobile Communicatio