Analysing the Role of Interactivity in User Experience

An experimental investigation into the role of interaction in user experience (UX) with a controlled manipulation of interactivity features (e.g. avatars, interactive video) in a university information website is reported. The more interactive version had better affect and hedonic ratings, even though its perceived usability was worse. Analysis of qualitative data showed users were attracted to the interactive features, although they complained about poor usability. The results of the experiments are discussed to consider the role of interactivity in user experience and the differences between users’ quantitative judgements of UX and their comments on interactive features which reveal different perspectives

How Do Users Choose Between Technologies? Insights from a User Value Perspective

TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) is concerned with why workers reject or accept technological tools that have been provided to support the work they are doing. TAM assumes the worker does not get a choice in the tools they use. Their only choice is to use or not use the tool. However, in today’s changing work environment employees often use different technologies to accomplish the same work. In this context, we examine how users choose the tools they use at the workplace. A correct understanding of this will not only enable organizations deploying these technologies to influence the choice of tools they want their employees to use at the workplace but will also help providers of these technological tools to design them for maximum adoption among users

Using affect to evaluate user engagement

User Experience (UX) emerged beyond the traditional views of usability to account for users' emotional response to the aesthetics of an interactive product. This paper outlines the first of a series of studies on User Engagement (UE), a subset of UX, which focuses upon the quality of the within session interactive experience. The aim of this study is to explore affect through the responses to interactive features and how this impacts upon user judgment. Initial findings indicate that websites with more interactive features generate enhanced positive affect within session, which may predominate over a longer term, thus impacting on the overall user experience

Authors, publishers, and public goods: Trading gold for dross

Duruy Victor. 83. 10 juillet 1868, Règlement d'organisation pédagogique pour les écoles publiques de la Seine (extraits). In: L'enseignement de l'histoire à l'école primaire de la Révolution à nos jours, textes officiels, Tome I : 1793-1914. Paris : Institut national de recherche pédagogique, 2007. pp. 214-215. (Bibliothèque de l'Histoire de l'Education, 22

Does Capitalism Need a Government to Be Nice: Robert Axelrod and His Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Computer Tournament

In the past few decades, the progressive political ideal of strong central governments or collective morality being necessary to enforce cooperative behavior has become widely-accepted. However, many philosophers throughout history, especially that from the classical liberalism tradition, have espoused free market, open society ideals arguing not only that governments are the source of much of the immorality and conflict many are afraid of, but also that man left in a free environment can and will cooperate and develop naturally moral systems that allow for economic and societal development. Robert Axelrod, more recently, studied this debate using the famous Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game from traditional game theory and applied computer science to find that, indeed, cooperation can arise naturally even between selfish prisoners. This paper develops the study further by examining more realistic situations of PD games involving multiple players, using computer simulations, i.e. agent-based modeling, and finds that Axelrod’s original conclusions hold true

Are We Guinea Pigs?

This paper explores published articles that report on results from GMOs (Internet) and offline (non-Internet) and how it affects human body. The articles, however, definitions vary in their uses of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and the products used to tend to the organisms. I have researched some information from Dr. Edwards and from Global Healing Center, which was published in August of 2014. The information was and updated on June of 2016. Dr. Edwards, (2016) Dr. Edwards, urges that to have an understanding of the connections between GMOs and gut health you must first understand what is being done to our food supply. The effects it has on digestion tracts for of humans. According to (glyphosate, 2013), this article in, highlights the effects of Glyphosate based herbicide, which is sprayed on our crops prior to individuals purchasing them to eat. According to (Woosley, 2012) the first patent issued for GMO in 1980, GMO has slowly been arising more popular, a bacterium with an appetite for crude oil, ready to gobble up spills. Genetic Engineering in non-human life is on the rise, governments around the world are grappling with how far should GE reach inside human domain and what are the ramifications. Keywords: Genetically modified organisms (GMO), glyphosate based herbicide, governments, product, genetically engineered (GE), organic, modified

Measuring intrinsic value – how to stop worrying and love economics

This paper seeks to transcend entrenched misunderstandings between economists and arts policymakers, leaders and funders. These misunderstandings, which have long dogged discussion on arts funding in the UK, are most evident in the long-running debate about ‘instrumental’ and ‘intrinsic’ approaches to public expenditure on culture and the arts. As a general theory of public choice, economics provides tools for measuring the intrinsic as well as instrumental value of art in a way that is commensurable with other calls on the public purse. The reluctance to use rigorous economic methods has hindered rather than helped the case for the arts. This paper offers a provocative reconsideration of the outdated and poorly-informed prejudices which lie behind this reluctance. This is a prepublication draft. A version has been published electronically by Mission Models Money and can be accessed at http://www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk/page.php?id=34cultural economics; creative industries; innovation; internet

IS THE TIME RIPE FOR BRANDING OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

Branding of products provides many benefits to the users as well as providers of products. However, unlike other products not much research and industry efforts have been expended into building strong software brands. In this study we identify the reasons for this state of affairs using a multi-disciplinary review of literature as well as anecdotal and empirical evidences. The results of the study show that software industry and products have so far followed a trajectory similar to that of other industries and products in its evolutionary path but with a time lag. In line with this observation we expect increasing relevance of abstract benefits to the users of software products, such as hedonic and social benefits. Also, the significant impacts of these abstracts benefits in building successful software brands as measured by brand loyalty indicates that the time is now ripe for branding of software products

Experience-weighted Attraction Learning in Normal Form Games

In ‘experience-weighted attraction’ (EWA) learning, strategies have attractions that reflect initial predispositions, are updated based on payoff experience, and determine choice probabilities according to some rule (e.g., logit). A key feature is a parameter δ that weights the strength of hypothetical reinforcement of strategies that were not chosen according to the payoff they would have yielded, relative to reinforcement of chosen strategies according to received payoffs. The other key features are two discount rates, φ and ρ, which separately discount previous attractions, and an experience weight. EWA includes reinforcement learning and weighted fictitious play (belief learning) as special cases, and hybridizes their key elements. When δ= 0 and ρ= 0, cumulative choice reinforcement results. When δ= 1 and ρ=φ, levels of reinforcement of strategies are exactly the same as expected payoffs given weighted fictitious play beliefs. Using three sets of experimental data, parameter estimates of the model were calibrated on part of the data and used to predict a holdout sample. Estimates of δ are generally around .50, φ around .8 − 1, and ρ varies from 0 to φ. Reinforcement and belief-learning special cases are generally rejected in favor of EWA, though belief models do better in some constant-sum games. EWA is able to combine the best features of previous approaches, allowing attractions to begin and grow flexibly as choice reinforcement does, but reinforcing unchosen strategies substantially as belief-based models implicitly do