Guest editorial article, special issue on sports engineering

This issue contains ten papers that form the second part of the special issue on Sports Engineering. Each paper in its own way is outstanding. They show the diversity of the activity that comes under the heading of sports engineering, and yet they have a unity in that they all address questions that have arisen from actual experience, none more so than the first paper by Nigel Mills on the design of bicycle helmets. This is a topic that has occupied Dr Mills for many years, and the range of experience he brings to this study - which combines finite-element modelling, user input, materials technology, and experiment - is formidable. The second paper by Peter MacKenzie and Gareth Bradley is a response to a quite different challenge, that of devising a new material that has the property of being metastable, that is, it can be a solid or mouldable at the desire of the user, who may wish to customize a splint or a shin guard. The next two papers arise from the work of the Edinburgh Ice Mechanics group led by Jane Blackford, in which they looked first of all at the fundamental science behind the use of sweeping the stone in curling and also developed an instrumented broom to assist in the development of technique. Although these papers are of a purely technical nature, their application abuts the verges of applied psychology

Arthroplasty Data Visualization

This master's thesis presents the work done in the field of visualization and interactivity conducted within the Design Science framework. The main goal was to make the data analysis using the arthroplasty register data into a more independent, easy, and user-friendly experience. The visualization artifact was created to support presentation of data material and results from data mining with a purpose of understand patient outcomes, longevity of implants, and present demographic and other data in a more contemporary way. There is a wealth of information and reports at the website of the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register, but very little in terms of interactivity and independent user exploration of data. The work was carried out as a part of a back- and front-end development with data mining methods developed for knee and hip prosthesis data being the back-end, and the front-end consisted of a user interface in addition to visualization. This setup had several advantages, where the selection of data mining methods and implementation of a high-fidelity user interface all contributed to a better user experience of the visualizations. The resulting artifact is comprised of visualizations of demographic data, Kaplan-Meier, and an interactive map of Norway. Interactivity enabled exploring data for selected periods of time, comparison of performance in different prostheses, and exploring patient population behind certain points on a survival graph. The map of Norway offers features such as demographic data and comparison of top 5 prostheses in different counties. The evaluation was carried out with the use of three different evaluation tools and interviews with domain and usability experts. Feedback during interviews was encouraging and indicated the potential usefulness of the visualizations. The system in its current form is more directed towards expert users, but can be easily adjusted to patients and the wider public, which could be a subject of future research. More visualizations and data analytical methods could further enhance the current solutions.Masteroppgåve i informasjonsvitskapINFO390MASV-INF

Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire

This paper reports on a 4-year research and development case study about the design of citizen science tools for inquiry learning. It details the process of iterative pedagogy-led design and evaluation of the nQuire toolkit, a set of web-based and mobile tools scaffolding the creation of online citizen science investigations. The design involved an expert review of inquiry learning and citizen science, combined with user experience studies involving more than 200 users. These have informed a concept that we have termed ‘citizen inquiry’, which engages members of the public alongside scientists in setting up, running, managing or contributing to citizen science projects with a main aim of learning about the scientific method through doing science by interaction with others. A design-based research (DBR) methodology was adopted for the iterative design and evaluation of citizen science tools. DBR was focused on the refinement of a central concept, ‘citizen inquiry’, by exploring how it can be instantiated in educational technologies and interventions. The empirical evaluation and iteration of technologies involved three design experiments with end users, user interviews, and insights from pedagogy and user experience experts. Evidence from the iterative development of nQuire led to the production of a set of interaction design principles that aim to guide the development of online, learning-centred, citizen science projects. Eight design guidelines are proposed: users as producers of knowledge, topics before tools, mobile affordances, scaffolds to the process of scientific inquiry, learning by doing as key message, being part of a community as key message, every visit brings a reward, and value users and their time

User kansei modeling and eco-design

The use of day-to-day life artifacts is a key phase in the lifecycle of products. Indeed it has a great impact on our environment. User centered methods are not yet taken into account in eco-design approaches. These methods are being developed in two ways, by building new user models encompassing complex dimensions such as Kansei and experience, including values and moods, and by integrating the user himself in the design process. This paper deals with setting-up a new theoretical framework associating user-centered design advanced approaches such as experience design, Kansei studies, or participative design and eco-design methods. The final goal is to support product design by providing some guidelines according to environmental issues linked to the users and their abilities

The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation

InfoVis experience enhancement through mediated interaction

Information visualization is an experience in which both the aesthetic representations and interaction are part. Such an experience can be augmented through close consideration of its major components. Interaction is crucial to the experience, yet it has seldom been adequately explored in the field. We claim that direct mediated interaction can augment such an experience. This paper discusses the reasons behind such a claim and proposes a mediated interactive manipulation scheme based on the notion of directness. It also describes the ways in which such a claim will be validated. The Literature Knowledge Domain (LKD) is used as the concrete domain around which the discussions will be held

Using Narratives, Humor, and Social Navigation: An Inspection of two systems

PERSON

Mobile Application Usability: Heuristic Evaluation and Evaluation of Heuristics

Ger Joyce, Mariana Lilley, Trevor Barker, and Amanda Jefferies, 'Mobile Application Usability: Heuristic Evaluation and Evaluation of Heuristics', paper presented at AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors, Software, and Systems Engineering. Walt Disney World, Florida USA, 27-31 July 2016Many traditional usability evaluation methods do not consider mobile-specific issues. This can result in mobile applications that abound in usability issues. We empirically evaluate three sets of usability heuristics for use with mobile applications, including a set defined by the authors. While the set of heuristics defined by the authors surface more usability issues in a mobile application than other sets of heuristics, improvements to the set can be made