Co-ordinating distributed knowledge: An investigation into the use of an organisational memory

This paper presents an ethnographically informed investigation into the use of an organisational memory, focusing in particular on how information was used in the performance of work. We argue that understanding how people make use of distributed knowledge is crucial to the design of an organisational memory. However, we take the perspective that an ‘organisational memory’ is not technology dependant, but is an emergent property of group interaction. In this sense, the technology does not form the organisational memory, but provides a novel means of augmenting the co-ordination of collaborative action. The study examines the generation, development and maintenance of knowledge repositories and archives. The knowledge and information captured in the organisational memory enabled the team members to establish a common understanding of the design and to gain an appreciation of the issues and concerns of the other disciplines. The study demonstrates why technology should not be thought of in isolation from its contexts of use, but also how designers can make use of the creative flexibility that people employ in their everyday activities. The findings of the study are therefore of direct relevance to both the design of knowledge archives and to the management of this information within organisations

Teaching with style: computer aided instruction, personality and design education

The investigation reported in this thesis concerns the possibility of automatically matching the learning styles of design students with appropriate styles of computer aided instruction (CAl). Individual adult learners exhibit preferences for the way information is presented and for the ways in which they are taught. These preferences arise from characteristics known as cognitive styles which are associated with personality. Cognitive dissonance occurs when there is a mismatch between styles of teaching and styles of learning. Under these conditions some students will be discouraged. A survey of students on typical design courses showed them to have particular learning preferences. In this respect they are differentiated from tutors who may prefer to teach in a different style. CAl systems also exhibit styles. These are manifest in features such as the computer's control of learning interactions and the form of information which the system delivers. Computer-based training has often been of a sequential, drill-andpractice kind which encourages rote learning. This style has met with limited success, and it is shown to be unsuitable for most design students. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is used to classify the psychological types of design students. Evidence of learning preferences from the MBTI and from related sources is given. From a theoretical description of learning episodes, a computer-based model is developed that provides CAl treatments matched to sixteen learning styles. It is concluded that CAl-based teaching of technological information to design students can be more optimally matched. The principles established have wider implications for communications between designers and others

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

Developing a design methodology for the construction of hypertext and hypermedia, with particular reference to hypertext electronic prospectuses

Use and development of hypertext-based documents is becoming more widespread in both industry and die academic world. This has obvious implications for the design of hypertext documents. The hypertext designer has been relatively ignored until recently, with attention largely focused on the quality of the hypertext rather than support for the designer. Recent hypertext design methodologies, such as that described by Isakowitz et al. (1995) have made a useful contribution, but are oriented towards designers with a background in computing science and related professions. This research addresses this problem by the development of a design methodology which is intended to be accessible to the general author. The design methodology was based on three sources of data: a taxonomy of existing design guidance, including a range of principles and guidelines and previous design methodologies for hypertext; hypertext versions of a higher education college prospectus, and a case study of a CD-ROM higher education prospectus. This material was assembled and synthesised to produce a provisional design methodology that is positioned between existing design methodologies such as Relationship Management Methodology (Isakowitz et al 1995) and Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (Schwabe et al 1995), which are influenced by software engineering and database design concepts, and other less formal descriptions of the hypertext design process. The design methodology supports and encourages iterative methods of working, and includes supporting documentation and pro formas designed to encourage a thorough approach to hypertext design

An Exploratory Study of Hypermedia Support for Problem Decomposition

Empirical hypermedia research has concentrated on usability rather than utility, and the research on utility has focused on information access as opposed to problem solving and decision making in organizations. This study, based on problem reduction theory, uses a hypermedia prototype system to support decision processes for solving a financial analysis problem. An exploratory laboratory experiment was conducted to study the feasibility of the prototype for hypermedia support of decision making. The process tracing techniques used suggest that a cognitive map of a decision maker\u27s thought process may be constructed. Results offer a great deal of promise in the use of hypermedia for organizational decision support. The implications of this study for further research are discussed

Navigating Subjectivity: South, a Psychometric Text Adventure.

South: A Psychometric Text Adventure is an artist’s book and a set of software programs. The South project re-conceptualises the artist’s book and wider bookforms, encouraging models of interaction that are aware of specific locations and individual subjects. These alternatives are a response to what this thesis frames as two rapidly stagnating forms. The thesis argues that both the artist’s book and electronic literature (see the glossary on page 343 for definitions of the key terms used throughout this thesis) have not made a significant impact on the cultural landscape of the early 21st century. Nor have they made a significant use of the key technological changes that have occurred since the first electronic literature emerged in the late 1970s (in the form of interactive fictions, sometimes called ‘Text Adventures’, such as Colossal Cave Adventure (Crowther, 1976)). In order to move forward from the increasingly problematic, disembodied, computational models used in these early digital works (discussed in chapters two, five and six) this thesis specifically recommends the formation of temporally specific, contextualised, relationships between readers and digital texts. The South project presents a multi-linear, situated and embodied form of intra-activity (see glossary) as an alternative to more linear forms of interaction. These ideas and their implications for electronic literature and artist’s books will be clarified and outlined throughout this thesis, as will the rationale for framing them as valid models for moving electronic literature and artist’s books into a position of cultural and technological relevance

A framework for the design of usable electronic text

This thesis examines the human issues underlying the design and usability of electronic text systems. In so doing it develops a framework for the conceptualisation of these issues that aims to guide designers of electronic texts in their attempts to produce usable systems. The thesis commences with a review of the traditional human factors literature on electronic text according to three basic themes: its concern with perceptual, manipulatory and structural issues. From this examination it is concluded that shortcomings in translating this work into design result from the adoption of overly narrow uni-disciplinary views of reading taken from cognitive psychology and information science which are inappropriate to serve the needs of electronic text designers. In an attempt to provide a more relevant description of the reading process a series of studies examining readers and their views as well as uses of texts is reported. In the first, a repertory grid based investigation revealed that all texts can be described in reader-relvant terms according to three criteria: why a text is read, what a text contains and how it is read. These criteria then form the basis of two investigations of reader-text interaction using academic journals and user manuals. The results of these studies highlighted the need to consider readers' models of a document's structure in discussing text usability. Subsequent experimental work on readers' models of academic articles demonstrated not only that such models are important aspects of reader-text interaction but that data of this form could usefully be employed in the design of an electronic text system. The proposed framework provides a broad, qualitative model of the important issues for designers to consider when developing a product It consists of four interactive elements that focus attention on aspects of reading that have been identified as central to usability. Simple tests of the utility and validity of the framework are reported and it is shown that the framework both supports reasoned analysis and subsequent prediction of reader behaviour as well as providing a parsimonious account of their verbal utterances while reading. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the likely uses of such a framework and the potential for electronic text systems in an increasingly information-hungry world

A Usability Inspection Method for Model-driven Web Development Processes

Las aplicaciones Web son consideradas actualmente un elemento esencial e indispensable en toda actividad empresarial, intercambio de información y motor de redes sociales. La usabilidad, en este tipo de aplicaciones, es reconocida como uno de los factores clave más importantes, puesto que la facilidad o dificultad que los usuarios experimentan con estas aplicaciones determinan en gran medida su éxito o fracaso. Sin embargo, existen varias limitaciones en las propuestas actuales de evaluación de usabilidad Web, tales como: el concepto de usabilidad sólo se soporta parcialmente, las evaluaciones de usabilidad se realizan principalmente cuando la aplicación Web se ha desarrollado, hay una carencia de guías sobre cómo integrar adecuadamente la usabilidad en el desarrollo Web, y también existe una carencia de métodos de evaluación de la usabilidad Web que hayan sido validados empíricamente. Además, la mayoría de los procesos de desarrollo Web no aprovechan los artefactos producidos en las fases de diseño. Estos artefactos software intermedios se utilizan principalmente para guiar a los desarrolladores y para documentar la aplicación Web, pero no para realizar evaluaciones de usabilidad. Dado que la trazabilidad entre estos artefactos y la aplicación Web final no está bien definida, la realización de evaluaciones de usabilidad de estos artefactos resulta difícil. Este problema se mitiga en el desarrollo Web dirigido por modelos (DWDM), donde los artefactos intermedios (modelos) que representan diferentes perspectivas de una aplicación Web, se utilizan en todas las etapas del proceso de desarrollo, y el código fuente final se genera automáticamente a partir estos modelos. Al tener en cuenta la trazabilidad entre estos modelos, la evaluación de estos modelos permite detectar problemas de usabilidad que experimentaran los usuarios finales de la aplicación Web final, y proveer recomendaciones para corregir estos problemas de usabilidad durante fases tempranas del proceso de desarrollo Web. Esta tesis tiene como objetivo, tratando las anteriores limitaciones detectadas, el proponer un método de inspección de usabilidad que se puede integrar en diferentes procesos de desarrollo Web dirigido por modelos. El método se compone de un modelo de usabilidad Web que descompone el concepto de usabilidad en sub-características, atributos y métricas genéricas, y un proceso de evaluación de usabilidad Web (WUEP), que proporciona directrices sobre cómo el modelo de usabilidad se puede utilizar para llevar a cabo evaluaciones específicas. Las métricas genéricas del modelo de usabilidad deben operacionalizarse con el fin de ser aplicables a los artefactos software de diferentes métodos de desarrollo Web y en diferentes niveles de abstracción, lo que permite evaluar la usabilidad en varias etapas del proceso de desarrollo Web, especialmente en las etapas tempranas. Tanto el modelo de usabilidad como el proceso de evaluación están alineados con la última norma ISO/IEC 25000 estándar para la evaluación de la calidad de productos de software (SQuaRE). El método de inspección de usabilidad propuesto (WUEP) se ha instanciado en dos procesos de desarrollo Web dirigido por modelos diferentes (OO-H y WebML) a fin de demostrar la factibilidad de nuestra propuesta. Además, WUEP fue validado empíricamente mediante la realización de una familia de experimentos en OO-H y un experimento controlado en WebML. El objetivo de nuestros estudios empíricos fue evaluar la efectividad, la eficiencia, facilidad de uso percibida y la satisfacción percibida de los participantes; cuando utilizaron WUEP en comparación con un método de inspección industrial ampliamente utilizado: La Evaluación Heurística (HE). El análisis estadístico y meta-análisis de los datos obtenidos por separado de cada experimento indicaron que WUEP es más eficaz y eficiente que HE en la detección de problemas de usabilidad. Los evaluadores también percibieron más satisfacción cuando se aplicaron WUEP, y lesFernández Martínez, A. (2012). A Usability Inspection Method for Model-driven Web Development Processes [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17845Palanci

Conveying interpretations of the past with interactive narratives

This master’s thesis sketches a theory upon which a heuristic for the effective conveyance of scholarly historical interpretation of the past to a non-scholarly audience can be built. For this heuristic to yield methods that do not only respect academic standards of critical inquiry, but simultaneously ensure that thus produced historical knowledge can be imparted to and retained by laymen, the interplay of a range of factors has to be understood first. This thesis builds on and connects theories and concepts from philosophy, psychology, media- and game studies, cognitive sciences, semiotics, and computer science. It takes a stance that emphasizes the capacity of scholars and laymen alike to form informed and critical interpretations of the past under the right circumstances. In order to facilitate these circumstances most effectively, it takes a pragmatic approach which rejects maximizing either of the variables in the triplet verisimilitude, veracity, and verifiability at the expense of the other