34 research outputs found
Using computer-mediated communication as a tool for mentoring to Latina/o sophomore college students
The sophomore year of college can be challenging for many students specifically Latina/o students. New initiatives are being created to increase Latina/o enrollment, retention, and completion of higher education with research indicating Latinas/os are successful academically when they had a mentor or perceived someone on campus cared about them. Mentoring programs use various tools to communicate, but computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have not been examined in Latina/o peer mentoring relationships.
The current research study examined secondary data to see if Latina/o sophomore college students in a peer mentoring program were academically successful when using CMC to communicate with their mentor. Results were mixed; more students used CMC than face-to-face when communicating with their mentor and those who used CMC had a higher chance of being retained, but GPA was not correlated to CMC use. Additional analysis revealed mentoring to have a significant impact on GPA when compared to non-mentored students
On Data-driven systems analyzing, supporting and enhancing usersâ interaction and experience
Tesis doctoral en inglés y resumen extendido en español[EN] The research areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Architectures have been traditionally treated separately, but in the literature, many authors made efforts to merge them to build better software systems. One of the common gaps between software engineering and usability is the lack of strategies to apply usability principles in the initial design of software architectures. Including these principles since the early phases of software design would help to avoid later architectural changes to include user experience requirements. The combination of both fields (software architectures and Human-Computer Interaction) would contribute to building better interactive software that should include the best from both the systems and user-centered designs. In that combination, the software architectures should enclose the fundamental structure and ideas of the system to offer the desired quality based on sound design decisions.
Moreover, the information kept within a system is an opportunity to extract knowledge about the system itself, its components, the software included, the users or the interaction occurring inside. The knowledge gained from the information generated in a software environment can be used to improve the system itself, its software, the usersâ experience, and the results. So, the combination of the areas of Knowledge Discovery and Human-Computer Interaction offers ideal conditions to address Human-Computer-Interaction-related challenges. The Human-Computer Interaction focuses on human intelligence, the Knowledge Discovery in computational intelligence, and the combination of both can raise the support of human intelligence with machine intelligence to discover new insights in a world crowded of data.
This Ph.D. Thesis deals with these kinds of challenges: how approaches like data-driven software architectures (using Knowledge Discovery techniques) can help to improve the users' interaction and experience within an interactive system. Specifically, it deals with how to improve the human-computer interaction processes of different kind of stakeholders to improve different aspects such as the user experience or the easiness to accomplish a specific task.
Several research actions and experiments support this investigation. These research actions included performing a systematic literature review and mapping of the literature that was aimed at finding how the software architectures in the literature have been used to support, analyze or enhance the human-computer interaction. Also, the actions included work on four different research scenarios that presented common challenges in the Human-Computer Interaction knowledge area. The case studies that fit into the scenarios selected were chosen based on the Human-Computer Interaction challenges they present, and on the authorsâ accessibility to them. The four case studies were: an educational laboratory virtual world, a Massive Open Online Course and the social networks where the students discuss and learn, a system that includes very large web forms, and an environment where programmers develop code in the context of quantum computing. The development of the experiences involved the review of more than 2700 papers (only in the literature review phase), the analysis of the interaction of 6000 users in four different contexts or the analysis of 500,000 quantum computing programs.
As outcomes from the experiences, some solutions are presented regarding the minimal software artifacts to include in software architectures, the behavior they should exhibit, the features desired in the extended software architecture, some analytic workflows and approaches to use, or the different kinds of feedback needed to reinforce the usersâ interaction and experience.
The results achieved led to the conclusion that, despite this is not a standard practice in the literature, the software environments should embrace Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles to analyze and respond appropriately to the usersâ needs and improve or support the interaction. To adopt Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles, the software environments need to extend their software architectures to cover also the challenges related to Human-Computer Interaction. Finally, to tackle the current challenges related to the usersâ interaction and experience and aiming to automate the software response to usersâ actions, desires, and behaviors, the interactive systems should also include intelligent behaviors through embracing the Artificial Intelligence procedures and techniques
On data-driven systems analyzing, supporting and enhancing usersâ interaction and experience
[EN]The research areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Architectures have
been traditionally treated separately, but in the literature, many authors made efforts to
merge them to build better software systems. One of the common gaps between software
engineering and usability is the lack of strategies to apply usability principles in the initial
design of software architectures. Including these principles since the early phases of software
design would help to avoid later architectural changes to include user experience
requirements. The combination of both fields (software architectures and Human-Computer
Interaction) would contribute to building better interactive software that should include the
best from both the systems and user-centered designs. In that combination, the software
architectures should enclose the fundamental structure and ideas of the system to offer the
desired quality based on sound design decisions.
Moreover, the information kept within a system is an opportunity to extract knowledge
about the system itself, its components, the software included, the users or the interaction
occurring inside. The knowledge gained from the information generated in a software
environment can be used to improve the system itself, its software, the usersâ experience, and
the results. So, the combination of the areas of Knowledge Discovery and Human-Computer
Interaction offers ideal conditions to address Human-Computer-Interaction-related
challenges. The Human-Computer Interaction focuses on human intelligence, the Knowledge
Discovery in computational intelligence, and the combination of both can raise the support
of human intelligence with machine intelligence to discover new insights in a world crowded
of data.
This Ph.D. Thesis deals with these kinds of challenges: how approaches like data-driven
software architectures (using Knowledge Discovery techniques) can help to improve the users'
interaction and experience within an interactive system. Specifically, it deals with how to
improve the human-computer interaction processes of different kind of stakeholders to
improve different aspects such as the user experience or the easiness to accomplish a specific
task.
Several research actions and experiments support this investigation. These research
actions included performing a systematic literature review and mapping of the literature that
was aimed at finding how the software architectures in the literature have been used to
support, analyze or enhance the human-computer interaction. Also, the actions included work
on four different research scenarios that presented common challenges in the Human-
Computer Interaction knowledge area. The case studies that fit into the scenarios selected
were chosen based on the Human-Computer Interaction challenges they present, and on the
authorsâ accessibility to them. The four case studies were: an educational laboratory virtual world, a Massive Open Online Course and the social networks where the students discuss
and learn, a system that includes very large web forms, and an environment where
programmers develop code in the context of quantum computing. The development of the
experiences involved the review of more than 2700 papers (only in the literature review
phase), the analysis of the interaction of 6000 users in four different contexts or the analysis
of 500,000 quantum computing programs.
As outcomes from the experiences, some solutions are presented regarding the minimal
software artifacts to include in software architectures, the behavior they should exhibit, the
features desired in the extended software architecture, some analytic workflows and
approaches to use, or the different kinds of feedback needed to reinforce the usersâ interaction
and experience.
The results achieved led to the conclusion that, despite this is not a standard practice in
the literature, the software environments should embrace Knowledge Discovery and datadriven
principles to analyze and respond appropriately to the usersâ needs and improve or
support the interaction. To adopt Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles, the
software environments need to extend their software architectures to cover also the challenges
related to Human-Computer Interaction. Finally, to tackle the current challenges related to
the usersâ interaction and experience and aiming to automate the software response to usersâ
actions, desires, and behaviors, the interactive systems should also include intelligent
behaviors through embracing the Artificial Intelligence procedures and techniques
Entropia
O Volume III Entropia da Coleção InterLocuçÔes apresenta
quatro entrevistas de pesquisadores que fizeram parte da
programação do Entropia 2022, que reuniu trĂȘs eventos
internacionais o IX SIIMI - SimpĂłsio Internacional de
Inovação em MĂdias Interativas -, 21#ART - Encontro
Internacional de Arte e Tecnologia -, e o 9th Balance-
Unbalance - art + science x technology = environment /
responsibility. Esse evento foi realizado no perĂodo de 3 a 5
de novembro de 2022, no Museu de Arte ContemporĂąnea
da Universidad de Chile, em Santiago.
Entropia (SIIMI + ART + BunB) convidou pesquisadores a
apresentarem suas pesquisas na edição 2022 dos eventos, no
Chile. O vocĂĄbulo Entropia Ă© originĂĄrio da termodinĂąmica,
o termo entropia expressa a medida de desordem das
partĂculas de um sistema fĂsico. Tomado de emprĂ©stimo
por vĂĄrias outras ĂĄreas de conhecimento, como as teorias
hermenĂȘuticas, estĂ©ticas e do caos, entropia passa a nomear
a medida de desordem em vårios outros sistemas, como da comunicação, da computação, da arte etc, alcançando a
carga de subjetividade e a intencionalidade interpretativa.
ApĂłs Entropia 2022, os pesquisadores Silvia Laurentiz
(Brasil); Ricardo Dal Farra (CanadĂĄ); Rebecca Cummins
(Estados Unidos da América); e Daniel Cruz (Chile) foram
convidados para a realização de quatro entrevistas em
suas lĂnguas maternas, contemplando oito perguntas em
cada entrevista, para a composição do terceiro volume da
Coleção InterLocuçÔes 2023. Desse modo, Entropia - III
Volume dessa Coleção - Ă© apresentado em trĂȘs idiomas:
portuguĂȘs, espanhol e inglĂȘs.
Recentemente, com a pandemia da Covid-19, a entropia
foi largamente discutida, não apenas na propagação
do vĂrus SARS CoV 2, mas tambĂ©m nas redes sociais e
na proliferação de fake news, notadamente na polĂtica,
alterando o comportamento social. Para tanto, a leitura
desse volume estabelece um panorama internacional do
estado da arte da pesquisa, em uma perspectiva dialĂłgica.
FruĂdos (re)conhecimentos, a partir de fluidas reflexĂ”es
dessa obra!Volume III Entropia from the InterLocuçÔes Collection
features four interviews by researchers who were part
of the Entropia 2022 program, which brought together
three international events: the IX SIIMI - International
Symposium on Innovation in Interactive Media -, 21#ART
- International Art and Technology Meeting - , and the
9th Balance-Unbalance - art + science x technology =
environment / responsibility. This event was held from
November 3 to 5, 2022, at the Museum of Contemporary
Art of the Universidad de Chile, in Santiago.
Entropia (SIIMI + ART + BunB) invited researchers to
present their research at the 2022 edition of the events in
Chile. The word Entropy originates from thermodynamics,
the term entropy expresses the measure of disorder of the
particles of a physical system. Borrowed by several other
areas of knowledge, such as hermeneutic, aesthetic and
chaos theories, entropy starts to name the measure of
disorder in several other systems, such as communication, computing, art, etc., reaching the charge of subjectivity
and interpretive intentionality.
After Entropy 2022, researchers Silvia Laurentiz (Brazil);
Ricardo Dal Farra (Canada); Rebecca Cummins (United
States of America); and Daniel Cruz (Chile) were invited to
conduct four interviews in their mother tongues, including
eight questions in each interview, for the composition of
the third volume of the 2023 InterLocuçÔes Collection.
three languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Recently, with the Covid-19 pandemic, entropy was widely
discussed, not only in the spread of the SARS CoV 2 virus,
but also in social networks and in the proliferation of
fake news, notably in politics, changing social behavior.
Therefore, reading this volume establishes an international
panorama of the state of the art of research, in a dialogic
perspective.
Fruitful (re)knowledge, from fluid reflections of this work
A study of the importance of cultural factors in the user interaction with, and the design of, interactive science and technology exhibits in museums
This research investigates the cultural factors affecting the use of interactive science exhibits including interactive science and technology exhibits (ISTEs) by visitors to science museums worldwide. Visitors bring differing characteristics and experiences to bear upon the task of using these exhibits. These affect the nature and quality of their interaction with the exhibits. This research has focused on the cultural issues, and has defined them using 10 distinct and coherent âdimensionsâ. This has been achieved by extensive review of relevant earlier research work and building on this with experimental studies with visitors and interviews with science museum experts in the UK and Thailand.
Interactive science exhibits now take many forms, and therefore for scientific investigation of their use it is essential to classify them in a form which promotes research validity and reliability. This research has developed a new classification of interactive science exhibits into four classes based upon the userâs perception, cognition and the nature of the interaction. The classes are: (1) simple interaction with direct understanding; (2) simple interaction with complex understanding; (3) multiple interactions with direct understanding; and (4) multiple interactions with complex understanding. This classification was used in experimental studies of interaction with exhibits at science museums. The research methods used mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative research through three separate studies. The data collection methods were: interviews, questionnaires, and video recording observation. The findings were that not only language issues and conceptual understanding are important factors, but other cultural factors were also inter-related and affect visitorsâ learning through ISTEs
Improving accessibility for people with dementia: web content and research
The Internet can provide a means of communication, searching for information, support groups and entertainment, amongst other services, and as a technology, can help to promote independence for people with dementia. However, the effectiveness of this technology relies on the usersâ ability to use it. Web content, websites and online services need to be designed to meet the abilities and needs of people with dementia, and thus the difficulties that these users encounter must be explored and understood.The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate web content accessibility for People with Dementia and develop recommendations for improving current guidelines based on accessibility needs. The secondary aim is to support people with dementia having a voice within research through development of accessible ethical processes.Qualitative data were collected with a scoping study using questionnaires about everyday technology use (people with dementia and older adults without dementia); and in-depth interviews to explore difficulties and web accessibility issues. A document analysis was conducted on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (ISO/IEC40500:2012) for inclusion of the needs of people with dementia followed by review of Web Usability Guidance (ISO9241-151:2008) to consider how gaps relating to the unmet accessibility needs for people with dementia could be met. The scoping study found that both people with dementia and older adults without dementia use everyday ICT to access the Web. Both groups described difficulties with web interface interactions, which refined the research scope to web content accessibility. The interview data with people with dementia (n=16) and older adults without dementia (n=9) were analysed using Grounded Theory techniques. It was found that both user groups experienced the same types of difficulties using the Web, but that dementia symptoms could exacerbate the difficulties from usability issues (older adults without dementia) into accessibility issues for people with dementia. Navigation was a key issue for both groups, with a range of web content design elements contributing to accessibility issues with navigation for people with dementia. The document analysis found that the accessibility guidance did not address all the accessibility issues encountered by people with dementia. However, the usability guidance did address many of the accessibility issues for web content navigation experienced by people with dementia. The research provides recommendations for improvements to web content accessibility guidelines including content from usability guidelines, and amendments to current guidelines and success criteria. A new ethical recruitment/consent process was developed and tested as part of the research process and is recommended for use in future research to support engagement of people with dementia.</div
Recommended from our members
Understanding and Evaluating User Interface Visibility
Technology dominates our lives, mobile technology in particular. In 2016 Apple sold their billionth iPhone. By 2018 they had sold their 2 billionth device based on the same underlying operating system. We access such technology through the user interface (UI) and concerns have been raised about the usability of such devices. The situation has been described by some as a âusability crisisâ. One of the key issues raised is the lack of visibility of user interface elements, which is deemed to be a critical component of an effective UI.
An initial investigation highlighted that UI visibility can be broken down into three key aspects: Firstly; some user interface elements are effectively âmissingâ; Secondly, they are âmissedâ because they are not seen by the user; and thirdly, they are seen but âmisunderstoodâ. Further analysis of the home screen of an iPhone revealed that only 8% of the available functions were visible at the top level, in other words, 92% were effectively âmissingâ. This raises key questions about how UI visibility can be evaluated, and such evaluation adopted into design practice. This research took a psychophysical perspective to better understand UI visibility. This led to the development of an evaluation framework and associated tool called vis-UI-lise. The tool represents UI visibility as a series of 5 hurdles between the user and the interface that have to be overcome for a successful interaction.
This tool was applied to an everyday task on a mobile phone which resulted in highlighting a range of possible usability problems. Comparison of the predicted versus observed problems showed that the vis-UI-lise tool had predicted 74% of them, a score that compares well with other usability evaluation tools. A training and support package was also developed for the vis-UI-lise tool and evaluated with four different organisations. This provided key insights into how the tool could be improved to fit in with typical design practice. This thesis brings a new perspective to the understanding and evaluation of UI visibility that could have a real impact on the design of everyday user interfaces
Accessibility of Health Data Representations for Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities for Design
Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations initially. To avoid higher cognitive and visual overload, auditory and haptic cues can be designed to complement, replace or reinforce visual cues. In this paper, we outline the challenges in existing data representation and the necessary evidence to enhance the accessibility of health information from personal sensing devices used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure, sleep, activity, heart rate and more. By creating innovative and inclusive user feedback, users will likely want to engage and interact with new devices and their own data