The Shapes of Cultures: A Case Study of Social Network Sites/Services Design in the U.S. and China

With growing popularity of the use of social network sites/services (SNSs) throughout the world, the global dominance of SNSs designed in the western industrialized countries, especially in the United Sates, seems to have become an inevitable trend. As internationalization has become a common practice in designing SNSs in the United States, is localization still a viable practice? Does culture still matter in designing SNSs? This dissertation aims to answer these questions by comparing the user interface (UI) designs of a U.S.-based SNS, Twitter, and a China-based SNS, Sina Weibo, both of which have assumed an identity of a “microblogging” service, a sub category of SNSs. This study employs the theoretical lens of the theory of technical identity, user-centered website cultural usability studies, and communication and media studies. By comparing the UI designs, or the “form,” of the two microblogging sites/services, I illustrate how the social functions of a technological object as embedded and expressed in the interface designs are preserved or changed as the technological object that has developed a relatively stable identity (as a microblogging site/service) in one culture is transferred between the “home” culture and another. The analysis in this study focuses on design elements relevant to users as members of networks, members of audience, and publishers/broadcasters. The results suggest that the designs carry disparate biases towards modes of communication and social affordances, which indicate a shift of the identity of microblogging service/site across cultures

Toward a user-centered design of a weather forecasting decision-support tool

Hazard Services is a software toolkit that integrates information management, hazard alerting, and communication functions into a single user interface. When complete, National Weather Service forecasters across the United States will use Hazard Services for operational issuance of weather and hydrologic alerts, making the system an instrumental part of the threat management process. As a new decision-support tool, incorporating an understanding of user requirements and behavior is an important part of building a system that is usable, allowing users to perform work-related tasks efficiently and effectively. This paper discusses the Hazard Services system and findings from a usability evaluation with a sample of end users. Usability evaluations are frequently used to support software and website development and can provide feedback on a system’s efficiency of use, effectiveness, and learnability. In the present study, a user-testing evaluation assessed task performance in terms of error rates, error types, response time, and subjective feedback from a questionnaire. A series of design recommendations was developed based on the evaluation’s findings. The recommendations not only further the design of Hazard Services, but they may also inform the designs of other decision-support tools used in weather and hydrologic forecasting. Incorporating usability evaluation into the iterative design of decision-support tools, such as Hazard Services, can improve system efficiency, effectiveness, and user experience

A case study of designing a mobile app prototype for seniors

As technology has advanced rapidly over recent decades, the aging population has also grown. Therefore, the importance of addressing senior users’ needs in using and learning technology deserves attention from the government and industry. There have been websites and mobile applications designed for senior learners to take online courses, join online discussions or make friends. However, there are limited mobile apps for seniors to acquire information, while connecting to others online. To fill the gap, this report explores the design considerations that should be taken into account to facilitate seniors to better use of technology. A mobile app prototype, Chatlet, was developed to illustrate the ideas of a mobile app that might interest seniors. To evaluate the design features, a case study on four seniors between 56 and 76 years old was conducted through interviews and usability testing. The findings indicate that seniors are motivated to use mobile apps mostly for getting information and communication, and one’s self-efficacy with technology could impact their selection of online activities. It is recommended that a senior-friendly mobile app be responsive to users’ actions on the app, have availability of technical support and clearly present the purpose of the app. Further details about design recommendations on mobile apps for seniors and pedagogical implications are discussed within the reportCurriculum and Instructio

FUNDoggy: Using gamification and social network services to create a mobile fundraising application for helping shelter dogs

The proliferation of new media is rapidly changing the world of philanthropy and more effective methods of raising funds and developing donor relationships must be sought. Furthermore, today’s trends indicate that the amount of giving by individuals has increased gradually, but the generation gap in donors is increasing. Fundamentally, this thesis project seeks effective ways to attract young donors and show how to maintain a continuous connection with them by using today’s trending business and marketing buzzwords, “gamification” and “social network services.” Employing a game’s entertainment, problem-solving challenges, interactive experience, and customer loyalty improvement is expected to create significant synergy when the game is merged with fundraising and social network services. The study also engaged in an in-depth exploration of existing fundraising methods, in which user interviews were employed to identify the underlying problems. Finally, this study presents an understanding of game mechanics and psychology and outlines its strategic plan for a new fundraising app, designed for a nonprofit animal shelter to encourage pet adoption and donation. Through the analysis, this thesis project suggests solutions and ideas for a better UX design for a fundraising app that can engage people and draw their attention. Finally, based on this study, recommendations are made for further research that reinforces the role of a fundraising app in making a better world

A system supporting analysis of prototyping in Fab Lab education

Abstract. Digital Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) is an educational workshop that is open and easily accessible for personal fabrication. This workshop is equipped with tools for various aspects of technological materialization. In Fab Labs, makers and educators struggle to have proper documentation of their design process. Means for quick documentation are essential for supporting users’ iterative prototyping, as well as analysis and reflection on design activities. This thesis aims to provide a solution to the lack of proper tools for documentation and reflection on design stages in the Fab Lab educational context. To this aim, different interconnected systems for supporting analysis of prototyping in the Fab Lab are developed. These include a mobile-enabled client-server architecture and a web-based administrative dashboard for supporting managing and analysis of annotated visual data of prototype designs in Fab Lab. Concerning the supporting analysis, the focus is to establish an easy to use documentation tool, which comprises of a mobile application and a web administrator for better Fab Lab educational experience. This thesis demonstrates the theoretical part of the lo-fi design, evaluation, implementation of Restful Web Services and implementation of the mobile-enabled system for properly documenting prototyping stages and an admin control panel. A usability testing was conducted for the developed mobile application and the web application. The purpose was to understand users’ feedback on the usability of the prototypes and the features in the applications that users find useful or the features that are required to be added or improved. The majority of the participants find the application useful

Survey on geographic visual display techniques in epidemiology: Taxonomy and characterization

Many works have been done on the topic of Geographic Visual Display with different objectives and approaches. There are studies to compare the traditional cartography techniques (the traditional term of Geographic Visual Display (GVD) without Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)) to Modern GIS which are also known as Geo-visualization, some literature differentiates and highlight the commonalities of features and architectures of different Geographic Visual Display tools (from layers and clusters to dot and color and more). Furthermore, with the existence of more advanced tools which support data exploration, few tasks are done to evaluate how those tools are used to handle complex and multivariate spatial-temporal data. Several test on usability and interactivity of tools toward user's needs or preferences, some even develop frameworks that address user's concern in a wide array of tasks, and others prove how these tools are able to stimulate the visual thought process and help in decision making or event prediction amongst decision-makers. This paper surveyed and categorized these research articles into 2 categories: Traditional Cartography (TC) and Geo-visualization (G). This paper will classify each category by their techniques and tasks that contribute to the significance of data representation in Geographic Visual Display and develop perspectives of each area and evaluating trends of Geographic Visual Display Techniques. Suggestions and ideas on what mechanisms can be used to improve and diversify Geographic Visual Display Techniques are provided at the end of this survey

Mobile phone use across cultures: A comparison between the UK and the Sudan

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University.Over the last decade the use of mobile phones has increased dramatically everywhere by people from different cultural backgrounds. However, while such technological adoption move on at an ever increasing pace all over the world, the key problem for designers and developers of mobile phones is how to develop mobile phone services that effectively support the dynamic and flexible communication needs of such diverse groups of users. To counter this problem, this thesis focused on establishing how people from different cultural backgrounds use mobile phones to achieve their communicative, social and informational goals. Questionnaires and interviews were undertaken and analysed to achieve this. The findings from the analysis led to the development of two prototypes missed call services; the icon-based missed call service (IBMCS) and the personalised icon-based missed call service. Several key findings emerged from this research. For example, mobile phone users in the Sudan and the UK differed in the way they used their mobile phones especially in the public places. British participants were more comfortable using their mobile phones in public sphere. British and Sudanese stated that they would like to use an IBMCS to support their communication needs. However, Sudanese users were more keen than the British participants on personalising the developed missed call service to aid the management of their communication needs and to better coordinate their activities. The evaluation of the personalised IBMCS highlighted an important redesign implication, such as allowing the receiver to manipulate the receipt of missed calls in public settings