Extending and Refining Usability Heuristics to Better Address User Centered Design Issues in the Development and Evaluation of Municipal Websites

Usability of public administration websites is a key issue in the information society. Unfortunately, the web content is still difficult to use if not unusable in many websites. Developers seem to neglect basic principles of user centered design. Usability heuristics are valuable resources for both developers and evaluators during and after the development process. The purpose of this work is to extend and refine an existing set of heuristics in order to better address some user centered design issues. Previous studies revealed specific usability problems of municipal websites as well as some evaluation issues. Two heuristics were added that refer to user guidance and task support. The revised heuristics could better help evaluators to explain and developers to understand usability problems in municipal websites

A Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Data from a Formative Usability Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Learning Scenario

The proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies creates opportunities for the devel-opment of new learning scenarios. More recently, the advances in the design and implementation of desktop AR systems make it possible the deployment of such scenarios in primary and secondary schools. Usability evaluation is a precondition for the pedagogical effectiveness of these new technologies and requires a systematic approach for finding and fixing usability problems. In this paper we present an approach to a formative usability evaluation based on heuristic evaluation and user testing. The basic idea is to compare and integrate quantitative and qualitative measures in order to increase confidence in results and enhance the descriptive power of the usability evaluation report.augmented reality, multimodal interaction, e-learning, formative usability evaluation, user testing, heuristic evaluation

Specification and Validation of a Formative Index to Evaluate the Ergonomic Quality of an AR-based Educational Platform

The ergonomic quality of educational systems is a key feature influencing both the usefulness and motivation for the learner. Desktop Augmented Reality (AR) systems are featuring specific interaction techniques that may create additional usability issues affecting the perceived ease of use. Measuring key usability aspects and understanding the causal relationships between them is a challenge that requires formative measurement models specification and validation. In this paper we present an evaluation instrument based on two main formative indexes that are capturing specific usability measures for two AR-based applications. The formative indexes are forming a second order formative construct that acts as predictor for both the general ease of use and ease of learning how to operate with the application

Exploring the Usability of Municipal Web Sites: A Comparison Based on Expert Evaluation Results from Four Case Studies

The usability of public administration web sites is a key quality attribute for the successful implementation of the Information Society. Formative usability evaluation aims at finding and reporting usability problems as early as possible in the development process. The objective of this paper is to present and comparatively analyze the results of an expert usability evaluation of 4 municipality web sites. In order to document usability problems an extended set of heuristics was used that is based on two sources: usability heuristics and ergonomic criteria. The explanatory power of heuristics was supplemented with a set of usability guidelines. The evaluation results revealed that a set of specific tasks with clearly defined goals helps to identify many severe usability problems that occur frequently in the municipality web sites. A typical issue for this category of web sites is the lack of information support for the user.Formative Usability Evaluation, User Testing, Expert Evaluation, Heuristic Evaluation, Ergonomic Criteria, Usability Problem, Municipal Web Sites

Influența calitǎții job-ului asupra creșterii performanțelor în activitatea de cercetare

Among the professional factors that influence performance in the research-development-innovation (RDI) activities are: quality of occupation, organization and management in RDI activity, professional development and organization resources. This article analyzes the influence of job quality in increasing the performance in RDI activities. The analysis was structured on three categories of factors that depend on the quality of employment, the quality of work and the professional development. The professional factors that have a great influence on performance (the average above 3.50) and that are linked to the quality of work are: salary level, flexibility of work schedule, work autonomy, job stability, individual work development program, and specialization stages

Influence of the Management and Resources of the organization on the Performance Improvement in the Research, Development, and Innovation Activities

The performance in the research, development and innovation activities is influenced by a diversity of economic, political, professional, and motivational factors. In this paper, the role and influence of the factors associated with the management and resources of the organization is analysed. Analysis of the relationship between these factors and the performance improvement in the research and development activities highlights eight important factors: quality of human resources, development of international partnerships, level of income, research infrastructure, financial resources of the organization, system of appreciations, excessive bureaucracy (negative influence), development of national partnerships, and the professional quality of the department chiefs

Exploring the Usability of Municipal Web Sites: A Comparison Based on Expert Evaluation Results from Four Case Studies

The usability of public administration web sites is a key quality attribute for the successful implementation of the Information Society. Formative usability evaluation aims at finding and reporting usability problems as early as possible in the development process. The objective of this paper is to present and comparatively analyze the results of an expert usability evaluation of 4 municipality web sites. In order to document usability problems an extended set of heuristics was used that is based on two sources: usability heuristics and ergonomic criteria. The explanatory power of heuristics was supplemented with a set of usability guidelines. The evaluation results revealed that a set of specific tasks with clearly defined goals helps to identify many severe usability problems that occur frequently in the municipality web sites. A typical issue for this category of web sites is the lack of information support for the user