Exploring the user experience through collage

We explore the use of collage in requirements elicitation, as a tool to support potential end-users in expressing their impressions, understanding, and emotions regarding a system

Research laboratory survey

This report represents the results of a survey conducted by the University of Waikato Usability Laboratory of the research laboratories at the Department of Computer Science, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. The study was conducted on behalf of the Department of Computer Science. The goal of the research was to: Inform the development of future laboratories; Inform the process any of re-development of current laboratories; Provide information about the use and acceptance of the laboratories

The LIDS Research Project: appendage to usability study report (1/2002)

This report is a follow on to an earlier report (titled: Usability Study Report (1/2002), dated 1 July 2002) that presented the University of Waikato Usability Laboratory’s (Usability Laboratory) analysis of the Large Interactive Display Screen (LIDS) technologies as developed by the LIDS Research Project

The LIDS Research Project: usability study report (1/2002)

This report represents the University of Waikato Usability Laboratory’s (Usability Laboratory) analysis of the Large Interactive Display Screen (LIDS) technologies as developed by the LIDS Research Group. The Usability Laboratory conducted three exploratory-type studies of the LIDS technology over January and February 2002. The studies each focused on individual elements of the LIDS technology, while at the same time contributing to the general understanding and knowledge of the technology

Use of video shadow for small group interaction awareness on a large interactive display surface

This paper reports work done as part of the Large Interactive Display Surface (LIDS) project at the University of Waikato. One application of the LIDS equipment is distributed meeting support. In this context large display surfaces are used as shared workspaces by people at collaborating sites. A meeting with start with a shared presentation document, typically and agenda document with summary and detail on agenda items as required. During the meeting, annotations with be made on the shared document, and new pages will be added with notes and drawings. To prevent access collisions and generally mediate use of the shared space, mechanisms to provide awareness of actions of people at other sites are required. In our system a web camera is used to capture a low-resolution image of the person/people near the board on each side. Rather than transmit the image directly we computed a shadow/silhouette. The shadow is displayed behind other screen content. This provides awareness of position and impending write actions and allows intentional pointing to locations of the screen. It also has the advantage of being transmitted with low bandwidth, being relatively insensitive to low frame rates, and minimizing visual interference with substantive data being displayed on the screen

A user evaluation of hierarchical phrase browsing

Phrase browsing interfaces based on hierarchies of phrases extracted automatically from document collections offer a useful compromise between automatic full-text searching and manually-created subject indexes. The literature contains descriptions of such systems that many find compelling and persuasive. However, evaluation studies have either been anecdotal, or focused on objective measures of the quality of automatically-extracted index terms, or restricted to questions of computational efficiency and feasibility. This paper reports on an empirical, controlled user study that compares hierarchical phrase browsing with full-text searching over a range of information seeking tasks. Users found the results located via phrase browsing to be relevant and useful but preferred keyword searching for certain types of queries. Users experiences were marred by interface details, including inconsistencies between the phrase browser and the surrounding digital library interface

Exploring the experience of community health workers operating in contexts where trauma and its exposure are continuous.

Violent and traumatic events are a regular occurrence in many South Africans’ lives. The term 'continuous traumatic stress’ was coined by South African anti-apartheid health professionals in the 1980’s to explain the continuous nature of violence and trauma happening within the country. Although the political agenda may have shifted, many South Africans are still living within a context in which violent and traumatic events regularly occur. However, little is known about how health workers respond to continuous trauma within the South African setting. The Community Health Workers - within this study - are part of the South African health model called ‘Primary Health Care Re-engineering’ that is currently being piloted. The research was exploratory in nature and used a mixed methods design. Twenty three Community Health Workers who participated in the study were from two sub-districts within the Ekurhuleni district, Gauteng, Johannesburg. The research included two face to face semi-structured individual interviews. The first included qualitative questions and completion of the quantitative Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire (1998) to explore past trauma experiences. Over a seven month period, the participants were asked to document traumatic event exposure and responses through the adapted Life Events Checklist (1995) and personal journaling. At the end of this period, participants were interviewed again to explore their current traumatic experiences. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic content analysis and quantitative data were used to substantiate information from the interviews and checklists. Results show that Community Health Workers – within this study - have a high prevalence of exposure to traumatic events (directly experiencing, witnessing and hearing about). Prominent events included physical and sexual assault, transport accidents, fires and explosions. Media played a powerful role in exposure to events. Traumatic and unexpected losses were key experiences that need to be considered when working with trauma in the South African context. Acknowledgement of experiences (peer and external) is an essential element in developing support structures. These findings – from the context of Ekurhuleni, South Africa - contribute to exploring and understanding the experience of ‘continuous traumatic stress’ for Community Health Workers

Lecture capture using large interactive display systems

There are various software technologies that allow capture and redelivery of lectures. Most of these technologies however rely on the use of proprietary software, often requiring extra efforts from the lecturer in terms of the initial preparation of the lecture material, or in editing and annotating after the lecture to make the material suitable for the students. To review the material students then require access to the proprietary software. This paper describes a system for the lightweight capture of lecture presentations, based on the use of a low-cost large interactive display surface, together with standard Microsoft PowerPoint™ presentation software. The captured version of the presentation includes the original lecture slides, graphical annotations made by the lecturer during the lecture, and the audio recording of the lecture; all saved as a PowerPoint file. In addition, the system adds some annotations and index slides to allow quick and easy access to different segments of the presentation. Presentations can be replayed in part or in full as required, preserving all of the content of the live lecture

The University of Waikato usability laboratory

The University of Waikato Usability Laboratory is an environment where researchers are able to study and assess the usability of products while being used by their intended users. It allows for flexible configuration, and in particular can accommodate studies involving groups of collaborating users. This paper describes the Usability Laboratory with a particular emphasis on its background-why the Laboratory was established-and the facilities and services that it provides

A Note on Tachyons in the D3+D3ˉD3+{\bar {D3}} System

The periodic bounce of Born-Infeld theory of $D3$-branes is derived, and the BPS limit of infinite period is discussed as an example of tachyon condensation. The explicit bounce solution to the Born--Infeld action is interpreted as an unstable fundamental string stretched between the brane and its antibrane.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor changes, acknowledgement added; v3: explanations and references added. Final version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.