Designing a Mobile Device for Pre-hospital Care

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Estimating readability with the Strathclyde readability measure

Despite their significant limitations, readability measures that are easy to apply have definite appeal. With this in mind, we have been exploring the prospects for more insightful measures that are computer-based and, thereby, still easily applied. The orthodox reliance on intrinsic syntactic features is an inherent limitation of most readability measures, since they have no reference to the likelihood that readers will be acquainted with the constituent words and phrases. To accommodate this feature of 'human familiarity', we have devised a metric that combines traditional factors, such as Average Sentence Length, with a measure of word 'commonality' based upon word frequency. This paper details the derivation, nature and application of the Strathclyde Readability Measure (SRM)

Developing Comprehensive Diabetes Education Materials for Structured Patient Education Programs in Primary Care Setting

Diabetes education is a key factor for a successful diabetes care. Comprehensive diabetes education materials for conducting structured diabetes education programs were rarely found in primary care setting in Indonesia. There was a need for developing new, comprehensive diabetes education materials for low-literate readers. Developing these education materials followed standard steps in developing print materials, and took account tips for writing low literacy materials for poor readers. The new diabetes education materials consisted of ten various leaflets, also printed as14 posters and 14 x-banners. The ten diabetes leaflets were pre-tested to 5 people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). After minor revisions, the leaflets were printed and distributed to 88 people with T2D attending two structured diabetes education programs in Yogyakarta City. These 88 people were requested to evaluate the leaflets using an evaluation form consisting of four items on language usage, font size, use of pictures, and diabetes information with a 1-10 rating scale; and an open-ended question for improvement. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Most participants thought that the leaflets were easy to understand and read, interesting, and simple. Majority of participants (79.7%) gave favorable comments without providing suggestions for improvement, such as: “The diabetes leaflets are already good and easy to understand” One third of the participants gave suggestions for improvement. The comprehensive diabetes leaflets developed were well received and highly appreciated by people with T2D attending diabetes education programs

E-reading in organizations: Users' satisfaction and preference

This paper defines electronic reading (e-reading) and then continues to discuss the diverse definitions of the main resource of e-reading, which are, electronic books (e-books). It then proceeds to describe the formats and standards of existing e-book initiatives, which are gaining wider interest since the introduction of portable electronic reading devices and software-based readers that provide users with a more realistic book reading experience. Advantages, disadvantages, and problems with paper-based reading are also explained. In addition, a study concerning an evaluation of e-reading satisfaction is described. Three different e-book formats (LIT, PDF, and HTML) were utilised to accomplish the primary aims of the study, which were to identify the most preferred format, associated software-based reader (Microsoft Reader, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer), and the potential of e-reading in the workplace. Based on a proposed preferred index, the results seem to suggest that Microsoft Reader is more preferable when compared to the other two. However, most participants preferred reading on paper rather than on screen. Although this was the case, some participants would e-read depending on resources and situations

Improving Usability of Interactive Graphics Specification and Implementation with Picking Views and Inverse Transformations

Specifying and programming graphical interactions are difficult tasks, notably because designers have difficulties to express the dynamics of the interaction. This paper shows how the MDPC architecture improves the usability of the specification and the implementation of graphical interaction. The architecture is based on the use of picking views and inverse transforms from the graphics to the data. With three examples of graphical interaction, we show how to express them with the architecture, how to implement them, and how this improves programming usability. Moreover, we show that it enables implementing graphical interaction without a scene graph. This kind of code prevents from errors due to cache consistency management

Specification Techniques for Multi-Modal Dialogues in the U-Wish Project

In this paper we describe the development of a specification\ud technique for specifying interactive web-based services. We\ud wanted to design a language that can be a means of\ud communication between designers and developers of interactive services, that makes it easier to develop web-based services fitted to the users and that shortens the pathway from design to implementation. The language, still under development, is based on process algebra and can be\ud connected to the results of task analysis. We have been\ud working on the automatic generation of executable prototypes\ud out of the specifications. In this way the specification\ud language can establish a connection between users, design\ud and implementation. A first version of this language is\ud available as well as prototype tools for executing the specifications. Ideas will be given as to how to make the connection between specifications and task analysis

Using Plain English

{Excerpt} Many people write too much, bureaucratically, and obscurely. Using plain English will save time in writing, make writing far easier, and improve understanding. Reports are a visible part of work. They remain and are used long after it is done. Work is advanced by readable reports that give the target audience a good chance of understanding the document at first reading, and in the sense that the writers meant them to be

Deuce: A Lightweight User Interface for Structured Editing

We present a structure-aware code editor, called Deuce, that is equipped with direct manipulation capabilities for invoking automated program transformations. Compared to traditional refactoring environments, Deuce employs a direct manipulation interface that is tightly integrated within a text-based editing workflow. In particular, Deuce draws (i) clickable widgets atop the source code that allow the user to structurally select the unstructured text for subexpressions and other relevant features, and (ii) a lightweight, interactive menu of potential transformations based on the current selections. We implement and evaluate our design with mostly standard transformations in the context of a small functional programming language. A controlled user study with 21 participants demonstrates that structural selection is preferred to a more traditional text-selection interface and may be faster overall once users gain experience with the tool. These results accord with Deuce's aim to provide human-friendly structural interactions on top of familiar text-based editing.Comment: ICSE 2018 Paper + Supplementary Appendice

Gesture-Based Input for Drawing Schematics on a Mobile Device

We present a system for drawing metro map style schematics using a gesture-based interface. This work brings together techniques in gesture recognition on touch-sensitive devices with research in schematic layout of networks. The software allows users to create and edit schematic networks, and provides an automated layout method for improving the appearance of the schematic. A case study using the metro map metaphor to visualize social networks and web site structure is described