A reflective characterisation of occasional user

This work revisits established user classifications and aims to characterise a historically unspecified user category, the Occasional User (OU). Three user categories, novice, intermediate and expert, have dominated the work of user interface (UI) designers, researchers and educators for decades. These categories were created to conceptualise user's needs, strategies and goals around the 80s. Since then, UI paradigm shifts, such as direct manipulation and touch, along with other advances in technology, gave new access to people with little computer knowledge. This fact produced a diversification of the existing user categories not observed in the literature review of traditional classification of users. The findings of this work include a new characterisation of the occasional user, distinguished by user's uncertainty of repetitive use of an interface and little knowledge about its functioning. In addition, the specification of the OU, together with principles and recommendations will help UI community to informatively design for users without requiring a prospective use and previous knowledge of the UI. The OU is an essential type of user to apply user-centred design approach to understand the interaction with technology as universal, accessible and transparent for the user, independently of accumulated experience and technological era that users live in

A software toolkit for web-based virtual environments based on a shared database

We propose a software toolkit for developing complex web-based user interfaces, incorporating such things as multi-user facilities, virtual environments (VEs), and interface agents. The toolkit is based on a novel software architecture that combines ideas from multi-agent platforms and user interface (UI) architectures. It provides a distributed shared database with publish-subscribe facilities. This enables UI components to observe the state and activities of any other components in the system easily. The system runs in a web-based environment. The toolkit is comprised of several programming and other specification languages, providing a complete suite of systems design languages. We illustrate the toolkit by means of a couple of examples

Scientists in the MIST: Simplifying Interface Design for End Users

We are building a Malleable Interactive Software Toolkit (MIST), a tool set and infrastructure to simplify the design and construction of dynamically-reconfigurable (malleable) interactive software. Malleable software offers the end-user powerful tools to reshape their interactive environment on the fly. We aim to make the construction of such software straightforward, and to make reconfiguration of the resulting systems approachable and manageable to an educated, but non-specialist, user. To do so, we draw on a diverse body of existing research on alternative approaches to user interface (UI) and interactive software construction, including declarative UI languages, constraint-based programming and UI management, reflection and data-driven programming, and visual programming techniques

Design of a hand-held user interface for the active joint brace

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, June 2005."May 2005." Vita.Includes bibliographical references (p. 23).The continued development of the Active Joint Brace, a powered orthosis, required that a suitable user interface be designed to control the brace. Since the brace is an electronically-controlled mechanical, medical device, it was important that the user interface (UI) provide both a proper interface to the software that controls the brace, and be in conformance with human factors data. The constraints provided by the existing electronics and software of the brace, combined with suitable ergonomic data, were used to inform the design of a hand-held user interface device, pictured below. The UI features one-handed operation, utilizing an LCD character display and speaker for output devices and a navigation switch for an input device. In preparation for the new UI, the existing menu system was also reorganized for ease-of-use. In preliminary user testing within the development team, the UI has been judged as satisfactory, with only a few minor changes needed to the enclosure.by Christopher P. Possinger.S.B

DESIGNING INTERNATIONAL USER INTERFACES: A CROSS CULTURAL STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF COLOR ON USER PERFORMANCE

An important determinant of user performance is the degree of fit between user interface (UI) attributes and user characteristics, moderated by cognitive and demographic variables. Culture is one moderating variable which is often overlooked by UI designers. This study evaluates the effect of the presence of color in the UI on user performance for two distinct cultural groups, Japanese and Americans. We report the findings of a laboratory experiment involving American subjects (N=12) and Japanese subjects (N=12) performing 40 elementary database retrieval tasks using an interface with 8 background colors. The results suggest that American subjects react more strongly than Japanese subjects do to color stimuli, Japanese subjects appear to be disrupted by the use of color in the user interface, and there is no relationship between color preferences and performance.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Culture in the design of mHealth UI:An effort to increase acceptance among culturally specific groups

Purpose: Designers of mobile applications have long understood the importance of users’ preferences in making the user experience easier, convenient and therefore valuable. The cultural aspects of groups of users are among the key features of users’ design preferences, because each group’s preferences depend on various features that are culturally compatible. The process of integrating culture into the design of a system has always been an important ingredient for effective and interactive human computer interface. This study aims to investigate the design of a mobile health (mHealth) application user interface (UI) based on Arabic culture. It was argued that integrating certain cultural values of specific groups of users into the design of UI would increase their acceptance of the technology. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 135 users responded to an online survey about their acceptance of a culturally designed mHealth. Findings: The findings showed that culturally based language, colours, layout and images had a significant relationship with users’ behavioural intention to use the culturally based mHealth UI. Research limitations/implications: First, the sample and the data collected of this study were restricted to Arab users and Arab culture; therefore, the results cannot be generalized to other cultures and users. Second, the adapted unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model was used in this study instead of the new version, which may expose new perceptions. Third, the cultural aspects of UI design in this study were limited to the images, colours, language and layout. Practical implications: It encourages UI designers to implement the relevant cultural aspects while developing mobile applications. Originality/value: Embedding Arab cultural aspects in designing UI for mobile applications to satisfy Arab users and enhance their acceptance toward using mobile applications, which will reflect positively on their lives.</p

Keeping an eye on the UI design of Translation Memory: How do translators use the 'concordance' feature?

Motivation – To investigate the usefulness of sub- segment matching (Concordance feature) in a Translation Memory interface and translators' attitudes to new UI developments around such matching. Research approach – An explorative work-in- progress using eye tracking for translation conducted by professional translators, followed by an opinion survey. Findings/Design – The results suggest that the Concordance window is useful for checking terminology and context, but there is some evidence that the translators do not wish to have this feature turned on constantly. Research limitations/Implications – This is an initial work-in-progress study with a limited number of participants. Quantitative and qualitative results are presented. Originality/Value – This is the first empirical research of its kind. Translators are rarely, if ever, consulted about the UI of the tools they have to use. Take away message - The potential productivity and quality gain from sub-segment matches in Translation Memory is not fully realised and may be enhanced with improved UI design derived from focused research on user experience. Keywords Translation technology, Translation Memory (TM), user interface, sub-segment matching, concordance, eye tracking, user experienc