1,721,081 research outputs found
The effect of feedback in adaptive toolbars
No full textAdaptive User Interfaces have been a subject of research since 1985. No existing research has attempted to draw the user's attention towards changes in the adaptive elements. An adaptive toolbar was implemented in a simulated text editor application. Feedback was used to inform the participant of updates in the adaptive toolbar. The effect of this feedback was tested using an eye-gaze tracker. It was found that feedback affected both the toolbar used by the participants to solve tasks, and in which toolbar the participants first sought the solution
Dual Process Theory as a framing heuristic for user cognition, amongst novice designers
No full textFor the present thesis project I attempt to highlight a growing problem of novice designers with no knowledge of usability partaking in, or even being responsible of, design projects. I argue that a viable approach towards addressing this problem is to help make knowledge of cognitive science and user cognition more understandable and applicable to novice designers through heuristics, i.e. design guidelines. In particular, using a meta-theoretical framework called Dual Process Theory (DPT), which makes an overall distinction between two types of cognitive processes, I see potential in framing the heuristics through the ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ thinking metaphor of DPT. This leads to the Problem Statement of the thesis project: “In which ways can Dual Process Theory operationalise as a framing heuristic for user cognition amongst novice designers, during concept creation and evaluation?”.I attempt to approach this Problem Statement by first (1) conducting a theoretical exploration of the (i) key (ii) cognitive process that (i) Dual Process Theory (DPT) can help communicate. This was done with (iv) a preceding conceptual analysis of DPT as a meta-theoretical framework. From that (2) I opted to explore design-research pertaining information of how to go about designing a set of heuristics for helping novice designers design with usability in mind. These heuristics try to communicate easily understandable and applicable knowledge about user cognition and give general, sound advise based on that knowledge. I subsequently (3) went through a creative process towards the development of a prototype of the heuristics. I (4) tested the prototype of the heuristics with a validity check, concerning how they communicate cognitive science research, through DPT, in a scientifically valid manner. Proceeding from there, I (5) gained expert practitioners input on applying the heuristics through a focus group. From the insights of this, (6) I created my final research design for a Main Study with seven novice designer participants. They were all individually interviewed for their experience applying the heuristics in an Activity that enacted as a case context.Dual Process Theory was found found show great promise as a framing heuristic of user cognition by providing (a) a unified, general understanding of user cognition and cognitive science. By applying the fast and slow thinking metaphor DPT can provide a reductionist language that enables novice designers to more easily express, or put into words, knowledge of user cognition. It provides a lens to see specific information about user cognition through.Lastly, the DPT-framed set of heuristics, or guidelines, conveying user cognition knowledge were found to mainly enact as either a (b) framework for concept ‘creation’, helping novice designers avoid cognitive fixation during the ideation process. Or, the heuristics could have the opposite effect, (c) disrupting an otherwise existing flow of ideation. For concept ‘evaluation’ the novice designer participants universally found great value in adopting the heuristics as a ‘checklist’. This helped the participants with a difficulty typical of novice designers, which is the lacking ability to conduct preliminary evaluations of concepts, based on criteria outside of personal preferences
Concept development on the next universal remote control
No full textThis paper examines the development of the next universal remote control. The paper focusses on performing user research in order to identify the user's wishes. Subsequently the paper goes through a concept development phase to create several remote control concepts. Finaly one concept which defines the next remote control will be chosen. The user research is built on an examination in user behavior in relation to television usage, other existing remote controls and interviews regarding users’ behavior on their remote control and other products. There have been conducted 9 different interviews with the regular user, which resulted in 600 statements. These statements were then analyzed in order to create a list of the user's wishes regarding the next remote control. The user research resulted in a list of 18 wishes, whereas each wish was given a factor of significance, that was then used in the concept development phase. The concept development phase has been divided into two parts, where the first part focuses on different brainstorming techniques in order to develop ideas to form a shape for the remote control. This resulted in three different shapes. Afterwards more brainstorming techniques were used to create a layout for the selected shapes. This proces resulted in 7 concepts. These concepts were discussed in an interview with 6 concept developers and user experience designers at Bang \& Olufsen in order to narrow the selection down to one concept. The chosen concept has been showed through illustrations and thorough description
Why Evaluators Fail to Eeport Usability-problems
No full textUsability-evaluations is commonly used to identify the usability-problems of a software system. However, it is a known problem that novices of usability-inspections report fewer usability-problems than evaluators with expertises within the topic of usabilityevaluations. However, little to no research investigates why novices report less usability-problems. In this article, we investigate this problem by having three groups containing 5 evaluators with one shared area of expertise evaluating a software system. These groups consisted of usability experts, system experts, as well as experts on the field of which a system is used. Results showed that out of the 326 usability-problems occurred during usability-inspections 126 was not reported. Furthermore we found 16 specific reasons why evaluators fail to report usability-problems that occurred during a usability-inspection
Auditory nudging in conversational systems
No full textThe ability to converse with machines is something that has been long underway, and it is still not perfect, even though improvements are being made every year. However, there are still some ways in which it can improve, until it is made possible to utilise it the way it is intended. This study aims to investigate whether it is possible to nudge subjects, to use certain keywords in a conversational user interface, by using only auditory directed dialog and feedback, in different situations. This investigation was conducted by simulating a speech system in which subjects had to perform a number of different exercises in three different scenarios. The speech would use the keywords throughout the investigation, and the data hereof shows that using directed dialog nudges the subjects to use the keywords more than the use of feedback in a speech system. Furthermore, there is a significant difference in which words are being nudged the most, which could be the result of the context of the exercise in which they were used. Therfore when designing a speech system, one has to consider which words to use in a certain context, and to what degree they can usedirected dialog, without it hampering the user experience
Missing adoption of scan and pay: Illustrated from the customer's perspective in Sanistål
No full textFormålet med dette projekt er at finde frem til, hvilke faktorer der forårsager, at mange kunder ikke benytter den nye teknologi, scan og betal. Projektet laves i et samarbejde med grossist virksomheden Sanistål, som for nylig har implementeret scan og betal i deres fysiske butikker og nu står overfor denne udfordring. For at finde frem til, hvilke faktorer, der skyldes manglende brug, udføres observationer og interviews i en af deres butikker.Ud fra det opsamlede data udarbejdes en tematisk analyse og på baggrund af denne og sammenholdelse med modellen UTAUT2, findes følgende faktorer: Forventet nytteværdi, Hedonisk værdi, Social indflydelse, Omstændigheder samt Forventet indsats. På baggrund af dette gives anbefalinger med udgangspunkt i Foggs Adfærdsmodel til, hvorledes disse kan ændres, så kunderne i Sanistål fremadrettet benytter scan og betal
Playful Design: Developing a Facilitated Design Method for Children
No full textThere are different approaches for including children in the generative phases of a design process, i.e. when ideas and concepts are developed. Yet, there is a lack of methods that both ensure that children's desires are part of the final product and are applicable to the industry, where resources are small. In order to fill this gap, we developed a low-resource Facilitated Design method, where children are the sole designers, and adults only facilitate. We did this by taking our starting point in the Future Technology Workshop and iterated on this method in order to make this Facilitated Design method suit 8-9 year old children's capabilities and ensure a useful outcome. We recruited 37 children through schools in Aalborg for three iterations in total. Following each iteration, we evaluated both process and outcome, after which we modified the method in attempt to improve it for next iteration. We implemented scaffolding techniques, motivation initiatives, and agreement tasks, among other initiatives. The final Facilitated Design method consists of Imagineering (brainstorming functions), Sketching (inventing a product concept), and Activity Generation (developing play activities for product concept). The method is applicable for the industry and ensures that children's desires are part of the final product. The method suits children's capabilities, yet, it is still possible to improve tasks to create a better outcome.<br/
Wireless platform for controlling sensors and actuators in multiple rooms.
No full textThis report documents the development of a system to control and monitor sensors and actuators in a house or office. The system developed helps a user to get and change statuses of components quickly and wherever s/he is through a web-based interface. The user can have the same control over the system from their home computer which acts as a local server to the system. The system was developed using Service Oriented architecture:- A desktop application providing the services for the user and serving as a means of communication between any computer (user) and the micro controllers (sensors and actuators).- A web service application, where the user can at a glance, get the status or change the status of sensors/actuators and define how the system works.- A micro controller application, responsible for receiving requests from the desktop application, acts according to those requests and sends an answer back to the desktop application.The desktop and web service applications have been developed in Java programming language and PHP, respectively. The micro controller application has been developed using C language.This report presents the system development life cycle, from the analysis to user testing
Training and Assistive tool to understand Danish texts using eye-tracking
No full textThis project is issued from a project proposal concerning eye-tracker and the willingness to make a language study case, the main hypothesis of the project is: "Can a tool using eye-tracking assist and train adult learners of Danish to understand Danish texts?". The study of the reading mechanisms and the methods to learn a language have been the first step in the project. Then several parts have been reviewed and considered for the development of the future tools such as the device that will be used but also some knowledge concerning teaching to adults. A user centric design study has been done to have a convenient application for the learners using two low fidelity prototypes which lead to a final design. The implementation follows as close as possible the prototype. Some user tests have been done to get a general impression about the system. Those tests provides some clues about the fit between the assumption and the actual needs of the Danish learners and such a system could potentially assist to understand a text, however concerning the training part of the hypothesis longer tests are required to have an answer
Multi-User Personal Sound Zone SImulator
No full textThe concept of personal sound zones has been around nearly half a century, in that time many method for how to create them has been proposed. While leaving interaction techniques with sound zones unexplored. One of the reasons for that is because sound zones are not yet ready. To circumvent that issue, this project builds a system capable of simulating dynamic and static sound zones for multiple users. This creates an environment in which future researchers can run experiments with spatial sound. As a prove of concept this project reports the findings of an experimental study aiming to explore use of gestures and research on how sound zones should be move. User Experience Questionnaire and exit interview were used to measure the user experience. From our findings we can conclude that zones should move slowly instead of instantaneous as the later is perceived as aggressive by some users
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