Expert Review on Usefulness of an Integrated Checklist-based Mobile Usability Evaluation Framework

Previous mobile usability studies are only pertinent in the context of ergonomics,physical user interface,and mo­bility aspects.In addition,much of the previous mobile usability conception was built on desktop computing measure­ments,such as desktop and web application checklists,or scarcely addressed the mobile user interface.Moreover,the studies focus mainly on interface features for desktop applications and do not reflect comprehensive mobile interface features such as navigation drawers and spinners.Therefore,conducting usability evaluation using conventional us­ability measurement would result in irrelevant results.In addition,the resulting works are tailored for usability testing,which requires highly skilled evaluators and usability specialists(e.g.,usability testers and user experience designers),who are rarely integrated into a development team.The lack of expertise could lead to unreliable usability evaluations.This paper presents a review from industrial experts on a comprehensive and feasible usability evaluation framework developed in our previous work.The framework is dedicated to smartphone apps,which integrate evaluator skills and design concerns.However,there is no evidence of its usefulness in practice.Therefore,the usefulness of the frame­work measurement for evaluating apps’usability in the eyes of non-usability specialists is empirically assessed in this paper through an expert review.The expert review involved eleven industrial developers and was complemented by a semi-structured interview.The method is replicated in comparison with a framework from another study.The findings show that the formulated framework significantly outperformed the framework(p=0.0286)from other studies with large effect sizes(r=1.81)in terms of usefulness.

Decision-oriented Usability Evaluation of an Operation Interface: Model and Application

To support multi-factor decision problems about usability evaluation, especially when studies fall short of comparable objects, a fuzzy synthetic evaluation model is explored in this paper. Grey relational analysis （GRA） is brought in the model to calculate weight vectors of the usability factors. And membership functions of a remark vector are constructed in the context of use of the operation interface. The present method is applied in usability evaluation of operation interface and is proved to be effective. The comprehensive usability gradation of the operation interface to good is 0. 616 4 that meets the requirements in practice.

Testing and Evaluation for Web Usability Based on Extended Markov Chain Model

As the increasing popularity and complexity of Web applications and the emergence of their new characteristics, the testing and maintenance of large, complex Web applications are becoming more complex and difficult. Web applications generally contain lots of pages and are used by enormous users. Statistical testing is an effective way of ensuring their quality. Web usage can be accurately described by Markov chain which has been proved to be an ideal model for software statistical testing. The results of unit testing can be utilized in the latter stages, which is an important strategy for bottom-to-top integration testing, and the other improvement of extended Markov chain model (EMM) is to present the error type vector which is treated as a part of page node. this paper also proposes the algorithm for generating test cases of usage paths. Finally, optional usage reliability evaluation methods and an incremental usability regression testing model for testing and evaluation are presented. Key words statistical testing - evaluation for Web usability - extended Markov chain model (EMM) - Web log mining - reliability evaluation CLC number TP311. 5 Foundation item: Supported by the National Defence Research Project (No. 41315. 9. 2) and National Science and Technology Plan (2001BA102A04-02-03)Biography: MAO Cheng-ying (1978-), male, Ph.D. candidate, research direction: software testing. Research direction: advanced database system, software testing, component technology and data mining.

An Overview of Seismic Risk Management for Italian Architectural Heritage

The frequent occurrence of seismic events in Italy poses a strategic problem that involves either the culture of preservation of historical heritage or the civil protection action aimed to reduce the risk to people and goods(buildings,bridges,dams,slopes,etc.).Most of the Italian architectural heritage is vulnerable to earthquakes,identifying the vulnerability as the inherent predisposition of the masonry building to suffer damage and collapse during an earthquake.In fact,the structural concept prevailing in these ancient masonry buildings is aimed at ensuring prevalent resistance to vertical gravity loads.Rarely do these ancient masonry structures offer relevant resistance to actions other than vertical ones and then they are intrinsically vulnerable to stresses induced by the earthquakes.One of the main technical activities carried out by the Civil Protection after an earthquake is to assess the damage in the buildings and to evaluate their own usability.Regarding historical buildings,ad-hoc synthetic forms,drafted in agreement between the Italian Civil Protection Department and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and based on visual inspection,are adopted by qualified technicians.In this paper,such activities are described and discussed along with the Italian Civil Protection System.However,given the complexity of the main technical activities to be performed after an earthquake there is a need for more accurate methods based on Structural Health Monitoring.

Toward the Optimization of the Region-Based P300 Speller

Technology has tremendously contributed to improving communication and facilitating daily activities.Brain-Computer Interface(BCI)study particularly emerged from the need to serve people with disabilities such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS).However,with the advancements in cost-effective electronics and computer interface equipment,the BCI study is flourishing,and the exploration of BCI applications for people without disabilities,to enhance normal functioning,is increasing.Particularly,the P300-based spellers are among the most promising applications of the BCI technology.In this context,the region-based paradigm for P300 BCI spellers was introduced in an effort to reduce the crowding effect and adjacency problem that might affect the detection of P300 peak.This study extends this line of research by investigating the effect,in terms of accuracy and usability,of the letters’distribution among the speller’s regions.For this purpose,a clustering algorithm is proposed,and two region-based layouts were generated by redistributing the letters based on their dissimilarity or their similarity.A pilot usability evaluation was also conducted in order to assess the usability of the different layouts in terms of effectiveness,efficiency,and satisfaction.The results indicate that the distribution of the letters has an effect on the classification accuracy as well as the user experience.Particularly,when considering short-term accuracy and cognitive effort,the original region-based layout outperforms other layouts.

Household Drill Innovative Design under the Guidance of Ergonomics

The household drill is named 90 Degree, designed by Industrial Design Pilot Program Center(Hereinafter referred to as IDPPC) of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts(Hereinafter referred to as LAFA), which is the only national pilot program center in Chinese industrial design field. 90 Degree is designed for home environment, it helps inexperience users, such as women and the elderly, complete the operation easily, and it makes sure that safe operation and assistance users solve the precise punching, location, storage trash and other operations. According to research among users who can understand or manipulate a drill, the designers find problems of users from the user central perspective, and then they integrate product innovative design methods to propose solutions. When the designers intend to design 90 Degree, they attempt using the user behavior record and analysis system, and start ergonomics study in subjects by double hands operation analysis, using gesture analysis, details of work analysis, time and motion study, etc; meanwhile taking advantages of user experience analysis, behavior intention analysis to do user subjective perceptual evaluation. The functions, structure, shape, color, material, details of 90 Degree should be consistent with the standard of usability evaluation. There are two characteristics in 90 Degree, the first one is a transparent cover installed in front of the drill, which can collect the dust, rubbish when drilling and keep the work environment clean. So it is applicable for households. When the transparent cover of the drill is removed, it also can be used as a normal hand drill; the second one is the shape of 90 Degree makes it and the operating surface fitting together, thus enhancing the stability in operation, so it is best for inexperienced users. When 90 Degree contacts with the operating surface, it can emit the laser ray which helps the user to punch accurately, and make array punch more easily. After obtaining the data, charts, creating Shadow observation by the designers, they make a comprehensive evaluation on research results; verification advantages of 90 Degree meet the requirement of usability, reducing operating failure rate; and increasing safety factors. 90 Degree, in 2011, wined German Red Dot Design Award, which had become a representative excellent design example to resolve several drilling difficulties. The designers introduce ergonomics theory into design practice, and use scientific program and methods to evaluate the products which is useful to the development and promotion of products.

A Method for Reducing Disorientation in Hypermedia Educational Systems

Learners in hypermedia educational systems （HES） often become disorientated and experience cognitive overhead. This study presents a method for reducing disorientation in HES. The study uses two usability methods, retrospective thinking aloud （RTA） and performance measure （PM）, to find usability problems in HES that impact participant disorientation. The participants had field independent （FI） and field dependent （FD） cognitive styles. The results indicate that the participants＇ disorientation degree using the RTA method is significantly less than those using the PM method. For the effect of cognitive styles, only the average search steps index showed that FI learners are significantly less disorientated than FD learners. The results can help designers of hyperrnedia systems design tools to reduce user disorientation.