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The apps for drawing are present in our children's life. Nevertheless, little is known about the impact of mobile technology on the freehand drawing educational activity. There are few works which are contextualised within short periods of time, with teachers who are not theirs and, in some cases, outside the children's classroom. In this paper, we are focussed on the use of technology on freehand drawing activity. Thus, we have compared the graphics produced by 4- and 5-year-old children with paper&crayon in comparison with those with tablet-finger. Children made the drawings during a planned free-drawing activity, in their ordinary classrooms, with their teachers and during five sessions. Assessment of drawings has evidenced tablet feasibility for making graphics. Nevertheless, with the passing of time, quality of graphics (tablet-finger vs paper&crayons), are nearly matched, demonstrating the low impact level technology has on this activity. In addition, if drawings are analysed specifically according to ages, results have shown that both groups have to develop adaptation strategies of visual perceptual skills and fine motor skills for the touch screen in order to obtain the same quality in the drawings made on both support types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the effects that reading on screens (using digital devices with different screen sizes) and on paper have on reading time and comprehension. The study group was comprised of126 secondary students from a private school. To ensure balance, the participants were assigned into test groups, formed according to the size of the reading device, based on class levels, gender, and average school grade. In the data collection process, a narrative text was transferred to both print and electronic media. Access to the text was provided on paper and three digital devices. There were no time limitations. After reading, participants were given comprehension tests that consisted of twenty multiple-choice questions. Female participants' on-screen comprehension scores were found to be relatively higher compared to their paper comprehension scores. They also acquired better scores as the screen size increased. Conversely, male participants had higher comprehension scores on tablets and smart phones. Participants who read the text on smart phones and tablets completed the tasks in less time compared to other groups. However, the effects of reading modality on comprehension and reading time were not found to be statistically significant in either the male or female groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education in solving real-world problems is challenging. To tackle this challenge, a project-based learning approach that integrates robots with cost-effective self-made toys to problem-solving was adopted to assist rural primary school students to apply STEM skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the project-based learning approach which includes lecturing and hands-on activities on primary school students' STEM learning outcomes and attitudes. An experiment was conducted with 25 primary school students who voluntarily participated in a STEM summer-camp programme. Students were asked to assemble a paper house equipped with an IoT control module and LED light switches, and write and edit robot scripts to produce a robot-based storytelling narrative using the paper house they made as a context. The results show that the project-based learning approach was an effective approach for cultivating primary school students' STEM knowledge and skills as evidenced from the post-written test. The relationships between the students' STEM learning outcomes and attitudes were also confirmed by a clustering analysis. Students who had higher learning attitudes also achieved higher STEM learning outcomes; the findings are also supported by the feedback from the open-ended questionnaire items. This study suggests that integrating low-cost self-made toys and robots in project-based learning activities is an effective and practical approach to enhance primary school students' learning outcomes and learning attitudes in STEM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fun and social affiliation are good predictors of long-term intention to use game-based interventions including those for motivating physical activity, yet current player matching algorithms are poor at facilitating social connectedness. In this paper, we report on the results of a study investigating how different player traits are associated with interest in social features of an exercise game for improving player experience through better player matching using common and complementary characteristics. Twelve conceptual scenarios were illustrated using storyboards and data was collected from 196 respondents who rated their attitudes and preferences towards gamification elements. Correlational results showed that all scenarios, except for cutting corners, were perceived as persuasive, enjoyable, engaging and are likely to increase future exercise intention for players who score high on Philanthropist- and Socialiser-oriented traits. Results also showed that many players favour the altruistic donation feature. Furthermore, qualitative results underscore that it is the player's partner that matters more than the players' personalities. We conclude with practical recommendations for designing more personalised exercise games that can include more socially engaging game mechanics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a risk reduction model based on signalling theory to investigate how the platform- and user-oriented signals affect perceived risks, which in turn affect users' actual engagement and purchase behaviours in social commerce. The moderating effects of perceived effectiveness of social commerce institutional mechanisms (PESIM) on the relationships between signals and perceived risks are also considered. Longitudinal data from 226 users of Xiaohongshu were collected to test the proposed hypotheses. We identify signals oriented from platforms and users significantly influence users' perceptions of commerce and participation risks. We also demonstrate that commerce and participation risks influence users' actual engagement and purchase behaviours, respectively. Furthermore, we also verify that PESIM negatively moderates the relationship between signals and perceived risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aiming to present two studies investigating attitudes of older people towards different technologies to break their social isolation and investigating the impacts of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) on physical and mental dimensions. The first study, based on focus groups conducted with 23 older people (aged from 65 to 93 years-old) allowed to collect attitudes and opinions of older people about different technologies to help them to break social isolation. The second study, based on an experiment conducted with 42 older people (aged from 63 to 85 years-old) allowed to investigate the impact of a specific Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) on physical and mental dimensions. The first study confirm that Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) can be a relevant digital tool for elderly people according to them, i.e. a digital tool perceived as useful, usable and acceptable. The second study demonstrates that use of a specific Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) system can reduce the perception of social isolation and can have positive impacts on physical dimensions such as the weight and the waist circumference. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a task is repeated, it becomes part of procedural memory. This type of memory dedicated to movement is called 'muscle memory', which allows one to perform actions unconsciously. Within the context of social media, muscle memory builds up if one uses SM applications frequently. In this paper, we investigate the effects of muscle memory within Instagram, and report the following findings: We designed a user study examining the speed and accuracy of using a newly changed interface which showed slower reaction time and more errors. Combining these results with users' perceived feelings lead us to conclude that in specific UX interface changes muscle memory can be applied as a dark pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persuasive gamified systems are effective tools for motivating behaviour change using various persuasive strategies. In line with the reinforcement theory, some persuasive gamified systems employ reward and punishment in their design to achieve the intended behavioural outcome. Research has argued both in favour and against using these strategies in behaviour change applications due to mixed results with respect to their effectiveness. However, there is a lack knowledge about how interventions using these strategies could motivate or demotivate behaviours. Therefore, this paper explores the mechanism through which Reward and Punishment motivate or demotivate behaviours with respect to their strengths and weaknesses. The results of large-scale exploratory studies (N = 1768) uncover important strengths and weaknesses that could facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of Reward and Punishment at motivating behaviour change. These include their ability to engage users and make behaviour fun, reinforce commitments to goals, and reveal some consequences of bad behaviour. We also compared the perceived effectiveness of reward and punishment quantitatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of video games in physical education have been extensively researched (Camunas-Vega & Alcaide-Risoto, 2020; Fang et al. 2020). However, little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of commercial video games combined with basketball practice in improving students' reasoning skills (Chuang, Yeh, and Lin 2021; Rogers et al., 2020). In this paper, we present the results of an experimental study whose objective was to assess the effects of a programme that includes the use of a video game as the main learning tool to enhance the reasoning process of secondary education students in Physical Education. A total of 271 students participated in this study. A quasi-experimental pre-post design with a control group was used. The experimental group performed a specific training programme with the NBA 2K16 video game for nine weeks, once a week, 60 min per session. The results show that the students who participated in the programme achieved an improvement in deductive and spatial reasoning with a moderate effect possibly due to the use of a video game. Another conclusion was that sex differences in the spatial and deductive reasoning on the pretest disappeared on the post-test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of information security behavioural intention (ISBI) can be complex and dynamic in different contexts. This paper aims to examine and compare different users' ISBI formalisation mechanisms when dealing with their personal affairs (non-work users) and organisational affairs (work users). Drawing on two principles of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (i.e. resource loss principle, and resource gain principle), we developed two models to examine how situational support affects ISBI formation. The results of a study of 432 non-worker users and 261 work users indicate a curvilinear relationship between situational support and ISBI through subjective norms and risk perception for non-worker users, whilst a linear relationship via subjective norms is found for worker users. This is the first time that COR has been applied to explain the formation of ISBI. The findings broaden the research scope of individuals' ISBI by revealing how situational support affects the formalisation mechanism for different users in cross-contexts. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings and the future study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average attention span of humans is decreasing. To adapt to the change, researchers investigate visual and auditory techniques that alter the perception of time passing. However, the auditory technique is underexplored in comparison to visual techniques, which are becoming increasingly important as voice assistants, speech interfaces or time-aware computational/robotic systems proliferate. This paper investigated the effect of pitch and interval variables on time perception. Three pitch levels (static, falling, rising) and two interval patterns (static, narrowing) for a total of six auditory stimuli were compared. Principal findings indicated that rising/falling pitch and interval narrowing, as well as their combinations, can be used to shorten the perception of time. This research contributes to a better understanding of end-users' subjective temporal estimation of auditory stimuli, which can be used to further develop audio-based interactive devices/agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expansion of the online environment, recently, recommendation systems have become established as an essential element of any online service. Following this trend, the issue of how to present recommended information effectively to users is attracting attention not only in companies but also in the research field. This paper presents a between-subjects study that aimed to elicit whether there is a difference in consumer's attitudes towards the user-centric and content-centric recommendation approaches based on their level of psychological ownership towards the online service. Our findings indicated that users with high psychological ownership toward the online service prefer the user-centric recommendation approach, while users with low psychological ownership prefer the content-centric recommendation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of social media platforms has changed human communication once and forever and consequently, has triggered an array of emotions such as fear of missing out (FoMO). In two different studies, this paper investigated individual differences, psychological and social media motivational variables as predictors of FoMO. The paper also sought to test whether FoMO will have a negative impact on academic performance above and beyond social media engagement and social media addiction. Using a structural equation modelling (SEM) along with multiple mediation analysis, the results indicated that perceived excessive social media content generation, attention seeking, and personality variables significantly predicted FoMO controlling for individual differences and social media activity such as Instagram followers, Twitter followers, as well as WhatsApp engagement level. Furthermore, the biological sex of the individual was found to moderate the relationship between attention seeking and FoMO. Findings also indicated that FoMO had a positive impact on both social media engagement and social media addiction. Parallel mediation analysis revealed that FoMO had a negative effect on academic performance above and beyond social media addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Game-based learning (GBL) is widely utilised in various domains and continues to receive interest and attention from researchers and practitioners alike. However, there is still a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness, making GBL evaluation a critical undertaking. This paper proposes an integrated approach for planning and executing GBL evaluation studies and presents its application by evaluating the effectiveness of a GBL approach to improve the Arabic reading skills of migrant refugee children in an informal learning setup. The study focuses on how children's age group, learning modality preference, and prior mobile experience affect their learning, usability, and gameplay performance. A quasi-experiment with a one-group pretest-posttest design was conducted with 30 children (5–10 years old) from migrant refugee backgrounds. The results show a statistically significant improvement in their reading assessment score. The results also outline a clear impact of children's age groups on their learning gain, usability score, and total levels played. Moreover, learning modality preference and prior mobile experience both had a statistically significant effect related to usability and gameplay performance parameters. However, no effect was found on learning gain. Based on the findings, some design recommendations are suggested for more inclusive design focusing on user characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a growing body of literature on information privacy suggesting different mechanisms of how people's privacy concerns might be impacting their attitudes and behaviour when using social media, recent questionable data use practices by social media platforms and third parties call for a renewed validation of existing information privacy models. The objective of this research is to re-examine the variables predicting why people disclose information on social media. Building on previous work, this paper puts forward a comprehensive Privacy Concerns and Social Media Use Model (PC-SMU) and evaluates it in a specific cultural and legal environment (social media users from a single county, Canada). The study delves into the privacy paradox and shows that the benefits of using social media are the main driver of self-disclosure, and that self-disclosing behaviours are nuanced by the users' information privacy protection strategies. We also find that higher levels of social media literacy, and concerns about organisational threats to a lesser extent, lead to higher levels of information privacy management, emphasizing the importance of educating users about how to use the different privacy and security features provided by social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the multi-dimensional nature of Internet Addiction (IA) and its influence on Well-Being (WB) amongst a representative sample of 320 young urban Indian internet users. Nine hypotheses are proposed through a conceptual model to assess the multi-dimensional nature of IA and its relationship with WB. Partial Least Squares – Structure Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to assess the hypothesised relationships. Of the proposed nine hypotheses, seven were accepted. The result indicated IA as a four-dimensional construct – Internet Control Disorder (ICD), Internet Craving (IC), Internet Obsession (IO), and Addictive Behaviour (AB). The findings supported that ICD positively and significantly influences IC. IC and AB both have a significant impact on IO. ICD and IC have a significant impact on the individual's AB. ICD and IO significantly influence WB. With respect to the dimensions IC, AB, and IO, the model is successful in explaining around 26%, 45%, and 33% of the variation. IA as a multi-dimensional phenomenon and its relationship with WB in a young-demographic nation like India has immense academic and societal value. The study provides critical actionable insights for users, educators, health counsellors, parents, and policymakers regarding interventions for controlling internet addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of smartphone notifications are indicative of human behaviour (e.g. delivery updates for purchased items, physical activity summaries, and notification of updates to subscribed content). However, present attempts to understand human behaviour from smartphone traces typically focus on sensors such as location, accelerometer and proximity, overlooking the potential for notifications as a valuable data source. In this paper, we propose a general framework that provides end-to-end processing of notifications to understand behavioural aspects. We realise the framework with an implementation that tackles the specific use case of establishing prior buying behaviour from associated notifications. To evaluate the framework and implementation, we conduct a longitudinal user study in which we collect more than 250, 000 notifications, from twelve users, over an average of three months. We apply knowledge-based and machine learning techniques to those notifications to assess the tasks of the proposed framework. The results show a substantial difference in the performance between the methods used to extract behavioural features from the collected notifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appearance and voice are essential factors impacting users' affective preferences for humanoid robots. However, little is known about how the appearance and voice of humanoid robots jointly influence users' affective preferences and visual attention. We conducted a mixed-design eye-tracking experiment to examine the multisensory integration effect of humanoid robot appearances and voices on users' affective preferences and visual attention. The results showed that the combinations of affectively preferred voices and appearances attracted more affective preferences and shorter average fixation durations. The combinations of non-preferred voices and preferred appearances captured less affective preferences and longer fixation durations. The results suggest that congruent combinations of affectively preferred voices and appearances might motivate a facilitation effect on users' affective preference and the depth of visual attention through audiovisual complements. Incongruent combinations of non-preferred voices and preferred appearances might stimulate an attenuation effect and result in less affective preferences and a deeper retrieval of visual information. Besides, the head attracted the most amount of visual attention regardless of voice conditions. This paper contributes to deepening the understanding of the multisensory integration effect on users' affective preferences and visual attention and providing practical implications for designing humanoid robots satisfying users' affective preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of users' personality traits and emotions expressed through textual communications on YouTube to detect cyberbullying using a series of ensemble classifiers. Personality traits were determined using the Big Five model whereas emotions were based on Ekman's basic emotion theory. Annotated YouTube textual comments in English (N = 5152; i.e. 2576 number of bullying versus 2576 non-bullying instances) were used to detect cyberbullying incidents using several ensemble classifiers, including Random Forest and AdaBoost. Performance metrics revealed both personality traits and emotion to significantly improve the identification of cyberbullying presence, with accuracy and F-score values of more than 95%. Further fine-grained analysis revealed anger and openness to be more profound compared to other emotions and personalities. Further, neurotic individuals tend to be driven to cyberbullying by joy, disgust and fear. The findings show that personality and emotions play pertinent roles in cyberbullying, and the identification of specific traits and emotions can help in designing a more strategic intervention programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on willingness to donate (WTD) to a fundraising project and the psychological mechanism in the relationship. In a 3 (information-only vs. cognitive empathy vs. affective empathy) × 2 (chatbot vs. human identity) experiment, 496 US adults had a conversation about a fundraising event with one of six artificial intelligence-powered chatbots. The results revealed that neither chatbot empathy nor identity disclosure has a significant effect on WTD, rejecting the hypotheses. However, the data supported a significant interaction effect between chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on WTD. Moreover, the results suggested that the interaction effect between chatbot empathy and identity disclosure on WTD would be mediated through human likeness and social presence. This study suggests how empathy and human identity of chatbots should be applied with care to avoid the uncanny valley effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While HCI literature offers general frameworks for understanding user-centred quality, specific application areas may call for more detailed contextualisation of it. This paper focuses on socio-technical context of online news commenting by investigating speculative UI interventions intended to influence users' emotions and social behaviour. To understand the aspects of quality that matter to users in such UI interventions, we conducted an international online survey (N = 439) and qualitatively analysed respondents' first impressions of eight different design proposals. The findings describe contextually relevant socio-technical viewpoints and offer actionable considerations for design. For example, the findings imply that designers should be mindful of possible unintentional misuse that may result from the UI reinforcing specific emotional states or affording stigmatisation of individual users. The study advances understanding of which aspects of quality should be considered when designing and deploying UI interventions for digital media services and evaluating them with potential end-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that the unreasonable layout caused by the surge of map information will dramatically reduce the user's operation performance, this paper proposed a 3 V layout method based on human visual motion cognition. According to the visual flow method, two visual search experiments were designed to study the influence of label layouts and graphic overlap rates on users' search efficiency. By testing users' reaction time and gaze behaviour, it was found that L-LR layouts arranged in a vertically symmetrical way had the best search performance among the four layouts. The overall performance of L-LR and L-TB layouts arranged in a unidirectional and symmetrical way was better than that of L-UG and L-EP layouts in the graphic and number search task. However, L-UG and L-EP layouts performed better than L-LR and L-TB ones in the graphic search under lower overlap rates. Moreover, it is also worth noting that the performance of graphic search was significantly higher than that of number search, indicating that users distinguished the location-based information represented by graphics better than that by text. The results provide a certain theoretical basis and application value for the map information layout of the GIS interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook community leaders play a significant role in creating and maintaining social environments, and they characteristically exhibit several qualities and skills, such as the ability to generate involvement in the groups. However, their identities and motivations have yet to be investigated in depth. Using the theoretical framework of the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), this paper addresses this gap by exploring the motivations of leaders to lead a Facebook online group. Leaders of online parents groups were surveyed for this study. A survey was administered electronically to 160 Facebook community leaders to gather data on the relationship between the community leaders' motivation and the following variables: personality traits (narcissism, altruism, grit), sense of community (immersion, sense of belonging, influence), management features, and demographics. A hierarchical regression indicates that higher narcissism, self-control, immersion, and lower consistency of interest (grit factor) can explain Facebook community leaders' motivations to lead online groups of parents. The results are discussed in the context of the leaders' influential role in social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies have allowed people with disabilities to perform daily tasks with greater independence and autonomy, especially for visually impaired people. Using smart home solutions allows these users to control their homes with less cognitive and physical demand. However, making such applications accessible to meet the needs of visually impaired users, especially in developing countries, remains a challenge. This paper investigates the perceptions of these users about home automation technologies through semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 visually impaired people participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis revealed results concerning the following themes: (1) how people go about their lives at home and around, how people interact with current appliances, objects and environments, (3) how people perceive their attitude to technologies, (4) the Brazilian context of smart homes, (5) what people think smart homes should do and (6) envisaging ways of interacting with smart home systems. The results obtained provide significant insight into the needs of visually-impaired people in Brazil, with analysis of issues that are common with previous studies in more developed countries and specific issues that have important particularities and implications in Brazil and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines creators' contributions and the incentive effects of users' feedback, including upvoting, sharing, commenting, following, viewing comments, and clicking on the creators' homepage. We build a negative binomial and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model using data from a Chinese music streaming company NetEase Cloud Music. Results show that creators' number of content contributions is positively affected by the number of users' commenting, viewing comments, sharing, and clicking on homepage behaviors. On the other hand, users' upvotes and sharing behaviors can significantly influence the quality of content published by creators. Moreover, we find that the intensity level of creators has moderate effects on such influence. These findings help the researchers better understand creators' behaviors and community managers to build user-generated content (UGC) communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have captured the experiences of teachers teaching online, but the current 'emergency' to teach online is unprecedented and has been challenging. Grounded in the theory of cognitive dissonance, this paper attempts to recapitulate the experiences of university teachers and analyses whether they have developed the consonant cognitions to teach online during the pandemic period or would they prefer switching back to 'normal' teaching as soon as the circumstances permit. Technology-enabled teaching has been found to be complex as it mandates teaching in a computerised setting and lacks an element of social interaction, which is at the heart of face-to-face teaching. Using Structural Equation Modelling, this study presents the determining factors that motivate teachers to embrace technology-driven teaching more convincingly. The study finds that in the absence of adequate training imparted to the teachers for developing technological and pedagogical knowledge (TPK), high psychological capital and facilitating conditions are the two most important factors ensuring teaching proficiency, creating positive online experiences and a continued intention to teach online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive use of personal social media has become prevalent in the work environment and has caused significant psychological and behavioural problems among employees. These problems call for in-depth study. In this paper, we develop a usage experience–stressor–strain model to examine the consequences of excessive social media usage behaviour of employees at work, revealing the effects of different excessive usage patterns (i.e. social, hedonic, and cognitive) on employees' psychological state (i.e. emotional exhaustion) and behavioural outcome (i.e. job performance) through dimensions of social media overload (i.e. information, communication, and social). We empirically test the research model with a survey of 422 employees who use social media at work. Our analysis presents that excessive social use at work is the major predictor of dimensions of overload. Furthermore, in contrast to the single effect of communication overload on emotional exhaustion and social overload on job performance, information overload has a significant impact on both emotional exhaustion and job performance of employees. This study advances our understanding of the complex relationships between excessive usage patterns, overload, emotional exhaustion, and job performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the first virtual reality (VR) photography application that incorporates elements on panoramic images to assess short-term spatial memory is presented. It also allows the interaction with these elements. A study was conducted (N = 50) to compare participants' performance outcomes and subjective experience when using a VR application with and without panoramic photography. The results show that both applications are effective in assessing short-term spatial memory. The results with panoramic photography include: 1) It was effective for short-term recall since, after using the application, the participants were able to verbally recall the objects and place them without significant differences with respect to the objects correctly placed; 2) The performance outcomes were independent of age and gender; 3) The perceived level of presence was directly related to experiencing less cybersickness when using the application; 4) The level of satisfaction was directly related to perceived enjoyment, concentration, usability, competence, calmness, and expertise; 5) The more the familiarity with VR applications, the less the perceived cybersickness. Finally, the application offers two main advantages: 1) The evaluators can customize the environment by adding as many elements as desired to the panoramic photograph; 2) It could be especially suitable for groups with reduced mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing number of people with mental health issues and the worldwide shortage of professionals emphasise the need for tailored persuasive interventions. This paper explores the relationships between the types of motivation individuals experience and their preferences for various features that are widely used in persuasive apps for mental and emotional well-being. First, we reviewed 103 mental health apps from app stores and identified various persuasive features and then conducted focus-group studies of 32 participants. Finally, we implemented the common features in persuasive mental health app prototypes and conducted a large-scale study of 561 users to evaluate their perceived effectiveness. The results reveal that people's motivation types significantly influence the perceived persuasiveness of different features. People high in intrinsic motivation are more motivated by apps that offer relaxation exercises while providing opportunities to track various mental health-related information. We offer design guidelines for tailoring persuasive mental health apps based on motivation types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MOOCs (massive open online courses) have attracted a great deal of research and attention; however, few studies have focused on the factors that influence MOOC teacher effectiveness, which is the key to the development of MOOCs. Based on the perspective of professional capital and social exchange theory, this paper aims to study the factors that influence MOOC teacher effectiveness. First, the research hypotheses are proposed from the teacher's perspective to build the research model based on factors affecting MOOC teacher effectiveness. Second, the iCourse platform is selected as the research object because it has the largest number of active users in China. As of March 1, 2019, the effective research data of 7380 teachers were obtained from iCourse to build a multivariate regression model. The results highlight the main factors that affect MOOC teacher effectiveness from the perspective of professional capital. Finally, relevant suggestions are proposed for the development of MOOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

QR codes provide potential opportunities to improve interaction in different areas of application. Even so, this technology has been utilised in punctual and specific standalone applications, being barely applied to broader contexts, such as the educational one, where different scenarios can be considered to take advantage of the same QR-code approach. In this paper, key issues for the development of applications that utilise QR codes to improve sharing and availability of resources are presented, specifically focusing on improving interaction and acceptance. In this way, a holistic approach has been developed where the system is aimed at improving the interaction between educators and students. On the one hand, educators use a web interface to manage educational resources and announcements and automatically generate QR codes. On the other hand, students scan those QR codes using a mobile device, obtaining updated information related to their lectures. This scenario has been evaluated by educators and students, obtaining good results in terms of acceptance, cognitive burden, and overall usability. The approach provides development clues and the evaluation method that can be applied to different contexts, thus representing a generalisable solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye-tracking research is beneficial for better understanding user behaviour in search engines. The present paper presents a comprehensive narrative literature review of eye-tracking studies examining factors influencing users' viewing behaviour on results pages of search engines. Discipline-specific databases from Psychology, Computer Science, and Library and Information Science, as well as one multidisciplinary database have been searched for relevant articles. Criteria for inclusion were that a paper reported empirical results from an eye-tracking study in which effects of a specific factor on users' viewing behaviour on search engine results pages (SERPs) were examined, with inferential statistical results being reported. This led to a set of 41 papers that were further examined. The papers were grouped into three categories according to three types of factors that may affect individuals' web search activities: contextual factors, resource factors, and individual factors. Papers were assigned to these categories and subsequently to sub-categories. Overall, while for some sub-categories robust findings can be reported, we found results in many sub-categories to be inconclusive. For future research, we recommend a shift from small-scale studies examining single factors to more comprehensive and theory-driven research using larger sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based learning is among the most common learning approaches aimed at conveying professional standards and best practices to students in programming courses. However, team projects commonly impose problems related to responsibility sharing, such as low effort or inequality in contributions. This paper presents a collaborative programming assessment system featuring a code quality assessment function with specific metrics to measure individual contributions. Student engagement data is used to detect nonconformities in collaboration using a learning analytical approach. Latent profile analysis was used to detect four theoretical team profiles differentiated by team effort (2 levels) and within-team collaboration (2 levels). We demonstrated the efficacy of assessing code to evaluate team dynamics and student behaviour, wherein efforts to resolve coding style failures can be used as a proxy by which to estimate the taskwork awareness of team members. Submission data from 146 students in 41 web-programming projects revealed four behavioural patterns that could potentially hinder the effective functioning of programming teams: free-riding, social loafing, the bystander effect, and lone wolves. We also demonstrated the applicability of automated programming assessment systems to the monitoring of learning progress, thereby facilitating timely interventions to correct difficulties at the team level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User interfaces often utilise imagery of pristine natural environments, even if the system's purpose and context are unrelated to nature. In this paper, we build on evolutionary psychology to develop a theoretical model for the influence of nature imagery on user perceptions of trust, visual aesthetics, and purchase intentions in a corporate sales setting. We evaluate our model by means of an online experiment (n = 408) using a website with different configurations of nature imagery. The results provide support for our theoretical model and hence confirm a positive influence of nature presence, that is, the extent to which the website allows a user to experience the natural environment as being present, on trust, visual aesthetics, and purchase intentions. Thereby, user perceptions of nature presence are specifically linked to nature imagery depicting water as well as vegetation. This study furthers our understanding of how the environmental context of on-site imagery can have subtle information processing benefits for users. For practitioners this study offers insight to the types of imagery that could be utilised more effectively in corporate interface designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alteration of an individual's lifestyle and the adoption of healthy behaviours have been shown to be effective in combating a majority of the major symptoms of depression. While there are several mHealth applications that use behaviour change to reduce depressive symptoms, they are often not grounded in behaviour change theory and display a lack of understanding regarding the specific factors that lead to behaviour change. Therefore, there is a need to test innovative strategies to tackle the issue. One such strategy is the use of behaviour change theories to design mHealth applications that use persuasive prompts to assist in 'prompting' the user to adopt healthier behaviours. In this paper, we present the design of persuasive prompts and an mHealth application to induce behavioural change, followed by the results of two studies: (i) an acceptability study that tested the acceptability of the persuasive prompts and (ii) a usability study of the mHealth application. The results show that there is a significant difference in which behaviour change theories users prefer based on their level of depression and that overall, users have a positive perception of the application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-determination theory posits that satisfaction of basic psychological needs is essential for well-being. Empirical evidence for the distinction between need frustration and need satisfaction has been growing within the last decade. However, research on player experience of need frustration is lagging behind. This paper investigates whether player experience of need frustration is distinct from need satisfaction in the online video games context. In addition, it examines whether in-game need frustration is a stronger predictor for negative outcomes such as problematic gaming, escapist motivations, real-life stress and exit intentions and whether in-game need satisfaction is a stronger predictor for positive outcomes such as satisfaction, concentration, subjective vitality and voice. We collected survey data from online video gamers. Path analyses showed that in-game need frustration is a distinct construct, predicting negative outcomes uniquely and more strongly than in-game need satisfaction, whereas in-game need satisfaction was more strongly associated with positive outcomes. The findings suggest that assessing both need satisfaction and frustration in gaming research could prove valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the design, implementation, and evaluation of a prototype augmented reality application that assists operators in performing procedural tasks in control room settings. Our prototype uses a tablet display to supplement an operator's natural view of existing control panel elements with sequences of interactive visual and attention guiding cues. An experiment, conducted using a nuclear power plant simulator, examined university students completing both standard and emergency operating procedures. The augmented reality condition was compared against two other conditions – a paper-based procedure condition using paper manuals and a computer-based procedure condition using digital procedures presented on a desktop display. The results demonstrated that the augmented reality -based procedure system had benefits in terms of reduced mental workload in comparison to the other two conditions. Regarding task completion time, accuracy, and situation awareness, the augmented reality condition had no significant difference when compared against the computer-based procedure condition but performed better than the paper-based procedure condition. It was also found that the augmented reality condition resulted in fewer intra-team inquiry communication exchanges in comparison to both paper-based and computer-based conditions. The augmented reality condition, however, yielded poorer memory retention score when assessed against the other two conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Together with the growth in the presence of e-learning in higher education institutions, the advance of technology allows for the possibility of creating tailored institutional strategies to improve the experience of their students. Moreover, placing the students at the centre of their learning in self-regulated environments also implies offering a more tailored experience that focuses in their learning styles. In order to do so, it is essential to distinguish the different student profiles that arise in these contexts from a meta-cognitive and motivational perspective. The current paper uses hierarchical clustering on a sample of students enrolled in distance education programmes at a medium-sized Spanish university to obtain a set of distinct profiles and show how this technique can be useful both to assess the needs and limitations of the students from the perspective of exogenous and intrinsic factors in TEL environments and to provide specific services for each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advances in internet technologies and the emergence of crowdsourcing, organisations are now increasingly looking outside their boundaries for solving problems. Yet, the success of crowdsourcing depends on high-quality participation of crowdsourcing individuals and teams. In recent studies, examining the effect of simultaneous collaboration and competition mechanisms on individual and team performance in crowdsourcing has received considerable attention. But, none of these studies examined how different levels of collaboration affect team performance in crowdsourcing contests. In this paper, using a rich data set from a crowdsourcing platform, Kaggle.com, we study how team discussion-forum performance and solution-sharing performance affect its performance in online crowdsourcing contests. Our results suggest that team's discussion-forum performance and solution-sharing performance have significant effect on its competition performance. Our findings offer valuable theoretical and managerial implications for researchers and crowdsourcing sponsors who want to improve teams' performance in crowdsourcing contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive cognitive load theory (CLT) has been conceived for improving instructional design practices. Although researched for many years, one open problem is a clear definition of its cognitive load types and their aggregation towards an index of overall cognitive load. In Ergonomics, the situation is different with plenty of research devoted to the development of robust constructs of mental workload (MWL). By drawing a parallel between CLT and MWL, as well as by integrating relevant theories and measurement techniques from these two fields, this paper is aimed at investigating the reliability, validity and sensitivity of three existing self-reporting mental workload measures when applied to long learning sessions, namely, the NASA Task Load index, the Workload Profile and the Rating Scale Mental Effort, in a typical university classroom. These measures were aimed at serving for the evaluation of two instructional conditions. Evidence suggests these selected measures are reliable and their moderate validity is in line with results obtained within Ergonomics. Additionally, an analysis of their sensitivity by employing the descriptive Harrell-Davis estimator suggests that the Workload Profile is more sensitive than the Nasa Task Load Index and the Rating Scale Mental Effort for long learning sessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking sites and apps (SNSAs) are being used more frequently across the world and yet the nature of this online environment and associated interactions are not fully understood. With no restrictions for SNSAs use related to specific geographical regions, language, age, gender, educational level, or any other factors, it is important to find a concept to describe and explain the components of this online environment and their relationships. This paper describes the environment of SNSAs use by Saudi postgraduate students from the perspective of second-generation activity theory (AT). The findings supported the theoretical framework of AT as a useful lens in understanding SNSAs use from the perspective of students, particularly in a cultural environment where physical communication has restrictions based on gender. A similar AT model can be drawn for the use of SNSAs, taking the perspective of different groups of academic users. The flexibility of the AT model appears at the level of SNSAs as technical and physical tools, and at the level of users' community, which was managed by the explicit and implicit rules relating to communication. This feature reveals the way in which this extended framework can be used to indicate pertinent features of SNSAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time displacement hypothesis has been widely used to explain the effects of media use on academic performance. This approach has been criticised for its monocausality and weak explanatory power. Utilising a combination of different theoretical perspectives is better suited than utilising only one. Considering displacement, excitement, attraction and third variable hypothesis, this paper argues that the relation between video game use and school performance is not the same for all types of gamers by considering the influence of socioeconomic, psychological and contextual factors. It investigates how gaming patterns (frequency, time of day) and psychological characteristics (sensation seeking, aggression) are related to academic performance for primary and secondary school students. Five hundred and seven students from five primary and four secondary schools in Singapore participated in a paper-pencil survey. Results showed support for a combination of displacement and third variable hypothesis, as overall time spent on video games was negatively associated with primary school children's and active gamers' school performances. There was no significant relationship for secondary school children. For primary school children who play games in the morning and afternoon, video game use was negatively associated with school performance. There was no support for the attraction and excitement hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of neutralisation theory, this paper associates technology-induced work stress with the engagement in non-business activities while at work. When neutralisation theory is linked to organisational behaviour, the theory states that employees are prone to engage in deviant behaviours in the workplace to balance the difficulties they have suffered. In this context, employees may strive to neutralise the negative consequences of technology-induced stress and feel justified considering that it is their right to engage in deviant behaviours, such as performing non-business activities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the impact of technology-induced stress (techno-stress) on engaging in non-business online activities while at work (minor cyberslacking). To do so, survey method was used and data were gathered from 252 white-collar employees working in the manufacturing sector. Results of the regression analysis suggested that out of three dimensions of techno-stress, techno-invasion is the only predictor for cyberslacking. The practical contribution of this paper is that employers could decrease cyberslacking activities by alleviating techno-invasion level of employees. Recommendations are also offered to draw up policies to cope with techno-stress and cyberslacking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study about communicability of conversational interfaces (namely chatbots) under a semiotic perspective. A chatbot is a software system that allows you to simulate real conversations between devices and users by means of a conversational interface (CI). After introducing the chatbot concept, focusing on its advantages and issues, we will present two domains of use in which chatbot interfaces can be effective: healthcare and smart home. For carrying out simple tasks such as finding information or triggering operations, users need an easy-to-use and to an easy-to-learn system to communicate with. To face this, conversational interfaces represent the latest trend in the field of digital design. For studying the communicability aspects of a CI, we carried out a user test to compare traditional and chatbot interfaces. This paper aims at evaluating the benefits at the communicability level of a chatbot in comparison to traditional GUI for incrementing the effectiveness and efficacy of communication between users and the system specifically for users with poor attitude in using technologies. In details, we evaluated the communicability of two prototypes that can be used to solve simple tasks in order to favour user inclusion, including everyone with very little exposure to technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart Interactive Experiences (SIEs) are usage situations enabled by the Internet of Things that empower users to interact with the surrounding environment. The goal of our research is to define methodologies and software environments to support the design of SIEs; more specifically, we focus on design paradigms suitable for experts of given domains, who however might not be experts in technology. In this context, this paper discusses some trade-offs that we identified between six different dimensions that characterise the quality of software environments for SIE design. The trade-offs emerged from the analysis of data collected in an experimental study that compared three different design paradigms to understand in which measure each paradigm supports the creative process for SIE design. After reporting on the study procedure and the data analyses, the paper illustrates how the resulting trade-offs led us to identify alternatives for SIE design paradigms, and to structure on their basis a modular architecture of a software platform where the strengths of the three paradigms can be exploited flexibly, i.e. depending on the constraints and the requirements characterising specific design situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how people search for, choose, process and evaluate information provided online. In this context, the study analyses how the content and context of online information are related to the length of information and to user ratings. Employing naturalistic data that cover the titles, durations and viewer-assigned ratings/tags of more than two-thousand TED talks, the paper investigates whether (i) the talk duration is related to viewer-assigned ratings, (ii) there is a link between the talk duration and attention driving factors (title words), and (iii) the ex-ante wording of talks' titles and ex-post user-assigned ratings are connected. The findings show that talks with certain end-user ratings have significantly different length, most strikingly, talks first rated as persuasive are on average 35% longer than talks first rated as ingenious. Also the inclusion of certain words in the talk title significantly affects both the talk duration and end-user ratings. For instance, talks whose title include 'child' are on average 27% longer than other talks; or talks whose title include 'brain' are 57% more likely to be rated as fascinating than others. Overall, the paper reveals regularities regarding information processing attitudes, attention and subjective evaluations of online information users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several smartwatch vendors have over the past years entered the market with a large range of devices that differ in the design qualities they offer. In this paper, we focus on design qualities that are either perceived, descriptive or physical, and we investigate which of them may lead people to prefer particular smartwatches over others. To do so we conducted a laboratory study with 93 potential smartwatch users and a trained panel study with 8 participants. Results were analysed through a multivariate statistical technique called Preference Mapping. The advantage of this technique is that it can relate a large number of design qualities to users' preferences. Our findings show that participants can be divided into four groups with homogenous preferences, each emphasising a unique combination of design qualities. For example, some groups emphasised device shape, while others prioritised expensiveness for their preferred smartwatch. We conclude with implications of our work on practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of graphical user interfaces has been evolving from skeuomorph interfaces – which use elements that mimic the aesthetics and functionality of their real-world counterparts – to minimalist and flat designs. Despite the growing popularity of these new design approaches, they can be challenging for older adults who experience a decline in visual and cognitive abilities. Still, little is known about user performance, aesthetic perception, and preference of older adults, particularly in comparison to younger users and traditional skeuomorph interfaces. In this paper, we examine the performance and aesthetic perception of older (65–77 years old) and younger (20–40) adults with three design approaches: skeuomorph, skeuominimalist, and flat design. Results show flat design is either slower or less accurate than traditional skeuomorph interfaces for older adults across three tasks: visual search, identifying clickable objects, and multiple page navigation. Younger adults were less susceptible to performance differences between design approaches, but still subject to 'click uncertainty' with flat interfaces. Skeuominimalism did not show clear performance benefits over flat design or skeuomorphism, while the latter reduced the performance gap between age groups. Finally, younger adults preferred the simplicity of skeuominimalism, while older adults preferred skeuomorph interfaces because of the perceived usability, beauty, and trustiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advance of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart sensor networks, accurate understanding of complex data via interface icons is critical for effective decision making, operation management and monitoring. In order to understand how the different domain experience among icon designers and users affects icon recognition and preference level among users, this paper takes environmental and operational sensors as a case study and organises two icon design workshops, in which icon recognition and preference tests are conducted based on the standard ISO 9186 methodology. Results reveal that differences in domain experience among designers and users do not impose a significant impact on users' icon recognition levels. However, users new to the domain significantly prefer icons created by designers who share similar levels of domain experience with them. It provides a little reference for future environmental and operational sensor Graphical User Interface icon designers, decision makers, scientists and engineers to improve the icon design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the design of gesture-based user interfaces, traditional gesture elicitation studies suffer from the legacy bias problem. In this paper, we conducted an exploratory study about the practical effects of frame-based design for gestural interaction with immersive VR shopping applications. In this study, we derived gestures via the traditional guessability and the framed guessability approaches. Experimental results indicated that priming participants with a frame, or a scenario, could significantly reduce the impact of legacy bias, and result in superior gesture vocabulary. However, no evidence was found that the priming technique would generate more gesture types, which may lead to lower agreement scores due to the reduction of legacy bias. Based on our findings, we propose some concrete design guidelines for gesture-based interaction. We highlight the implications of this work for the design of all gesture-based applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]