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This paper presents the Heuristic Quality Scale (HQS), an instrument designed to assess the quality of a published heuristic set. The purpose of this instrument is 2-fold: first, to aid the evaluator in selecting between prospective specialized heuristic sets for a given evaluation; second, to suggest considerations and guidelines for the creation and publication of new heuristic sets. The HQS was developed over a series of studies evaluating and refining iterations of the instrument while also polling the user experience community at large to identify which factors truly predict the quality of a particular set of heuristics. The contribution of the HQS is that it is a low-cost heuristic evaluation (HE) to apply to heuristic sets themselves. It produces a reliable subjective measure of the quality of a heuristic set and helps the usability professional rank and compare competing options for conducting HEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To access interactive systems, blind users can leverage their auditory senses by using non-speech sounds. The structure of existing non-speech sounds, however, is geared toward conveying atomic operations at the user interface (e.g., opening a file) rather than evoking broader, theme-based content typical of educational material (e.g., an historical event). To address this problem, we investigate audemes, a new category of non-speech sounds whose semiotic structure and flexibility open new horizons for the aural interaction with content-rich applications. Three experiments with blind participants examined the attributes of an audeme that most facilitate the accurate recognition of their meaning. A sequential concatenation of different sound types (music, sound effect) yielded the highest meaning recognition, whereas an overlapping arrangement of sounds of the same type (music, music) yielded the lowest meaning recognition. We discuss seven guidelines to design well-formed audemes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: This article presents research on the effects of varying mood and stress states on within-team communication in a simulated crisis management environment, with a focus on the relationship between communication behaviors and team awareness.Background: Communication plays a critical role in team cognition along with cognitive factors such as attention, memory, and decision-making speed. Mood and stress are known to have interrelated effects on cognition at the individual level, but there is relatively little joint exploration of these factors in team communication in technologically complex environments.Method: Dyadic communication behaviors in a distributed six-person crisis management simulation were analyzed in a factorial design for effects of two levels of mood (happy, sad) and the presence or absence of a time pressure stressor.Results: Time pressure and mood showed several specific impacts on communication behaviors. Communication quantity and efficiency increased under time pressure, though frequent requests for information were associated with poor performance. Teams in happy moods showed enhanced team awareness, as revealed by more anticipatory communication patterns and more detailed verbal responses to teammates than those in sad moods.Conclusion: Results show that the attention-narrowing effects of mood and stress associated with individual cognitive functions demonstrate analogous impacts on team awareness and information-sharing behaviors and reveal a richer understanding of how team dynamics change under adverse conditions.Application: Disentangling stress from mood affords the opportunity to target more specific interventions that better support team awareness and task performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article presents research on the effects of varying mood and stress states on within-team communication in a simulated crisis management environment, with a focus on the relationship between communication behaviors and team awareness. Background: Communication plays a critical role in team cognition along with cognitive factors such as attention, memory, and decision-making speed. Mood and stress are known to have interrelated effects on cognition at the individual level, but there is relatively little joint exploration of these factors in team communication in technologically complex environments. Method: Dyadic communication behaviors in a distributed six-person crisis management simulation were analyzed in a factorial design for effects of two levels of mood (happy, sad) and the presence or absence of a time pressure stressor. Results: Time pressure and mood showed several specific impacts on communication behaviors. communication quantity and efficiency increased under time pressure, though frequent requests for information were associated with poor performance. Teams in happy moods showed enhanced team awareness, as revealed by more anticipatory communication patterns and more detailed verbal responses to teammates than those in sad moods. Conclusion: Results show that the attention-narrowing effects of mood and stress associated with individual cognitive functions demonstrate analogous impacts on team awareness and information-sharing behaviors and reveal a richer understanding of how team dynamics change under adverse conditions. Application: Disentangling stress from mood affords the opportunity to target more specific interventions that better support team awareness and task performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Team cognition under stress has come under increasing scrutiny, most often in the wake of unfortunate and catastrophic accidents. The role of mood in team cognition, however, has attracted markedly less attention. An exploration of laboratory research on the effects of mood and stress on cognition at the individual level reveals convergent and overlapping findings suggesting that mood plays a more significant role in team cognition than is currently acknowledged. This article proposes a theoretical approach for distinguishing between the impacts of moods and stressors upon team cognition. It is demonstrated that team experiments conducted using this approach can reveal compelling patterns in this complex research space and identify both mediators and moderators in the process. This framework provides further insights into team cognition under stress that point towards design recommendations for systems and procedures used in technologically complex work environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]