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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]

Preserving older pedestrians' navigation skills in urban environments is a challenge for maintaining their quality of life. However, existing aids do not take into account older people's perceptual and cognitive declines nor their user experience, and they call upon sensory modalities that are already used during walking. The present study was aimed at comparing different guidance instructions using visual, auditory, and haptic feedback in order to identify the most efficient and best accepted one(s). Sixteen middle-age (non-retired) adults, 21 younger-old (young-retired) adults, and 21 older-old (old-retired) adults performed a navigation task in a virtual environment. The task was performed with visual feedback (directional arrows superimposed on the visual scenes), auditory feedback (sounds in the left/right ear), haptic feedback (vibrotactile information delivered by a wristband), combinations of different types of sensory feedback, or a paper map. The results showed that older people benefited from the sensory guidance instructions, as compared to the paper map. Visual and auditory feedbacks were associated with better performance and user experience than haptic feedback or the paper map, and the benefits were the greatest among the older-old participants, even though the paper-map familiarity was appreciated. Several recommendations for designing pedestrian navigation aids are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) training offers the capability to industrial workers to acquire skills and address complex tasks by immersing them in a safe and controlled virtual environment. Immersive VR (IVR) training is adopted in many diverse settings, yet little systematic work currently exists on how researchers have applied it for industrial skills training and if it holds the potential to be applied remotely. In this review, 78 representative studies were analysed to answer three key questions: Is IVR an effective training method for industrial skills training? How is research in this field applied? And how can we make IVR training more effective and applicable for remote training? We can testify that IVR is a promising training method with high effectiveness scores. However, our analysis has uncovered several gaps in the application of IVR training, like the lack of learning theories in the design process and limited metrics beyond time and scores. Additionally, our review also exposed unexplored but intriguing avenues of research, like the utilisation of biosensors for users' data collection, haptics that increases realism and applications with remote training potential. [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]

This paper presents key aspects that designers and Human–Computer Interaction practitioners might encounter when designing multimodal interaction for older adults, focusing on the trade-offs that might occur as part of the design process. The paper gathers literature on multimodal interaction and assistive technology, and describes a set of design challenges specific for older users. Building on these main design challenges, four trade-offs in the design of multimodal technology for this target group are presented and discussed. To highlight the relevance of the trade-offs in the design process of multimodal technology for older adults, two of the four reported trade-offs are illustrated with two user studies that investigate mid-air and speech-based interaction with a tablet device. The first study explores the design trade-offs related to redundant multimodal commands in older, middle-aged and younger adults, whereas the second one investigates the design choices related to the definition of a set of mid-air one-hand gestures and voice input commands for older adults. Further reflections highlight the design trade-offs that such considerations bring in the process, providing an overview of the design choices involved and of their potential consequences. [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]

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]

There is a growing tendency for users to expect conversational agents (CAs) to recognise social cues and follow interpersonal communication principles to enhance their subjective evaluation. Therefore, this paper studies how personal pronouns should be used by CAs in response to users. We conducted a 3 (CAs' personal pronoun) × 3 (users' personal pronoun) × 2 (participants'gender) mixed design. this study used mixed methods based on an experimental design, including ratings, forced choices and interviews, for mutual confirmation. The findings indicate that first, users prefer that CAs use second-person pronouns. Second, there is also turn-taking and convergence tendency between users and CAs in personal pronoun use. Third, there are gender differences in personal pronoun preferences and relationship positions toward CAs. These results can inform personalised voice interaction and humanlike design and help build closer relationships between users and CAs in future human–computer interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been increasingly utilised in mobile shopping apps to enhance consumers' mobile shopping experiences, thereby affecting consumers' impulse buying behaviour. Drawing upon the Spatial Presence Theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the current study aims to empirically investigate AR-related factors (vividness, spatial accuracy, local presence) and their impacts on impulse buying behaviour related factors (arousal, perceived diagnosticity, and urge to buy impulsively) in the context of AR mobile shopping apps. In this study, an experiment employing a full 2X2 factorial between-subject experimental design was carried out. There were a total of 137 participants actively involved in this experiment. The data analysis results and findings, along with the implications of this study, are provided in the paper. [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]

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]

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]

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]

The relation between affect-driven feedback and engagement on a given task has been largely investigated. This relation can be used to make personalised instructional decisions and/or modify the affect content within the feedback. However, although it is generally assumed that providing encouraging feedback to students should help them adopt a state of flow, there are instances where those messages might result counterproductive. In this paper, we present a case study with 48 secondary school students using an Intelligent Tutoring System for arithmetical word problem solving. This system, which makes some common assumptions on how to relate affective state with performance, takes into account subjective (user's affective state) and objective information (previous problem performance) to decide the upcoming difficulty levels and the type of affective feedback to be delivered. Surprisingly, results revealed that feedback was more effective when no emotional content was included, and lead to the conclusion that purely instructional and concise help messages are more important than the emotional reinforcement contained therein. This finding shows that this is still an open issue. Different settings present different constraints generating related compounding factors that affect obtained results. This research confirms that new approaches are required to determine when, how and where affect-driven feedback is needed. Affect-driven feedback, engagement and their mutual relation have been largely investigated. Student's interactions combined with their emotional state can be used to make personalised instructional decisions and/or modify the affect content within the feedback, aiming to entice engagement on the task. However, although it is generally assumed that providing encouraging feedback to the students should help them adopt a state of flow, there are instances where those encouraging messages might result counterproductive. In this paper, we analyze these issues in terms of a case study with 48 secondary school students using an Intelligent Tutoring System for arithmetical word problem solving. This system, which makes some common assumptions on how to relate affective state with performance, takes into account subjective (user's affective state) and objective (previous problem performance) information to decide the difficulty level of the next exercise and the type of affective feedback to be delivered. Surprisingly, findings revealed that feedback was more effective when no emotional content was included in the messages, and lead to the conclusion that purely instructional and concise help messages are more important than the emotional reinforcement contained therein. This finding, which coincides with related work, shows that this is still an open issue. Different settings present different constraints and there are related compounding factors that affect obtained results, such as the message's contents and their target, how to measure the effect of the message on engagement through affective variables considering other issues involved, and to what extent engagement can be manipulated solely in terms of affective feedback. The contribution here is that this research confirms that new approaches are needed to determine when, how and where affect-driven feedback is needed. In particular, based on our previous experience in developing educational recommender systems, we suggest the combination of user-centred design methodologies with data mining methods to yield a more effective feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present ArmMenu, a command input approach for distant displays. ArmMenu has a circular interface like pie menus and menu selection is performed by proprioception-based lateral arm movements. We implemented ArmMenu with an off-the-shelf body tracking device (Kinect) and conducted two experiments to validate its efficacy. In the first experiment, we explored the design space of ArmMenu by varying the number of menu items, with exposed or hidden menu modes. Users can operate up to 8-item menus with high selection accuracy (>98%). ArmMenu was fast and accurate even with the hidden menu mode. The second experiment compared the performance of ArmMenu and touchless marking menus. While having similar selection accuracy, ArmMenu was faster and more preferable by users. Our studies consequently demonstrate ArmMenu's effectiveness for command input on distant displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual reality (VR) study was conducted both in our lab setting and remotely to investigate the effects of virtual hand appearance and tactile feedback on ownership, external appearance, and tactile sensation embodiment dimensions when participants were instructed to perform an assembly task in a virtual environment. Six experimental conditions that combine hand appearances (abstract, mannequin, and realistic) and tactile feedback (tactile and no tactile) levels were examined. The results of our study indicated that: (1) the more realistic hand had a stronger effect on tactile sensation and external appearance, while the mannequin hand was associated with a greater ownership effect; (2) tactile feedback was associated with a stronger effect on external appearance compared to no tactile feedback; (3) the realistic hand model in conjunction with tactile feedback significantly affected the tactile sensation of the participants; (4) the participants in the lab setting rated the external appearance of the realistic hand model higher than the remote participants; (5) the participants exposed for less than one hour per week to VR rated the tactile sensation in the presence of tactile feedback higher, while they similarly rated the external appearance of the virtual hand model in the presence of a realistic hand model higher when compared to those who were exposed for more than one hour per week to VR; and finally, (6) the younger participants rated the tactile sensation higher than the older participants in the presence of the realistic hand model. In this paper, we discuss our findings and provide design considerations for virtual reality applications that consider virtual hands and tactile feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While video games can be helpful in personal development, participating in certain gaming activities may lead to negative effects such as video game addiction. The overuse of computer games, which can lead to reduced quality of life and affect a person's practical skills. Around 3% of adolescents suffer from Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), there is currently no universally accepted psychometric method. The AICA-S scale was applied to results from 3,901 respondents aged between 11 and 19. During the 2017/2018 school year, a battery of questionnaires in "pen and paper" form was administered to students at primary schools and secondary schools. The respondents were selected from all the regions of the Czech Republic through a random stratified selection to ensure that the respondents were an accurate representation of students across the Czech Republic. The results were obtained using statistical methods such as ANOVA, chi-square tests and t-tests. These results affirm the psychometric quality of AICA-S and note the prevalence of IGD among Czech adolescents. Based on our results, 0.8% of our respondents fulfilled the criteria for an IGD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a descriptive global index for eye-tracking data called heatmap entropy, or visual attention entropy (VAE), and discerns its predictive value for webpage aesthetics. VAE represents the chaos, or uncertainty, in the allocation of visual attention. In the experiment, we tracked and recorded 30 observers' initial landings on 40 web pages displayed for 3 seconds each. The results show that the VAE and aesthetic ratings of the web pages are negatively correlated ( r = − 0.54 , P < 0.001). A calibrated form of VAE, known as relative VAE (rVAE), has a more significant correlation with the aesthetic ratings ( r = − 0.65 , P < 0.00001). On its own, the rVAE can differentiate between good- and bad-looking pages to a certain degree of accuracy (two-class ANOVA with F = 26.84 , P < 0.00001). Further investigation reveals that the performances of both VAE and rVAE improve steadily after the first second, and could be better, if the tracking duration was longer than 3 seconds or if more observers were recruited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navigating a car in an unfamiliar country becomes one of the major concerns with driving safety. Existing studies mainly used survey, focus group and statistical analysis to study this problem. Although the navigation system (e.g. GPS) gains an advantage in providing navigation assistances, paper maps and particularly internet maps are one of major ways for navigating in an unfamiliar area. This study is one of a few experimental studies which addressed a typical multitasking driving behaviour (driving and navigation task) in a cross-culture context. Twenty-four native American-English speakers navigated a driving simulator in urban environments which involved three formats of language settings of the street signs (English, Chinese or no street signs) and two types of map orientation consistency (driving from south to north vs. driving from north to south with a north-up map). It was found that female drivers made more wrong turns only with Chinese street signs but not in the other two conditions compared to male drivers. This indicated that female drivers actually behaved differently from male drivers in an unfamiliar driving environment with unfamiliar street names language. Both male and female drivers benefited from English street signs and reported higher driver workload with Chinese street signs. Interestingly, the average glance duration of maps with Chinese street signs was significantly less than that with English street signs, indicating that even though Chinese language belongs to ideograph with graphical information, its graphical information was not that helpful in assisting navigation task. In addition, female drivers had more instances of collisions with other vehicles, a longer distance of deviation from central line position, higher driver workload and a longer time period of map glance duration. For the main effect of map consistency, drivers made more wrong turns and perceived higher driving workload when they drove with inconsistent maps. Further implications of the current study in transportation safety of globalisation were also discussed, including improvement of street sign infrastructures and optimal ways of using and designing internet maps for drivers navigating in an unfamiliar country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of goal awareness and IT self-efficacy on job satisfaction based on the motivation sequence model, goal-setting theory, and social cognitive theory. Using a large-scale field survey of healthcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) system users (n = 352), this study investigates these relationships and provides important insight to healthcare ERP system researchers and managers. Both goal awareness and IT self-efficacy influence positive job satisfaction of healthcare ERP system users, as expected. Furthermore, the influence of goal awareness is stronger when the role of ERP systems is highly perceived for decision-making of the job. There was no interaction effect between goal awareness and IT self-efficacy in thepost hocanalysis. The model is significantly supported by the empirical test with the large number of field data from healthcare ERP system users in the healthcare company. Practical and academic implications are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the use of smartphones vs. laptops influences students' engagement, behaviour and experience watching academic videos in a collaborative classroom. Experiments were run in authentic teaching sessions with a total of 483 first-year higher education students. The methodology applied is a quasi-experimental design with post-test-only, being the independent variable, the device used to visualise the academic videos. Results indicate that the use of laptops has provided better results in terms of student's engagement with the videos, their collaborative behaviour and satisfaction with the device. Hence, the findings of this research suggest that the type of mobile device used in activities that consider the use of videos in a collaborative class need to be carefully chosen to maximise the student's comfortability – and in consequence, their engagement with the video-based learning activity and their positive behaviour and experience within the collaborative context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, website aesthetics has received a fair amount of attention from the HCI community. This has led to the creation of a variety of multi-item questionnaires aimed at capturing users' aesthetic judgments. Researchers have used these questionnaires in several HCI studies to investigate the relationship between aesthetics and other evaluative constructs such as usability. However, their usefulness as evaluation tools in visual design practice remains underexplored. Lengthy multi-item questionnaires can be particularly problematic especially in studies where participants must evaluate multiple designs or when they are required to give responses repeatedly in predefined time intervals. Despite the criticism, single-item scales have been used in many past studies in which questionnaire length could be problematic. Another alternative available to practitioners/researchers are short versions of standardised multi-item questionnaires that have been created for the aesthetic evaluations of websites. In this paper, we present a study in which we compare the performance of three such condensed aesthetic questionnaires (i.e. aesthetics scale, AttrakDiff, VisAWI) during a website redesign project. The short versions of those questionnaires were used by 187 users during an evaluation of 7 alternative website designs. The questionnaires were compared on performance criteria such as reliability, validity, and predictive ability. Data analysis showed that although AttrakDiff's overall performance was better, a considerable amount of variance in aesthetic judgment could not be accounted for by any of the questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication in Online Distance Learning courses revolves around two distinct forms: synchronous and asynchronous. A lot of work has been already developed focused on better understanding the roles that each of these forms of communication plays in Distance Learning and to which extent they are sufficient to provide rich and in-depth interaction experience for students and professors. The present paper focuses on better understanding the perceptions of Online Distance Learning students and supervisors about communication tools available for them during the Final Year Project supervision (FYP). A total of 262 students and 62 professors were surveyed about their impressions related to three different aspects of communication during FYP distance supervision: preferences for one form of communication over the other (synchronous versus asynchronous), appropriateness of both forms of communication to different types of discussions, and the sufficiency of these forms of communication as the sole forms of communication in the FYP discipline. Among other things, results point out an explicit preference from students and supervisors for using the asynchronous form throughout the discipline (even though the synchronous form also received good ratings). Moreover, both forms of communication were more used by students and supervisors for the discussion of academic and important topics. At last, both students and supervisors consider distance supervision as efficient as face-to-face supervision, and less experienced students consider more important to have face-to-face meetings with their supervisors than more experienced students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people interact with digital artefacts they perceive theirpragmaticandhedonic qualities. In the case of interacting with mobile devices and applications, users seek utility as they try to satisfy certain needs, but at the same time they have certain feelings and emotions when, for example, they feel attached to their personal phone and/or trust its brand. Due to this strong relation between users and mobile devices a significant problem occurs when researchers want to evaluate the user experience of a mobile application in laboratory settings: the selection of an appropriate mobile device. Towards this end, this paper aims to unveil the effect of perceivedhedonic qualityof a mobile device on the user experience evaluation results of an application. Our results show that the perceivedhedonic qualityof a mobile device significantly affected the perceivedpragmaticquality of the application, but not thehedonicone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Extant research has focused on monitoring the behaviour of people who use mobile banking (MB) but it has paid little attention to understanding the impact of information technology usage behaviour due to cultural differences. Humans are the weakest link in information technology adoption; past research has shown that not all users are predisposed to change their behaviour radically and adopt new channels of banking. This paper examines the demographic patterns of users and non-users of MB. The paper also investigates the attitudinal influences of users and non-users of MB based on innovation attributes. Using empirical research, the study identifies constructs of innovation attributes that were perceived to be significantly different among the users and non-users of MB. The study provides valuable insights into MB in Saudi Arabia that have not been previously investigated. From a practical point, findings of this study will be particularly useful to banks, financial institutions and telecommunication service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dance has universally been used as a form of human expression for thousands of years. This common human behaviour and communication method has not been explored much in the context of computer-based technology, even within the field of virtual human research. This paper presents an experimental study investigating the impact of watching dancing virtual characters on human emotions. The study analysed the responses of 55 participants, composed of a mix of dancers and non-dancers, who watched a dancing virtual character perform 3 different dances that represented anger, sadness and happiness in different display orders. The participants’ reported changes in their emotions and their feelings of anger, sadness and happiness were significantly dependent on which dancing character’s emotion they watched and the emotional change did not rely on correct recognition of the depicted emotion. For experimental control, our characters were faceless and danced without music. Our results suggest that just by watching a dancing virtual character some of the benefits associated with dancing could be accessed in circumstances where it is not desirable or feasible to dance, justifying further research to develop a personalised character with a face and music that adapts according to the humans’ emotions and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A tracking state increases the bandwidth of pen-based interfaces. However, this state is difficult to detect with default visual feedback. This paper reports on two experiments that are designed to evaluate multimodal feedback for pointing tasks (both 1D and 2D) in tracking state. In 1D pointing experiments, results show that there is a significant effect for input types on movement time while feedback type and the use of different hands for receiving feedback (i.e. the dominant or non-preferred hand) do not affect movement time significantly. We also report that there is a significant effect for feedback types and input device types on error rate while the choice of hand (used for detecting feedback vibrations) does not affect the error rate significantly. In the 2D pointing experiment, results show that there are no significant effects for either input type or the use of different hands on movement time while feedback type affects movement time significantly. Results for both the 1D and 2D pointing tasks show that tactile plus visual feedback can improve accuracy and audio is not efficient to give user feedback in tracking state. This paper proposes several guidelines for feedback design in tracking state. We believe these results can aid designers of pen-based interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Security and privacy policies address consumer concerns related to security and privacy in e-commerce websites. As these policies represent only the vendor’s perspective, often there exists a mismatch between the stated and desired policy. Based on transaction cost theory, we speculate that business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce customers use their transaction cost savings in order to obtain varying levels of security and privacy. These differences are bound to be reflected in the security and privacy policies of e-commerce companies. Therefore, in this paper, we perform a comparative content analysis of the security and privacy policies in B2C and B2B e-commerce. Results show that B2B vendors are more concerned about security than their B2C counterparts, while B2C vendors are anxious about intimacy and restriction privacy. Our findings have important implications for e-commerce consumers and vendors as individual and corporate consumers have varying concerns while transacting online. Individual consumers are concerned about maintaining security and intimacy privacy, whereas corporate users are anxious about regulatory issues. Therefore, B2C vendors should incorporate stringent measures dedicated to confidentiality and protection of consumer data as well as enhance intimacy privacy in their security policies, while their B2B counterparts should focus on enhancing restriction privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes an experimental investigation that tested the impact of the aesthetic impression on approach and avoidance behaviour by measuring relevant behavioural variables while interacting with websites. These variables included dwell time, number of retrieved web pages and reading time proportion. This approach extends previous research that primarily used surveys as the data collection method. Two levels of experiencing aesthetics were integrated into the research set-up: the first measures the reflective aesthetic appreciation and the second captures the immediate affective visual impression, the latter being operationalised through an affective priming experiment. Seventy participants took part in the main experiment and explored 10 real stimulus websites. Results showed that participants stayed significantly longer, retrieved more web pages and spent more time reading on websites that they preferred in their aesthetic impression. Aesthetics on the web are thus revealed to be of behavioural relevance. Effect sizes indicate only small to medium effects though. No statement is possible concerning the respective share of the two levels of aesthetic processing in this effect, because the study did not successfully delineate the effectiveness of affective and reflective aesthetic experiences in the course of exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some studies show that the Twitter's growth is leveling off and that its marketing has become ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to analyse what is needed for microblogs’ perpetuation. Factors such as message quality, source credibility, perceived usefulness, perceived interactivity, perceived playfulness, confirmation, and satisfaction were tested for their impact on continuance intention. A post-acceptance model of microblog continuance was proposed based on information system continuance model. We found that continuance intention to use microblogs is greatly affected by satisfaction, which in turn is affected by perceived interactivity and perceived usefulness, but satisfaction is not affected by confirmation or perceived playfulness. Although confirmation has no direct effect on satisfaction, it affects perceived interactivity and perceived usefulness, which in turn affect satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in display devices are facilitating the integration of stereoscopic visualisation in our daily lives. However, autostereoscopic visualisation has not been extensively exploited. In this paper, we present a system that combines augmented reality (AR) and autostereoscopic visualisation. We also present the first study that compares different aspects using an autostereoscopic display with AR and virtual reality (VR), in which 39 children from 8 to 10 years old participated. In our study, no statistically significant differences were found between AR and VR. However, the scores were very high in nearly all of the questions, and the children also scored the AR version higher in all cases. Moreover, the children explicitly preferred the AR version (81%). For the AR version, a strong and significant correlation was found between the use of the autostereoscopic screen in games and seeing the virtual object on the marker. For the VR version, two strong and significant correlations were found. The first correlation was between the ease of play and the use of the rotatory controller. The second correlation was between depth perception and the game global score. Therefore, the combinations of AR and VR with autostereoscopic visualisation are possibilities for developing edutainment systems for children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The fast aging of many western and eastern societies and their increasing reliance on information technology create a compelling need to reconsider older users' interactions with computers. Changes in perceptual and motor skill abilities that often accompany the aging process have important implications for the design of information input devices. This paper summarises the results of two comparative studies on information input with 90 subjects aged between 20 and 75 years. In the first study, three input devices – mouse, touch screen and eye-gaze control – were analysed concerning efficiency, effectiveness and subjective task difficulty with respect to the age group of the computer user. In the second study, an age-differentiated analysis of hybrid user interfaces for input confirmation was conducted combining eye-gaze control with additional input devices. Input confirmation was done with the space bar of a PC keyboard, speech input or a foot pedal. The results of the first study show that regardless of participants' age group, the best performance in terms of short execution time results from touch screen information input. This effect is even more pronounced for the elderly. Regarding the hybrid interfaces, the lowest mean execution time, error rate and task difficulty were found for the combination of eye-gaze control with the space bar. In conclusion, we recommend using direct input devices, particularly a touch screen, for the elderly. For user groups with severe motor impairments, we suggest eye-gaze information input. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technology acceptance theories predict user intentions to use services tailored for organisational needs. However, in this paper, we postulate that the aforementioned theories do not apply when investigating intentions towards the use of mobile data services (MDS), as the latter encompasses supplementary characteristics, such as fun and enjoyment, which are not taken into account under available models of user acceptance. The incorporation of the affective dimension is proposed by reintroducing the Triandis theory of human behaviour to the MDS domain. A web-based survey (N = 219) was conducted to investigate our research hypotheses and validate our model of MDS usage intention. Results showed that the MDS usage intention can be predicted by cognitive and affective factors under the lens of social influences. Additionally, the main antecedents of MDS actual use are perceived usefulness, perceived value and intention to use MDS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws from cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience to develop a preliminary similarity-choice theory of how people allocate attention among information patches on webpages while completing search tasks in complex informational websites. Study 1 applied stepwise multiple regression to a large dataset and showed that success rate for web navigation tasks approaches 100% if a single information patch is highly similar in meaning to the user goal, and success rate falls dramatically if two or more information patches compete for the user's attention and if only one contains a link that leads to accomplishing the search goal. Study 2 (n = 82) manipulated the independent variables task difficulty and website design and found statistically significant differences in success rate for both main effects and the interaction. Study 2 also found that the distribution of attention among available information patches was strongly determined by the rank ordering of semantic similarity between user goal and information patch but was not influenced by website designs with very different visual layouts. While these results offer verification of a similarity-choice theory of attention to information patches, caution is warranted in generalising too broadly from these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designers of in-vehicle computing systems must consider which input devices are most suitable for use in the safety-critical driving situation. This paper describes a study aiming to establish which tasks are best supported by an in-vehicle touchpad system. Eighteen participants (50:50 right/left handed) drove three routes in a right-hand drive simulator while following a lead vehicle at a perceived safe distance. At specific points, participants were asked to carry out seven tasks of varying qualities using a prototype touchpad system, a touchscreen or a rotary controller interface. Results indicated that participants were most negative (in terms of preferences and performance) with the rotary controller interface. Conversely, the results for the touchpad versus the touchscreen interfaces were clearly task dependent. For instance, with the touchpad, subjective opinions and objective performance were most positive for tasks in which simple commands enabled drivers to bypass the need for complex menu interactions (e.g. changing the interior temperature). In contrast, results for the touchscreen were evidently superior for simple menu selection tasks (e.g. selecting a preset radio station). Conclusions are drawn regarding the nature of tasks that are best suited to alternative input devices within vehicles and the potential for a touchpad/touchscreen solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of website usability in a B2C electronic commerce environment. The authors identify dimensions of website usability that have been examined in the literature and integrate those usability dimensions within an electronic commerce acceptance model using an e-commerce simulation. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationship between several website usability and e-commerce variables (design credibility, content, interactivity, navigability, responsiveness, download delay, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and satisfaction with design) as well as trust, perceived risk, and intention to transact. The results demonstrate that website usability does influence several outcomes that are important for businesses to attract and retain customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authentication process is the first line of defence against potential impostors, and therefore is an important concern when protecting personal and organisational data. Although there are many options to authenticate digital users, passwords remain the most common authentication mechanism. However, with password numbers increasing, many users struggle with remembering multiple passwords, which affects their security behaviour. Previous researchers and practitioners have attempted to suggest ways to improve password memorability and security simultaneously. We introduce novel approach that utilises colour as a memory cue to increase password memorability and security. A longitudinal study examined in total over 3000 passwords that were created, learnt and recalled (password process) over a period of five-weeks. By adding colour to the password process, our results suggest that password memorability and security can be increased simultaneously. Through giving the user the option of choosing the colours (compared with colours being preselected), encourages users to create more personal and meaningful memory cues when creating their passwords. Additionally, colour also provided another security parameter by increasing password entropy. These unique results have practical implications for researchers and practitioners that could positively impact password security, and the financial losses suffered due to password security breaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated vehicles (AVs) enable driver-passengers to perform non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). However, it remains unclear if and how they would engage with NDRTs. Therefore, we developed a questionnaire on NDRTs, the QNDRT, for SAE Level 3 (L3) and 5 (L5) driving automation. It comprises 24 items with a general NDRT Work subscale querying general aspects of working while driving in an AV (8 items; L3: 4 items, L5: 4) and a specific NDRT Communication subscale assessing different communication modalities (16 items; L3: 8, L5: 8). Hence, we carried out a cross-sectional questionnaire study and queried 725 participants (351 female, 374 male) from 18 to 96 years. We applied factor analyses and extracted a stable unidimensional factor structure for both NDRT subscales with good psychometric properties (e.g. high and clear factor loadings; satisfactory communalities, item discrimination, and internal consistency). The initial findings revealed that significantly smaller values were assigned to both subscale factors by participants older than 55 years in contrast to younger ones and by women when compared to men. The QNDRT can be used in future (quasi-)experimental L3 and L5 studies and in population surveys to obtain more insight into working and communicating while driving in an AV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates assistant nurses' views on and needs for orientation to care robot use in three European countries. The use of care robots is gradually being incorporated into welfare services. Orientation to care robot use (in short, introduction to the use of the care robot technology) has thus become a key issue for care services. A survey was sent to assistant nurses in Finland, Germany, and Sweden, to which 302 participants responded (Finland n = 117; Germany n = 73; Sweden n = 112). Only 11.3% of assistant nurses had experience of giving orientation to care robot use to older adults or colleagues, but over 50% were willing to do so. Those with experience of using care robots should take part in orientation. Orientation to care robot use should be seen as part of care management and an issue that may affect the whole organisation. Management should, firstly, allow assistant nurses to get to know care robots by offering information, and secondly, consider with the assistant nurses the ways care robots can change their work and the implications of this change. Emphasising the social factors and practical orientation to care robot use extends the previous theories and perspectives of technology acceptance, adoption and diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explosion of information and the miniaturisation of mobile devices seems to be an oxymoron. A large amount of information means a wider information space, and a smaller screen means a more limited display capacity. 'Small screen-big information' can often be disorienting, especially for older adults. Treating it as navigation in information space, we explored solutions in terms of spatial cognition and gesture motor control. First, we introduce a concept from cognitive psychology, visual momentum (VM). In terms of gesture control, we propose the device-based method that differs from traditional touch-based methods. To test their roles, two experiments were conducted among 30 older adults and comparatively tested 30 younger adults. Experiment 1 examined the contribution of high VM and a device-based method. Experiment 2 further examined an important property of view translation, smoothness, in touch-based and device-based methods. Results show that increasing the VM by adding grids and using a device-based method can help users find targets faster and more accurately, which is particularly effective for the older group. Meanwhile, differences in navigation strategies between touch-based and device-based methods were proposed. Finally, the smoothness of a device-based method in visual information processing is also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulty balance in the game level design is particularly important for user experience (UX). This study uses cognitive control and flow theory as a starting point, and based on the functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology, this research obtained oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (ΔHbO2) signals from three brain areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the ventral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), and the frontal area (FPA). Combined with the subjective flow state scale to explore the reaction difference between the video game players (VGPs) and the non-video game players (NVGPs) during the entire period of playing video games and the moment of game difficulty changes. The results show that VGPs and NVGPs have significant differences between flow state and HbO2 signals in different brain regions of the PFC. The players' flow state is affected by the game difficulty. The HbO2 signals in the players' DLPFC and FPA have a linear dependence relation with the flow state. This research proves that VGPs and NVGPs have different UX with game difficulty changes from the cognitive perspective. The results provide a reference for the future game level design about game difficulty balance to achieve a better UX in the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores reliance behaviours of decision-makers using a decision aid. Objective and subjective task characteristics in the form of task complexity and task difficulty, respectively, are examined, along with the effect of the individual characteristic of expertise. A total of 130 subjects (65 novices and 65 experienced practitioners) completed a lab experiment using a decision aid (Insolve-DG) to help them make decisions for two insolvency tasks with differing levels of complexity. The research finds that the objective task characteristic (task complexity) and individual characteristic (expertise) both affect reliance behaviours; however, their effects are fully mediated by the subjective task characteristic (task difficulty). Expertise and task complexity are both associated with the degree of task difficulty experienced by an individual user: increasing task complexity increases task difficulty, and increasing expertise reduces task difficulty. Task difficulty and task complexity are established as different constructs; and importantly it is task difficulty, not task complexity, that ultimately affects reliance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research Question: Is social media activity related to layers of intimacy in social relationships? Study design: Mixed methods, survey on social relationships with 30 participants who identified up to 20 best/close friends and their use of social media. The same 30 participants were interviewed to gather details of how they communicated with close and best friends, and how they used social media/CMC to maintain their social relationships. Analysis: communication frequency, content and rationale were classified according to the intimacy of relationships between the ego and recipients as best or close friends. Results: Communication with best friends was either face to face or by conversational media (phone, text) in both normal use and emergencies. Emotional support and intimate topics dominated these exchanges. Communication with close friends used broadcast social media (Facebook), text and phone. Face to Face (FtF), phone and text were preferred by the majority of participants for social relationship maintenance. Implications: Dyadic (person to person) communication face to face and via social media, phone and text are vital to provide social and emotional support in intimate social relationships. Social media in particular Facebook broadcast functions play a role in supporting awareness of both intimate and less intimate social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When anger is abruptly triggered during driving, it becomes difficult to control one's feelings. In this situation, other people can help mediate the angry emotional state through social interaction. However, it is not feasible to expect a passenger's help for controlling the driver's anger during every single drive. Failure to control the driver's anger can lead to road rage, which can cause a critical danger. In this study, we addressed these concerns by designing and evaluating a driving companion bot that helps drivers control their anger. The bot was designed to deliver verbal comments which was developed based on five different cognitive coping strategies to the driver when the driver faced anger-inducing situations while driving. A within-subjects lab experiment was conducted with 38 participants who had driver's licences. The results indicated that the use of a blaming others coping strategy was the most effective for anger reduction, perceived empathy, and companionship with no additional cognitive load compared to other strategies. Feedback from a post-experiment interview was also presented to discuss the long-term application of the study results. This includes theoretical findings and practical implications for designers and stakeholders focused on safe driving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive difficulties associated with dyslexia persist into adulthood but insights into their impact in employment settings are lacking. A virtual office environment was used to assess two areas of cognition frequently called upon in the workplace, executive function and prospective memory. Eight adults with dyslexia and 27 adults without dyslexia were tested on a virtual office task. They read a scenario describing their new role in an office and were given tasks to complete. The group with dyslexia performed worse overall. On the individual performance measures, the group with dyslexia scored lower on the selective-thinking and planning measures of executive function and also performed worse on two of the three prospective memory measures, namely event-based and time-based prospective memory. The findings indicate how dyslexia can affect workplace cognition, identifying areas in which support might be needed and highlighting areas of relative strength which might be harnessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gender role stereotypes activated in interactions with humanoid robots has yet to produce conclusive knowledge. To analyse how much, and in which way, gender role stereotypes used in interactions with humans are also called into play in interactions with humanoid robots, a study was conducted with 240 participants. The study was an online survey in which a scale was used for determining the appropriateness for performing four stereotypically masculine and four feminine by humans and robots. Overall, eight humanoid robots – four judged feminine and four masculine – were considered. Results showed that gender role stereotypes are activated for both genders, but men most strongly activate those pertaining to male roles. These stereotypes are also adopted in reference to humanoid robots, though robots are generally considered less suitable for performing female roles. Furthermore, an increased degree of similarity of robots to humans has a positive effect in assessing the appropriateness to perform female roles only for female robots. The same does not happen with male robots. These results suggest that male and female robots are not categorised in the same way. Robots are essentially perceived as male entities, a particularly relevant hypothesis for the gender-sensitive design of humanoid robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This field experiment aimed to address the issue of problematic smartphone usage (PSU) by examining the effectiveness of two frequently advised techniques to deal with PSU: moving problematic applications to a different page of the phone and changing the phone into greyscale. For one week, 97 student participants used their smartphone under one of the following three conditions: move app, greyscale, or control condition. Compared to the week before the intervention, participants significantly reduced their objective smartphone usage, but their self-reported PSU increased. These effects also emerged in the control group, which might have been due to heightened awareness of the participants of their smartphone usage. A major implication of the study is the need of using multiple outcome measures to understand the complex relationship between perceptions and behaviour. This study could be used as a blueprint for future research examining the effectiveness of interventions in the field of PSU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to coping theory, individuals cope with information system threats by adopting either problem-focused coping (PFC) or emotion-focused coping (EFC). However, little is known about EFC in the information security (ISec) literature. Moreover, there is potential confusion regarding the meaning of some EFC strategies. Hence, ISec scholars and practitioners may (i) have a narrow view of EFC or (ii) confuse it with other concepts. In this study, we offer one response to this issue. We first address the ambiguity regarding EFC before differentiating five inward EFC strategies and assessing them empirically in the mobile malware context. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to compare several inward EFC strategies in the ISec field.We contribute two new findings on EFC: 1) response efficacy is a crucial factor that impedes users from implementing EFC strategies; 2) avoidance and fatalism significantly impede PFC. Our study also contributes to the ISec literature by categorising EFC into active and passive forms. We showed that individuals' use of passive inward EFC strategies was positively associated with threat vulnerability. Finally, we provide interesting insights into the complicated responses of individuals to mobile malware threats, presenting implications for ISec research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]