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This chapter reviews relevant research on emotion, focusing on aspects of emotion that are most relevant to human factors design. The review begins with a discussion of basic emotion concepts, such as low-level positive and negative affect; emotion dimensions of arousal and valence; and prototypical emotions, such as anger, happiness, and fear. The interaction between emotion processing and cognitive processes, such as attention, perception, and decision making, is also discussed. After a review of the nature of emotion, the problem of measuring emotions is considered. Available techniques for emotion measurement are surveyed, and recommendations are made concerning which techniques should be used in different contexts and interactive settings. Novel measures are also introduced for assessing variability in emotional experience and for measuring emotional expressiveness. After laying the intellectual groundwork for understanding the nature of emotional interaction and its measurement, the chapter then shifts to exploring the implications of emotional processing for the design of interactive systems. Affective designs are reviewed in the following domains: consumer products, health care, and robots. The chapter concludes with presentation of an initial set of guidelines relating to the design of interactive systems that take into account emotional processing. The material presented in this chapter is highly relevant to human factors engineering because knowledge of emotional processing and how it affects the state of operators or users and their performance can lead to more usable, effective, efficient, and satisfying interaction.

Requirements analysis defines the goals and evaluation criteria of system design. We introduce a methodology for requirements analysis for customization based on large sample interactive testing, with the premise that analysis of user behaviour with prototypes leads to requirements discoveries. The methodology uses a relatively large sample (1) to identify relevant user subgroups, (2) to observe significant empirically determined group differences in the context of task and tool use and (3) to estimate the groups’ different requirements and derive design implications. Between 20 and 50 participants are used per test, rather than the three to five often recommended for user testing. Statistical relationships are investigated between subgroups in terms of background variables, questionnaire items, performance data, and coded verbal statements. Customization requirements are inferred from the significant differences observed between empirically determined groups. The methodological framework is illustrated in a case study involving the use of clinical resources on handheld devices by three groups of physicians. The groups were found to have different needs and preferences for evidence-based resources and device form factor, implying opportunities and necessities for group customization requirements. Relevance to industry In safety-critical domains such as health care, it is essential to assess user needs and preferences regarding devices and systems to inform appropriate customizations. We present a methodological framework and case study that demonstrates how large sample user testing can supplement typical methods of requirements analysis to provide contextualized, quantitative accounts of group differences and customization requirements.

Emotional reactions are increasingly recognized as an important part of experiences with technology, and there is a need for rigorous investigation into the collection of self-reported emotional data. We examine the capture of continuous, quantitative, affective self-reports as a complement to existing methods of evaluating human-system or product interaction. This experiment investigated 12 participants' use of a single slider (for valence, from very negative to very positive) and two sliders (for valence and arousal) in response to approximately 45 minutes of a nature video. Individual differences and physiological data (heart rate variability and skin conductance) were recorded. Emotion ratings were significantly related to skin conductance, which both differed significantly across chapters with different video content. We observed a learning effect, where participants' response times to probe questions decreased across blocks. Cognitive load appeared higher in the two-slider condition, with a possibly larger learning effect, and significantly longer dwell times, when compared to one slider. Arousal self-ratings were contradicted by skin conductance measures. We conclude with recommendations concerning the use of sliders for assessment of emotional user experience.

The rapid development of blogs as a social networking tool has greatly increased the number of people who are expressing themselves in text published online. As yet little is known about the social psychology of online interaction using recently developed Web 2.0 functionalities. To what extent do principles of social psychology carry over into the online domain and how can appropriate use of those principles assist in activities such as community building, e-commerce, marketing, and personalization of services? There would seem to be a large number of novel research questions that can be posed with respect to online interaction. One pertinent question concerns the extent to which compatibility of personality influences online interaction. We investigated this question in terms of hypotheses derived from the personality research literature, using a two-part experiment. In the first study, eight participants wrote blogs in two distinct genres (personal diaries and commentaries) and rated their own personalities. In the second study 12 different participants judged the personality of authors as implied in the blog texts created in the first study. Those participants also completed a personality questionnaire and rated their attraction to the blog text author. Readers of the blog corpus were able to consistently judge the personality of the writers based solely on the text that they wrote. Moreover, they followed a well-established social rule regarding interpersonal attraction in real-life interaction. Blog readers were significantly more attracted to blog writers with more similar personalities-offering support that in a blog environment, ''birds of a feather flock together.'' Emotion word use in the blog corpus correlated with writer's personality, suggesting that online personality may be signalled by linguistic cues. The two most popular genres of blog writing, personal journal and commentary, differed in how accurately readers judged author personality traits. Based on the results obtained it is suggested that personality is an important determinant and that further research on how people communicate with blogs will be relevant to social network analysis and to marketing.

Web 2.0 tools in general, and Web video in particular, provide new ways for activists to express their viewpoints to a broad audience. In this paper we deployed tools that have been used to find subgroups automatically in social networks and applied them to the problem of distinguishing between two sides of a controversial issue based on patterns of online interaction. We explored the problem of distinguishing between anti- and pro-vaccination activists based on a social network of videos and associated comments posted on YouTube. Videos for the analysis were selected by submitting the term “vaccination” to a search on YouTube. A content analysis of the selected videos was then performed (Keelan et al, 2007) to classify videos as pro- or anti-vaccination. Then, a modified version of the SCAN method (Chin and Chignell, 2008) for identifying cohesive subgroups in social networks was applied to the social network inferred from the discussions about the videos. Results showed that a cohesive subgroup of anti-vaccination people existed in discussions around anti-vaccination videos, whereas discussions around pro-vaccination videos included both anti-vaccination and pro-vaccination people. Implications of the method and results for more general delineation of types of medical activism and the opposing camps within those camps are discussed.

As a first step in the development of community trackers for large-scale online interaction, this paper shows how cohesive subgroup analysis using the Social Cohesion Analysis of Networks (SCAN; Chin and Chignell 2008) and Data-Intensive Socially Similar Evolving Community Tracker (DISSECT; Chin and Chignell 2010) methods can be applied to the problem of identifying cohesive subgroups and tracking them over time. Three case studies are reported, and the findings are used to evaluate how well the SCAN and DISSECT methods work for different types of data. In the largest of the case studies, variations in temporal cohesiveness are identified across a set of subgroups extracted from the inferred social network. Further modifications to the DISSECT methodology are suggested based on the results obtained. The paper concludes with recommendations concerning further research that would be beneficial in addressing the community tracking problem for online data.

The problem of identifying cohesive subgroups in social hypertext is reviewed. A computationally efficient three-step framework for identifying cohesive subgroups is proposed, referred to as the Social Cohesion Analysis of Networks (SCAN) method. In the first step of this method (Select), people within a social network are screened using a level of network centrality to select possible subgroup members. In the second step (Collect), the people selected in the first step are collected into subgroups identified at each point in time using hierarchical cluster analysis. In the third step (Choose), similarity modeling is used to choose cohesive subgroups based on the similarity of subgroups when compared across different points in time. The application of this SCAN method is then demonstrated in a case study where a subgroup is automatically extracted from a social network formed based on the online interactions of a group of about 150 people that occurred over a two-year period. In addition, this paper also demonstrates that similarity-based cohesion can provide a different, and in this case more compelling, subgroup representation than a method based on splitting a hierarchical clustering dendrogram using an optimality criterion.

Point of care access to electronic medical records may provide clinicians with the information they want when they need it and may in turn improve patient safety. Yet providing an electronic medical record on handheld devices presents many usability challenges, and it is unclear whether clinicians will use them.An iterative design process for the development and evaluation of a prototype of a mobile electronic medical record was performed. Usability sessions were conducted in which physicians were asked to 'think aloud' while working through clinical scenarios using the prototype. Verbal protocol analysis, which consists of coding utterances, was conducted on the transcripts from the sessions and common themes were extracted.Usability sessions were held with five family physicians and four internists with varying levels of computer expertise. Physicians were able to use the device to complete 52 of 54 required tasks. Users commented that it was intuitive (9/9), would increase accessibility (5/9) but for them to use it, it would need the system to be fast and time-saving (5/9). Users had difficulty entering information (5/9) and reading the screen (4/9). In terms of functionality, users had concerns about completeness of information (6/9), details of ordering (5/9) and desired billing functionality (5/9) and integration with other systems (4/9).While physicians can use mobile electronic medical records in realistic scenarios, certain requirements likely need to be met including a fast system with easy data selection, easy data entry and improved display before widespread adoption occurs.

The impact of notifications on driving performance is a critical safety concern (Lee & Strayer, 2004). This study examined how interruptions (including phone calls) impair simulated driving performance, and how individual differences mediate the effect of those interruptions. Consistent with our hypothesis, field dependent participants answered phone calls more quickly and with less consideration of the difficulty of the current driving situation than more field independent participants. Further, a post-hoc analysis showed that, on average, field dependents with small operating spans crashed twice as often as the other drivers. Thus the detrimental effect of a field dependent style on managing interruptions while driving is likely worsened for people with low working memory capacity. It is suggested that future research should investigate the safety implications of individual differences in interruption handling ability. Such research is needed to support ongoing efforts to develop guidelines and legislation concerning the use of distracting information technologies (such as cell phones) in automobiles.

This paper describes a study of content and communication processes in multidisciplinary meetings of healthcare professionals, using a Human Factors engineering approach. The goal of the study, which took place in a teaching hospital Toronto, Canada, was to understand the processes of collaboration and information exchange that take place in the meetings, and to identify potential supports for the meetings, including the use of information technology. The methodology included data collection through observation of the multidisciplinary patient care meetings, and quantitative analysis of verbal exchanges in those meetings. The results suggested the need for a standardized approach to information exchange using structured language.

Consumer acceptance is of great interest in the adoption of novel multimedia products and services. A number of factors can greatly influence the customer experience during a video session, impacting the acceptability of the product or service. Factors such as the Technical Quality (TQ) which covers the technical aspects of the signal quality can be controlled from the network provider. On the other hand, the network provider has no control on the subject's level of interest in a video, the Content Quality (CQ). Together TQ and CQ influence the Overall eXperience (OX) of the subject and, in the case of Over The Top (OTT) video, in a video session. In this paper, we present results from a user subjective study in which the impact of TQ and OX on the acceptability was investigated for OTT video sessions. To minimize the CQ impact on OX, the videos were carefully selected to have relatively neutral content. We assess the impact of TQ and OX on acceptability for videos containing impairment and failure events during lifecycle, thus affecting Accessibility, Retainability and Integrity. Our experimental results indicate that TQ and OX have a strong impact on acceptability.

This study investigated the effectiveness of spatial auditory cues for tasks using different reference frames, and examined how congruency between auditory and visual displays affected performance. Performance with three types of auditory cues (egocentric, exocentric and non-spatial) was compared on three spatial tasks: target search, target localization and target recall. There was a clear effect of reference frame congruency between auditory and visual displays on target search and target localization tasks. Interestingly, even incongruent auditory cues improved performance relative to non-spatial control conditions. In addition, egocentric auditory cues facilitated performance more than exocentric cues on incongruent trials. The findings have important implications for display design in work environments that involve diverse spatial tasks and displays that use different reference frames.

This paper describes Empathic Tutoring System (ETS) which uses character agents for online learning. Eye movement tracking and other physiological measures are used to personalize character agent behaviors (affective and instruction) in an e-learning environment. A prototype system reacts to learner's eye information in real-time, recording eye gaze and pupil dilation data (plus heart rate and skin conductance) during learning. Based on these measures, character agents inferred the attentional and motivational status of the learner and responded accordingly with affective and instructional behaviors. Character agents engage and direct the learner's attention while providing both generalized system help and personalized advice about the learning content. Feedbacks from preliminary usability studies may suggest that e-learning character agents reacting to eye gaze and physiological measures may heighten l earner concentration and lead to more effective learning.

The Evidence at the Point of Care (EPoCare) project (Takeshita, Davis, Straus, 2002) is examining how to put clinical evidence on mobile devices to meet physicians' information needs at the point of care. Forty-seven physicians, including family physicians, general internists and medical residents, participated in usability testing with prototypes implemented on two different form factors (a tablet-style PC and a PDA-style handheld). During the testing physicians were asked to describe their impression of the prototype and to indicate their agreement with 20 statements concerning the prototype implementations. The three user groups differed in how they valued device portability and screen size. Family physicians wanted larger screen size and were less concerned with portability, while internists wanted portability and were less concerned with screen size. Residents wanted both portability and large screen size. Cluster analysis was used to identify four clusters of physicians, varying by age, amount of time in clinical practice, and frequency of use of search engines and medical databases. Differences in preferences about format of information were present amongst these clusters. This study demonstrates how large sample usability testing can be used to develop customization strategies for mobile applications, for designing both form factor and content.

This paper addresses issues raised by the ever-expanding role of email as a multi-faceted application that combines communication, collaboration, and task management. Individual differences analysis was used to contrast two email user interfaces in terms of their demands on users. The results of this analysis were then interpreted in terms of their implications for designing more inclusive interfaces that meet the needs of users with widely ranging abilities. The specific target of this research is the development of a new type of email message representation that makes pending tasks more visible. We describe a study that compared a new way of representing tasks in an email inbox, with a more standard representation (the Microsoft Outlook inbox). The study consisted of an experiment that examined how people with different levels of three specific cognitive capabilities (flexibility of closure, visual memory, and working memory) perform when using these representations. We then identified combinations of representation and task that are disadvantageous for people with low levels of the measured capabilities.

Privacy has been identified as a key issue in a variety of domains, including electronic commerce and public policy. While there are many discussions of privacy issues from a legal and policy perspective, there is little information on the structure of privacy as a psychometric construct. Our goal is to develop a method for measuring attitudes towards privacy that can guide the design and personalization of services. This paper reports on the development of an initial version of the PAQ. Four privacy attitudes are identified based on the factor structure of the PAQ. Cluster analysis is used to identify potential stereotypes with respect to attitudes towards privacy amongst different groups of people. Version 1.0 of the PAQ is presented in an Appendix as a 36 item questionnaire that measures the four privacy attitudes of personal information, monitoring, exposure and protection.

With advances in computer graphics, a number of innovative approaches to information visualization have been developed (e.g., Card et al, 1991). Some of these approaches create a mapping between information and corresponding structure in a virtual world. The resulting virtual worlds can be fully three dimensional (3D) or they can be implemented as a series of 2D birds-eye "snapshots" that are traversed as if they were in 3D, using operations such as panning and zooming interactively (2.5D). This paper reports a study that contrasted 3D and 2.5D performance for people with differing levels of spatial and structure learning ability. Four data collection methods were employed: search task scoring; subjective questionnaires; navigational activity logging and analysis; and administration of tests for spatial and structure-learning abilities. Analysis of the results revealed statistically significant effects of user abilities, and information environment designs. Overall, this research did not find a performance advantage for using a 3D rather than a 2.5D virtual world. In addition, users in the lowest quartile of spatial ability had significantly lower search performance in the 3D environment. The findings suggest that individual differences in traits such as spatial ability may be important in determining the usability and acceptability of 3D environments.

A study is reported where the rankings assigned by a search engine (Google) to the top 100 hits for seven queries are compared with the ratings of human judges (six per query). As assessed by correlations, agreement between judges was relatively good across all the queries, with a mean (Pearson) correlation of .475. In contrast, the correlations between Google rankings and human judges in this study were significantly lower, with a mean of .153. This study suggests that a high priority should be placed on finding improved methods for ranking the initial set of search engine results, so that they are more in line with human judgments of relevance.

In spite of the powerful functionality and message integration offered, unified communication (UC) has yet to be widely adopted as a solution that meets the demands and complexities of modern communicators. By understanding individual differences, requirements, and preferences, it should be possible to design better communication interfaces and services. This study examined the characteristics of communication-related preferences among users of a three-month UC trial. Survey data from 123 respondents were analyzed. A series of factor analyses identified 19 communication traits, 7 of which were particularly interesting. A cluster analysis suggested three types of communication styles: Low-tech, Power, and Strategic. Future research will attempt to relate the current findings to actual communication behaviour. The creation of a communication preference inventory (CPI) is also discussed.

Frailty predicts adverse health outcomes, and the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) has been validated internationally to predict adverse outcomes and mortality. Emergency Departments (ED) are challenged to assess frailty due to a lack of training and limited time. We studied the agreement between ED physicians and patient self-assessments using a tablet-based CFS that includes graphics and short descriptors for each of 9 frailty categories.

Measurement of video Quality of Experience is needed to enable telecommunication service operators to provide acceptable video viewing experience to their customers. Without accurate Quality of Experience measurement, it is hard to predict customer satisfaction. Accessibility and Retain ability failures are important factors that can affect the experience of viewing video on the Internet. Most of the published work in the assessment of Video Quality of Experience has focused on the quality of video viewing sessions without considering the impact of Accessibility and Retain ability failures. In this paper, we focus on the Quality of Experience for video sessions in the presence of Retain ability failures. We primarily evaluate video Quality of Experience for videos with temporary interruptions, called Integrity impairments, as well as with permanent interruptions called Retain ability failures. A subjective study was conducted to observe the effect of Retain ability failure on video Quality of Experience. The results of the subjective study suggest that videos with Retain ability failures are rated much lower than videos without any failure. An initial linear model for QoE of videos subject to Retain ability failures is introduced.

Accurate Quality of Experience measurement for streaming video has become more crucial with the increase in demand for online video viewing. Quantifying video Quality of Experience is a challenging task. Significant efforts to quantify video Quality of Experience have primarily focused on the measurement of Quality of Experience for videos with network and compression related impairments. These impairments, however, may not always be the only main factors affecting Quality of Experience in an entire video viewing session. In this paper, we evaluate Quality of Experience for entire video viewing sessions, from the beginning to the end. In doing so, we evaluate videos with temporary interruptions as well as those with permanent interruptions or failures. We consider two types of failures, namely Accessibility and Retainability failures, and present the results of two subjective studies. These results indicate: (a) Accessibility and Retainability failures are rated lower compared to temporary interruption impairments; (b) Accessibility failures are rated close to the lowest value on the rating scale; and (c) the traditionally used 5-point scale to measure video Quality of Experience is not sufficient in the presence of Accessibility and Retainability failures.

Background and Objectives The implementation of electronic remote blood issue (ERBI) may provide safety and efficiency gains for transfusion medicine. This systematic review's objective was to assess whether ERBI affects incidents of adverse events, time taken for blood issue and delivery, and cross-match to transfusion ratios, among other measures of safety and efficiency. The review also sought to uncover barriers and facilitators of ERBI implementation. Materials and Methods We searched four aggregated electronic databases (Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and BIOSIS) up to 19 July 2012, with an updated search performed on 5 March 2014 for studies on ERBI. No specific study design criteria were used in the initial inclusion due to the low number of studies on ERBI. Results A total of 4758 citations were initially identified; after 1844 duplicates were removed, 2612 citations were excluded on the basis of the abstract. Two reviewers evaluated a total of 302 full-text articles independently; of these, seven citations were eligible for inclusion. An updated search and the authors' own collections confirmed an additional five citations, totalling 13 citations and six studies within these. Conclusion There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate whether ERBI significantly impacts safety and efficiency of blood transfusion and delivery processes. Rigorously designed studies to assess safety and efficiency outcomes are required using proxy or corollary measures. A number of positive results were reported, however, and most studies included suggestions for facilitating ERBI implementation.

Gamification and serious games are becoming increasingly important for training, wellness, and other applications. How can games be developed for non-traditional gaming populations such as the elderly, and how can gaming be applied in non-traditional areas such as cognitive assessment? The application that we were interested in is detection of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Example use cases where gamified cognitive assessment might be useful are: prediction of delirium onset risk in emergency departments and postoperative hospital wards; evaluation of recovery from stroke in neuro-rehabilitation; monitoring of transitions from mild cognitive impairment to dementia in long-term care. With the rapid increase in cognitive disorders in many countries, inexpensive methods of measuring cognitive status on an ongoing basis, and to large numbers of people, are needed. In order to address this challenge we have developed a novel game-based method of cognitive assessment. In this paper, we present findings from a usability study conducted on the game that we developed for measuring changes in cognitive status. We report on the game's ability to predict cognitive status under varying game parameters, and we introduce a method to calibrate the game that takes into account differences in speed and accuracy, and in motor coordination. Recommendations concerning the development of serious games for cognitive assessment are made, and detailed recommendations concerning future development of the whack-a-mole game are also provided.

The results from a series of three experiments that used Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) data and TREC search topics are compared. These experiments each involved three novel user interfaces (one per experiment). User interfaces that made it easier for users to view text were found to improve recall in all three experiments. A distinction was found between a cluster of subjects (a majority of whom were search experts) who tended to read fewer documents more carefully (readers, or exclusives) and subjects who skimmed through more documents without reading them as carefully (skimmers, or inclusives). Skimmers were found to have significantly better recall overall. A major outcome from our experiments at TREC and with the TREC data, is that hypertext interfaces to information retrieval (IR) tasks tend to increase recall. Our interpretation of this pattern of results across the three experiments is that increased interaction with the text (more pages viewed) generally improves recall. Findings from one of the experiments indicated that viewing a greater diversity of text on a single screen (i.e., not just more text per se, but more articles available at once) may also improve recall. In an experiment where a traditional (type-in) query interface was contrasted with a condition where queries were marked up on the text, the improvement in recall due to viewing more text was more pronounced with search novices. Our results demonstrate that markup and hypertext interfaces to text retrieval systems can benefit recall and can also benefit novices. The challenge now will be to find modified versions of hypertext interfaces that can improve precision, as well as recall and that can work with users who prefer to use different types of search strategy or have different types of training and experience.

There was a proliferation of electronic information sources and search engines in the 1990s. Many of these information sources became available through the ubiquitous interface of the Web browser. Diverse information sources became accessible to information professionals and casual end users alike. Much of the information was also hyperlinked, so that information could be explored by browsing as well as searching. While vast amounts of information were now just a few keystrokes and mouseclicks away, as the choices multiplied, so did the complexity of choosing where and how to look for the electronic information. Much of the complexity in information exploration at the turn of the twenty-first century arose because there was no common cataloguing and control system across the various electronic information sources. In addition, the many search engines available diAered widely in terms of their domain coverage, query methods and eAciency. Meta-search engines were developed to improve search performance by querying multiple search engines at once. In principle, meta-search engines could greatly simplify the search for electronic information by selecting a subset of first-level search engines and digital libraries to submit a query to based on the characteristics of the user, the query/topic, and the search strategy. This selection would be guided by diagnostic knowledge about which of the first-level search engines works best under what circumstances. Programmatic research is required to develop this diagnostic knowledge about first-level search engine performance. This paper introduces an evaluative framework for this type of research and illustrates its use in two experiments. The experimental results obtained are used to characterize some properties of leading search engines (as of 1998). Significant interactions were observed between search engine and two other factors (time of day and Web domain). These findings supplement those of earlier studies, providing preliminary information about the complex relationship between search engine functionality and performance in diAerent contexts. While the specific results obtained represent a time-dependent Information Processing and Management 35 (1999) 337‐362

This paper reports on an experimental comparison of static and dynamic hypertext. The static hypertext consisted of an online Bible with links defined by Thompson's Bible Chain References. The dynamic hypertext used the same content, but links were created dynamically by a search algorithm. In terms of task time and accuracy, overall performance was better in the dynamic hypertext condition. In addition, novices seemed to benefit more from the dynamic hypertext than did Bible experts. These results demonstrate that dynamic hypertext, using a querying approach, may sometimes be superior to static hypertext for some tasks. Thus dynamic hypertext, which requires no authoring effort, is an attractive alternative to the labor-intensive static hypertext that has been prevalent in the past.

The newspaper represents a mature information presentation medium that is well-suited to the display of relatively short, loosely related pieces of text. This work examines the implementation of the newspaper metaphor in an information exploration interface. Based on an analysis of differences between electronic books and electronic newspapers, we submit that the newspaper metaphor is an appropriate interface paradigm for large-scale full-text databases. Similarities between newspapers and hypertext databases lead us to suggest that this metaphor is appropriate for large automatically generated hypertexts, independent of the nature of their content. We describe VOIR, a software prototype that we have used as an electronic newspaper workbench. The program constructs newspaper pages interactively, and allows users to specify their information-seeking intent in a variety of ways, including graphical Boolean queries, hypertext links, and typed-in queries. We report some empirical evidence that indicates that users perform better when they are shown more articles simultaneously. These results suggest that the newspaper metaphor may be an effective organizing principle for a class of information exploration tasks. Finally, we discuss some implications that this work has for hypertext and information retrieval in general.

This paper addresses the issue of how research methodology can be developed for the specific needs of research into information exploration behaviour, based on a four year program of research on individual strategies in information exploration. We propose a meta-experimental framework where research is carried out through a dynamic interaction between what and why questions, and between confirmatory and exploratory analyses. This approach preserves many of the advantages of formal experimentation, while permitting a more holistic examination of phenomena that is characteristic of ethnography. The application of the meta-theoretical framework is illustrated in three case studies that examined new information exploration functionalities and interfaces and their relationship to expertise and exploration strategy

Gamification is the use of game-like properties in non-game scenarios, and is applied in the design of our application to stimulate cognition, and enjoyment, which often decreases due to age-related changes. The goal of the research reported here is to develop a game, targeted for elderly citizens, that has a user-friendly interface and the ability to predict cognitive ability. This paper will introduce and evaluate a game designed based on the classic carnival game called whack-a-mole, which has the objective of a user 'hitting' a 'mole'. Our version of the game underwent a usability study where we evaluated the game in an experiment, and investigated its cognitive predictive ability. This paper will discuss the results from the experiment, detail the limitations, and propose future research.

We conducted an experiment in order to investigate impacts of centralexecutive (CE) functions and modality of secondary task presentation in a dualtaskexperiment. We found that shifting ability, out of three major CE functions(inhibition, shifting, and updating) was particularly important in determiningwhether primary (pedal-tracking) task performance was better in the presence ofauditory, vs. visual, presentation of the secondary task.

Gift Giving is a complex and ubiquitous task that would benefit from the simpler and more user-centred style of interaction offered by the Personal Web vision. In this paper we begin by reviewing relevant literature on gift giving, and we identify key roles and requirements of gift giving. We examine current approaches to the support of group gift giving online and review some of their deficiencies. We then discuss the role that recommender systems and social media can play in facilitating gift giving interactions. As a first step towards simpler and more effective group gift giving in the Personal Web, we review results of research studies that we have conducted showing opportunities and challenges with respect to further development of gift giving online communities, and group gift giving services. We conclude with suggestions on future directions for online group gift giving noting the contribution that the Personal Web approach can make in this domain.

Computers have become an important tool for participating in society for many people with disabilities. Recent efforts in rehabilitation engineering have focused on input techniques for the human-computer interface and on improving the visual presentation of information. However, as these visual presentations become more sophisticated, currently exemplified by Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), access for people with visual or cognitive impairments often becomes more difncult. A model of feedback that is relatively independent of sensory modalities (i.e., visual, auditory and tactile) has been proposed by Fels, Shein, Chignell and Milner (1992) as a basis for designing user interfaces for people with a wide range of sensory abilities. One key component identified in this model is a standardised feedback vocabulary that describes screen elements. A study was conducted to determine whether target users could use the elements of this language to identify the elements within existing screens. Results indicate ...

Background: Walking has long been considered to be an autonomic process involving little or no higher cognitive input. In healthy adults, stride-to-stride fluctuation of many gait parameters (eg, gait speed, stride time) is on the order of just a few percent, testimony to the accuracy and reliability of the fine-tuned systems that regulate locomotion. When the systems regulating walking are disturbed as a result of neurological disease or abnormal aging, movement control may be impaired leading to increased variability of several gait parameters. Gait assessment while the patient performs a cognitively challenging secondary task (“dual-tasking”) has been widely used to assess interaction between cognition, gait, and the risk of falling. Dual-task testing is clinically relevant, as most activities of daily living require the simultaneous performance of two or more cognitive and motor tasks. Traditionally, gait variability has been difficult to quantify and has been carried out in specialized laboratory settings. Current motion analysis systems are expensive, require trained personnel to operate, and limit evaluation to a few strides. Advances in consumer electronics allow for the development of a system that is cheap, unobtrusive, and easy-to-use in unconstrained ambulation. In addition, the use of a portable electronic device facilitates the development of a gamified Go/NoGo response inhibition task, which enables an automated approach to measuring relative trade-off in dual-task conditions. Objective: Our primary objectives were as follows: (1) to develop a simple mobile-based tool to enable collection, aggregation, and visualization of gait variability data through a co-design process with clinicians; (2) to examine the feasibility of integrating a gamified dual-task assessment; and (3) to answer the question “If we build it, will they come?” Our secondary objective was to explore the factors that influence rehabilitation therapists’ willingness to use mobile/wearable technology in clinical practice. Methods: We took an iterative design approach to incorporate user feedback during the development of the mobile application. To validate the gait assessment data, we utilized a convenience sample of 12 healthy adults and evaluated 30 seconds of walking data using the mobile application against a Vicon Motion Capture System. In parallel, we developed a questionnaire to gain insight into the barriers and motivating factors that affect use of consumer technology in clinical practice by physiotherapists. The questionnaire was pilot tested for content validity and internal consistency at a rehabilitation center and was distributed online. Results: Preliminary validation demonstrates good agreement between the mobile application and the Vicon system for mean stride time (r=0.89, P

Background: Developed nations are currently facing a demographic shift towards a higher proportion of elderly people and increasing age-related health concerns. Elderly adults often enter into the health care system through emergency services. As a result, emergency departments (EDs) are an opportune environment for cognitive screening to improve patient outcomes. Existing methods are not designed for use in EDs and require administration by a trained test administrator. As an alternative, we suggest serious games as screening tools that can be self-administered or used with minimal assistance in emergency care. The use of validated and reliable serious games can encourage more efficient and engaging cognitive screening. Objective: Our objective was to investigate the feasibility and usability issues identified in the process of evaluating the validity and reliability of a game-based cognitive screening tool administered on an interactive tablet, for use by elderly adults in emergency care. Methods: We carried out a study in a hospital ED to evaluate the validity of the serious game with elderly adults over the age of 70 years (N=146). Validity was assessed in terms of the correlation of game performance with outcomes of current assessment methods. Comparative assessments included the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM). We also assessed the reliability of our game-based assessment tool in a hospital ED for a large subset of the patients who underwent a revised protocol involving follow-up sessions at a minimum of every 8 hours (n=127). In both studies, research personnel (RP) administered the standard cognitive assessments and then asked the patients to play the serious game. Recruitment for the reliability study overlapped with our validation study, with 56 potential overlap cases. Results: In our validation group, 141 of 146 patients consented to play the serious game. Performance on the serious game correlated significantly with the MoCA (r=–0.339, P

We measured multitasking performance across a range of device interfaces and investigated the relationship between task performance and three measures of cognitive capacity (assessing the executive processes of shifting, inhibition, and updating, respectively). In the first experiment, higher levels of ability on the three executive processes of shifting, updating and inhibition were associated with improved multitasking performance. However, the impact of cognitive demands was reduced when touch input and combined visual and audio output was used in the device interaction task. When a simulated driving task was added in the second experiment, the impact of cognitive demands increased, and the use of combined audio and video output no longer reduced the impact of Central Executive (CE) function ability on performance.While inhibition, updating, and shifting all seemed to be involved when carrying out the device operation during simulated driving, the effects of shifting and updating ability were greater than the effect of inhibition. Detailed analysis of the data indicated that the impact of cognitive demand when using a device in a dual task setting was restricted to people with low levels of shifting, updating, and inhibition ability. It is suggested that future research on the impact of in-vehicle technology focus on drivers with low levels of ability on or more of a range of cognitive factors, including the CE functions of shifting, updating, and inhibition. Based on the present results it seems likely that less cognitively able drivers will be put at most risk by inappropriate or poorly designed device tasks and interfaces.

As the computer and internet generations age, there is an increasing need to develop appropriate interfaces for the elderly that can accommodate age-related changes in manual dexterity, visual acuity, and cognitive abilities. Assessment of age effects is typically a necessary first step in designing age-appropriate interfaces, but assessment of age related effects may be complicated by a bias towards accuracy in the elderly or by other differences in how the tradeoff between speed and accuracy is handled by different people. In this paper, we attempt to investigate the effects of aging on performance difference in interacting with computer interfaces. An experiment was conducted to examine age related effects in a steering task. In order to assess the impact of a possible speed-accuracy tradeoff, performance was observed under three different instructional sets i.e., accuracy (A), neutral (N), and speed (S) when steering on a circular track. Experimental results showed that the elderly group performed significantly less accurately for all three instruction sets. The younger subjects were more influenced by instructions to perform faster, or with more accuracy. Cluster analysis of the empirical data individually for both the old and younger participants showed that variability among subjects was much greater in older users than younger users. Implications for user interface design for older users, and for the evaluation of age effects in HCI generally, are discussed.

Three dimensional hierarchies may be used to visualize and manipulate a variety of types of information, including tables of contents, taxonomies, fault trees, and code libraries in languages such as C++. Based on a review of the literature, it is suggested that visual scanning and perceived organization are two main processes involved in the understanding and use of 3D hierarchies. A general system (Info-TV) is described which can be used to explore a 3D design space. Info-TV is an information tree visualization system that takes hierarchical information and displays it in a three dimensional format. It has been designed to include the major parameters of the tree visualization design space and can be used to explore this space. Two experiments are reported that assess the effect of different tree shapes on different tasks. The results of these experiments are then discussed in terms of their implications for the design space of three-dimensional hierarchies.

We describe a method to derive design models for hypermedia interfaces from the bottom up. Firstly, we compile a list of hypermedia interface features which we classify according to the category of functions they fulfill. We then describe an experiment in which candidate designs for low-level interface features were designed and tested for recognizability. In the experiment, icons for each of 61 hypermedia concepts were generated and then judged. Finally, we outline and illustrate a model induction phase in which low-level features are combined into an overall interface model, via "micro-models" that take account of the types of icons that worked best for each class of interface feature. We suggest that, at least for hypermedia systems, a bottom-up approach to interface design based on the functions of low-level features is preferable to the dominant, top-down approach based around one or more metaphors.

We are exploring how virtual reahty theories can be applied toward palmtop computers. In our prototype, called the Chameleon, a small 4-inch hand-held monitor acts as a palmtop computer with the capabihties of a Silicon graphics workstation. A 6D input device and a response button are attached to tbe small monitor to detect user gestures and input selections for issuing commands. An experiment was conducted to evaluate our design and to see how well depth could be perceived in the small screen compared to a large 21-inch screen, and the extent to which movement of the small display (in a palmtop virtual reality condition) could improve depth perception, Results show that with very little training, perception of depth in the palmtop virtual reality condition is about as good as corresponding depth perception in a large (but static) display. Variations to the initial design are also discussed, along with issues to be explored in future research, Our research suggests that palmtop virtual reality may support effective navigation and search and retrieval, in rich and portable information spaces.

This panel will examine issues regarding the evaluation of hypertext research. The panelists will begin by contrasting four different viewpoints on the role of evaluation in hypertext research. The discussion will then consider questions relating the what evaluation methods should be used and when.

The First Symposium on the Personal Web is colocated with CASCON 2010 and is sponsored by IBM CAS Research. This symposium includes key researchers and practitioners in a range of related areas in order to organize and focus the research directions and challenges of the Personal Web as the next instantiation of the Smart Internet. The smart internet is envisaged as a platform for automatic, dynamic aggregation of data and services for the purpose of supporting each user's goals; tasks and concerns, both cognitively and socially. The Personal Web focuses on the user view of the Smart Internet, allowing users to conduct ad hoc or persisted integration effortlessly across the web, as per their context and spheres of interest. The Smart Internet research initiative has two distinct areas of research. Smart Interactions address factors that impact the discovery; aggregation and delivery of data and services from the internet that are most relevant and appropriate to the users' situations and tasks at hand. Smart Services address the challenges in the underlying web architecture and runtime infrastructure as the behind-the-scene enabler to actually deliver the data and services in a manner that meet the requirement for the support of smart interactions. Building on what has been previously established in Smart Internet, the Personal Web emphasizes the use of semantically-linked data as its fundamental basic building block in order to enable user-sovereign, open integrations across the web, and to achieve the goals of users with minimal cognitive effort. This refines the research scope of smart interactions and smart services, and creates new problem statements and research challenges.

The aim of this chapter is to introduce the key characteristics of the Smart Internet, envisaged as addressing the current problems reviewed in the introduction to Part 1 of this book. After introducing the key principles of the smart internet, a distinction is made between smart interactions, and smart services, each of which are then dealt with in Parts 2 and 3 of the book.

This chapter motivates the need for smarter interaction with a case study in healthcare that demonstrate the current state of interaction. The special challenges of practicing emergency medicine are reviewed, and a scenario is constructed to illustrate problems with current methods based on an observations study carried out at a hospital. A further scenario is then constructed showing how the problems that were observed may be avoided with smarter interaction. While the demonstrations of flawed interaction in this chapter only apply to emergency medicine, we believe that similar problems may be found in a broad range of domains.

Healthcare is a critical activity that consumes a high proportion of the wealth of societies. Governments and healthcare systems around the world are seeking to limit runaway healthcare costs while providing high quality services in ways that balance the competing needs of different groups of people. New technologies are providing opportunities to make healthcare more efficient and effective through better communications and access (e.g., Abraham et al., 2008). The increasing use of mobile devices in hospitals (Kuziemsky et al, 2005) is leading to new types of mobile application (e.g., Agarwal et al., 2007, Bardram and Bossen, 2005, Munoz et al., 2003).