Darelle van Greunen

Mobile user experience in a mlearning environment

The purpose of this paper is to explore components that influence the Mobile User Experience (MEX) in a mlearning interaction through a review of relevant literature. The application of mobile cellular technology in education has been the focus of the emerging domain of mlearning, and has, through numerous pilots and initiatives, been shown as having the potential to overcome several barriers experienced in education. This potential is, however counterbalanced by studies that show the relative high dropout rate and non-use for learners using a diverse array of electronic learning systems when compared to the traditional face-to-face classroom interactions. The learners as end-users often indicate a frustration with the technology as a major obstacle for the use and participation in technology enhanced learning systems. Moreover, organizations are increasingly requiring evidence that technology enhanced learning systems and programs will be widely accepted and utilized before implementing them. This paper explores and documents the components that would impact on the phenomena within a discourse between the technology affordances and domain requirements as revealed by the literature in the domains of mlearning and Mobile Human Computer Interaction (MHCI).

Recommendations for usable security in online health social networks

The paper discusses a usable security evaluation of two online health social networks: websites that provide health information and health services through online social networking tools. This allows patients to share their personal health information with other patients and their health-care providers, a key priority in such environments. Security features must be usable and effective; and recommendations are provided to improve their usability features. These can impact positively on their adoption by the intended users: the patients.

Managing User Experience – Managing Change

Interactive products with innovative user interfaces are being designed while the user interfaces of existing products are being improved. The changes in user interfaces are being prompted by the need to design products that are useful, usable and appealing for an enchanting user experience to the people using the products. It is harmoniously agreed within the user experience domain that a change in the user interface of a product consequently affects the user experience of the people who use the product. Furthermore, user experience practitioners and academics acknowledge that user experience evolves over time. Paradoxically, there is lack of strategies for managing user experience as it evolves, or when a new user interface is introduced. Change in user experience is a process that needs to be managed for a positive user experience to be attained. Literature is awash with models aimed at guiding and managing change implementation. On the contrary, most of the change management models are aimed at managing change in organizations while neglecting managing the user experience of the people to which change is introduced. At the time of writing this paper, no evidence was found of an existing model aimed at managing user experience, both in theory and practice. Following the aforementioned premise, the purpose of this paper is to propose theoretical requirements for managing user experience of the people using interactive products. The paper commences with a conceptual background synthesis of related domain components required for managing user experience. Thereafter, the requirements for managing user experience are determined. After-which the requirements are presented in a User Experience Management Requirements (UXMR) framework. The paper culminates with proposed future work.

Constraints for Information and Communications Technologies Implementation in Rural Zambia

Introduction and use of Information and Communication Technologies in rural sub-Saharan Africa face a particular array of challenges. Often, challenges interrelate with context, tradition and culture. This poster presentation identifies constraints during sensitisation, introduction and operations of ICT in rural Zambia. Although quantitative engineering aspects play a role, a multitude of qualitative constraints feature prominently. These involve environmental, skills, and cultural ingredients. Research, planning and evaluation has to be sensitive to these challenges if all rural areas are to receive proper inclusion and benefit from the growing penetration of the Internet worldwide.

Implications of baseline study findings from rural and deep rural clinics in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa for the co-design of mHealth4Afrika

mHealth4Afrika is a collaborative research and innovation project, co-funded under Horizon 2020, that is evaluating the potential impact of co-designing an open source, multilingual mHealth platform on the quality of maternal and newborn healthcare delivery in rural and deep rural clinics. This paper presents results from a comprehensive baseline study carried out with 40 informants from the leadership of 19 healthcare clinics in Northern Ethiopia, Western Kenya, Southern Malawi and Eastern Cape, South Africa during November — December 2015, using focus groups and semi-structured interviews. These findings identified human resource capacity, environmental, practical and technical challenges, and equipment and infrastructure deficits. Training requirements of healthcare workers were also identified. Constraints identified include the need for: intuitive, easy-to-use user interfaces to reduce the need for extensive training; use of flexible data protocols to facilitate cost effective bandwidth and effective data exchange; cost effective; low power consumption technologies to reduce cost of replication and scaling; solar charging units to increase availability; support for sensors and telemedicine due to a deficit of healthcare professionals in rural and deep rural clinics; and the need for easy configuration and adaptation to facilitate wider adoption. This insight will be used to inform co-design of the mHealth4Afrika platform during 2016–2018, based on user-centered design principles, leveraging current state-of-the-art in terms of electronic patient record systems and medical sensors. It will also inform the minimum ICT infrastructure required in each clinic. The expected outcome is a multi-region proof of concept that can make a significant contribution in accelerating exploitation of mHealth across Africa.

Towards an ICT framework to support a patient-centric approach in public healthcare: A case study of Malawi

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing a significant role in the delivery of healthcare services in both developing and developed countries. However, there is a concern that health Information systems that have been deployed in a developing country such as Malawi provide poor data sets. The data produced from these systems is inconsistent, incorrect and not timely. As a result, decisions are made without the use of data from the system. Patients are not yet embracing such ICT interventions, thus not taking ownership of their health care. Although, there are several m-health pilot applications in use, health applications in Malawi are still at a low level of maturity. This paper seeks to investigate the need for healthcare systems to be patient centric and what the process is to determine the requirements of an ICT framework to support the patient centric approach. If this is achieved, the result can be that health consumers will be expected to be more active participants in their own care. It is also envisaged that the ICT framework will be used as a reference in the implementation of ICT interventions in the public healthcare sector with the emphasis on the patient rather than the healthcare provider.

The characteristics of a biometric

Biometric implementations have emerged as an improved solution in many spheres of life where security controls are necessary for authentication. However, not all human mannerisms and features can be used as a biometric measure. For example, the movement of an elbow will not satisfy the requirements for a useful biometric. There are a number of characteristics which are deemed important and that may be taken into account when choosing a human mannerism or feature to be used as a biometric for the purposes of identification. Some characteristics are more necessary than others. For example, the uniqueness of the fingerprint is more important than its acceptance as an identification mechanism by the public at large. One can find a number of these suggested characteristics in the literature and place them into various categories. The primary category will be its inherent nature but there may also be a technical and a procedural category. Technical considerations are where the typical technical implementation of the biometric may add further characteristics to the biometric. Finally, there may be procedural actions that will further have an influence on the biometric implementation. A categorized technical or procedural characteristic should add quality to the original inherent characteristics for any particular biometric. If a biometric feature and its further implementation (technical and/or procedural) satisfy a certain subset of these categorized characteristics which are deemed more important, then this may constitute a better choice than that which appears to satisfy a different subset of characteristics. This paper looks at the characteristics found in the literature and attempts to categorize them as inherent, technical or procedural in nature. The paper will subsequently look at some of the more popular biometric features and their inherent characteristics that have been found in the literature. Readers of this paper will be able to select appropriate biometric features based on the characteristics that are identified in this paper.

Global Survey on Culture Differences and Context in Using E-Government Systems: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some preliminary results, which were collected from a global survey on cultural differences and context in using e-government website services.The primary objective of this research is to make suggestions that could contribute to a more effective and usable e-Government website in the specific countries taking into account the cultural context of the society it is serving. This s important and can be used to assist governments to ensure their website address the needs of specific contexts of their users. The focus of this research will be on the selected populations with the emphasis on culture context as a cultural dimension. In order to measure the cultural profile of the selected populations, a questionnaire was applied. Ten participants were identified through purposive sampling and divided into two groups (5) in low-context culture and (5) in high-context culture. Six tables represent three different sections for both groups. The three sections are preferences general websites, preferences in government web sites and culture characteristics in society. The results contradicted the literature in three tables and the most significant results are that high-context participants changed their preferences when using government websites although they preferred high-context styles for general Internet usage which was not the case for government websites. Here they preferred more low-context styles. Another result was that high-context participants had characteristics of which were more representative of low-context cultures and vice versa.

E-voting experiences: A case of Namibia and Estonia

Electronic voting is rapidly gaining momentum and offers more advantages than the paper-based voting system. The field of e-voting is an undiscovered sphere and its true extensity is mostly uncharted. Very few countries have successfully implemented e-voting and diminutive research has been conducted to investigate the factors that influence the successful implementation of e-voting. This paper documents a systematic review of various research studies that have recorded and reported on e-voting experiences in Namibia and Estonia. This study evaluated and analysed the two case studies and discovered factors affecting the successful implementation of e-voting. The factors include: ICT infrastructure, legal and institutional factors, security and trust, acceptance and adoption of ICT, political factors, voter education and planning. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying key factors that affect the successful implementation of e-voting from two countries with successful e-voting experiences.

An ICT Strategy for the Sustainable Development of the Tourism Sector in a Developing Country. A Case Study of Zimbabwe

This research has sought to propose a strategy for the sustainable use of ICT in the tourism sector in Zimbabwe. In order to achieve the above‐mentioned objective, this research, which is a comprehensive case study into the tourism sector of Zimbabwe, has deployed semi‐structured interviews, questionnaires, observations and netnograghy to collect the data. The case study was carried out, in accordance with the case study guidelines, as outlined by Yin, and guided by the interpretive paradigm. After a further analysis of the results, the results that pointed to the same aspect were grouped together; and various deductions were made, as a diagnosis of the identified problem. The identified problems were synthesised into seven diagnostics. A guiding policy was then identified for each of the diagnostics, leading to a set of coherent actions, derived from each of the identified guiding policies. The research also showed the implementation of the coherent set of actions that consist of three layers. These are: government, regulator and service providers. This research contributes to ICT4D literature; and it has provided an ICT strategy for sustainable development in the tourism sector for appropriate interventions from government and other role‐players in the tourism sector.