Franck Tétard

Usability Evaluation of a Mobile Medical Information System for Military Physicians

A mobile medical information system, developed primarily for the purposes of civilian medicine, is expanded to be used in military medicine. A usability study with 7 military physicians at the Finnish Defense Forces was conducted in field conditions in December 2005. Their evaluation of the characteristics and the features of the system, and properties and the features of the mobile device-Nokia 9210 communicator were investigated. The results show that both the mobile system and the device have some degree of readiness for military medicine. Further usability improvements of the system and the device are discussed

User-Centred Design of Mobile Services for Tourists

In recent years, mobile technology has developed fast in Europe. We have the basic hardware but the content, in the form of services, is often missing or unattractive to the consumer. Tourism is an industry in which mobile services should be especially valuable to the user but so far few mobile applications have been successful in the market. Mobile services are said to suffer, among other things, from poor usability. The user-centred design (UCD) approach, which is widely applied in the design of mobile services and applications, is supposed to remedy this defect. We assigned 5 groups of international, advanced level Information Systems students the design of a mobile service for tourists while applying the UCD approach. We analysed and evaluated their design process as well as the prototype. Our objective is to find out how the UCD design process guided their work: What difficulties there were in the application of the UCD? Does the UCD set some undesirable constraints to design work?

Lazy User Model: Solution Selection and Discussion about Switching Costs

Research on user acceptance and adoption of technology represents an important body of knowledge within the field of information systems. The Lazy User Model has been recently introduced as a new way to understand user acceptance and adoption of technology, when several competing solutions are available. This model asserts that user selection is based on factors such as the identified user need, the user state, and the overall effort related to the use of technology. In this paper, we suggest that a user will most often choose the solution that will fulfill a need with the least effort, discuss the concept of switching costs and learning in connection with technology selection. Lazy User Model seems to capture important elements of solution selection, implying that the model may help in better understanding the factors that determine the success of mobile services.

Structuring Unknown Realities Using Group Support Systems

ABSTRACT Electronic Meetings Systems (EMS) have proved effective for supporting group decision—making processes where the participants have a good domain knowledge of the context. Cognitive maps, again, have proved effective for problem finding, where the participants are structuring a more or less unknown reality, or when defining the problem in itself is problematic. Cognitive maps are instrumental for grasping the value and belief system of the decision-maker(s). They contribute to displaying the subjective perceptions of a contextual reality of decision-makers. This paper reports on a exploratory study where the suitability of an EMS—Group Systems—and a cognitive mapping software—Graphics COPE—have been used to assist participants to construct a reality. The participants obtained facts, but most of their understanding of the reality was based on their values and beliefs, which tended to have a science fictional character.