Hiromi Nishiguchi

A Study on the Time Estimation Measurement for Web Usability Evaluation

In this research the effectiveness of the time estimation as the measure for the efficiency relating to the cognitive workload, which was a component of the usability, was examined through the usability tests experiment. Sixteen subjects were required to carry out two tasks according to the two scenarios with the low and high usability websites of the local governments. The result of time estimation revealed that the efficiency of the high usability website was higher than the low usability website, the same as the results of the other measures. From the results of this experiment it was suggested that the time estimation could be an effective measurement for the efficiency relating to the cognitive workload which was a component of the usability.

Support Method for Improving the Ability of People with Cerebral Palsy to Efficiently Point a Mouse at Objects on a GUI Screen

Many people with cerebral palsy work in social welfare companies as data entry operators etc. Because of spastic reactions and involuntary motion, they find it difficult to use their upper limbs for movement and positioning tasks such as pointing a mouse at an object on a GUI screen. It would be of great benefit to secure the movement distance and the target size which are appropriate for people with cerebral palsy on a GUI screen, so they can perform pointing device operation effectively. However, it is not possible to increase the screen size beyond a certain limit. Therefore, ideal conditions may not be achieved. In such a situation, an effective environment for positioning tasks can be created by controlling the D/C gain, which is calculated by dividing the movement distance of the pointer by that of the input device. This study investigated the effect of changes in the D/C gain on motion time (MT) for pointing tasks and attempted to determine the D/C gain for minimizing the MT. It was found that the D/C gain for minimizing the MT could be obtained by using an appropriate combination of the target distance and target size. Further, the relation between the D/C gain and the positioning time is found to be linear or second-order curvilinear, depending on the target distance and target size.

Proposal of New Map Application for Distracted Walking When Using Smartphone Map Application

This study aimed to propose a new map application that would reduce the time of looking at the map while walking to the degree of the time of reading the paper map and an experiment was conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed map application.

Continuous Affect Rating in Cartesian Space of Pleasure and Arousal Scale by Joystick Without Visual Feedback

This research proposed the continuous affect rating method that rated the affective states by joystick in the Cartesian space from two dimensions of pleasure-displeasure and arousal-sleepiness without visual feedback. This research also examined the effectiveness of the proposed method through two experiments.

Influence of the safety margin on behavior that violates rules

This research was undertaken to explore how the safety margin influenced the occurrence of the risk-taking behavior that violated the rules through an experiment where the participants were required to carry out a go-around task in which a simulated railroad crossing was included. Three levels of the waiting time for the train coming with the flashing light signal at the crossing were settled as the safety margins. The results of the experiment suggested that the large safety margin might cause to make the subjective probability of the failure of the violation and the subjective probability of receiving punishment for the violation decreased and the tendency toward the violation. The results of the simulation suggested that the violation occurrence could be explained by the expected utility theory.

A Study of the Intellectual Ability of the Aged - The Relationship between the Degree of Difficulty and Performance -:

In this study, the intellectual ability of the aged was measured and the relationship between the degree of difficulty and performance of tasks comparatively assessed with the results for younger people. The aged group showed lower performance in both the “rate of achievement” and the “rate of correct answers” given. However, the “rate of correct answers” with the “verbal language comprehension” test in the aged dropped significantly less as the degree of difficulty increased than with the younger group.