Janet Wesson

Evaluation criteria for assessing the usability of ERP systems

It is widely acknowledged that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems suffer from complex user interfaces. The complexity of these user interfaces negatively affects the usability of these systems. Current research has shown that a need exists to improve the overall usability of ERP systems. Specific methods and criteria for assessing the usability of ERP systems have not been developed or widely published. This paper proposes a set of heuristics which can be used to assess the usability of ERP systems. The proposed heuristics were verified by means of a case study involving a heuristic evaluation of an ERP system.

The impact of an adaptive user interface on reducing driver distraction

This paper discusses the impact of an adaptive prototype in-car communication system (ICCS), called MIMI (Multimodal Interface for Mobile Info-communication), on driver distraction. Existing ICCSs attempt to minimise the visual and manual distraction, but more research needs to be done to reduce cognitive distraction. MIMI was designed to address usability and safety issues with existing ICCSs. Few ICCSs available today consider the drivers context in the design of the user interface. An adaptive user interface (AUI) was designed and integrated into a conventional dialogue system in order to prevent the driver from receiving calls and sending text messages under high distraction conditions. The current distraction level is detected by a neural network using the driving speed and steering wheel angle of the car as inputs. An adaptive version of MIMI was compared to a non-adaptive version in a user study conducted using a simple driving simulator. The results obtained showed that the adaptive version provided several usability and safety benefits, including reducing the cognitive load, and that the users preferred the adaptive version.

Can Adaptive Interfaces Improve the Usability of Mobile Applications

Mobile applications are becoming increasingly widespread and complex. Many of these applications suffer from usability issues, including information overload, screen clutter, lack of task support and limited interaction mechanisms. Adaptive user interfaces (AUIs) have been proposed to address some of these usability issues. The aim of this paper is to investigate how AUIs can improve the usability of mobile applications. This paper discusses several simple types of adaptation that have been shown to yield significant usability benefits for mobile applications. Two case studies are presented to illustrate how an AUI can be incorporated into different types of mobile applications. This paper also discusses the lessons learned from these case studies and presents some implications for designing adaptive systems in the future.

An experiment to measure the usefulness of patterns in the interaction design process

Interaction design patterns have yet to prove themselves in interaction design in the way that design guidelines have. This paper describes an empirical study comparing the use of patterns and guidelines. The study involved a heuristic evaluation of a web site, the redesign of the web site, and the design of a new web site. Preliminary results suggesting that developers find patterns useful in the interaction design process are presented. Further analysis using heuristics to compare the quality of the designs produced using patterns and guidelines will provide an objective assessment of the usefulness of patterns.

Using adaptive interfaces to improve mobile map-based visualisation

Visualising map-based data on mobile devices presents many challenges. Small displays, comparatively slow hardware and awkward interaction techniques all combine to make mobile map-based visualisations difficult to design and often frustrating to use. Existing mobile visualisation techniques do not adequately address these problems. Adaptive user interfaces, which adapt to the individual characteristics of the user, are proposed as an alternative approach to improve mobile map-based visualisation (MMV) systems. A model is presented which incorporates an adaptive user interface into the design of MMV systems. A prototype MMV system, called MediaMaps, is then described, demonstrating the successful implementation of this model. The results of an evaluation of MediaMaps are then presented, showing its effectiveness in supporting user needs and requirements for MMV using an adaptive user interface.

Visual Web Mining of Organizational Web Sites

Existing Web usage mining (WUM) tools do not indicate which data mining algorithms are used or provide effective graphical visualizations of the results obtained. WUM techniques can be used to determine typical navigation patterns in an organizational Web site. The process of combining WUM and information visualization techniques in order to discover useful information about Web usage patterns is called visual Web mining. The goal of this paper is to discuss the development of a visual Web mining prototype, called WebPatterns, which allows the user to effectively visualize Web usage patterns

Is tilt interaction better than keypad interaction for mobile map-based applications?

Map-based applications are becoming standard features of most smart phones. Keypad and touch-screen interaction have traditionally been used to interact with maps on mobile phones, but both these interaction techniques have several shortcomings. Tilt interaction offers an alternative approach with several advantages. Tilt interaction is intuitive and can be performed one-handed. Previous research has shown that tilt interaction offers equivalent or inferior results in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and preference. Similar studies have offered limited insight into the comparative performance of tilt and keypad interaction. This paper discusses the development and comparative evaluation of a prototype mobile map-based application supporting both keypad and tilt interaction. The results of this evaluation showed that keypad interaction was more efficient for tasks requiring precise selection, but that tilt interaction offered greater perceived controllability, efficiency and ease of use for navigation tasks.

Using mobile preference-based searching to improve tourism decision support

Powerful mobile computing devices such as smartphones and PDAs are becoming more numerous and affordable. These mobile devices are ideal for tourists needing to search for suitable points-of-interest (POIs) such as restaurants or accommodation. This paper discusses the development of a new preference-based searching algorithm and its implementation in a mobile preference-based searching tool (PBST), called POInter. This algorithm calculates a percentage ranking reflecting the extent to which a POI matches the users preferences, enabling partially-satisfied search results to be displayed. POInter enables users to identify POIs most suited to their needs and constraints and visualise the search results using a map-based metaphor. POInter combines positive features from existing systems, whilst addressing their limitations and introducing additional functionality. Results of evaluations conducted are outlined, revealing the extent to which POInter provides an effective PBST for mobile tourism decision support.

The impact of sensor fusion on tilt interaction in a mobile map-based application

Sensor-based interaction techniques relying on tilt gestures are increasingly being adopted in a wide range of mobile applications. Despite the recent increase in the availability of gyroscope sensors on mobile phones, most implementations of tilt interaction still rely on accelerometer input. Accelerometer sensors are susceptible to noise and also detect linear acceleration. This can lead to controllability problems, particularly when the user is mobile. This paper looks at how the fusion of accelerometer, gyroscope and digital compass sensor data impacts upon tilt interaction in a mobile map-based application. The results of an experiment comparing accelerometer-only tilt interaction with a sensor fusion approach are presented. The results show that while both the accelerometer and sensor fusion approaches performed well for seated tasks, the sensor fusion approach was shown to have advantages in terms of perceived controllability and efficiency while participants were walking.

Design and Evaluation of an Adaptive Mobile Map-Based Visualisation System

Mobile visualisation of map-based information is a difficult task. Designers of such systems must contend with the limitations of mobile devices in terms of hardware, screen size and input mechanisms. These problems are exacerbated by the nature of spatial data, where a large information space needs to be presented and manipulated on a small screen. In this paper, a prototype adaptive mobile map-based visualisation system, called MediaMaps, is presented. MediaMaps allows users to capture, location-tag, sort and browse multimedia in a map-based view. MediaMaps was designed to adapt the information visualised, the map-based visualisations and the supporting user interface. The results of an international field study, in which participants used MediaMaps on their personal mobile phones for a three-week period, are also presented. These results show that the adaptations implemented achieved high levels of accuracy and user satisfaction and successfully addressed some of the limitations of mobile map-based visualisation.