Martin Gonzalez-Rodriguez

Improving accessibility with user-tailored interfaces

Abstract The first stage in the design of a user interface is the quest for its ‘typical user’, an abstract generalization of each user of the application. However, in web systems and other scenarios where the application can be used by dozens of different kinds of users, the identification of this ‘typical user’ is quite difficult, if not impossible. Our proposal is to avoid the construction of interactive dialogs during the design stage, building them dynamically once the specific cognitive, perceptual and motor requirements of the current user are known: that is, during the execution stage. This is the approach used by GADEA, an intelligent user interface management system (UIMS) able to separate the functionality of an application from its interface in real time. The system adapts the components of the interface depending on the information stored in a user model which is continuously updated by a small army of data-gathering agents.

An accesible and collaborative tourist guide based on augmented reality and mobile devices

The goal of this project is to provide support for a system of geolocation powered by augmented reality, offering also advanced services such as, context awareness mobile applications and natural interaction related to the concept of ambient intelligent which favour the creation of intelligent environments whose services fit dynamically the demand, not always made explicit, of the user. A design and a development of a location system is obtained that provides extra services based on the positional information of the different systems users. In this way, the user receives specific information of the place where he or she is located. This service is based on the Global Positioning System, from now on GPS. The aim with this platform is to locate, guide and give information to blind people, although it is open to any kind of people. It will allow the users to see information related to a place, to write comments about it and leave objects for the rest of the users to read and see. The information will be shown as a written text and as an oral one and in every moment the location of the user will be traced thanks to the virtual positioning of him or her on a map.

Measuring the role of age in user performance during interaction with computers

Abstract The influence of aging on computer interaction has been widely analyzed in human–computer interaction research literature. Despite this, there are no age-based user maps that could support the user-interface customization. Studying the specific needs and constraints of these groups is crucial in order to adapt a user interface to the user’s interaction requirements. This work studies the performance of a sample of participants on three different basic tasks (pointing, dragging and dropping, and text selection) and the influence of age for each of them. It is concluded that this influence differs between specific activities. A group profile map that can support automatic classification in the future has been obtained.

Towards an automatic user profiling system for online information sites: Identifying demographic determining factors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify demographic differences based on how users interact with web applications. The research is needed to develop future systems able to adapt the representation of online information to the user’s specific needs and preferences improving its usability. The following question guides this quest: is there a direct relationship between age and/or gender and interaction? Design/methodology/approach – GOMS (goals, operators, methods, and selection rules) analysis was used to reduce complex interaction tasks into basic operators like pointing, dragging, typing, etc. An experiment was designed to analyse the user performance in the use of these operators through five complex tasks: point-and-click, drag-and-drop, text selection, text edition and menu selection. The sample comprises 592 individuals which took part in the experiment. The performance was analysed using multivariate regression analysis. User laterality and the the user experience were used as control var...

A System for Dynamic Adaptation of Web Interfaces Based on User Interaction Requirements

This article makes the proposal for a software architecture that allows dynamic adaptation of Web interfaces depending on user interaction requirements, giving special attention to individuals who have any kind of disability. This task is achieved through several transformations on visual aspects of the Web pages such as changes on the sizes of objects, colors, relative position of the elements or navigation device used. The system separates the functionality of a Web site and its interface at runtime to customize later some of the elements of the interface according to the characteristics of the individual, taking advantage of the widespread use of Web standards such as CSS so that it is not necessary to use any additional platform for the specification of the interface. User information will be updated continuously through the use of interface autonomous agents that store data about navigation process, performing corrective actions to allow dynamic adaptation to the changing conditions of the user.

Remote navigability testing using data gathering agents

Testing for web navigability is one of the most important steps in the design of web product. However, navigability testing is an expensive technique which requires the use of many human resources. The user behavior recorded in such kind of tests is usually affected by the artificial situation created in the laboratory. In order to avoid such kind of drawbacks, we have developed ANTS (Automatic Navigability Testing System), an application able to observe and to record spontaneous user behavior in his/her own home.

Web Design Attributes in Building User Trust, Satisfaction, and Loyalty for a High Uncertainty Avoidance Culture

In this study, we attempt to evaluate the user preferences for web design attributes (i.e., typography, color, content quality, interactivity, and navigation) to determine the trust, satisfaction, and loyalty for uncertainty avoidance cultures. Content quality and navigation have been observed as strong factors in building user trust with e-commerce websites. In contrast, interactivity, color, and typography have been observed as strong determinants of user satisfaction. The most relevant and interesting finding is related to typography, which has been rarely discussed in e-commerce literature. A questionnaire was designed to collect data to corroborate the proposed model and hypotheses. Furthermore, the partial least-squares method was adopted to analyze the collected data from the students who participated in the test (

The dimension of age and gender as user model demographic factors for automatic personalization in e-commerce sites

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Multi sensor system for pedestrian tracking and activity recognition in indoor environments

= 558). Finally, the results of this study provide strong support to the proposed model and hypotheses. Therefore, all the web design attributes were observed as important design features to develop user trust and satisfaction for uncertainty avoidance cultures. Although both factors seem to be relevant, the relationship between trust and loyalty was observed to be stronger than between satisfaction and loyalty; thus, trust seems to be a stronger determinant of loyalty for risk/high uncertainty avoidance cultures.

Impact of web design features on irritation for E-commerce websites

Abstract Personalization in e-commerce increases sales by improving customer perception of site quality. However, some demographic data about customers (crucial for the success of the personalization process) not always can be obtained explicitly, as is the case of anonymous web site visitors. The paper describes a user study focused on determining whether it would be possible to categorize the age and gender of individual visitors of a web site through the automatic analysis of their behavior. Three tasks commonly found in e-commerce sites (Point & Click, Drag & Drop and Item Selection) were tested by 592 volunteers and their performance was analyzed using several different statistical methods. The study found consistencies in the execution times of individuals across the different tasks and revealed that age and gender are sufficiently determining factors to support an automatic profiling. Results also showed that relevant information about gender and age can be extracted separately through the individual analysis of each one of the mentioned interaction tasks.