Michele Zanda

Assisting e-government users with animated talking faces

E-GOVERNMENT (E-GOV) IS THE USE of information technologies to deliver government services through Web sites devoted to users interacting with government. E-gov is a growing sector of Web usage, driven by the expectation of improving the delivery of public administration services, easier data integration in information systems, and overall cost reduction [6]. However, citizens use e-gov services reluctantly, partly due to usability problems [1]. To improve the user experience of such sites, we developed a prototype e-gov Web site using an animated face (AF) with text-to-speech (TTS) voice to assist users. We used the AF because faces stimulate human attention [3], and anthropomorphic agents increase users’ perception of flow [5] (flow is a construct depicting a user’s interactions as playful and exploratory). Consistent with physiological and computer science studies, we conducted user tests to measure how adding AF influences users’ behavior. Our results show that the AF proved effective in reducing the number of visited pages when users had specific tasks to perform on a Web site; however, contrary to our expectations, task completion times were not significantly altered by the introduction of the AF. We conclude that AF can be useful in e-gov Web sites, but not in situations where time to perform a task is critical or must be shortened.

Social and Q&A interfaces for app download

Abstract Downloading software via Web is a major solution for publishers to deliver their software products. In this context, user interfaces for software downloading play a key role. Actually, they have to allow usable interactions as well as support users in taking conscious and coherent decisions about whether to accept to download a software product or not. This paper presents different design alternatives for software download interfaces, i.e. the interface that prompts the user if he wishes to actually complete its download, and evaluates their ability to improve the quality of user interactions while reducing errors in user decisions. More precisely, we compare Authenticode , the leading software download interface for Internet Explorer, to Question-&-Answer , a software download interface previously proposed by the authors Dini, Foglia, Prete, & Zanda (2007) . Furthermore, we evaluate the effect of extending both interfaces by means of a reputation system similar to the eBay Feedback Forum. The results of the usability studies show that (i) the pure Question-&-Answer interface is the most effective in minimizing users incoherent behaviors, and (ii) the differences in reputation rankings significantly influence users. Overall results suggest guidelines to design the best interface depending on the context (brand reputation and product features).