Özgürol Öztürk

How to Improve User Experience in Mobile Social Networking: A User-Centered Study with Turkish Mobile Social Network Site Users

This study evaluated the hypothesis that design aspects of the user interface of the applications and the capabilities and constraints of different mobile devices could affect mobile user experience in social network sites (SNS). For this purpose a qualitative mobile usability test, based on a multi-method approach, was carried out with a sample of 25 Turkish university students who were experienced mobile SNS users. The tests were conducted with two different smartphones: Iphone and Blackberry. The participants were observed during the task executions and additional data was collected by the “think aloud” procedure, eye-tracking and video recording of the participants. A short debriefing interview was also made to gain a detailed insight into the user experience. The findings revealed significant mobile usability problems caused specifically by the user interface features of the applications and limitations of each device and enable to propose guidelines to improve user experience in mobile SNS.

The Impact of Human Likeness on the Older Adults’ Perceptions and Preferences of Humanoid Robot Appearance

There’s a growing interest towards human–robot interaction (HRI) as an area of research within human-computer interaction (HCI). Although nowadays robotics studies provide enough knowledge on social robots in major settings, there are still a limited number of studies that investigate expectations, attitudes and behaviors towards humanoid robots in the area of HRI. This study aims to investigate the older adults’ perceptions and preferences of a humanoid robot appearance, which is planned to assist in healthcare activities. The preferences and the perceptions of a sample of 6 older adults are assessed through semi-structured in-depth interviews. By adopting a user-centered design process through the execution of techniques such as persona and user journeys, two different appearances are designed for the assessment: A cartoon-like, simplistic face with no specific gender and a more realistic feminine illustrative face. Findings support the notion that perceptions evoked in the users would depend on the human likeness of the robot’s face. However, gender stereotypes also had impact on the perception and preference of the humanoid faces. A majority of older adults preferred a female human appearance for the robot by referring both to the human likeness and to the task of healthcare. The participants were able to understand the basic facial gestures in both appearances. However, they could not achieve to interpret the intensity of emotions in the expressions. In this context, when compared, simple cartoon-like faces seemed more affective to support detailed understanding of the expressions. Besides, the findings revealed that experience with technology and culture-specific aspects could also affect the perception of robot technology.

The Use of Neurometric and Biometric Research Methods in Understanding the User Experience During Product Search of First-Time Buyers in E-Commerce

Understanding user experience (UX) during e-commerce has been a relatively important research area especially in the last decade. The use of conventional methods in UX such as task-observation, in-depth interviews and questionnaires has already contributed for the measurement of the efficiency and effectiveness. This empirical study has aimed to make use of both conventional and neuroscientific methods simultaneously to provide a richer analysis framework for understanding the product search experience of the first-time buyers. The current work provides insights for the results from the combined use of conventional and neuroscientific-biometric methods in a UX study. Although this has been an exploratory study within a limited literature, the obtained results indicate a potential use of these methods for UX research, which may contribute to improve the relevant experience in various digital platforms.

How to Improve the Overall Pre-purchase Experience Through a New Category Structure Based on a Compatible Database: Gittigidiyor (Ebay Turkey) Case

Customer journey mapping is a continuous process that demands end-to-end innovation through qualitative and quantitative user research. It helps to identify key points where service or communication breakdown is most likely and where they are mostly valued. Buyer journey mapping study of Gittigidiyor (Ebay Turkey) revealed the fact that the frequency of the repeat purchase was significantly limited although a high traffic and average visit time were observed. This finding pointed to the need to improve the pre-purchase experience in the web site towards motivating the users to visit more and inspiring them to buy more items. Relying on solid quantitative and qualitative research, this paper presents the action set taken for the realization of this goal. In this context the main action of the process is to renew the category structure through a focus on compatibility, which subsequently enabled the integration of a set of effective improvements. Firstly, this approach led to the improvement of a new listing creation process for the sellers by implementing an innovative and error-free experience. It also enabled to improve the search usability by presenting more relevant results, which was supported with a new smart auto suggestion feature in the search engine box and with smart compatibility filters in search results. The new compatible structure between vertical and horizontal categories brought the implementation of some persuasive features. It provided the increase in count of payment (COP) per item and average selling price (ASP) through cross-selling and up-selling features. Finally, the pre-purchase experience was supported by the integration of product rating/review mechanisms and targeted e-mailing based on previous purchase history of the customers.

Social Media Interactions and the Use of Third-Party Management Applications on Effectiveness and Perception of Information

Social media has a significant impact in our daily social lives, which challenges the traditional face-to-face interaction and/or other conventional media. Most of the social media platforms provide unique and effective web sites that enable the users to connect and interact with one another yet they also update their sites with Web 2.0 improvements and innovative ways of interaction. Twitter and Facebook have launched their own applications that became really popular among users. However, there are also third-party applications, which enable the use of diverse social networking sites through one platform. These platforms are within the reach of everyone and can be accessed directly from desktop without any browser needed. This research focuses on the usability of these third-party management applications. In this context, it will explore whether the desktop versions (third-party software) of those platforms enhance the interaction capabilities and improve user experience. In this regard the focus will be on an application that enables the use of multiple social media sites simultaneously through a single graphical user interface, ‘Yoono’. The user interaction with multiple accounts and social media services at the same time presents the ability to show the information in one screen rather than having separate tabs like has been done in typical browser view. Also it might be possible to have an estimate about if the user prefers to have separate tabs or just one tab to show all of the information regarding the social media that he/she is using. In order to understand this, a qualitative usability test, based on multi-method approach, was carried out with a sample of 8 participants who were experienced mobile social network site (SNS) users. Tests were conducted on a desktop computer with Yoono. After a background questionnaire, the participants were observed during the task executions and additional data was collected through eye-tracking. After the session, participants were asked to fill out a post-test form while having a small debriefing interview to gain a detailed insight into their experience. Findings support the notion that the usability problems might shroud the new and innovative capabilities of Yoono and prevents it to become an application that users would chose to use instead of browser interaction and needs further development in order to be an alternative to browsing.

The impact of device in social networking: an explorative study with Turkish social network site users on the nature of interactions through personal computers and smartphones*

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of interactions that develops around social networks through two major device categories: PC and smartphones. This study specifically aims to focus on the reasons for the preference of PC and smartphones distinctively and tries to reveal the significant patterns of usage for social networking through both platforms. This quantitative research employs a survey conducted with a sample of 203 Turkish people who are using PCs and smartphones for accessing social networking sites regularly.