Peter Hyland

Australian online supermarket usability

The issue of usability plays a vital role in the success of an online store. However, to date there has been limited published research into this issue and there has been no research conducted into multiple item purchasing. There is much competition in the grocery shopping industry between the two major physical supermarket chains in Australia, Woolworths and Coles, both in traditional stores and online. Online, the major competitor is ShopFast, which does not have a traditional supermarket storefront to complement its online operations. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis into the usability of ordering systems of online supermarkets that supply to Australian consumers in 2002.

External Statistical Data: Understanding Users and Improving Access

Every year, government agencies, financial institutions, and other businesses spend millions of dollars gathering and publishing statistical data, presumably intended for use by other organizations in planning. From the point of view of the end user, these data are external statistical data (ESD) because they are provided by external sources over which the end user has little control. Typical sources of ESD include national statistical agencies, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), regional information services, and various state and national government departments.

A Framework for Assessing Enterprise-Wide SOA Implementation Readiness

Many vendors have acclaimed Service Oriented Architecture SOA as a better way to design and build enterprise-wide information systems EWIS. While these claims may be true in the private sector, there is scant evidence in the literature for the same success in the public sector. The adoption of Enterprise-wide SOA ESOA as the dominant development paradigm within an organization often requires significant organizational changes, which are difficult to achieve in the public sector, with its strict hierarchies and departmental independence. Although many government departments are beginning to adopt this new paradigm, the literature does not provide a suitable ESOA implementation readiness framework for use in the public sector. This research proposes a framework based on Critical Success Factors CSFs and a CSF scorecard to evaluate an organisations ESOA implementation readiness. The framework and scorecard were tested in a test case in the Malaysian government, and the results validate the accuracy and usefulness of both the CSF Framework and the CSF Scorecard.

Exploring Design Features and Benefits of Online Patient Education (OPE) Sites for Chronic Diseases

The literature shows that effective Online Patient Education (OPE) site can provide significant benefits to patients with a chronic disease. What remains unclear is which design features make OPE site effective, and which benefits can OPE actually provide. This paper addresses this by (i) identifying 29 design features of effective OPE site (ii) identifying 13 potential benefits and (iii) statistically assessing the validity of both features and benefits using empirical data. The design features were initially classified as: patient tailored information, interactivity, user friendliness, content, and interpretability as necessary design features while the benefits were grouped as health benefits or social benefits. Following pilot testing, 141 patients and carers rated both design features and benefits. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out and changes were made to both the design features and the benefits, resulting in more parsimonious and better organized sets of features and benefits.

Benefits Derived from ICT Adoption in Regional Medical Practices: Perceptual Differences Between Male and Female General Practitioners

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are being used more and more by general practitioners (GPs) in their day-to-day activities. While a number of studies have shown that ICT adoption and use can provide real benefits to medical practices, there have been few studies to determine whether the perception of those benefits is uniform across the sector. This study examines whether differences in the perception of benefits exist between male and female GPs. The results suggest that the groupings and priorities of benefits arising from ICT use differ substantially between male and female GPs. Results also show, amongst other things, that male GPs are focussed on business efficiency, while female GPs are focussed on communication and practice expansion.

Benefits of ICT adoption and use in regional general medical practices: a pilot study

This paper presents a pilot study of benefits derived from information and communications technology (ICT) adoption and use in medical practices in regional Australia. The study involved 122 regional medical practitioners. The results show that like the more general small business sector, the perception of certain benefits is associated with the size of the practice (in terms of employee levels) and/or the gender of the respondent practitioner. The data also showed that the level of skill of certain software used within the practice was significantly associated with the level of perceived benefit derived from ICT adoption and use.

The Use of External Statistical Data in Local Government

This paper is part of an ongoing study into the use of statistical data from external sources such as ABS, government departments and so on. It describes a study of how one local council makes use of this type of data for planning and decision making. The study confirms the importance of such data and reveals a number of significant problems that may affect other local councils in their use of external statistical data.

Supporting casual or naive users of externally derived statistical data

This paper describes a study of users of externally derived statistical data (EDSD) in academic, business, government and non-government organisations. It clarifies the terms casual user, naive user and novice user and applies these concepts to categorise the survey respondents. The survey reveals that users of EDSD are far more varied than has been previously thought. The paper identifies the type of interfaces that are suitable for casual or naive users, particularly for users of EDSD.

Using Statistics for Database Management in an Academic Library.

ABSTRACTThe collection of statistical data about the usage of databases by library patrons is an important task for librarians. It is necessary for a variety of reasons, including the provision of appropriate access points, the minimisation of costs associated with database licences and the diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses in the training programs provided for the patrons of the library. The collection of these statistics is cumbersome, unless it can be automated as part of the process of accessing the databases. This paper presents a critical appraisal of the development, implementation and evaluation of an automated statistics gathering system at the University of Wollongong Library for the CD-ROM database collection. The authors describe the background to the study and explain the ways in which the use of statistical data can improve the day-to-day management of CD-ROM and database facilities, collection development of CD-ROM databases, and the influence on training and directions given to users i...

Profile of patrons and their use of CD-ROM databases in an academic library

This paper presents a preliminary profile of the users of CD-ROM databases at the University of Wollongong Library, based on the librarys statistics gathering system which gathers data about a number of patron characteristics when they log on to carry out searches. Information gathered includes patrons’ place of origin, the faculty they belong to, their type of enrolment, and their reason for using the database. Examples of the reports produced by the system are included, together with an exploration of some observed trends. In addition, some guidelines are given for both setting up and interpreting the data produced by the system.