Usability in computerised mobile assistance solutions (original) (raw)
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Towards an Approach for Incorporating Usability Requirements into Context-Aware Environments
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, 2018
With the considerable advancement of technologies and the proliferation of mobile devices, evaluating the usability of software applications has become an emerging research area. Hence, improving the quality of software applications is crucial in context-aware environments. For that reason an increasing attention is drawn towards the development and the adoption of appropriate research proposals able to evaluate the mobile application usability. This article is a contribution to proposing a methodology for the development of context-aware systems based on usability requirements during the user interface design stage. In particular, this approach focuses on how to infer consistent context-based usability requirements and how to incorporate these requirements into a user interface development process. As a proof of the proposal concept, we have applied our methodology to an illustrative case study. More, experiments with end users have been carried out.
Usability guidelines for developing mobile application in the construction industry
2015 International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI), 2015
A key issue in the construction industry is that the atmosphere and working environment at construction sites are very different from the atmosphere in a typical office. The construction site workers are influenced by climatic factors, constraint of limited infrastructure for office, network and communication technology. Todays advanced mobile devices are very suitable for the construction industry because of its small size, easy to carry and have a wide range of support functions that can be leveraged into mobile applications to help workers in this industry carry out everyday tasks. However, some mobile applications are not very effective because their development is not based on the guidelines usability of mobile applications such as ISO9126, People At The Center of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) model and Moe Usability Guidelines. The objective of the study is to identify usability elements of mobile applications for the construction industry as well as developing detailed usability guidelines of mobile applications based on the selected element for the construction industry. The methodology included theoretical study using content analysis and empirical study involving interviews mobile application developers to identify usability elements of mobile applications for the construction industry. The results of content analysis of seven model and usability guidelines shows thirteen elements are suitable to be adapted for the construction industry, namely the effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, ability to learn, get the attention of consumers, presentations, human-computer interaction, navigation, data are obtained from the map, installation, mobile context, security and assistance. Findings from the interviews are used to construct the detailed usability guidelines for development of mobile applications. Assessment guidelines by experts showed the proposed usability guidelines mobile applications are capable of providing guidance to application developers to implement its usability elements in the development of applications for the construction industry.
Developing Advanced Context Aware Tools for Mobile Maintenance
IFAC Proceedings Volumes, 2012
The rapid technological progress in the domains of wireless sensor networks, mobile application development and artificial intelligence has fueled the construction of "smart" environments in both domestic and industrial environments. Such environments are equipped with a wide range of sensors, identification tags and interaction devices, capable of sensing, recording, interpreting and reacting to human activity and presence. Context-awareness constitutes a major challenge for developers of smart services, since both design and implementation are increasingly supported by widely adopted frameworks and well-structured tools. The value adding features of context-based services find their way into many industrial systems through the adoption of mobile computing and its state-of-the-art devices. Acting as a constant context monitoring agent, a tablet or a smartphone can expand the capacity of a shoop floor system actor to carry out asset management tasks. Context interpretation and system adaptation are highly specialized processes that essentially use predefined or dynamically build semantics to filter and configure the mobile actor's access session. In this paper we discuss the context semantics for an IT infrastructure that serves engineering asset management and specifically supports maintenance practice and planning. Evaluating the available software methodologies that can drive the implementation of such an infrastructure, we perform a suitability study for the development of a maintenance management and a condition monitoring portable console. Our goal is to identify and assess the weighted significance for a domain-focused set of functional parameters, used to define a context-based mobile tool scaled for industrial shop-floors complexity.
Usability Evaluation of a Shop-floor Information Support System
The special demands for industrial software are a great challenge: The work environment on the shop floor set special demands especially for the user interface. The user interface must be capable to provide the same information for novice and expert users. Additionally, the users' educational background differs essentially from each other. This study was made in real industrial settings. The study was conducted in two phases in order to reveal changes in the perceived usability in the use of ISS, an information support system for shop-floor assembly workers. The first part of the study was conducted during the introduction of the information support software and the second part four months after that. In both parts of the study, the methodology was identical. The questionnaire (21 questions) is loosely based on QUIS. We complemented the questionnaire with an interview that consisted of ten questions that addressed same issues as the questionnaire. This study was a part of a development project and the results were brought straight to the developers.
Usability Analysis and Evaluation of Mobile ICT Systems
hft.org
There is a need for new usability methods tailored to suit the development of mobile ICT. In response to this, three methods that have been developed to a prototype level are presented.The methods are designed to be cost-effective and provide information on (1) user problems as experienced in users’ everyday lives, (2) contexts of use, and (3) integration of technology in users’ patterns of activity. The methods have been tried out in a small-scale evaluation in conjunction with the introduction of PDAs and mobile telephones with PDAs in an organisation.
Maintenance support: case study for a multimodal mobile user interface
Multimedia on Mobile Devices II, 2006
Maintaining and repairing complex technical facilities such as generating plants requires comprehensive knowledge on subsystems, operational and safety procedures by the technician. Upgrades to the facility may mean that knowledge about these becomes outdated, raising the need for documentation at the working site. Today's commonplace availability of mobile devices motivates the use of digital, interactive manuals over printed ones. Such applications should provide high-quality illustrations and interaction techniques tailored for specific tasks, while at the same time allow flexible deployment of these components on a multitude of (mobile) hardware platforms. This includes the integration of multimodal interaction facilities like speech recognition into the user interface. To meet these demands, we propose a model-based approach that combines task, object and dialog models to specify platform-independent user interfaces. New concepts like relating tasks to domain objects and dialog views allow us to generate abstract canonical prototypes. Another focus is on the necessary adaptation of visual representations to the platform capabilities to remain effective and adequate, requiring tight coupling of the underlying model, the visualization, and alternative input/output modes. The above aspects have been addressed in a prototype for air-condition unit maintenance, presented on the CeBIT 2005 fair.
This paper presents a case study that observes usability issues of a system currently used in the main control room of an oil refinery plant. Poor usability may lead to poor decision makings on a system, which in turn put thousands of lives at risk, and contributes to production loss, environmental impact and millions dollar revenue loss. Thus, a continuous usability evaluation on an existing system is necessary to ensure meeting users' expectation when they interact with the system. Seeking users' subjective opinions on the usability of a system could capture rich information and complement the respective quantitative data on how well the system is in supporting an intended activity, as well as to be used for system improvement. The objective of this survey work is to identify if there are any usability design issues in the systems used in the main control room at the plant. A set of survey questions was distributed to the control operators of the plant in which 31 operators responded. In general, results from the quantitative data suggest that respondents were pleased with the existing system. In specific, it was found that the experienced operators are more concerned with the technical functionality of the system, while the lesser experienced are towards the system interface. The respondents' subjective feedback provides evidences that strengthen the findings. These two concerns however, formed part of the overall usability requirements. Therefore, to continuously improve the usability of the systems, we strongly suggest that the system be embedded with these usability aspects into its design requirements.
On the understanding of industrial usability work in IT-systems development
2008
Analyzing usability improvement processes as they take place in real-life organizations is necessary to understand the practice of usability work. This paper describes a case study where the usability of an information system is improved and a relationship between the improvements and the evaluation efforts is established. Results show that evaluation techniques complemented each other by suggesting different kinds of usability improvement. Among the techniques applied, a combination of questionnaires and Metaphors of Human Thinking (MOT) showed the largest mean impact and MOT produced the largest number of impacts. Logging of real-life use of the system over 6 months indicated six aspects of improved usability, where significant differences among evaluation techniques were found. Concerning five of the six aspects Think Aloud evaluations and the above-mentioned combination of questionnaire and MOT performed equally well, and better than MOT. Based on the evaluations 40 redesign pro...
Bringing the mobile context into industrial design and development
Proceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction Making Sense Through Design - NordiCHI '12, 2012
In this paper we discuss the dynamic nature of mobile usage, and how this impacts on design and evaluation, particularly in an industrial setting. We argue that current industry oriented design tools need to be extended to cater more effectively to the highly dynamic and contextdependent nature of mobile usage-we suggest more focus should be put on doing instead of on being. In order to achieve this we suggest a lightweight design/insight tool developed to suit industrial practice: context cards. These cards allow designers, developers, and usability experts to perform lightweight explorations of the consequences of a range of mobile situations.