Impact of information technology on users' work environment: A case of computer aided design (CAD) system implementation

Study of the possible impacts of a new information system or technology on its users is an important area of MIS research. Understanding and identifying favorable and unfavorable impacts of implementation on users should be helpful in developing better design guidelines and choices to take full advantage of the potential of information technology, while minimizing the possible negative consequences for users. This paper presents the details of impacts created by the implementation of a computer aided design (CAD) system for part designers at an automotive parts manufacturer. The paper employs equity–implementation (E–I) model as a framework to help identify and analyze the impacts of CAD technology implementation on part designers' work environment. The paper identifies changes in the designers' inputs and outcomes as a result of CAD implementation. On the whole the impacts were found to be favorable for designers, the manufacturing organization, and its customers. The paper concludes that the E–I model provides a useful framework to help assess the nature of impacts created by the new system. The reactions of designers to the new system were also found to be consistent with the E–I model.     

Accessing Egypt: making myths and producing web sites in cyber-Cairo

From an anthropological viewpoint, “accessibility” is not so much a technological and design project as it is a cultural construction, a cognitive schema through which graphic designers and technologists imagine audiences and create appropriate graphic designs that will be “accessible” to that audience. The ethnographer's task is the specification of key actors, institutions and discourses active in the making and remaking of accessibility in a given context. In this article, we examine how Egyptian Web producers at the turn of millennium (1999–2001) sought to design Web portals that would allow the “typical” Egyptian to easily access the World Wide Web. We argue, first, that Egyptian Web producers are deeply influenced by national and international discourses that frame IT as a national mission for socioeconomic development. Second, we found that in the absence of clear definitions of the Web audience, Web producers imagined a “typical” Egyptian that contradicted their own experiences of users of the Web. Finally, we found that Egyptian Web producers largely borrowed pre-existing models, using design elements to “inflect” their sites with an Egyptian motif. However, the conceptual models of access and related design strategies created by Egyptian Web producers were out of touch with Egyptian social realities, contributing to a collapse of most Web portal projects.     

Modeling users on the World Wide Web based on cognitive factors,navigation behavior and clustering techniques

This paper focuses on modeling users’ cognitive styles based on a set of Web usage mining techniques on user navigation patterns and clickstream data. Main aim is to investigate whether specific clustering techniques can group users of particular cognitive style using measures obtained from psychometric tests and content navigation behavior. Three navigation metrics are proposed and utilized to find identifiable groups of users that have similar navigation patterns in relation to their cognitive style. The proposed work has been evaluated with two user studies which entail a psychometric-based survey for extracting the users’ cognitive styles, combined with a real usage scenario of users navigating in a controlled Web 2.0 environment. A total of 106 participants of age between 17 and 25 participated in the study providing interesting insights with respect to cognitive styles and navigation behavior of users. Studies like the reported one can be useful for modeling users and assist adaptive Web 2.0 environments to organize and present information and functionalities in an adaptive format to diverse user groups.     

Universal design: lessons for wearable computing

When we as developers and designers create a system that requires user interaction-whether it is computer software, a kitchen appliance, or a door knob-we often fall victim to a common mistake: we use ourselves as the model for our system's potential users. Even developing for an "average user" is a pitfall that results in numerous users whose needs are overlooked. The average user might account for the largest spike under a bell curve, but nonaverage users account for a much larger percentage of the general population. Additionally, the number of people possessing all of the average attributes being considered in a design is very small. So, the designers' goal should be to broaden the section of the bell curve that their system targets. This concept is called universal design, and it's especially important in wearable computing because using a system while mobile and while in different environments can have a major effect on its usability.     

Does Culturally Adapted Online Communication Work? A Study of American and Chinese Internet Users’ Attitudes and Preferences Toward Culturally Customized Web Design Elements

Various scholars have argued that today's multicultural online marketplace necessitates cultural adaptation of Web communications. This argument has largely been based on the assumption that culture, as a source of acceptable norms and behaviors, influences online expectations, preferences, and experiences. Few, however, have questioned the validity of this assumption. Our study aims to fill that gap. It examines whether Internet users' cultural backgrounds are reflected in the attitudes toward Web design elements. A survey of American and Chinese Internet users and a content analysis revealed that cultural backgrounds play a substantial role in determining Web design preferences and attitudes. The findings of this study represent an important step in developing and validating a framework that international marketers can use to customize Web sites and improve targeting in online environment. The findings also suggest that cultural customization of online communication is particularly effective when users have strong ethnic identities.     

Cultural differences in online beer marketing: findings from automated attention analysis

The impact of culture on consumer behaviour has been an important research area for decades. The rise of e-commerce prompted the importance of culturally bound differences between websites. Web designers are compelled to adjust website development to the cultural characteristics of the target audience and to reflect local perspectives. The actual target users are often invited to provide valuable feedback on e-commerce applications. However, user tests are extremely costly and time consuming. Tools for automated web design assessment have only recently been introduced and have provoked debate regarding their ability to simulate human interaction. In this article, 40 leading beer-brand-related websites from four different groups (countries) are analysed. The aim of this study is to discover if automated tools predicting user eye activity are able to distinguish between websites from different cultures. The findings indicate that automated tools provide quick and inexpensive results for initial assessment of the website interface, clearly differentiating between websites from different cultural backgrounds, resonating with the current literature.     

Using visual design experts in critique-based evaluation of 2D vector visualization methods

We describe an experiment in which art and illustration experts evaluated six 2D vector visualization methods. We found that these expert critiques mirrored previously recorded experimental results; these findings support that using artists, visual designers and illustrators to critique scientific visualizations can be faster and more productive than quantitative user studies. Our participants successfully evaluated how well the given methods would let users complete a given set of tasks. Our results show a statistically significant correlation with a previous objective study: designers' subjective predictions of user performance by these methods match users measured performance. The experts improved the evaluation by providing insights into the reasons for the effectiveness of each visualization method and suggesting specific improvements.     

Trade-off decision making in user interface design

The way in which designers choose between alternatives in user interface design can affect both the design process and also the quality of the outcome, i.e., the user interface. However, little is known about the knowledge drawn on during, or the processes that guide, the choice between design alternatives. This paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at modelling 'trade-off decision making' in user interface design. It is argued that a single abstract vocabulary can capture important aspects of the rich knowledge drawn on during design problem solving. It is also argued that designers' reasoning during 'choice episodes' is not sophisticated. In choosing between alternatives in design, designers invariably limit the range, or nature, of the alternatives considered. The implications of this finding are discussed.     

Tailored presentation of dynamic web content for audio browsers

Understanding the content of a Web page and navigating within and between pages are crucial tasks for any Web user. To those who are accessing pages through non-visual means, such as screen readers, the challenges offered by these tasks are not easily overcome, even when pages are unchanging documents. The advent of ‘Web 2.0’ and Web applications, however, means that documents often are not static, but update, either automatically or due to user interaction. This development poses a difficult question for screen reader designers: how should users be notified of page changes? In this article we introduce rules for presenting such updates, derived from studies of how sighted users interact with them. An implementation of the rules has been evaluated, showing that users who were blind or visually impaired found updates easier to deal with than the relatively quiet way in which current screen readers often present them.     

The Impact of Tangible User Interfaces on Designers' Spatial Cognition

ABSTRACT

Most studies on tangible user interfaces for the tabletop design systems are being undertaken from a technology viewpoint. Although there have been studies that focus on the development of new interactive environments employing tangible user interfaces for designers, there is a lack of evaluation with respect to designers' spatial cognition. In this research we study the effects of tangible user interfaces on designers' spatial cognition to provide empirical evidence for the anecdotal views of the effect of tangible user interfaces. To highlight the expected changes in spatial cognition while using tangible user interfaces, we compared designers using a tangible user interface on a tabletop system with 3D blocks to designers using a graphical user interface on a desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard. The ways in which designers use the two different interfaces for 3D design were examined using a protocol analysis method. The result reveals that designers using 3D blocks perceived more spatial relationships among multiple objects and spaces and discovered new visuo-spatial features when revisiting their design configurations. The designers using the tangible interfaces spent more time in relocating objects to different locations to test the moves, and interacted with the external representation through large body movements implying an immersion in the design model. These two physical actions assist in designers' spatial cognition by reducing cognitive load in mental visual reasoning. Further, designers using the tangible interfaces spent more time in restructuring the design problem by introducing new functional issues as design requirements and produced more discontinuities to the design processes, which provides opportunity for reflection and modification of the design. Therefore this research shows that tangible user interfaces changes designers' spatial cognition, and the changes of the spatial cognition are associated with creative design processes.     

Intra‐organizational user‐centred design practices: The impact of design research departments at design consultancies

The user is a critical factor in design and innovation. Firms experiment with different approaches to involving the user in design processes, which results in new forms of intra‐ and extra‐organizational collaboration. The establishment of in‐house design research units within design consultancies is one such intra‐organizational user‐centred design practice that targets designer‐researcher collaboration. This paper addresses this issue and reports on the findings from multiple case study research exploring the impact of in‐house design research teams on designers' user knowledge construction. We utilized constructivist learning theory to assess major aspects of these intra‐organizational user‐centred design practices. Ethnographically informed field studies were conducted at six design consultancies representing three design fields (i.e., architecture, industrial design and interaction design) in the Northwestern United States. Three of the consultancies have design research departments and three do not. The findings indicate that in‐house design research units play a role in designers' user knowledge construction via their results, processes and human resources. Among these, the active participation of designers in the research process was observed to have the largest impact because of its contribution to designers' contextual and collaborative learning about users.     

Online customized index synthesis in commercial Web sites

An algorithm that can generate and display helpful links while users navigate a site can increase a Web site's usability and help Web designers and the user achieve their goals.     

基于用户认知能力的自助服务终端界面交互设计方法

大众用户认知能力的多样性问题一直是自助服务终端界面交互设计领域的一大挑战。基于分布式认知理论对自助服务终端界面交互活动进行分析和建模, 确定人机交互过程中交互活动和信息呈现之间的关系, 并在此基础上提出基于用户认知能力的自助服务终端界面交互设计方法。采用这种方法, 设计人员首先要进行用户调研, 识别出需要照顾的用户群体, 然后进行认知能力分析, 建立用户认知负荷模型, 接下来描述用户的交互行为, 确定基本的交互框架, 再运用通用可用性设计方法建立交互设计矩阵, 提出交互设计方案。以酒店自助服务终端为实例, 采用该方法制定设计方案, 通过与传统方法形成的设计方案进行对比, 验证所提设计方法的有效性。这种交互设计方法能够帮助设计人员开发易于大众用户理解和使用的自助服务终端界面, 降低用户的认知负荷, 更好地满足自助服务终端用户的认知多样性需求。     

Toward an understanding of the history and impact of user studies in music information retrieval

Most Music Information Retrieval (MIR) researchers will agree that understanding users’ needs and behaviors is critical for developing a good MIR system. The number of user studies in the MIR domain has been gradually increasing since the early 2000s, reflecting this growing appreciation of the need for empirical studies of users. However, despite the growing number of user studies and the wide recognition of their importance, it is unclear how great their impact has been in the field: on how systems are developed, how evaluation tasks are created, and how MIR system developers in particular understand critical concepts such as music similarity or music mood. In this paper, we present our analysis on the growth, publication and citation patterns, topics, and design of 198 user studies. This is followed by a discussion of a number of issues/challenges in conducting MIR user studies and distributing the research results. We conclude by making recommendations to increase the visibility and impact of user studies in the field.     

An empirical study of Web browsing behaviour: Towards an effective Website design

Prior studies have suggested that a good Website design which facilitates a user’s Web browsing behaviour would generally lead to better user performance. In this research, we examine user Website behaviour as a way to understand Website design using a “think aloud” protocol analysis. Main theoretical contributions of this research are the illustration of the flow of cognitive processes during the Website browsing and the establishment of Website design dimensions – the meaning and content implied by Website content, its outward form, and the structure and navigation – in relation to user performance.     

Web designers and web users: Influence of the ergonomic quality of the web site on the information search

Despite rapid growth in the number of web sites, there is still a significant number of ergonomic problems which hinder web users. Many studies focus on analysing cognitive processes and difficulties experienced by web users, but very few are interested in web designers’ difficulties or in comparing their respective activities. Towards this end, the two experimental studies presented in this article compare the strategies developed both by professional web designers and (novice vs. experienced) web users while searching for information on web sites of varying ergonomic quality. More precisely, we investigated whether web designers can effectively use their own strategies as web users when designing web sites. We presented a comparison of novice web users, experienced web users and professional web designers searching behavior and cognitive load when using ergonomic and non-ergonomic web sites. In addition, we asked web designers to predict the strategy used by novice web users. Based on the results obtained in the two experiments, we conclude that web designers are not able to predict strategies of novice users and do not behave like novice users. Consequently, ways for supporting web designers in developing a user-centered activity are necessary, and certain ways are suggested at the end of this article.     

Web interaction using very small Internet devices

Internet-enabled cell phones typically accommodate only three to 12 text lines, and their design emphasizes portability. Web interaction has, so far, been a secondary concern. For the most part, automated techniques to address the feature gap between the desktop and these phonetops rely on the notion of transducing-translating HTML and images into formats compatible with small devices, which typically cannot handle HTML content. The authors have developed a Web browsing model that supports navigation and action in separate interfaces, To demonstrate the model, they created m-Links, a middleware proxy system that retrieves Web documents using HTTP, lets users navigate and apply services to Web content, and delivers a suitable user interface to a variety of small Web-capable wireless devices.     

Die Rolle der Kultur in der Selbstoffenbarung und Privatsph?re in sozialen Onlinenetzwerken

Social Network Sites (SNSs) rely exclusively on user-generated content to offer engaging and rewarding experience to its members. As a result, stimulating user communication and self-disclosure is vital for the sustainability of SNSs. However, considering that the SNS users are increasingly culturally diverse, motivating this audience to self-disclose requires understanding of their cultural intricacies. Yet existing research offers only limited insights into the role of culture behind the motivation of SNS users to self-disclose. Building on the privacy calculus framework, this study explores the role of two cultural dimensions ?C individualism and uncertainty avoidance ?C in self-disclosure decisions of SNS users. Survey responses of US and German Facebook members are used as the basis for our analysis. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis results reveal the distinct role of culture in the cognitive patterns of SNS users. The authors find that trusting beliefs play a key role in the self-disclosure decisions of users from individualistic cultures. At the same time, uncertainty avoidance determines the impact of privacy concerns. This paper contributes to the theory by rejecting the universal nature of privacy calculus processes. The findings provide for an array of managerial implications for SNS providers as they strive to encourage content creation and sharing by their heterogeneous members.     

基于意图认知的复杂电气产品外观设计策略

受功能结构等多重约束和功能导向设计理念影响,复杂电气产品外观设计更关注 工程技术的合理性和功能表达的完整性,易忽略用户对产品的认知体验需求。针对这一问题, 分析该类产品外观设计意图产生模式和用户意图认知模式,总结意图认知中存在的 3 个问题： 用户认知创新与失真导致意图超出与缺漏、设计师与用户的认知差异导致语义鸿沟、用户单纯 化认知导致理解障碍。针对性提出复杂电气产品的 3 项外观设计策略：基于质量功能配置法 (QFD)的用户认知前置、构建延续性与差异性并存的外观设计特征库、以用户认知和工程约束 共性特征为引导的族群收敛,以在技术约束基础上实现用户对设计意图信息的获取和情感的满 足,进而提升该类产品外观设计的市场竞争力。