Evaluation of the impact of tablet screen size on children tracing performance

Tablet PCs are used in various situations in everyday life. Many researchers found that tablets have the potential to enhance young children in learning; however, the optimal of tablet size on finger tracing for young children was not investigated. In this paper, we explored the impact of three different sizes of touch screen tablets: iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, and Samsung Galaxy S4 on efficiency and usability for young children ages between 4 and 6 year. Our study focused on the mechanics of tracing alphabets using finger on capacitive-touch tablets, while its outcome has potential implications towards tablet screen size for interfaces to support finger tracing on such devices. The performances were recorded and observed for the analysis of the data with respect to task efficiency and usability. Then, we adopted the Smileyometer based on a 1–5 Likert Scale as an instrument to measure perceived satisfaction. The usability evaluation’s results showed no significant difference in speed and accuracy performance. Nevertheless, tracing the alphabet on iPad was easier, more attractive and was able to increase more attention span than others. As well as the result from the Smileyometer, all of the participants preferred and felt more comfortable to use iPad.     

Strategic demand forecasts for the tablet PC market using the Bayesian mixed logit model and market share simulations

Since the release of the Apple iPad and the explosion of consumer demand for tablet PCs, a number of companies are entering into the tablet PC market, creating a situation that is becoming more fiercely competitive, complex, and difficult to predict. Under the singularity of the Korean tablet PC market, into which both the iPad and Galaxy Tab (with an Android operating system) were simultaneously released, this study closely analyses consumer preferences for tablet PCs. It uses the Bayesian mixed logit model, which can reflect consumers’ heterogeneous preferences based on data collected from a conjoint method, and using the estimates of the consumer utility function with model verification, it offers forecasts for the tablet PC market under six likely situations.     

Documenting information systems for management: A key to maintaining user satisfaction

Executives responsible for the information system function need to be concerned about developing a base of satisfied users and maintaining continuing user satisfaction after implementation. This article focuses on user satisfaction among on-going user manager, explores the role of good user documentation, and examines the results of a survey of 144 user managers from 55 firms. The results indicate that good user documentation appears to be an important factor in insuring user understanding and continuing user satisfaction. Thus firms considering alternative ways of keeping users satisfied (i.e., personal computer applications, end user computing, or information centers) might well examine their user documentation practices before exploring other alternatives.     

The effects of graphic metaphor,gesture interaction,and form factor on e‐book performances and preferences

Reading e‐books on touch‐based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet personal computer (PCs) are increasing. We conducted a comparative study on the usability of e‐books provided on smartphones and tablet PCs, which are typical touch‐based mobile devices. An experiment was carried out to see the effects of graphic metaphor and gesture interaction. This study evaluated reading speed, readability, similarity, and satisfaction for 16 combinations of e‐book interfaces (two Metaphor levels × four Display size and Screen modes × two Gesture levels). Overall, performance and subjective ratings showed better results on tablet PCs with larger fonts on a larger screen than on smartphones with smaller fonts on smaller screens. In the smartphone‐landscape mode, the effect of turning a page is a factor that hinders the speed of user reading. In contrast, the users’ readability, similarity, and satisfaction were higher when the page‐turning effect was provided. It showed faster reading speeds when a flicking interaction is provided on tablet PCs. From the standpoint of readability, the portrait mode was better on smartphones. Also, the tablet PC‐portrait mode was the most satisfactory.     

Performance and usability tradeoff in a cluster display wall

Cluster-based display walls provide cost-effective and scalable display infrastructures with high resolution and large display area, making them suitable for a wide range of high-resolution applications. As a consequence, a wide offer of new cluster display-wall platforms together with their software frameworks have been proposed. Their performance and the satisfaction of their users have aroused the interest of some researchers. This work is focused on the Liquid Galaxy cluster display wall originally built to run Google Earth to create an immersive experience for the users. In this paper, the Liquid Galaxy is benchmarked running Google Earth, as a representative interactive application with high performance requirements, in different configurations and environments, to test the satisfaction, effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, we wish to know how users react to the system performance. In order to do so, we use a performance metric defined in previous research to relate the performance of the system with the user’s perception. Taking into account the trend of this metric in the experimentation, we model the behavior of the system in a way that the performance for any given visualization cluster running Google Earth could be predicted by using a reference system.     

Efficient trace and revoke schemes

Our goal is to design encryption schemes for mass distribution of data , which enable to (1) deter users from leaking their personal keys, (2) trace the identities of users whose keys were used to construct illegal decryption devices, and (3) revoke these keys as to render the devices dysfunctional. We start by designing an efficient revocation scheme, based on secret sharing. It can remove up to t parties, is secure against coalitions of up to t users, and is more efficient than previous schemes with the same properties. We then show how to enhance the revocation scheme with traitor tracing and self-enforcement properties. More precisely, how to construct schemes such that (1) each user’s personal key contains some sensitive information of that user (e.g., the user’s credit card number), in order to make users reluctant to disclose their keys. (2) An illegal decryption device discloses the identity of users that contributed keys to construct the device. And, (3) it is possible to revoke the keys of corrupt users. For the last point, it is important to be able to do so without publicly disclosing the sensitive information.     

Why Do People Watch Multiscreen Videos and Use Dual Screening? Investigating Users’ Polychronicity,Media Multitasking Motivation,and Media Repertoire

ABSTRACT

Despite growing multiscreen video-consumption worldwide, scant research has examined the relationship between users’ personal traits and their behaviors when using various devices for passive viewing and active communicative and social interactions. This study investigates how multiscreen users’ polychronicity, media multitasking motivations, and media repertoire influence passive multiscreen video viewing and active dual screening on video-related interactions. A web survey recruited 600 Singaporean social media users with online video discussion experiences. Results show that passive multiscreen video viewing and dual screening use are both positively associated with respondents having higher polychronicity and larger media repertoire. Polychronicity and media repertoire show relatively stronger effects on dual screening use than passive multiscreen video viewing. As for demographic factors, Chinese ethnicity is associated with passive multiscreen video viewing. Younger respondents tend to use smartphones and computers as second devices for video-related matters, while males use more tablets for dual screening activities than females.     

iPad客户满意度研究

通过对用户对ipad认知、体验等各个方面的研究,了解客户满意度,从品牌影响力、购买倾向、购买渠道、用户体验和受访者特征5个维度进行分析,从而改善用户满意度及销售计划。     

Status and trends of mobile-health applications for iOS devices: A developer's perspective

Modern smart mobile devices offer media-rich and context-aware features that are highly useful for electronic-health (e-health) applications. It is therefore not surprising that these devices have gained acceptance as target devices for e-health applications, turning them into m-health (mobile-health) apps. In particular, many e-health application developers have chosen Apple's iOS mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch as the target device to provide more convenient and richer user experience, as evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of m-health apps in Apple's App Store. In this paper, the top two hundred of such apps from the App Store were examined from a developer's perspective to provide a focused overview of the status and trends of iOS m-health apps and an analysis of related technology, architecture, and user interface design issues. The top 200 apps were classified into different groups according to their purposes, functions, and user satisfaction. It was shown that although the biggest group of apps was medical information reference apps that were delivered from or related to medical articles, websites, or journals, mobile users disproportionally favored tracking tools. It was clear that m-health apps still had plenty of room to grow to take full advantage of unique mobile platform features and truly fulfill their potential. In particular, introduction of two- or three-dimensional visualization and context-awareness could further enhance m-health app's usability and utility. This paper aims to serve as a reference point and guide for developers and practitioners interested in using iOS as a platform for m-health applications, particular from the technical point of view.     

Development of a web-based survey system for evaluating affective satisfaction

The concept of affective satisfaction is used to measure subjective feelings or impressions toward a product and to provide designers with knowledge about how well users are affectively satisfied. Numerous studies of affective satisfaction toward mobile devices have been conducted in laboratory environments. However, evaluating affective satisfaction whenever a new product is designed can be expensive. Therefore, this study proposes a method to develop a web-based survey system for evaluating affective satisfaction. A case study evaluating the affective satisfaction of thirty mobile phones was conducted by more than three hundred participants. The multiple linear regression technique was applied to build the relationship models between affective satisfaction and design features of the mobile phones. The proposed method can be used for a guideline to evaluate the affective satisfaction over the internet. Moreover, designers can use this method in product families other than mobile phones.

Relevance to industry

The results of this study can be used to evaluate affective satisfaction of consumer electronic products efficiently. Moreover, designers can get feedback on their prototypes of products through analyzing the evaluation results.     

Development and evaluation of the HaptiWatch with a smart notification system

In this study, we developed a new type of smartwatch, the HaptiWatch, which has notification functions that are not present in analog watches that lack a high‐resolution display. The HaptiWatch also has a priority‐filtering function that distinguishes notifications by their importance. Notification information is encoded as light and haptic pulses which allow users to recognize the type and importance of the notification without having to see the watch. To evaluate the user experience (UX) of the HaptiWatch's new notification system, a comparative study was conducted together with the notification system of the Samsung Galaxy Gear S3 Frontier, a well‐known smartwatch. The UX evaluation results indicate that the notification system of the HaptiWatch provides an experience that is comparable to that of the Gear S3.     

Psychological needs and virtual worlds: Case Second Life

The most advanced contemporary virtual worlds provide their users with a possibility for living versatile virtual lives together with other users. A growing number of users worldwide are utilizing this possibility. The aim of this research was to study active virtual world users' satisfaction of psychological needs both inworld and outworld. A global online survey for the users of Second Life was constructed based on a model of ten psychological needs. The results based on 258 responses indicated that self-esteem, autonomy and physical thriving were the most highly satisfied needs inworld. Furthermore, the results indicated that autonomy, physical thriving, and money-luxury were needs, which were satisfied to a significantly larger extent in the virtual world than in the users' real lives (when not using a computer). On the other hand, the needs for competence, relatedness, security, and popularity-influence were more extensively satisfied in the users' daily lives than when in Second Life. The qualitative findings highlighted relatedness needs as motivations for Second Life usage and revealed five central themes in the motivations for Second Life usage: Second Life as self-therapy, as a source of instant pleasures, as liberation from social norms, as a tool for self-expression, and as exploration and novelty. In all, the findings suggest that the use of advanced virtual worlds is driven by a variety of different psychological needs. Virtual world usage is also related to need satisfaction in the users' lives outside the virtual world.     

iPad和iPhone数字阅读平台设计简介

随着苹果公司iPad和iPhone产品在全球的热销,在iPad和iPhone大行其道的形势下,如何结合这些新型高科技数码产品为用户提供更加优质的新闻阅读体验与操作体验,成为我们每个报业工作者的使命;该文概要介绍iPad和iPhone数字阅读平台设计背景,总体思路,技术方案与创新成果,实施效果,发现、发明及创新点,与当前国内外同类平台的综合比较。     

Left‐handed scrolling for pen‐based devices

The effectiveness of interaction with mobile devices can be impacted by handedness; however, support for handedness in the interface is rarely provided. The goal of this article is to demonstrate that handedness is a significant interface consideration that should not be overlooked. Four studies were conducted to explore left‐handed user interaction with right‐ or left‐aligned scrollbars on personal digital assistants. Analysis of the data shows that left‐handed users are able to select targets significantly faster using a left‐aligned scrollbar when compared to a right‐aligned scrollbar. User feedback also indicated that a left‐aligned scrollbar was preferred by left‐handed users and provided more natural interaction.     

Social skills as predictors of communication,performance and quality of collaboration in project‐based learning

The assumption that social skills are necessary ingredients of collaborative learning is well established but rarely empirically tested. In addition, most theories on collaborative learning focus on social skills only at the personal level, while the social skill configurations within a learning group might be of equal importance. Using the integrative framework, this study investigates which social skills at the personal level and at the group level are predictive of task‐related e‐mail communication, satisfaction with performance and perceived quality of collaboration. Data collection took place in a technology‐enhanced long‐term project‐based learning setting for pre‐service teachers. For data collection, two questionnaires were used, one at the beginning and one at the end of the learning cycle which lasted 3 months. During the project phase, the e‐mail communication between group members was captured as well. The investigation of 60 project groups (N = 155 for the questionnaires; group size: two or three students) and 33 groups for the e‐mail communication (N = 83) revealed that personal social skills played only a minor role compared to group level configurations of social skills in predicting satisfaction with performance, perceived quality of collaboration and communication behaviour. Members from groups that showed a high and/or homogeneous configuration of specific social skills (e.g., cooperation/compromising, leadership) usually were more satisfied and saw their group as more efficient than members from groups with a low and/or heterogeneous configuration of skills.     

基于移动设备的个人云服务及资源Mashup

个人用户家庭或工作环境中的智能手机、个人电脑、智能相册等通过网络形成个人云,为个人的数据处理和共享带来了便利。然而,如何面向具体应用需求为用户提供方便、高效的个人云服务及资源整合仍然是一个亟待解决的问题。为此,提出了一种基于移动设备的个人云服务及资源Mashup框架来统一管理设备和描述服务及资源,并阐述了如何通过框架合理构建Mashup应用;此外,开发了基于Agent的框架实现以及Android客户端。基于该框架及客户端,用户可以通过整合个人云服务及资源方便、快捷地构造个人化应用。通过一个用户案例研究对所提出的Mashup框架及其实现的有效性和易用性进行了评估。     

Portfolio optimization of computer and mobile botnets

Botnet, a network of compromised computers controlled by botmasters, can perform various forms of malicious attacks and has emerged as one of the top security problems yet to be solved. Traditionally, botmasters have been focusing on herding computers. As mobile computing devices such as smart phones and tablets are becoming increasingly popular, there are more targets exposed to hacking risks. While technical approaches have so far received limited results, we study the botnet problem from an alternative angle, i.e., economic perspectives of botnet industry. In this paper, we play devil’s advocate and think from the perspective of botmasters, i.e., how botmasters can evolve to maximize their profits in response to changing technologies. We adopt the concept of portfolio management, in which botmasters run their business through maintaining an optimal portfolio of PC and mobile devices to diversify risk and maximize profits of entire botnet industry. On the other hand, users may also maximize their utility function by keeping an optimal portfolio of network activities and data on their computers and mobile devices. The strategic playing by botmasters and users is modeled in a game theoretical framework. Various equilibrium solutions are discussed in terms of their welfare implications to botmasters and users. Understanding the optimal portfolio choice by botmasters provides insight for defenders, especially with evolving and diversified computing environments.     

基于微信公众平台对资产管理系统的二次开发

基于微信公众平台,采用Java、JavaScript语言,使用MySQL数据库对原资产管理系统进行了二次设计开发,增加了微信公众号扫描设备条形码识别设备功能和在手机、iPad等移动设备端对资产信息进行更改的功能.系统的二次开发解决了原系统使用移动设备访问不方便的弊端以及设计流程不能满足运维一线对设备信息实时更改的问题.     

Survey of handheld computing among medical students

The purpose of this study was to identify trends in the utilization and acceptance of handheld computers (personal digital assistants) among medical students during preclinical and clinical training. We surveyed 366 medical students and collected information on computer expertise, current handheld computer use, predicted future use, and user acceptance. Handheld computers were primarily used for personal applications by students during their preclinical training and as drug references and clinical calculators during their clinical training. In the future, all participants predicted they would use handheld computers at significantly higher rates and on a broader range of medical applications. The adoption of handheld computing was independent of user satisfaction. Those with more clinical experience were less satisfied with handheld computers, suggesting that the expectations of the more experienced users were not met. The lack of institutional support was seen as a key limitation.     

Group Modeling: Selecting a Sequence of Television Items to Suit a Group of Viewers

Watching television tends to be a social activity. So, adaptive television needs to adapt to groups of users rather than to individual users. In this paper, we discuss different strategies for combining individual user models to adapt to groups, some of which are inspired by Social Choice Theory. In a first experiment, we explore how humans select a sequence of items for a group to watch, based on data about the individuals’ preferences. The results show that humans use some of the strategies such as the Average Strategy (a.k.a. Additive Utilitarian), the Average Without Misery Strategy and the Least Misery Strategy, and care about fairness and avoiding individual misery. In a second experiment, we investigate how satisfied people believe they would be with sequences chosen by different strategies, and how their satisfaction corresponds with that predicted by a number of satisfaction functions. The results show that subjects use normalization, deduct misery, and use the ratings in a non-linear way. One of the satisfaction functions produced reasonable, though not completely correct predictions. According to our subjects, the sequences produced by five strategies give satisfaction to all individuals in the group. The results also show that subjects put more emphasis than expected on showing the best rated item to each individual (at a cost of misery for another individual), and that the ratings of the first and last items in the sequence are especially important. In a final experiment, we explore the influence viewing an item can have on the ratings of other items. This is important for deciding the order in which to present items. The results show an effect of both mood and topical relatedness.