How do usability professionals construe usability?

Usability professionals have attained a specialist role in systems-development projects. This study analyses usability professionals’ operational understanding of usability by eliciting the constructs they employ in their thinking about system use. We approach usability broadly and without a priori distinguishing it from user experience. On the basis of repertory-grid interviews with 24 Chinese, Danish, and Indian usability professionals we find that they make use of more utilitarian than experiential, i.e. user-experience related, constructs. This indicates that goal-related performance is central to their thinking about usability, whereas they have less elaborate sets of experiential constructs. The usability professionals mostly construe usability at an individual level, rather than at organizational and environmental levels. The few exceptions include effectiveness constructs, which are evenly spread across all three levels, and relational constructs, which are phrased in terms of social context. Considerations about users’ cognitive activities appear more central to the usability professionals than conventional human-factors knowledge about users’ sensorial abilities. The usability professionals’ constructs, particularly their experiential constructs, go considerably beyond ISO 9241 usability, indicating a discrepancy between this definition of usability and the thinking of the professionals concerned with delivering usability. Finally, usability is construed rather similarly across the three nationalities of usability professionals.     

How do open source communities blog?

We report on an exploratory study, which aims at understanding how software communities use blogs compared to conventional development infrastructures. We analyzed the behavior of 1,100 bloggers in four large open source communities, distinguishing between committing bloggers and other community members. We observed that these communities intensively use blogs with one new entry every 8 h. A blog entry includes 14 times more words than a commit message. When analyzing the content of the blogs, we found that committers and others bloggers write about similar topics. Most popular topics in committers’ blogs represent high-level concepts such as features and domain concepts, while source code related topics are discussed in 15% of their posts. Other community members frequently write about community events and conferences as well as configuration and deployment topics. We found that the blogging peak period is usually after the software is released. Moreover, committers are more likely to blog after corrective engineering than after forward engineering and re-engineering activities. Our findings call for a hypothesis-driven research to (a) further understand the role of social media in dissolving the collaboration boundaries between developers and other stakeholders and (b) integrate social media into development processes and tools.     

How do IT capabilities create strategic value? Toward greater integration of insights from reductionistic and holistic approaches

After more than two decades of intensive research, researchers are still struggling to explain the strategic value of information technology (IT) capabilities. The current study suggests that sufficient advancement has not been made in this area of research because of the gap between the richness of theoretical formulations and the minimalism of the reductionistic approach taken to test them. While theoretical formulations describe complex relationships between IT capabilities and competitive advantage, reductionistic explanations rely on models that represent the integration of simple relationships. This area of research can, therefore, benefit from the wider adoption of a holistic approach that attributes competitive advantage to profiles of IT capabilities. This study draws on the resource-based view and configurational theory to develop two reductionistic (direct and mediation) and two holistic (gestalt and profile-deviation) models of IT strategic value. The four models are tested with data collected from IT managers. The empirical analysis illustrates the insights that can be gained by drawing on the relative strengths of reductionistic and holistic explanations of IT strategic value.     

Toward Spoken Human–Computer Tutorial Dialogues

Oral discourse is the primary form of human–human communication, hence, computer interfaces that communicate via unstructured spoken dialogues will presumably provide a more efficient, meaningful, and naturalistic interaction experience. Within the context of learning environments, there are theoretical positions supporting a speech facilitation hypothesis that predicts that spoken tutorial dialogues will increase learning more than typed dialogues. We evaluated this hypothesis in an experiment where 24 participants learned computer literacy via a spoken and a typed conversation with AutoTutor, an intelligent tutoring system with conversational dialogues. The results indicated that (a) enhanced content coverage was achieved in the spoken condition; (b) learning gains for both modalities were on par and greater than a no-instruction control; (c) although speech recognition errors were unrelated to learning gains, they were linked to participants' evaluations of the tutor; (d) participants adjusted their conversational styles when speaking compared to typing; (e) semantic and statistical natural language understanding approaches to comprehending learners' responses were more resilient to speech recognition errors than syntactic and symbolic-based approaches; and (f) simulated speech recognition errors had differential impacts on the fidelity of different semantic algorithms. We discuss the impact of our findings on the speech facilitation hypothesis and on human–computer interfaces that support spoken dialogues.     

How do we evaluate artificial immune systems?

The field of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) concerns the study and development of computationally interesting abstractions of the immune system. This survey tracks the development of AIS since its inception, and then attempts to make an assessment of its usefulness, defined in terms of 'distinctiveness' and 'effectiveness.' In this paper, the standard types of AIS are examined--Negative Selection, Clonal Selection and Immune Networks--as well as a new breed of AIS, based on the immunological 'danger theory.' The paper concludes that all types of AIS largely satisfy the criteria outlined for being useful, but only two types of AIS satisfy both criteria with any certainty.     

How do interactive tabletop systems influence collaboration?

This paper examines some aspects of the usefulness of interactive tabletop systems, if and how these impact collaboration. We chose creative problem solving such as brainstorming as an application framework to test several collaborative media: the use of pen-and-paper tools, the “around-the-table” form factor, the digital tabletop interface, the attractiveness of interaction styles. Eighty subjects in total (20 groups of four members) participated in the experiments. The evaluation criteria were task performance, collaboration patterns (especially equity of contributions), and users’ subjective experience. The “around-the-table” form factor, which is hypothesized to promote social comparison, increased performance and improved collaboration through an increase of equity. Moreover, the attractiveness of the tabletop device improved subjective experience and increased motivation to engage in the task. However, designing attractiveness seems a highly challenging issue, since overly attractive interfaces may distract users from the task.     

How and why do student teachers use ICT?

This paper examines how and why student teachers made use of information and communication technology (ICT) during a 1‐year initial teacher education programme from 2008 to 2009. This is a mixed methods study involving a survey (N = 340) of the entire cohort and a series of semi‐structured interviews with a sample of student teachers within the cohort (N = 21). The study explored several themes, including the nature of student teachers' use of ICT; variation in the use of ICT; support for, and constraints on, using ICT; attitudes to ICT and to teaching and learning more generally. It was found that nearly all teachers were receptive to using ICT – more so than their in‐service counterparts – and made frequent use of it during their placement (internship) experience. The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) was central to nearly all student teachers' use of ICT, in good part, because it was already used by their mentors and was widely accessible. Student teachers' use of ICT was categorized in three levels. Routine users focused mostly on the use of the IWB for whole class teaching; extended users gave greater opportunities for pupils to use ICT for themselves; innovative student teachers used ICT in a greater range of contexts and made more effort to overcome barriers such as access. ICT use was seen as emerging from a mix of factors: chiefly student teachers' access to ICT; their feeling of ‘self‐efficacy’ when using ICT; and their belief that ICT had a positive impact on learning – in particular, the impact on pupils' behavioural and affective engagement. Factors which influenced ICT use included mentoring, training and support. Limitations on student teachers' use of ICT are explored and it is suggested that new teachers need to be supported in developing a more discerning use as they begin their teaching careers.     

How well do pilots sleep during long-haul flights?

It is imperative that shiftworkers in safety-critical workplaces obtain sufficient sleep to operate effectively. This presents a challenge to long-haul airline pilots who are required to supplement normal bed sleep with sleep on-board an aircraft during flight. In the current study, the sleep/wake behaviour of 301 airline pilots operating long-haul flight patterns was monitored for at least 2 weeks using self-report sleep diaries and wrist activity monitors. The data indicate that sleep opportunities in on-board rest facilities during long-haul flights result in a similar amount of sleep, but only 70% as much recovery, as duration-matched bed sleeps.

Statement of Relevance: This study indicates that in-flight sleep provides airline pilots with 70% as much restoration as duration-matched bed sleep. To increase the restoration provided by in-flight sleep, airlines could take measures to improve the quality, or increase the amount, of sleep obtained by pilots during flights.     

Program Verification and Functioning of Operative Computing Revisited: How about Mathematics Engineering?

The issue of proper functioning of operative computing and the utility of program verification, both in general and of specific methods, has been discussed a lot. In many of those discussions, attempts have been made to take mathematics as a model of knowledge and certitude achieving, and accordingly infer about the suitable ways to handle computing. I shortly review three approaches to the subject, and then take a stance by considering social factors which affect the epistemic status of both mathematics and computing. I use the analogy between mathematics and computing in reverse—that is to say, I consider operative computing as a form of making mathematics, and so attempt to learn from computing to mathematics in general. I conclude that “mathematics engineering” is a field to be both developed for practical improvement of doing mathematics and taken into consideration while philosophizing about mathematics as well.     

How do we define the “general purpose”?

The intended purpose of a device is a key reference when regulators decide whether or not to regulate it as a medical device. However, when coming into consumer health domain, it is sometimes difficult to decide whether a device (or system) has a general purpose or not. The authors discussed the regulatory policy around health device connectivity, operating system and software market, and proposed to regulate them with enough granularity.     

How do designers represent to themselves the users' needs?

This paper reports on an ergonomic study carried out during the design of a cutting machine-tool for the composite material in carbody parts casting. During this design process, the users’ needs were inferred by the designers on the basis of their own mental representations of the use of the new device. These representations of the users’ needs, correct or false, play a decisive role in the choice of a solution. The aim of the study is to identify their particularity. Analyzing the design meetings, we have highlighted that users are considered either as subsystems or basic design principles or elements of an imagined scenario. We have shown that these representations are linked to the types of meetings held during the design process. Accordingly, a diversification of the types of meetings should be promoted by the project leader, so that designers extend their points of view of the operators.     

How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a strategic research agenda

Knowledge management is commonly understood as IS implementations that enable processes of knowledge creation, sharing, and capture. Knowledge management at the firm level is changing rapidly. Previous approaches included centrally managed, proprietary knowledge repositories, often involving structured and controlled search and access. Today the trend is toward knowledge management by social software, which provides open and inexpensive alternatives to traditional implementations. While social software carries great promise for knowledge management, this also raises fundamental questions about the very essence and value of firm knowledge, the possibility for knowledge protection, firm boundaries, and the sources of competitive advantage. I draft a strategic research agenda consisting of five fundamental issues that should reinvigorate research in knowledge management.     

How do we fit underground coal mining work boots?

Abstract

Acceptable footwear fit, particularly width, is subjective and vaguely quantified. Proper shoe fit is important because it affects both comfort and the potential to prevent injury. Although mismatches between the feet of underground coal miners and their internal boot dimensions are known, no research has been undertaken to determine the impact of these mismatches on worker perceptions of fit, comfort and pain. This study aimed to quantitatively assess mining work boot fit relative to underground coal miners’ subjectively rated work boot fit and comfort, reported foot problems, lower limb pain and lower back pain in order to develop evidence-based work boot fit recommendations. Traditional footwear fitting methods based predominantly on foot length are insufficient for underground coal mining-specific footwear. Instead, fit at the heel, instep and forefoot must be considered when fitting underground coal mining work boots, in conjunction with the traditional length measurement.Practitioner summary: Underground coal miners report their work boots fit but are uncomfortable. This study assessed actual fit relative to perceived fit, comfort, foot problems, lower limb pain and lower back pain of 197 miners. Fit at the heel, instep and forefoot must be considered when fitting mining work boots.     

How do interruptions affect user contributions on social commerce?

Social commerce is an extension of e‐commerce, in which social media is leveraged to promote user contributions. Our study asks how interruptions in relation to interface design influence two types of user contributions: creating shared content and appreciating others' content. We use two interface designs, pagination and infinite scrolling, to manipulate the extent of interruptions to social commerce users. On the basis of the capacity theory of attention, we develop five hypotheses. We empirically test our model using a lab experiment and a field study to show that interruptions reduce users' content appreciation but increase their content creation and that user characteristics moderate these effects. The theoretical and practical contributions of our study are discussed.     

How to learn from the resilience of Human–Machine Systems?

This paper proposes a functional architecture to learn from resilience. First, it defines the concept of resilience applied to Human–Machine System (HMS) in terms of safety management for perturbations and proposes some indicators to assess this resilience. Local and global indicators for evaluating human–machine resilience are used for several criteria. A multi-criteria resilience approach is then developed in order to monitor the evolution of local and global resilience. The resilience indicators are the possible inputs of a learning system that is capable of producing several outputs, such as predictions of the possible evolutions of the system's resilience and possible alternatives for human operators to control resilience. Our system has a feedback–feedforward architecture and is capable of learning from the resilience indicators. A practical example is explained in detail to illustrate the feasibility of such prediction.     

How do employees prioritise when they schedule their own shifts?

We investigated how employees prioritised when they scheduled their own shifts and whether priorities depended on age, gender, educational level, cohabitation and health status. We used cross-sectional questionnaire data from the follow-up survey of an intervention study investigating the effect of self-scheduling (n = 317). Intervention group participants were asked about their priorities when scheduling their own shifts succeeded by 17 items covering family/private life, economy, job content, health and sleep. At least half of the participants reported that they were giving high priority to their family life, having consecutive time off, leisure-time activities, rest between shifts, sleep, regularity of their everyday life, health and that the work schedule balanced. Thus, employees consider both their own and the workplace's needs when they have the opportunity to schedule their own shifts. Age, gender, cohabitation and health status were all significantly associated with at least one of these priorities.

Practitioner Summary: Intervention studies report limited health effects of self-scheduling. Therefore, we investigated to what extent employees prioritise their health and recuperation when scheduling their own shifts. We found that employees not only consider both their health and family but also the workplace's needs when they schedule their own shifts.     

How do colors influence the haptic perception of textured surfaces?

Multimodality is considered a promising approach for universal access, and haptic interaction has the potential to constitute an added dimension to multimodal interfaces. This paper describes the influence of colors on the haptic perception of textured surfaces, based on 8 experiments. Our results show that (1) colors do have an influence on haptic perception, but they do not make the perception error rate higher than when no color is used; (2) up to 6 different types of colors can be used in haptic interfaces without worsening the haptic perception; (3) yellow has an error rate that is statistically significantly lower than that of 3 other color conditions, and can be used without worsening the haptic perception; (4) our finding of two special orders for haptic perception demonstrates that human haptic perception is very sensitive to continuously increasing or decreasing changes of roughness, but has difficulty discerning randomly changed roughness.     

How do people use Facebook features to manage social capital?

The goal of this study is to examine and understand the relationship between the utilization of Facebook features and two types of social capital: bonding and bridging. An online survey was conducted using a college sample (n = 256). The results show that, with bonding social capital, the frequent use of Like feature was positively associated whereas that of Comment was negatively associated. With bridging social capital, the frequent use of Wall was positively associated. The results also show that the preference for Wall, Friend, Comment, News Feed, Like, Message, Photo, and Chat was positively associated with both bonding and bridging social capital. On the other hand, the preference for Status and Group was positively associated only with bridging social capital. Limitations of this study and the implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

How do Virtual Badges Incentivize Voluntary Contributions to Online Communities?

Online communities rely heavily on badges to incentivize users to participate in voluntary activities. We examine the relationship between earned badges/pursued badges and contributions in the Stack Overflow question and answer community. Our main results reveal that different levels of earned and pursued badges increase the amount of subsequent answering activity. In addition, earned gold badges are the most influential in the motivation of users while earned bronze badges are the least impactful. Furthermore, the effect of badges involves positive spillovers from higher levels of earned badges to lower ones. Our findings offer important theoretical and managerial implications for online communities.     

How well do truck drivers sleep in cabin sleeper berths?

The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep obtained by livestock transport truck drivers while resting in truck sleeper berths during long-haul commercial operations. Operations were carried out in the very remote regions of Australia. The sample comprised of 32 drivers who wore wrist activity monitors and reported bed-times for a two-week period. Drivers had a mean (±standard deviation) age of 35.41 (± 9.78) years and had worked as truck drivers for 13.83 (± 9.11) years. On average, they obtained 6.07 (± 1.18) hours of sleep/24-h period. The majority of sleep occurred at night, but drivers occasionally supplemented their main sleep with a daytime nap. Consistent with operational demands, drivers were most likely to sleep in cabin sleeper berths (n = 394, 77%). Only a small proportion of sleeps were sampled at home (n = 63, 12%) or at truck depots (n = 56, 11%). Mixed-model ANOVA revealed that while earlier bed-times at home yielded more sleep, there were only marginal differences in sleep quality across location. No intrinsic safety concerns associated with the use of sleeper berths were identified across consecutive days of long-haul transport operations.