Publishers’ relationships on the web: An examination of how publishers’ websites are causing changes in relations in the book industry

This research, funded by the British National Bibliography Research Fund, examined how publishers’ websites are causing changes in relations in the book industry in order to gain further understanding of the implications of the impact of the Internet on the publishing chain. The paper is set within the context of the development of electronic commerce and how business to consumer commerce is now being overtaken by the activity in business to business trading. Publishers have followed the main business trends in using their websites to develop relationships directly with the consumer, but have been rather slower in developing their business to business activity through the Internet. This study investigated what changes were taking place as a result of current publisher activity on the Web and how these changes were affecting the traditional lines of communication in the book industry. An analysis of a range of consumer publishers’ websites was carried out to see what facilities they were offering both to the general public and to business partners within the industry. Questionnaires and interviews were then conducted to establish how publishers, booksellers and wholesalers were using publishers’ websites and whether these sites were beneficial to the industry as a whole. Facilities found on the websites were examined and analysed in order to determine their usefulness and how they might be developed to aid business to business commerce. Additionally, several issues relating to online sales, changes in sales patterns and changes in working methods were discussed. Although an amount of quantitative data is included in the report, many of the issues raised relied on the perceptions and opinions of practitioners in the book trade.     

A study on the relationships between different presentation modes of graphical icons and users’ attention

With the vigorous development of applications (App), graphical user interfaces (GUI) have been widely found in computers and handheld devices. This study aimed to explore the relationships between different presentation modes of graphical icons and users’ attention. An eye tracker was employed to measure each participant’s experimental data; in addition, subjective evaluation of attention was conducted. Thus, the optimum presentation mode attracting the most attention might be determined. The experiment was designed to investigate two variables: icon composition and background. Through permutation and combination, six presentation modes were obtained as follows: line + positive background (M1), plane + positive background (M2), line + negative background (M3), plane + negative background (M4), line + no background (M5), and plane + no background (M6). Thirty-six participants were requested to view thirty stimuli, or the contour drawings of graphical icons, presented simultaneously in six modes mentioned above. The participants’ fixation duration, fixation frequency, and subjective evaluation of attention were analyzed through two-way ANOVA. The analytical results showed that in terms of the three performance indicators above, M4 performed the best among the six presentation modes. Moreover, regarding icon composition, planes performed better than lines in terms of the three performance indicators. As for background, negative background performed the best in terms of the three performance indicators, positive background ranked second, and no background performed the worst. The findings can serve as a reference when icons are researched or designed in the future.     

Effects of the design of mobile security notifications and mobile app usability on users’ security perceptions and continued use intention

The explosive global adoption of mobile applications (i.e., apps) has been fraught with security and privacy issues. App users typically have a poor understanding of information security; worse, they routinely ignore security notifications designed to increase security on apps. By considering both mobile app interface usability and mobile security notification (MSN) design, we investigate how security perceptions of apps are formed and how these perceptions influence users’ intentions to continue using apps. Accordingly, we designed and conducted a set of controlled survey experiments with 317 participants in different MSN interface scenarios by manipulating the types of MSN interfaces (i.e., high vs. low disruption), the context (hedonic vs. utilitarian scenarios), and the degree of MSN intrusiveness (high vs. low intrusiveness). We found that both app interface usability and the design of MSNs significantly impacted users’ perceived security, which, in turn, has a positive influence on users’ intention to continue using the app. In addition, we identified an important conundrum: disruptive MSNs—a common approach to delivering MSNs—irritate users and negatively influence their perceptions of app security. Thus, our results directly challenge current practice. If these results hold, current practice should shift away from MSNs that interrupt task performance.     

Impacts of navigation structure,task complexity,and users’ domain knowledge on Web site usability—an empirical study

It is essential for designers of Web sites to understand what navigation structure results in better usability for knowledge acquisition tasks of varying complexity and the Web site users with different level of domain knowledge. Literature shows that multiple factors may exert influence on Web site usability. Navigation structure, task complexity, and user domain knowledge level are among of those factors. Hypotheses are developed about the usability of alternative navigation structures, with different task complexity and user domain knowledge level. Experiments are designed and conducted to test these hypotheses in terms of user performance (accuracy, speed) in accomplishing sets of simple and comparatively complex knowledge acquisition tasks. User perceptions of usability are also measured. Two rounds of experimentation are performed, one with participants who have been trained in the domain of production and operations management, the other with participants who have not been trained in this domain. The results show that a usage-oriented hierarchy or a combined hierarchy are navigation structures associated with statistically significantly higher performance usability than a subject-oriented hierarchy, for both simple and relatively complex knowledge acquisition task sets. A statistically significant effect of domain knowledge on the perception aspect of usability is identified. The study contributes to enhancing the comprehension of researchers, practitioners, and educators about design and usability of Web site navigation structures.     

An empirical study on the utility of BRDF model parameters and topographic parameters for mapping vegetation in a semi‐arid region with MISR imagery

In this study we show that multiangle remote sensing is useful for increasing the accuracy of vegetation community type mapping in desert regions. Using images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), we compared roles played by Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model parameters with those played by topographic parameters in improving vegetation community type classifications for the Jornada Experimental Range and the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA. The BRDF models used were the Rahman–Pinty–Verstraete (RPV) model and the RossThin‐LiSparseReciprocal (RTnLS) model. MISR nadir multispectral reflectance was considered as baseline because nadir observation is the most basic remote sensing observation. The BRDF model parameters and the topographic parameters were considered as additional data. The BRDF model parameters were obtained by inversion of the RPV model and the RTnLS model against the MISR multiangle reflectance data. The results of 32 classification experiments show that the BRDF model parameters are useful for vegetation mapping; they can be used to raise classification accuracies by providing information that is not available in the spectral‐nadir domain, or from ancillary topographic parameters. This study suggests that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and MISR BRDF model parameter data products have great potential to be used as additional information for vegetation mapping.