Toward accessible self-service kiosks through intelligent user interfaces

Public self-service kiosks provide key services such as ticket sales, airport check-in and general information. Such kiosks must be universally designed to be used by society at large, irrespective of the individual users’ physical and cognitive abilities, level of education and familiarity with the system. The noble goal of universal accessibility is hard to achieve. This study reports experiences with a universally designed kiosk prototype based on a multimodal intelligent user interface that adapts to the user’s physical characteristics. The user interacts with the system via a tall rectangular touch-sensitive display where the interaction area is adjusted to fit the user’s height. A digital camera is used to measure the user’s approximate reading distance from the display such that the text size can be adjusted accordingly. The user’s touch target accuracy is measured, and the target sizes are increased for users with motor difficulties. A Byzantine visualization technique is employed to exploit unused and unreachable screen real estate to provide the user with additional visual cues. The techniques explored in this study have potential for most public self-service kiosks.     

Making touch-based kiosks accessible to blind users through simple gestures

Touch-based interaction is becoming increasingly popular and is commonly used as the main interaction paradigm for self-service kiosks in public spaces. Touch-based interaction is known to be visually intensive, and current non-haptic touch-display technologies are often criticized as excluding blind users. This study set out to demonstrate that touch-based kiosks can be designed to include blind users without compromising the user experience for non-blind users. Most touch-based kiosks are based on absolute positioned virtual buttons which are difficult to locate without any tactile, audible or visual cues. However, simple stroke gestures rely on relative movements and the user does not need to hit a target at a specific location on the display. In this study, a touch-based train ticket sales kiosk based on simple stroke gestures was developed and tested on a panel of blind and visually impaired users, a panel of blindfolded non-visually impaired users and a control group of non-visually impaired users. The tests demonstrate that all the participants managed to discover, learn and use the touch-based self-service terminal and complete a ticket purchasing task. The majority of the participants completed the task in less than 4?min on the first attempt.     

The influence of image interactivity upon user engagement when using mobile touch screens

Touch screens are a key component of consumer mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as an increasingly common self-service component of information retrieval on fixed screens and mobile devices in-store. The ubiquity of touch screens in daily life increases consumer accessibility and extended use for shopping, whilst software innovations have increased the functionality of touch screens, for example the extent to which images respond to fingertip control. This study examines how users engage with interactive visual rotation and tactile simulation features while browsing fashion clothing products on touch screen devices and thus contributes to retail touch screen research that previously focused on in-store kiosks and window displays. Findings show that three dimensions of user engagement (endurability, novelty and felt involvement) are positively influenced by both forms of manipulation. In order to examine the extent to which touch screen user engagement varies with individual preferences for an in-store experience, the paper also examines whether user engagement outcomes are mediated by an individual's need for physical touch. Findings indicate that the need for touch does not explain the variance between individuals. We conclude that touch screen technology complements the physical retail environment.     

The competitive impact of information technology: can commodity IT contribute to competitive performance?

Despite polarizing arguments on the strategic potential of information technology (IT), academic research has yet to demonstrate clearly that information systems initiatives can lead to sustained competitive performance (CP). We investigate this question using data from 165 hotels affiliated with two brands of an international lodging chain. We study the effect of successful use and unreliability of an incremental IT-enabled self-service channel on overall CP. We find that the effect of the incremental service channel depends on the firm’s organizational resources. We also show that different organizations experience significantly different use and unreliability rates. Further, we find that the positive association between the use of an IT-enabled self-service channel and CP endures over a 2-year period, despite competitors’ widespread adoption of the technology enabling the incremental service channel (self-service kiosks). Our findings corroborate research on the strategic role of IT resources when appropriately coupled with complementary resources. They lead us to question the notion that IT is a strategic commodity. Indeed, the findings suggest that IT-dependent strategic initiatives have the potential to generate sustained CP, even when the technology that enables them appears ‘simple’. These findings suggest the need for a theoretical explanation of the complementarities and interaction among the elements of IT-dependent strategic initiatives.     

搜索引擎用户行为与用户满意度的关联研究

用户满意度是以用户为中心的搜索引擎性能评价的一个重要分支,区别于传统基于查询与文档相关性的评价方法,基于用户满意度的性能评价能够更加全面、客观地对搜索引擎性能进行评价。该文通过设计搜索实验平台,在尽量不影响用户正常搜索过程的前提下收集用户的搜索行为及其满意度评价,通过用户行为分析的方法挖掘用户群体行为特征与用户查询满意度之间的关联关系。相关结论对提高搜索引擎性能、改善用户查询体验具有一定的参考意义。     

Customer participation,value co-creation and customer loyalty – A case of airline online check-in system

Information communication technologies and self-service technologies, such as self-check-in kiosks or online check-in systems, are widely used in the air transport industry. This study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the relationships among customer participation, co-created values and customer loyalty in an air transport context, and empirically tests the model by using questionnaire survey data collected from Taiwanese airline passengers. In particular, three perceived values (i.e. enjoyment value, economic value and relational value) are specified to represent the passengers' co-created values. The empirical results support the following hypotheses. Customer participation in using an online check-in system is positively related to all three values, which further lead to satisfaction with respect to the system. System satisfaction is also related to satisfaction with respect to the company, and both system satisfaction and company satisfaction have positive effects on customer loyalty.     

User experience of museum technologies: the phenomenological scales

Museums increasingly rely on technology as a guarantee of enhanced visitor experience. However, both in Information Systems and Museology research, little attention has been paid to the evaluation of user experience (UX) with technologies in cultural heritage environments. This paper reports research in this area that uses a framework of interpretive archaeology and phenomenology. Users of museum technologies are studied to determine whether the framework's criteria correspond to visitor expectations and can be met by Information Technologies (IT). Our epistemology is methodologically independent and by using a multi-methodological approach, mixing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, it is consistent with the original spirit of the theory of understanding. The findings confirm the importance of phenomenology and post-phenomenology as a reference to assess IT UX in museums. In addition, our field study indicates that technologies available in museums – namely audio guides, interactive kiosks and computers – contribute positively to an experience of the past.     

患者自助服务系统人机交互界面设计概述

患者自助服务系统通常是一系列用户可以自行操作并解决问题系统的总称,它可能包含了摆放在医院院内的自助机,用户手机上的小程序、公众号,甚至是在任何可能可以使用浏览器设备上所呈现的网页服务。自助服务系统以其便利、高效、减少人工降低成本等优势而在越来越多的地方得到广泛应用,但同时也由于用户认知上的差异及自助服务系统本身交互设计上的问题,很多时候并没有起到应有的作用,存在不会用、不好用、不想用等问题。为了更加高效地为患者提供服务,充分发挥自助服务所带来的优势,降低用户学习成本,提出了一种患者自助服务系统人机交互界面设计的概述,以实现所见即所得式的人机界面交互。     

自助服务终端界面交互设计研究

当前国内自助服务终端设备的建设速度很快,但仍有很多用户不能充分享受自助服务技术带来的便利,这主要是由于自助服务终端在界面设计的过程中缺乏合理的交互设计方法。采用什么样的界面交互设计方法才能在最大程度上满足大众用户的需求,是自助服务终端设计和研究人员面对的主要问题。近年来国内外对自助服务终端界面交互问题的研究主要集中在3个方面:建立用户感知模型,提出面向自助服务终端的界面交互设计方法以及研究自助服务终端界面评估方法。综述了这3个方面的研究,并探讨了自助服务终端交互界面设计研究的发展趋势。     

Storing user experiences in mixed reality using hypermedia

This paper describes HyperMem, a system to store and replay user experiences in mixed environments. The experience is stored as a set of hypermedia nodes and links, with the information that was displayed along with the video of the real world that was navigated. It uses a generic hypermedia model, implemented as software components, to handle mixed reality environments. This model includes components for storing and replaying experiences and integrating them in the overall set of hypermedia graphs that can be accessed by a given user. The paper presents the goals of the system, the underlying hypermedia model, the application scenarios, and the architecture and tools for replaying and repurposing stored information.     

基于行为的Web用户满意模型*

在激烈的商业竞争中, 努力使得用户满意是企业成功的根本保证之一。分析用户对产品以及服务的满意情况对产品的改进具有直接推动作用,但是在复杂多变的网络环境下,基于用户主观打分的满意分析方法和理论在时效性及灵活性上存在不足。提出了一个基于行为的Web用户满意模型, 以Web访问日志为数据来源,通过分析用户的访问行为来研究用户的客观满意。此模型针对分析对象实时获取、分析用户的访问信息和客观满意情况,保证了较好的时效性和灵活性。     

ASP.NET中自开发控件的应用

介绍了ASP．NET中服务控件扩展架构,比较了用户控件与自定义控件之间的异同,为用户开发中选择哪种模型提出了相关的建议,通过实例详细描述了在开发ASP．NET应用时创建和引用用户控件的过程,并总结了一些在实际开发中易碰到的问题及相应的解决办法。     

基于我国端游产品的用户体验设计策略研究

在体验经济的时代环境下,探析客户端游戏产品设计中所运用的用户体验设计策 略,为今后的传统产品设计寻求新的设计视角。采用文献研究和案例分析法,以用户体验设计 发展为基础,以产品设计、用户体验设计、交互设计、设计心理学及感性工学中的方法理论为 依托,借助客户端游戏产品为研究对象,对其蕴含的用户体验设计策略进行研究。给出一种用 户体验的量化评价模型,并提出了能够提升客户端游戏产品用户体验的设计策略,在此基础上 为传统产品的创新设计提供新的启示和指导。     

The impact of a computerized conferencing system on the productivity of scientific research communities

Researchers and practitioners in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) have for a while been embracing the concepts of user and consumer experience as well as emotions in design, encouraging the industry to emphasise hedonic and symbolic qualities of products and services, over and beyond their utilitarian characteristics. However, the idea that mobile phone users, for instance, seek increasingly experience-rich, personalised products can not be taken for granted. Therefore, it is valuable to investigate the degree to which users really share designers' increasingly socio-emotional stances. The presented longitudinal study investigated users' mobile phone-related product meaning, particularly its development from 2004 to 2008. Product meaning was conceptualised in terms of an affective-cognizant choice mode dimension complemented by items capturing utilitarian, hedonic, and symbolic facets of the construct. The findings provide grounds for raising an important discussion about a possible pragmatic shift in product meaning, away from emotional and holistic, towards piecemeal and rational valuation. This would obviously challenge current design maxims. Linking these results to users' personality and mobile phone ownership history, subgroups with notably dissimilar product meaning development could be distinguished mainly with regard to levels of neuroticism, extraversion and brand loyalty – however, not gender.     

基于知识图谱的用户表征及在互补产品推荐中的应用

互补产品推荐旨在为用户提供经常一起购买的产品,以满足共同的需求。现有的互补产品推荐方法大多考虑对产品的内容特性(视觉和文本内容)建模,而没有考虑用户购买产品的偏好。为此设计了一种融合用户偏好的互补产品推荐模型(complementary product recommendation models that integrate user preferences, CPRUP)。该模型首先计算产品之间图像和文本特征的互补关系;然后将知识图谱与注意力机制相结合,基于n-hop邻居挖掘用户历史购买产品之间的相关性,提出一种基于知识图谱的用户表征来提取用户对互补产品的偏好;最后基于神经网络实现互补关系与用户偏好的共同学习。使用Amazon数据集进行实验,提出的CPRUP模型与次优基线模型相比,ACC提升了5%,precision提升了4%,表明CPRUP模型可以更准确地为用户推荐互补产品。     

Identification of usability problems and requirements of elderly Chinese users for smart TV interactions

With the development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), smart TV is gradually becoming universal and penetrating daily life. Smart TV has a wide range of user groups, and the elderly is an important group. The special physiological and psychological characteristics of Chinese elderly highlight the usability problems of smart TV interactions for them. The main functions of smart TVs were selected and operated by the elderly in this study. With the help of physiological measurements, behaviour analyses and interviews during natural usage scenarios, we determined the usability issues and user requirements of Chinese elderly for interacting with smart TVs. The research shows that the elderly in China have the intention to use smart TV products, but the usability of interactive systems affects the experience of using a smart TV. The results indicate that different content search methods result in different user experiences. Pinyin search is difficult to operate using a remote control, and some influencing factors are revealed. Voice search results in the best user experience for the elderly, but the recognition accuracy is easily affected by factors such as user accents and environmental noise. Hierarchical search is easy to operate, but it often takes a long time to finish an involved task. Other usability issues of some main functions, i.e. screen mirroring, shopping, playing games, system settings and application downloads, were also obtained, and the requirements of the elderly were well understood. These findings have implications for interaction design and implementation of smart TV service systems.     

用户界面的情感化设计

为研究情感因素对用户界面设计的影响,打破基于物质性产品设计的传统设计原则,总结出适用于界面设计的设计原则。对物质性产品和非物质性产品(用户界面),这两类产品的分析,确定情感因素在用户界面设计中的重要性;同时应用两个用户界面的案例来分析情感化设计在用户界面设计中给用户带来了什么。探究情感因素对用户界面设计中的影响,并指导用户界面进行情感化设计。通过对物质性产品和非物质性产品的比较分析,得出设计有了本质上的改变,用户界面设计应打破传统的设计原则,即"形式追随功能",将用户的情感作为设计的主导,形成遵循情感因素的形式美法则。在用户界面中,以形式激发功能。     

The um toolkit for cooperative user modelling

This paper gives an overview of the um toolkit: the philosophy underlying its design, examples of its use and discussion of the way it deals with some major issues in creating user modelling shells. The um toolkit has been developed to provide support for a variety of cooperative agents. An important element of its cooperativeness is due to its capacity to give users an understanding of their own user models. This paper describes two substantial but very different uses of the toolkit. The first involves a collection of coaching systems that help users learn more about their text editor. Experimental results suggest that the user model is associated with users learning more. The second is a movie advisor that uses a range of tools to construct and refine the user model and to filter a database of movies. Both these systems are built from combining tools in um. The paper describes several of the tools for constructing and refining user models. In addition it describes the user-model viewing tools and the way that these help users ensure their user models are correct. The paper also discusses the two central themes of the um work, the application of a tools approach to the design of a user modelling toolkit and the implications of making the user model accessible to its owner, the person modelled.     

UX Curve: A method for evaluating long-term user experience

The goal of user experience design in industry is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product. So far, user experience studies have mostly focused on short-term evaluations and consequently on aspects relating to the initial adoption of new product designs. Nevertheless, the relationship between the user and the product evolves over long periods of time and the relevance of prolonged use for market success has been recently highlighted. In this paper, we argue for the cost-effective elicitation of longitudinal user experience data. We propose a method called the “UX Curve” which aims at assisting users in retrospectively reporting how and why their experience with a product has changed over time. The usefulness of the UX Curve method was assessed in a qualitative study with 20 mobile phone users. In particular, we investigated how users’ specific memories of their experiences with their mobile phones guide their behavior and their willingness to recommend the product to others. The results suggest that the UX Curve method enables users and researchers to determine the quality of long-term user experience and the influences that improve user experience over time or cause it to deteriorate. The method provided rich qualitative data and we found that an improving trend of perceived attractiveness of mobile phones was related to user satisfaction and willingness to recommend their phone to friends. This highlights that sustaining perceived attractiveness can be a differentiating factor in the user acceptance of personal interactive products such as mobile phones. The study suggests that the proposed method can be used as a straightforward tool for understanding the reasons why user experience improves or worsens in long-term product use and how these reasons relate to customer loyalty.