Exploring the user interface of negotiation support systems from the user acceptance perspective

Despite the fact that Web-based negotiation support systems (NSS) have gained momentum in B2B electronic commerce, there have been few studies investigating the way the NSS interface might be utilized to promote user acceptance. This paper presents the results of an empirical study investigating NSS, from a user acceptance perspective and utilizing a technology acceptance model. We have explored the influence of three constructs embedded in NSS: playfulness, causality and subjective norm. The role of causality, in particular, has never been tested within the context of user interface and user acceptance of the system, so we developed a prototype NSS called CAKES-NEGO. Empirical results garnered from 174 valid questionnaires proved the validity of our proposed research model: the NSS user interface, embedded with the three constructs, causes users to consider the system more favorably.     

一种新的笔式交互范式的可用性评估

笔式用户界面是Post—WIMP界面的一种重要形态,具有自然、和谐的交互特性。尽管笔式用户界面广泛应用于无处不在计算环境中,但很少专门对它的可用性进行评估。针对笔式用户界面的特征,提出了一种新的笔式用户界面范式,基于此范式设计并实现了一个面向教学的笔式交互系统(PenOffice),利用此系统对范式从易学性、效率、出错率和用户满意度这几个方面进行了可用性评估,从中分析了笔式用户界面以及这种新的界面范式的优点和不足。     

Research on user pairing algorithm for LTE femtocell uplink

In this article,a new simulated annealing based bit error rate pairing scheduling(SA-BPS)algorithm for LTE femtocell uplink virtual multiple input multiple output(V-MIMO)systems is proposed,which uses Round Robin(RR)criterion to decide the first user,and simulated annealing(SA)algorithm with objective function of bit error rate(BER)is suggested to decide the pairing users.The SA-BPS is considered not only to be used for inner layer user pairing within femtocell user equipments(HUEs)to increase spectrum efficiency,but also to be used for cross layer user pairing between HUEs and macrocell user equipments(MUEs)to cancel the cross layer interference from MUEs to HUEs.As a growth control coefficient is used in SA-BPS to control the growth of average BER of users in the pairing group,rapid user BER deterioration can be prevented by adopting a proper coefficient.Simulation results show that,the SA-BPS outperforms RPS,DPS,and the conventional SA algorithm in terms of BER performance,whether used for inner layer user pairing or cross layer user pairing.Also,the mode switching signal to interference ratio(SIR)threshold between inner and cross layer user pairing are obtained by simulation in three cross layer interference power distribution scenarios.     

Dynamically reconfigurable vision-based user interfaces

We describe a system that supports practical, vision-based user interfaces, addressing the issues of a usable interaction paradigm, support for application developers, and support for application deployment in real-world environments. Interfaces are defined as configurations of predefined interactive widgets that can be moved from one surface to another. Complex interfaces can be dynamically reconfigured, changing both form and location on the fly, because the functional definition of the interface is decoupled from the specification of its location in the environment. We illustrate the power of such an architecture in the context of projected interactive displays.Published online: 13 July 2004     

Bayesian and behavior networks for context-adaptive user interface in a ubiquitous home environment

Modern home theater systems require users to control various devices simultaneously including a TV, audio equipment, DVD and video players, and a receiver. To perform the requested user functions in this situation, the user is required to know the functions and positions of the buttons on several remote controls. Users will become more confused if a ubiquitous home environment, which contains many mobile and stationary control devices, is realized. Therefore, the user interface should be adaptable for requested user functions and to fit a specific control device. This paper presents a context-adaptive user interface for the control of devices in ubiquitous home environment. First, we modeled the ubiquitous home environment in order to implement the context-adaptive user interface. We used a Bayesian network to predict the necessary devices in each situation and used a behavior network to select the functions that constitute an adaptive user interface in several conditions. The selected functions were used to generate an adaptive interface for each controller using a presentation template. In this paper, we implemented a ubiquitous home environment and generated a controller usage log for this environment. We confirmed that the Bayesian network effectively predicted the user requirements by evaluating the inferred results of the necessary devices based on several scenarios. Finally, we compared the adaptive user interface with the fixed user interface by surveying fourteen subjects. We confirmed that the generated adaptive user interface was more comfortable for use with typical tasks than was the fixed user interface.     

Expected user experience of mobile augmented reality services: a user study in the context of shopping centres

The technical enablers for mobile augmented reality (MAR) are becoming robust enough to allow the development of MAR services that are truly valuable for consumers. Such services would provide a novel interface to the ubiquitous digital information in the physical world, hence serving in great variety of contexts and everyday human activities. To ensure the acceptance and success of future MAR services, their development should be based on knowledge about potential end users’ expectations and requirements. We conducted 16 semi-structured interview sessions with 28 participants in shopping centres, which can be considered as a fruitful context for MAR services. We aimed to elicit new knowledge about (1) the characteristics of the expected user experience and (2) central user requirements related to MAR in such a context. From a pragmatic viewpoint, the participants expected MAR services to catalyse their sense of efficiency, empower them with novel context-sensitive and proactive functionalities and raise their awareness of the information related to their surroundings with an intuitive interface. Emotionally, MAR services were expected to offer stimulating and pleasant experiences, such as playfulness, inspiration, liveliness, collectivity and surprise. The user experience categories and user requirements that were identified can serve as targets for the design of user experience of future MAR services.     

User preferences for adaptive user interfaces in health information systems

An adaptive user interface requires identification of user requirements. Interface designers and engineers must understand end-user interaction with the system to improve user interface design. A combination of interviews and observations is applied for user requirement analysis in health information systems (HIS). Then, user preferences are categorized in this paper as either data entry, language and vocabulary, information presentation, or help, warning and feedback. The user preferences in these categories were evaluated using the focus group method. Focus group sessions with different types of HIS users comprising medical staff (with and without computer skills) and system administrators identified each user group’s preference for the initial adaptation of the HIS user interface. User needs and requirements must be identified to adapt the interface to users during data entry into the system. System designers must understand user interactions with the system to identify their needs and preferences. Without this, interface design cannot be adapted to users and users will not be comfortable using the system and eventually abandon its use.     

Service robot feature design effects on user perceptions and emotional responses

Service robots have been developed to assist nurses in routine patient services. Prior research has recognized that patient emotional experiences with robots may be as important as robot task performance in terms of user acceptance and assessments of effectiveness. The objective of this study was to understand the effect of different service robot interface features on elderly perceptions and emotional responses in a simulated medicine delivery task. Twenty-four participants sat in a simulated patient room and a service robot delivered a bag of “medicine” to them. Repeated trials were used to present variations on three robot features, including facial configuration, voice messaging and interactivity. Participant heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were collected. Participant ratings of robot humanness [perceived anthropomorphism (PA)] were collected post-trial along with subjective ratings of arousal (bored–excited) and valence (unhappy–happy) using the self-assessment manikin (SAM) questionnaire. Results indicated the presence of all three types of robot features promoted higher PA, arousal and valence, compared to a control condition (a robot without any of the features). Participant physiological responses varied with events in their interaction with the robot. The three types of features also had different utility for stimulating participant arousal and valence, as well as physiological responses. In general, results indicated that adding anthropomorphic and interactive features to service robots promoted positive emotional responses [increased excitement (GSR) and happiness (HR)] in elderly users. It is expected that results from this study could be used as a basis for developing affective robot interface design guidelines to promote user emotional experiences.     

面向用户群体的Web服务推荐

针对Web服务推荐中服务用户调用Web服务的服务质量数据稀疏性导致的低推荐质量问题,提出了一种面向用户群体并基于协同过滤的Web服务推荐算法(WRUG)。首先,为每个服务用户根据用户相似性矩阵构建其个性化的相似用户群体;其次,以相似用户群体中心点代替群体从而计算用户群体相似性矩阵;最后,构造面向群体的Web服务推荐公式并为目标用户预测缺失的Web服务质量。通过对197万条真实Web服务质量调用记录的数据集进行对比实验,与传统基于协同过滤的推荐算法(TCF)和基于用户群体影响的协同过滤推荐算法(CFBUGI)相比,WRUG的平均绝对误差下降幅度分别为28.9%和4.57%;并且WRUG的覆盖率上升幅度分别为110%和22.5%。实验结果表明,在相同实验条件下WRUG不仅能提高Web服务推荐系统的预测准确性,而且能显著地提高其有效预测服务质量的百分比。     

Improved link analysis method for user interface design – modified link table and optimisation-based algorithm

Link analysis (LA) is one of most widely used methods in user interface design to arrange control elements on user interfaces. However, traditional LA method is insufficient for evaluating transitional cost associated with accessibility (the easiness for the operator to reach certain control element on the interface) and the link table commonly used contains no directional information for assessing difficulty. To address these two problems, an improved LA method based on a modified link table and a branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed in this study. A case study on a simplified control interface of a boiling water reactor (BWR) in a real-world nuclear control system was exemplified to elucidate the improved method and an experiment was conducted to validate the effectiveness of the method in improving users’ performance time. The results showed that the total completion time (CT) and the completion time of accessibility-associated operations were significantly shorter on the interface modified by the improved method than by the traditional LA method, while the difference of the completion time of proximity-associated operations between the two interfaces was non-significant. Therefore, although the traditional LA method can significantly ameliorate the random interface by optimising the proximity between control elements, the improved method can further improve the CT by optimally trading off the accessibility and proximity. The method can be applied to the interface which requires physical movements between the user and the interface and within the interface, especially touch screen and control panels.     

A user study of accessing web applications via voice cellular phone: a model comparison approach

Although most users currently receive web services from web browser interfaces, pervasive computing is emerging and offering new ways of accessing Internet applications from any device, any time and anywhere. It is not only a technological change, but a philosophical and psychological one. Our research project investigated the theoretical concepts of pervasive computing as well as their practical applications, by using cellular phones as the pervasive device to access a web application prototype, the voice-enabled web system (VWS), through the voice user interface technology. The acceptance rate of consumers on new pervasive interfaces was studied using factors (including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and fun) adapted from technology acceptance theories. Although our empirical findings were in general consistent with the findings from several prior studies on various information technologies, there were still some discrepancies. Our overall research results, including the implications derived from the user study, may be useful for the purpose of designing and developing successful business applications based on VWS.     

A design-and-play approach to accessible user interface development in Ambient Intelligence environments

User interface development in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments is anticipated to be a particularly complex and programming intensive endeavor. Additionally, AmI environments should ensure accessibility and usability of interactive technologies by users with different characteristics and requirements in a mainstream fashion. Therefore, appropriate user interface development methods and tools are required, capable of both reducing development efforts and ‘injecting’ accessibility issues into AmI applications from the early design stages. This paper introduces two tools, named AmIDesigner and AmIPlayer, which have been specifically developed to address the above challenges through automatic generation of accessible Graphical User Interfaces in AmI environments. The combination of these two tools offers a simple and rapid design-and-play approach, and the running user interfaces produced integrate non-visual feedback and a scanning mechanism to support accessibility. AmIDesigner and AmIPlayer have been evaluated to assess their usability by designers, and have been put to practice in the redevelopment of a light control application in a smart environment as a case study demonstrating the viability of the design-and-play approach. The results confirm the usefulness and usability of the tools themselves. Overall, the proposed approach has the potential to contribute significantly to the development, up-take and user acceptance of AmI technologies in the home environment.     

Effects of interface style on user perceptions and behavioral intention to use computer systems

This study examines the influence of two interface styles (menu- and command-based) on the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention of the user to use the system. We have treated the system interface style as an external factor in the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine its direct and indirect effects on behavioral intention to accept and use a system. The results showed that the interface style had direct effects on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness which, in turn, demonstrated significant effects on behavioral intention to use the system. Further, the results showed that perceptions of the menu-based interface were more favorable than perceptions of the command-based interface. These results provide several theoretical and practical implications for designing an effective system.     

System design and user evaluation of Co-Star: An immersive stereoscopic system for cable harness design

The system design and results of a user evaluation of Co-Star an immersive design system for cable harness design is described. The system used a stereoscopic head mounted graphical display, user motion tracking and hand-gesture controlled interface to enable cable harnesses to be designed using direct 3D user interaction with a product model. In order to determine how such a system interface would be used by a designer and to obtain user feedback on its main features a practical user evaluation was undertaken involving ten participants each completing three cable harness design tasks with the system. All user interactions with the system were recorded in a time stamped log file during each of the tasks, which were also followed by questionnaire (5 point scale) and interview sessions with each participant. The recorded interaction data for the third task was analysed using functional decomposition techniques and used to construct a single activity profile for the task based on the mean results obtained from the participant group. The goal was to identify in general terms the relative distribution of user activity between specific purposes during practical system operation, and it was found that in this task Navigation accounted for 41%, Design 27%, System Operation 23% and looking at Task Instructions 9% of all user activity. The scored questionnaire data collected immediately after the completion of each task was used to rank the major features of the system according to user opinion. This was further enhanced by also collecting real interview comments from the user group about these same features. The combination of both quantitative performance analysis and subjective user opinion data obtained during a practical design exercise has enabled an in depth evaluation of the system, leading to a much greater understanding of many of the key user and interface requirements that should be considered during the development of immersive interfaces and systems for practical engineering applications.     

MOG user interface builder: a mechanism for integrating application and user interface

Tools which provide graphical editing techniques for the design of user interface presentations are increasingly commonplace. Such tools vary widely in the mechanisms used to define user interfaces and while some are general purpose, others are targeted at particular application domains. Designers faced with varying requirements must choose one tool and live with its shortcomings, purchase a number of different tools, or implement their own. The paper describes an approach to facilitating the latter by providing a library of augmented user interface components called MOG objects which embody both end-user and editing semantics. User interface design tools based on this approach need only provide mechanisms for composing MOG objects into user interfaces and the addition of any other, higher-level functionality. MOG-based user interfaces retain an in-built editing capability and are inherently tailorable.     

Development of user interface for tele-operated cranes

This research focuses on one of the major challenges in a tele-operated crane system, namely the user interface (UI). This UI should provide rich information retrieved from the field and display it properly in order to enhance the operation and decision-making processes involved in crane activities. In this research, we have designed two UIs specifically for a tele-operated crane system. The first UI is a four view system (quad-view) with a top view, left-side view, right-side view, and global view. The second UI has four views but uses additional guidance from Augmented Reality (AR) technologies. To test the UIs, we used a robot arm (KUKA KR16) to simulate a tele-operated crane in a testing environment. We also compared the UIs we designed against a conventional operation interface (i.e. operator’s view with oral guidance from the ground). We conducted a user test with two groups of participants: 5 crane operators and 30 students. Students constitute a novice group, and their results are interpreted from a statistical perspective. Using the student group, the interface’s learning curve can be evaluated. Operators constitute an expert group, which provides evidences for evaluating if the developed UIs are realistic and fit the needs of the field. We found that use of the UIs we designed resulted in a shorter erection time (336 and 343 s) than if the participants used the conventional operation interface (380 s). A self-evaluated index showing the difficulty of the tasks, the NASA task loading index (TLX), was calculated for each of the UIs. The UIs resulted in a higher TLX (52.0 and 53.2) than the conventional operation interface (32.2). In summary, the two UIs developed in this research are able to assist operators in operating remote cranes more efficiently and with less mental load than by using the conventional operation interface.     

Model-based automation of the design of user interfaces to digitalcontrol systems

Digital control systems, like those controlling the functions of buildings or industrial processes, pose a number of special problems for good user interface design. The general problems of providing usability, common to all systems, include difficulty in accessing and applying principles of good design. In addition, digital control systems can have multiple users, with multiple roles, and each installation has different configurations of systems, controls, and user interface devices. Providing interactions for the users of building control systems is often achieved by manually implementing each required display. This is an expensive solution, which often produces less than optimal results. We address these problems through the automation of user interface design. Our solution, called DIGBE (dynamic interface generation for building environments), separates the domain knowledge, interaction design, and presentation heuristics into multiple collaborating models. Each model contains knowledge about a particular aspect of interface design, and uses this knowledge to dynamically create each user interface that is needed to support the users of a control system. DIGBE demonstrates that it is possible to automatically and dynamically create consistent and individualized user interfaces from model-based design knowledge     

Intuitive user interfaces (IUI): a CASE starting point for design and programming.

The acceptance of a software product depends to a considerable extent on the user interface. The class of graphic-oriented user interfaces that are called Intuitive User Interfaces (IUI) is described. These interfaces allow the user to learn to operate software programs quickly. In the following the graphical layout put to use in an IUI is elaborated. All images the layout consists of are created with the aid of a paint program. Using these images, a procedure for creating, programming and linking an IUI to software applications is discussed and recommendations are made concerning software and hardware demands for easily creating IUIs. Practical experience of the authors with this procedure, mainly in the medical area, is described.     

Printed embedded data graphical user interfaces

In a graphical user interface (GUI), interaction is based upon selection and action at positions in the graphical display, guided by graphical content and the user's intent. Printed embedded data GUIs (PEDGUIs) generalize the interaction domain to images and objects in order to enable interaction with passive objects and active displays throughout the user environment. The interface can be almost any object. The selection and control tool is an image capture device. The embedded data helps to establish the selection location and gesture, as well as the identity or context of the chosen substrate and links to other resources. Even in the case of multiple active and passive display substrates, the GUI system captures and interprets user interactions throughout the workspace. DataGlyph technology, based on self-clocking glyph code, is a particularly efiective and flexible encoding technology for embedded data GUIs