Rule-based tools for the configuration of ambient intelligence systems: a comparative user study

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper describes a 63-participant user study that compares two widely known systems supporting end users in creating trigger-action rules for the Internet of...     

End users as co-designers of their own tools and products

In our Age of exponential technological advance, recent developments are determining an evolution of end users from passive information consumers into information producers. Users are increasingly willing and, indeed, determined to shape the software they use to tailor it to their own needs. Based on a brief review of research activities we performed in the last decade, this paper analyzes some challenges that software designers face to comply with the new roles of end users in the software life cycle, and discusses how to provide end users with software environments that empower them to become co-designers of their own tools and products. The examples reported in the paper show why and how end users are involved in design activities in various application domains.     

Analysing trade-offs in frameworks for the design of smart environments

ABSTRACT

Smart Interactive Experiences (SIEs) are usage situations enabled by the Internet of Things that empower users to interact with the surrounding environment. The goal of our research is to define methodologies and software environments to support the design of SIEs; more specifically, we focus on design paradigms suitable for experts of given domains, who however might not be experts in technology. In this context, this paper discusses some trade-offs that we identified between six different dimensions that characterise the quality of software environments for SIE design. The trade-offs emerged from the analysis of data collected in an experimental study that compared three different design paradigms to understand in which measure each paradigm supports the creative process for SIE design. After reporting on the study procedure and the data analyses, the paper illustrates how the resulting trade-offs led us to identify alternatives for SIE design paradigms, and to structure on their basis a modular architecture of a software platform where the strengths of the three paradigms can be exploited flexibly, i.e. depending on the constraints and the requirements characterising specific design situations.     

Does hypermedia really work for tutoring children?

The advent of multimedia technology has produced an explosion of research on the use of computers in education. Indeed, the computer is a rich communication tool that instructors can use for effectively illustrating ideas. However, compared to human communication, computers lack several features needed for satisfactory communication. They don't have analogies to eyes, ears, voice, and hands that humans use for acquiring information; neither can they create different information representations. Graphic, video, animation, and sound use in multimedia systems attempts to overcome these limitations to develop systems that can better communicate and cooperate with humans. Several recently developed hypermedia environments - both online (on the World Wide Web) or offline (on CD-ROM) - promote knowledge acquisition on a wide range of topics and attempt to teach problem-solving abilities in users. However, the basic question of whether hypermedia learning environments actually promote learning is still debatable, Our work here refers to a hypermedia designed for a particular category of users, namely children in a primary school. The hypermedia offers a tutoring component to teach basic logic concepts to children. We call this hypermedia Logiocando, a name obtained by merging two Italian words (Logica Giocando) and meaning "playing with logic." To determine whether this tutoring hypermedia really works (that is, to check its instructional validity), we performed two experiments that evaluated the pedagogical efficiency of the hypermedia in comparison to traditional classroom instruction.     

Do patterns help novice evaluators? A comparative study

Evaluating e-learning systems is a complex activity which requires considerations of several criteria addressing quality in use as well as educational quality. Heuristic evaluation is a widespread method for usability evaluation, yet its output is often prone to subjective variability, primarily due to the generality of many heuristics. This paper presents the pattern-based (PB) inspection, which aims at reducing this drawback by exploiting a set of evaluation patterns to systematically drive inspectors in their evaluation activities. The application of PB inspection to the evaluation of e-learning systems is reported in this paper together with a study that compares this method to heuristic evaluation and user testing. The study involved 73 novice evaluators and 25 end users, who evaluated an e-learning application using one of the three techniques. The comparison metric was defined along six major dimensions, covering concepts of classical test theory and pragmatic aspects of usability evaluation. The study showed that evaluation patterns, capitalizing on the reuse of expert evaluators know-how, provide a systematic framework which reduces reliance on individual skills, increases inter-rater reliability and output standardization, permits the discovery of a larger set of different problems and decreases evaluation cost. Results also indicated that evaluation in general is strongly dependent on the methodological apparatus as well as on judgement bias and individual preferences of evaluators, providing support to the conceptualisation of interactive quality as a subjective judgement, recently brought forward by the UX research agenda.     

An approach to usability evaluation of e-learning applications

Despite recent advances of electronic technologies in e-learning, a consolidated evaluation methodology for e-learning applications is not available. The evaluation of educational software must consider its usability and more in general its accessibility, as well as its didactic effectiveness. This work is a first step towards the definition of a methodology for evaluating e-learning applications. Specific usability attributes capturing the peculiar features of these applications are identified. A preliminary user study involving a group of e-students, observed during their interaction with an e-learning application in a real situation, is reported. Then, the proposal is put forward to adapt to the e-learning domain a methodology for systematic usability evaluation, called SUE. Specifically, evaluation patterns are proposed that are able to drive the evaluators in the analysis of an e-learning application.