Purpose - This study aims to enhance the simultaneous utilization of measure in product design by mapping out the possible and potential uses of a measure for both academicians and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach - To map out a way for the simultaneous utilization of measure, the authors assessed and portrayed the diverse facets of a four-factor measure for the development of mobile devices by adopting pluralistic techniques through a series of studies and three different study samples. Findings - This study provided a solution for enhancing the usability of measure in product management, showing that a measure can be developed using a pluralistic methodology so that the results can be incorporated into the practitioners' design activities that occur and when the gap between theory and practice is a knowledge production problem. Research limitations/implications - The main positioning of this study involves the science-design interface (Simon, 1992) to bridge the important gap between theory and practice by showcasing a measure development for product design as a strategy of intellectual arbitrage (Van De Ven and Johnson, 2006). Relying on the design scientific approach, the authors focused this study on a prescriptive procedure rather than a more rigorous methodological procedure. Practical implications - The authors provided product managers with a systematic and synergistic approach to developing a measure and recommended several usages of the developed measure to enhance its simultaneous utilization between academics and practitioners. Originality/value - Emphasizing pluralistic methodology in the measure development, the authors recommended the concept of intra-examination. The first-order intra-examination, utilizing Bayesian Networks, makes available the thick descriptions of the measure and supports reasoning under uncertainty. The second-order intra-examination examined nomological networks regarding the pragmatic relationships between the four factors that comprise the measure and other important constructs.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under Grant #60NANB10D213, National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant #DGE-11444666, and Texas State University-San Marcos

In this paper, we classify the groups of controls and identify physical attributes of each group of controls on TV remotes. Then, we analyze and compare the current designs of TV remote controls of digital cable and satellite TV service providers in United States. In doing so, we identify usability issues and provide design recommendations. Further, we identify the current trends in TV remote design, and determine which variations more effectively promote usability.

In this work, we examined a touchless mouse, which is a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) device for non-contact gesture inputs to a computer system. The touchless or T-less mouse is used by moving a finger without touching any device or surface. We evaluated it according to the guidelines and testing procedures for evaluating computer pointing devices. Via data collection and statistical techniques, the T-less mouse was compared to a conventional mouse. The results indicated that the average completion time with the T-less mouse is longer than that with a conventional mouse. The number of errors with the T-less mouse were not significantly higher than that with a conventional mouse. A majority of the participants indicated that the T-less mouse could be a useful alternative in special situations in which a conventional mouse cannot be used.

In today's industry, intuitive gesture recognition, as manifested in numerous consumer electronics devices, becomes a main issue of HMI device research. Although finger-tip touch based user interface has paved a main stream in mobile electronics, we envision touch-less HMI as a promising technology in futuristic applications with higher potential in areas where sanity or outdoor operation become of importance. In this paper, we introduce a novel HMI device for non-contact gesture input for intuitive HMI experiences. The enabling technology of the proposed device is the IPA (infrared Proximity Array) sensor by which realtime 3 dimensional depth information can be captured and realized for machine control. For the usability study, two different operating modes are adopted for hand motion inputs: one is a finger tip control mode and the other is a palm control mode. Throughput of the proposed device has been studied and compared to a traditional mouse device for usability evaluation. During the human subject test, the proposed device is found to be useful for PC mouse pointer control. The experimental results are shared in the paper as well.

In this work, the usability of a randomized numeric keypad was examined and compared to the usability of a conventional numeric keypad. The comparison used completion time measurements and the error rate of short (4-digit) and long (8-digit) PINs to contrast efficiency and accuracy of the keypads. The results showed that the average completion time with a randomized keypad is longer than with a conventional keypad. Additionally, the number of errors with a randomized keypad was significantly higher than with a conventional keypad, particularly when using long PINs. Accordingly, a randomized numeric keypad is more applicable to tasks with short (4-digit) PINs.

This research describes the functionality of a Near and Far Environmental Awareness System (NaFEAS) intended to be worn as a computer-based vest undergarment to support social interaction for older adults with severe visual impairments. The system is designed to facilitate wayfinding (orientation, navigation) and object recognition. The design framework was derived from embodied cognition. Methods Five consultants with Severe Visual Impairments (SVIs) formed a participatory design team who worked on the first iteration of the NaFEAS prototype. We used information from the team to develop a questionnaire to elicit scenario-based information from older adults with SVIs. Data were also collected using an online questionnaire that provided a description and broad scenarios indicating how NaFEAS could operate in a party setting and the garment and material design of the NaFEAS vest. Fifty adults ages 55 and over responded. Analysis methods included χ2 analysis of frequency data and content analysis of qualitative data. Results revealed important requirements for the NaFEAS system. Navigation through party environments, especially those containing stairs and balconies, was a critical need. Although relatively homogeneous in responses, χ2 tests revealed that women considered NaFEAS to be more beneficial for introducing others and playing games compared to men. Older adults who attended social events more frequently wanted the system to support remembering names, compared to those who attended parties less frequently. The most important garment features were functionality, overall appearance, and usability. Discussion and conclusion User requirements centered on being able to locate key people, having to rely less on others, and having a wearable computer garment that is attractive and easy-to-use. Further implications involved the importance of designing the NaFEAS as a tool to be used with other mobility aids such as walkers and hearing aids.

This paper presents a new saccade amplitude prediction model. The model is based on a Kalman filter and regression analysis. The aim of the model is to predict a saccade’s am-plitude extremely quickly, i.e., within two eye position samples at the onset of a saccade. Specifically, the paper explores saccade amplitude prediction considering one or two sam-ples at the onset of a saccade. The models’ prediction performance was tested with 35 subjects. The amplitude accuracy results yielded approximately 5.26° prediction error, while the error for direction prediction was 5.3% for the first sample model and 1.5% for the two samples model. The practical use of the proposed model lays in the area of real-time gaze-contingent compression and extreme eye-gaze aware interaction applications. The paper provides theoretical evaluation of the benefits of saccade amplitude prediction to the gaze-contingent multimedia compression, estimating a 21% improvement in com-pression for short network delays.

In this paper, we introduce and evaluate a new Instantaneous Saccade (IS) selection scheme for eye gaze driven interfaces where the speed of the target selection is of utmost importance. In the IS selection scheme, target selection occurs at the start (onset) of a saccade requiring only constant amount of time to be completed. The IS performance is compared to the conventional Dwell Time (DT) selection scheme where target selection is triggered when a user fixates on an object for a certain amount of time. The IS method is also compared to the Saccade Offset (SO) selection scheme where target selection occurs at the end of a saccade. All three schemes were evaluated in terms of task completion time and the throughput of input performance in horizontal target selection task by six subjects. Results show that the Instantaneous Saccade selection was 57% faster than the DT selection to complete a task. In terms of throughput comparison, the throughput of the IS selection is 1.9 times greater than the throughput of DT selection. We hypothesize that Instantaneous Saccade selection will be beneficial in gaming environments that require fast very interaction speeds.

In this study, unlike previous Studies where participants were instructed to pay attention to the advertisements, we set up a more naturalistic situation of reading magazine. Five major design elements (body text, head text, brand logo, product image. and human model image) were investigated and Our results showed pictorial elements captured more looking time and fixations than textual elements in general and textual elements received more looking time and fixations per unit size than pictorial elements. Also, a comparative data analysis of two different but very similar advertisements of competing products provided design implications regarding the use of human model image and head text.

The mobile phone has become one of the most Popular products amongst today's Consumers. The Mobile Phone Usability Questionnaire (MPUQ) was developed to provide an effective subjective usability measurement tool, tailored specifically to the mobile phone. Progress is being made in the HCI research community towards automating some aspects of the usability evaluation process. Given that this effort is gaining traction, a tool for measurement of subjective usability, Such as MPUQ, may serve as a complement to automated evaluation methods by providing user-centered values and emotional aspects of the product. Furthermore, experimental comparison of MPUQ assessments and automated usability analysis may enable researchers to determine whether automated usability tools generate metrics that correlate with user impressions of usability.

We reviewed the service structure, needs analysis, user interface model, and interaction analysis for television (TV) and mobile phones. Due to the increasing use of services such as electronic program guide (EPG), digital video recorder (DVR), and pay-per-view (PPV), we concluded that text input for the TV interface will be inevitable. Furthermore, jumping interaction will remain as the main interaction for TV. Based on the successes and failures of various interaction technologies for mobile phones, we present a prediction of new input paradigms for the TV interface. Finally, cooperative design by TV manufacturers and service operators will be significant for the success of advanced interactive TV services.

A comparative usability evaluation was performed using various subjective evaluation methods, including Mobile Phone Usability Questionnaire (MPUQ). Further, decision-making models using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and multiple linear regression were developed and applied. Although the mean rankings of the four phones were not significantly different across the evaluation methods, there were variations across the methods in terms of the number of rank orderings, preference proportions, and methods to select their initial preference. Thus, this study provided a useful insight into how users make different decisions through different evaluation methods. Also, the result showed that answering a usability questionnaire affected a user's decision-making process for comparative evaluation.

This study explored learning styles from both individual and cultural perspectives using web-based instruction for high school students as the context. Two web-based instructional systems teaching the same concept and theory of the Global Positioning System (GPS) were developed, each of the instructional systems accommodating different media attributes such as text, audio, and animation. To explore the role of learning styles as individual and cultural attributes, two ethnic groups, European-American (EA) and African-American (AA), were selected as the participants of the study. The Felder-Solomon Learning Style Questionnaire (FSLSQ) was used to measure the individual learning style. Questionnaires administered within a focus group setting were used to measure understandability, motivation, excitement, and ease-of-use for the two different interface designs. As results, AA students preferred a web-based tutorial designed with interface design guidelines that were compatible with their cultural learning preferences. It was observed that no learning style dimensions differed significantly between the two ethnic groups. Also, active and visual learners reported benefit from the AA-based instructional system, which employed multimedia elements such as animation and sound effects involving a greater amount of human-computer interaction.

User centered design and usability evaluation of mobile devices are becoming important activities in the development process of mobile products. This paper presents a case study and introduces different techniques to support the process of designing a menu system embedded into a mobile phone. These techniques facilitated a systematic user needs analysis in the early stages of the development life-cycle, to formulate a navigational structure for designing prototypes, to identify usability problems for iterative prototype design, and to develop design guidelines. The introduced techniques involve laddered grid methods to elicit users' mental models, focus groups, usability testing, and expert reviews. The advantages and disadvantages of each method used during the design project were summarized, and usability practitioners in the real environment of the mobile devices industry are advised to be selective the combination of items they incorporate to suit their purposes.

This study was a follow-up to determine the psychometric quality of the usability questionnaire items derived from a previous study (Ryu and Smith-Jackson, 2005), and to find a subset of items that represents a higher measure of reliability and validity. To evaluate the items, the questionnaire was administered to a representative sample involving approximately 300 participants. The findings revealed a six-factor structure, including (1) Ease of learning and use, (2) Assistance with operation and problem solving, (3) Emotional aspect and multimedia capabilities, (4) Commands and minimal memory load, (5) Efficiency and control, and (6) Typical tasks for mobile phones. The appropriate 72 items constituted the Mobile Phone Usability Questionnaire (MPUQ), which evaluates the usability of mobile phones for the purpose of making decisions among competing variations in the end-user market, determining alternatives of prototypes during the development process, and evolving versions during an iterative design process.

Electronic mobile products have become a major indicator of consumers’ life styles and primary tools for everyday life. Based on the popularity of electronic mobile products and the need of a usability questionnaire tailored to them, questionnaire sets for mobile phones and PDA/handheld PCs were developed. The definition of usability in ISO 9241-11 was used to conceptualize the target construct, and the initial questionnaire items pool was comprised of various existing questionnaires, comprehensive usability studies, and other sources related to mobile devices. Through redundancy and relevancy analyses completed by representative mobile user groups, a total of 124 items (119 for mobile phones and 115 for PDA/Handheld PCs) were retained from the 512 items of the initial pool. The resulting questionnaire sets will be helpful for usability practitioners in the comparison of competing electronic mobile products in the end-user market, evolving versions of the same product during an iterative design process, and selecting alternatives of prototypes during the development process. However, to increase reliability and validity of the questionnaires, follow-up studies employing psychometric theory and scaling procedures are in progress and will provide a refinement of the items.