[conference] USAB 2010: HCI in Work & Learning, Life & Leisure

The 6th Symposium of the Workgroup HCI&UE of the Austrian Computer Society will take place in Carinthia (Southern Austria) this year from Sept. 16th to Sept. 17th.
The topics are structured alongside (but not limited to) the following three dimensions:

  1. Special user groups (children, elderly, healthcare professionals,
    tourists, students, teachers, …)
  2. Issues on practical application of HCI in the work place (process
    aspects, HCI patterns, cost/benefit analyses, …)
  3. Future trends in HCI, …

Here you will finde the Call for Papers [CfP] and some other details.

[video] Neue Interaktionsformen herausfinden

Der Interface Design und Usability Blog weist uns auf eine sehr interessante Möglichkeit hin, wie man neue (die Betonung liegt auf neue) Interaktionsformen herausfinden kann – Kreativität ist hier ja ohne Ende gefordert und man macht dies mittels dreier Herangehensweisen:

Gesucht wurde die Antwort auf die Frage: Wie kann ich Passanten auf ein Multitouch-Display aufmerksam machen und sie zur Benutzung anregen.

  1. Analogie
    Die Suche nach Vorbildlösungen, die gleiche oder ähnliche Probleme bereits gelöst haben. Diese werden dann auf das neue Problem angewendet.
  2. Provokation
    Die bestehende Situation wird analysiert und dann bewußt verfälscht. Es entstehen unkonventionelle Ideen.
  3. Zufall
    Zufällige Inputs generieren überraschende Ergebnisse zur Lösung des Problems.

Hier gibt es noch einen Weblog zu diesen Techniken.

[conference] USAB 2009 “Usability & HCI Learning from the Extreme”

uni_linzDie USAB 2009 findet heuer vom 9. – 10. November 2009 in Linz unter dem Motto “Usability & HCI Learning from the Extreme” statt.

Our 2009 topic is Human–Computer Interaction for eInclusion (HCI4eIn), culminating in the 5th annual Usability Symposium USAB 2009.

Mission Statement: “Interfacing the Interface” for a better eInclusion!

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) pervaded many parts of our daily lives. Due to its flexibility (multimedia connected with multimodality) it offers a huge potential for people with disabilities and others with functional limitations to interact with electronic systems and services.

Hier geht es zur Webseite / Programm. Wir werden auch mit einer Publikation / Präsentation vertreten sein und freuen uns auf spannende Diskussionen – cu there.

iPhone Mockup

iPhone MockupEine sehr nette Möglichkeit ein Mockup für das iPhone zu erstellen bietet diese Webseite.
Zwei verschiedene Styles werden angeboten, danach kann man die wichtigsten Bedienelemente einfach via Drag&Drop auswählen. Auch das Hochladen eines eigenen Bildes wird unterstützt.
Na dann, alles gute den Usability Ingenieuren, damit die Programme einfach bedienbar werden.

[publication] Emotion Detection: Application of the Valence Arousal Space for Rapid Biological Usability Testing to enhance Universal Access

A Draftversion of our publication “Emotion Detection: Application of the Valence Arousal Space for Rapid Biological Usability Testing to enhance Universal Access” at this year HCII Conference is now online available.
Abstract:

Emotion is an important mental and physiological state, influencing cognition, perception, learning, communication, decision making, etc. It is considered as a definitive important aspect of user experience (UX), although at least well developed and most of all lacking experimental evidence. This paper deals with an application for emotion detection in usability testing of software.
It describes the approach to utilize the valence arousal space for emotion modeling in a formal experiment. Our study revealed correlations between low performance and negative emotional states. Reliable emotion detection in usability tests will help to prevent negative emotions and attitudes iproducts. This can be a great advantage to enhance Universal Access.

Reference: Stickel, C.; Ebner, M.; Steinbach-Nordmann, S.; Searle, G.; Holzinger, A. (2009) Emotion Detection: Application of the Valence Arousal Space for Rapid Biological Usability Testing to enhance Universal Access. – in: Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. (2009) In Press
Here you will find the Draftversion and here the slides.

[publication] A Study on the Compatibility of Ubiquitous Learning (u-Learning) Systems at University Level

A Draftversion of our publication “A Study on the Compatibility of Ubiquitous Learning (u-Learning) Systems at University Level” at this year HCII Conference is now online available.
Abstract:

Graz University of Technology has a long tradition in the design, development and research of university wide Learning Management Systems
(LMS). Inspired by the iPhone Style, the available system has now been extended by the addition of a mobile viewer, which grants the student mobile accessibility to all available online content. In this paper, we report on the lessons learned within a study on user experience with this specially designed LMS mobile viewer. The User Experience (UX) was measured by application of a 26 item questionnaire including the six factors Attractiveness, Perspicuity, Efficiency, Dependability, Stimulation and Novelty, according to Laugwitz et al. (2008). The results showed high rates of acceptance, although the novelty of our approach received a surprisingly low rating amongst the novice end users.

Reference: Ebner, M.; Stickel, C.; Scerbakov, N.; Holzinger, A. (2009) A Study on the Compatibility of Ubiquitous Learning (u-Learning) Systems at University Level . – in: Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. (2009), S. 34 – 43
Here you will find the Draftversion and here the slides.

[publication] The Modeling of Harmonious Color Combinations …

Our contribution “The Modeling of Harmonious Color Combinations for improved Usability and User Experience (UX)” to this year International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces is now online available.
Abstract:

This study compares three different models for the calculation and prediction of harmonious color combinations. Therefore a dataset of user rated color combinations was taken from a large online database. The user rating was compared to the outcome of the three models on this dataset in order to test the performance of the models. The first model based on the idea that color combinations are more pleasing the greater their difference in brightness. The second model is a slightly modified version of Ou & Lou (2006) using chromatic difference, lightness sum, lightness difference and hue effect. The last model was invented by us and is based on an experiment of Polzella & Montgomery (1993). From the outcome of their experiment we generated a lookup table for single color rating. This rating
is then used in a formula, which is able to evaluate the color harmony for color combinations up to five colors. This model also performed best in the overall comparison between the three color harmony models.

Reference: Stickel, C.; Maier, K.; Ebner, M.; Holzinger, A. (2009) The Modeling of Harmonious Color Combinations for improved Usability and User Experience (UX). – in: 31st International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces (ITI 2009) D.28 (2009), S. 323 – 328
Here you find the Draft Version.