Usability testing for a community college library website

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa M. Valenti
Keyword(s):  
Web Design ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Usability Tests ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Testing Case ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper details a usability testing case study on a simplified homepage for [Library]. The usability testing was completed in Spring 2017 to meet the needs of diverse user groups and shifting trends in Web design and development. At the conclusion of the usability testing, recommendations for change informed the design decisions and a new homepage was implemented in October 2018. Design/methodology/approach The researcher performed eight usability tests with a combination of the different library user types; full-time faculty, students, an administrator and members of the public. The usability test consisted of 13 specific tasks. After testers completed the tasks, users filled out a 30-question Likert-scale questionnaire and answered a set of 8 open-ended questions. Findings This paper discusses the recommendations for change which the researcher discovered at the conclusion of the usability testing period. The research found the need to improve and include specific navigational, visual and easy-to-use elements to best meet the needs of the users in the usability tests. Changes were ranked and implemented on a scale of catastrophic to cosmetic. Research limitations/implications As websites, technology and user preferences continually evolve, the homepage will need to be tested for usability again in the next several years. Researchers are encouraged to adapt the methods to their own institutions. Practical implications This paper discusses findings specific to [Library], which in turn has proved to increase usage of certain features and functions by the user community. Originality/value This is the first time usability testing has been done for the [Library’s] website. It was the first time the design of the homepage was informed by real user preference. This paper is valuable to those looking to create a simple, easy-to-use homepage that best benefits their own unique community of users.

scholarly journals User-Adaptive Key Click Vibration on Virtual Keyboard

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seokhee Jeon ◽  
Hongchae Lee ◽  
Jiyoung Jung ◽  
Jin Ryong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Device ◽  
Tactile Feedback ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Performance Study ◽  
Mobile Environment ◽  
Virtual Keyboard ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Environment Study ◽  
Future Work

This study focuses on design of user-adaptive tactile keyboard on mobile device. We are particularly interested in its feasibility of user-adaptive keyboard in mobile environment. Study 1 investigates how tactile feedback intensity of the virtual keyboard in mobile devices affects typing speed and user preference. We report how different levels of feedback intensity affect user preferences in terms of typing speed and accuracy in different user groups with different typing performance. Study 2 investigates different tactile feedback modes (i.e., whether feedback intensity is linearly increased, linearly decreased, or constant from the centroid of the key, and whether tactile feedback is delivered when a key is pressed, released, or both pressed and released). We finally design and implement user-adaptive tactile keyboards on mobile device to explore the design space of our keyboards. We close by discussing the benefits of our design along with its future work.

scholarly journals Usability testing of the Letters of 1916 Digital Edition

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Wusteman
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
General Public ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Edition ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the process and implications of usability testing a prototype version of the Letters of 1916 Digital Edition. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents the testing, the lessons learned and how those lessons informed the subsequent redesign of the site. Findings Results imply that a majority of users, even digital humanists, were not looking for a unique and specialised interface, but assumed – and preferred – a user experience that reflects common search systems. Although the audience for digital humanities sites is becoming increasingly diverse, the needs of the different user groups may be more similar than had previously been assumed. Research limitations/implications The usability test employed 11 participants, five of whom were coded as “general public”. Four of these five had previously volunteered to transcribe and upload letters. This meant that they were already familiar with the project and with the Letters of 1916 Transcription Desk. However, their prior involvement was a result of their genuine interest in the site, thus ensuring that their interactions during testing were more realistic. Practical implications The lesson learned may be useful for the Digital Editions of future crowdsourced humanities projects. Originality/value Letters of 1916 is the first crowdsourced humanities project in Ireland. The theme of the project is topical, emotive and socially important in Ireland and among Irish diaspora today. The project’s content has been created by the “ordinary citizens of Ireland” and they are likely to be the major users of the Digital Edition. The study explores how the Digital Edition can support these users, while also facilitating the range of traditional scholars and digital humanities researchers.

The link between guanxi and customer–salesperson collusion

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu-Ming Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Least Squares Method ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Insurance Fraud ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ethical Conflicts ◽  
Partial Least Squares Method ◽  
First Time ◽  
Perceived Harm

Purpose In the insurance industry, it is common for the insurance salespeople to sell insurance products to friends, relatives and associates. However, permitting (or encouraging) salespeople to sell insurance through personal relationships may result in some ethical conflicts. For example, some insurance salespeople may help relatives or friends with pre-existing medical conditions buy the health insurance. Previous studies on insurance fraud have rarely focused on this problem. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of guanxi (guanxi refers to the durable social connections and relationships a Chinese person uses to exchange favors for a specific purpose) on the salespeople’s acceptance of customer–salesperson collusions. Two types of guanxi are discussed in the research. The author further focuses on how the ethical attitudes and intentions are affected by the salespeople’s guanxi considerations, consequence evaluations, perception of peers’ attitudes, perceived harm to other policyholders and perceived probability of being caught. Design/methodology/approach Full-time life insurance salespeople from Taiwan were surveyed, and partial least squares method was used in the study. Findings The results showed that the types of guanxi, guanxi considerations, consequence evaluations, perception of peers’ attitudes and perceived harm to other policyholders were important in forming the salespeople’s ethical decision-making in the customer–salesperson collusions. Originality/value This is the first time that guanxi has been studied as the factor influencing collusive behaviors in the problems of insurance fraud. The results challenged an established belief that the insurance salespeople should first target close relations as they build their portfolio of customers.

Using latent features for building an interpretable recommendation system

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziming Zeng ◽  
Yu Shi ◽  
Lavinia Florentina Pieptea ◽  
Junhua Ding
Keyword(s):  
Recommendation System ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Data Link ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Latent Features

Purpose Aspects extracted from the user’s historical records are widely used to define user’s fine-grained preferences for building interpretable recommendation systems. As the aspects were extracted from the historical records, the aspects that represent user’s negative preferences cannot be identified because of their absence from the records. However, these latent aspects are also as important as those aspects representing user’s positive preferences for building a recommendation system. This paper aims to identify the user’s positive preferences and negative preferences for building an interpretable recommendation. Design/methodology/approach First, high-frequency tags are selected as aspects to describe user preferences in aspect-level. Second, user positive and negative preferences are calculated according to the positive and negative preference model, and the interaction between similar aspects is adopted to address the aspect sparsity problem. Finally, an experiment is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. The code and the experiment data link is: https://github.com/shiyu108/Recommendation-system Findings Experimental results show the proposed approach outperformed the state-of-the-art methods in widely used public data sets. These latent aspects are also as important as those aspects representing the user’s positive preferences for building a recommendation system. Originality/value This paper provides a new approach that identifies and uses not only users’ positive preferences but also negative preferences, which can capture user preference precisely. Besides, the proposed model provides good interpretability.

Design and evaluation of a movie recommendation system showing a review for evoking interested

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuto Ishida ◽  
Takahiro Uchiya ◽  
Ichi Takumi
Keyword(s):  
Recommendation System ◽  
User Profile ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Item Selection ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Outcomes Evaluation ◽  
Movie Recommendation

Purpose In recent years, e-commerce (EC) sites dealing in various goods and services have increased along with internet popularity. Now, very few EC recommendation systems present a concrete reason for their recommendations. Therefore, because user preferences strongly influence outcomes, evaluation and selection are difficult for items, such as books, movies and luxury goods. The purpose of this paper is evoking interest by showing the review as a reason for a user’s decision-making factor. This paper aims to presents the development and introduction of a recommendation system that presents a review adapted to user preference. Design/methodology/approach The system presents a review to the user, which indicates the reason for matching the item contents and user preferences. Thereby, this system enables the creation of personalized reasons for recommendations. Findings Recommendation sentences conforming to user preferences are effective for item selection. Even with a simple method, in this paper, it was possible to present a review which is an item selection factor sufficient for the user. Originality/value This system can show a recommendation sentence that conforms to a user’s preferences merely from a user profile with the tag data of a product. This paper dealt in movies, but it can easily be applied even for other items.

Customers’ attitudes toward insurance frauds: an application of Adams’ equity theory

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 1038-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu-Ming Tseng ◽  
Chia-Lin Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Equity Theory ◽  
Insurance Premium ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Perceived Fairness ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – Although research on insurance frauds has found that deductible amount influences customers’ attitudes toward insurance frauds, very little work has further investigated the roles of deductible-premium ratios and insurance experiences. Building on the foundations of Adams' equity theory, the authors examined the impact of the deductible-premium ratios on customers' attitudes toward insurance frauds. The authors also studied the relationship among the experience of applying claims, the reasons customers accept insurance frauds, and customers' intentions to carry out frauds. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Survey was used, and the sample of this study comes from the full-time civil servants at the Agricultural Research Institutes in Taiwan. Findings – The results showed that the deductible-premium ratios may relate to the responders’ perceptions of insurance frauds. In addition, the reasons customers accept frauds were also the influential predictors of the customer frauds. Originality/value – Previous studies found that an unfair treatment by an insurer (e.g. an unfair deductible amount) may enhance customer insurance frauds. However, the “fairness and fraud” problems should involve the consideration of insurance premium because a high deductible amount is usually associated with lower premium. The other discussions of perceived fairness also accept that perceived fairness was often rooted in a social comparative situation. Based on the literature gap, this is the first time that Adams’ equity theory is applied in the customer insurance fraud research.

Modeling and quantifying uncertainty in the product design phase for effects of user preference changes

2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (9) ◽  
pp. 1637-1665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Afshari ◽  
Qingjin Peng
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Product Life ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Uncertainty

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to quantify external and internal uncertainties in product design process. The research addresses the measure of product future changes. Design/methodology/approach – Two methods are proposed to model and quantify uncertainty in the product life cycle. Changes of user preferences are considered as the external uncertainty. Changes stemming from dependencies between components are addressed as the internal uncertainty. Both methods use developed mechanisms to capture and treat changes of user preferences. An agent-based model is developed to simulate sociotechnical events in the product life cycle for the external uncertainty. An innovative application of Big Data Analytics (BDA) is proposed to evaluate the external and internal uncertainties in product design. The methods can identify the most affected product components under uncertainty. Findings – The results show that the proposed method could identify product changes during its life cycle, particularly using the proposed BDA method. Practical implications – It is essential for manufacturers in the competitive market to know their product changes under uncertainty. Proposed methods have potential to optimize design parameters in complex environments. Originality/value – This research bridges the gap of literature in the accurate estimation of uncertainty. The research integrates the change prediction and change transferring, applies data management methods innovatively, and utilizes the proposed methods practically.

scholarly journals Transfer student analysis and retention: a collaborative endeavor

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trudi Jacobson ◽  
John Delano ◽  
Linda Krzykowski ◽  
Laurie Garafola ◽  
Meghan Nyman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Retention ◽  
Transfer Students ◽  
Research University ◽  
Retention Rate ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Public Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Research University ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper aims to describe a multifaceted campus-wide initiative to retain transfer students that was undertaken when it was recognized that their retention rates were lower than those of first-time, full-time students. Design/methodology/approach The Enhancing Student Experience (ESE) Working Group at the University at Albany (UAlbany) brought together key parties from Student Affairs and academic units, including the University Libraries, and provided an energizing arena in which existing student engagement and retention endeavors were discussed and coordinated, and new initiatives were inspired. Findings This paper reflects the work of a subcommittee of the ESE group that focused on developing strategies to increase the retention rate of students who transferred to UAlbany, and identifying characteristics of those first-time, full-time students who transferred from UAlbany. The efforts discussed in this paper, which were guided by professional experiences, institutional data and published reports, resulted in a 2 per cent increase in the student retention rate in the past two years. Research limitations/implications The data collection and analysis, and the initiatives, are specific to one public research university. Practical implications Initiatives undertaken to address the retention of transfer students have begun to have an impact. Originality/value The “all-hands-on-deck” approach described in this paper demonstrates how strategic collaborations among the many institutional stakeholders at a public research university were marshalled to have a significant and positive impact on student retention.

Rationales of gender diversity management policies and practices in India: an exploratory empirical study in the Indian IT/ITeS industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 667-688
Author(s):  
Shreyashi Chakraborty ◽  
Leena Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Survey Methodology ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
Policies And Practices

PurposeThe Indian context is marked with weak anti-discrimination laws and patchy implementation of protection of civil rights of women at workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to unearth the rationales of the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in India, in the absence of laws and regulations.Design/methodology/approachInspiration is drawn from previous studies on diversity management in other national contexts, and a survey methodology was adopted. The lead researcher administered the questionnaires personally to all respondents to ensure that the understanding of the questions is uniform across respondents as gender diversity management is a relatively new concept in India.FindingsSize of the organisation (number of full-time employees), the influence of external organisations and perceived enhanced organisational flexibility were found to explain the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in the Indian IT/ITeS industry. Findings also indicate that Indian subsidiaries of foreign multinationals tend to adopt more gender diversity management policies and practices as compared to Indian-owned organisations.Research implicationsThis study provides evidence that organisations do not always enact structures or behaviours in the pursuit of normative rationality and also consider the economic value of them, establishing an organisational agency in adopting legitimated norms or practices. The study also shows that gender diversity management policies and practices are not only dependent on the enactment of laws but also are adopted because of the economic benefit perceived.Originality/valueDiversity management policies and practices have been mostly studied in national contexts with anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action programs and have been claimed to be a successor of equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. In the absence of stringent laws to reduce or eliminate discrimination against women employees in Indian workplaces, this study contributes to the literature by determining whether the business case for gender diversity drives the adoption of gender diversity management in the Indian context.

Conference report: innovation, interaction … and a lot of data: first time reflections on Internet Librarian International, UK 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-22
Author(s):  
Ray Harper
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Conference Report ◽  
Library Services ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
First Time

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to summarise a number of presentations at Day 1 of the Internet Librarian International conference, London, UK (16 October 2018). This was the 20th conference in the series, and the three key themes included were the next-gen library and librarian; understanding users, usage and user experience; and inclusion and inspiration: libraries making a difference. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports from the viewpoint of a first-time attendee of the conference. This summarises the main issues raised by each presentation and draws out the key learning points for practical situations. Findings The conference covered a variety of practical ways in which libraries can use technology to support users and make decisions about services. These include developing interactive physical spaces which include augmented reality; introducing “chat-bots” to support users; using new techniques to analyse data; and piloting new ways to engage users (such as coding clubs). A key theme was how we use and harness data in a way that is ethical, effective and relevant to library services. Originality/value This conference focussed on practical examples of how library and information services across sectors and countries are innovating in a period of huge change. The conference gave delegates numerous useful ideas and examples of best practice and demonstrated the strength of the profession in adapting to new technologies and developments.

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