The Usability of Face Coverings Used to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 001872082110511
Author(s):  
Ian Robertson ◽  
Philip Kortum
Keyword(s):  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Demographic Information ◽  
Behavioral Issues ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Usability Problems ◽  
Mask Design ◽  
System Usability Scale ◽  
The Face ◽  
Perceived Usability ◽  
Political Party Affiliation

Objective To describe the perceived usability and usability problems associated with face coverings used to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Background Since public health experts have now identified the appropriate use of facemasks as one of the critical elements in an effective COVID mitigation strategy, understanding how people use and care for them has become important. Method Data were collected via a survey that was shared on social media to which 2148 people responded. Participants were asked to identify the category class of the face covering they most often wear, rate its usability, answer demographic information, and questions about their mask use and hygiene, and identify issues they may suffer in relation to face cover use. Results Overall, users appear to perceive their face coverings favorably from a usability and satisfaction standpoint, even though almost two-thirds of users indicated that they experienced discomfort and problems with glasses fogging with the most popular mask types. When considering demographic information, users’ political party affiliation appears related to how they perceive the usability of their face covering. Conclusion Designers should work to improve the fit and comfort properties of protective masks; evidence suggests the System Usability Scale may be a useful tool in those efforts. Application Understanding mask design and behavioral issues related to their use can help in the development of masks and will maximize their acceptance and effectiveness in the field.

Usability of a tablet computer designed for older adults: a qualitative approach based on an intra-hospital living-lab for healthcare (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Sacco ◽  
Pauline Carliez ◽  
Frédéric Noublanche ◽  
Romain Simon ◽  
Anne Renaudin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Geriatric Patients ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Satisfaction Score ◽  
Tablet Computer ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
System Usability Scale ◽  
Perceived Usability

BACKGROUND Usability is the keystone in the evolution of tablet technology in healthcare. The Ardoiz® tablet has been designed with a simplified interface for older adults. OBJECTIVE To assess the perceived usability and satisfaction of the Ardoiz® tablet. METHODS We conducted a mixed methods with cross-sectional study using System Usability Scale (SUS), satisfaction score and workshops, including geriatric patients, healthcare professional and caregivers. RESULTS Between September 25, 2019 and March 11, 2020, 58 participants were included in a cross-sectional study (including 38 patients, mean ±SD 85±6 years, 66% women), 26 in workshops (including 5 patients, mean ±SD 86.4±2.9, 40% women). The SUS was 74±12/100, the satisfaction score was 2.8±0.9/4, with 59% of satisfied participants with the use of Ardoiz® pads. The intent to acquire remained low with 18% (n=6) of participants who would be interested in acquiring the tablet. This tablet computer seemed to be difficult to use by geriatric patients and healthcare professionals, mainly because of its complex homepage. Nevertheless, former caregivers and healthcare professionals thought that the tablet could be of great interest to hospitals for leisure and medical use. The main feedback in order to improve the tablet is to simplify the home page with fewer and more static icons (without switching). CONCLUSIONS Notwithstanding the usability of the tablet, the intent to acquire of Ardoiz® tablet remained low. The interface should be simplified for older adults in order to improve usability and adherence. CLINICALTRIAL NCT04091152

scholarly journals Improving the usability of climate indicator visualizations through diagnostic design principles

2021 ◽  
Vol 166 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gerst ◽  
Melissa A. Kenney ◽  
Irina Feygina
Keyword(s):  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Design Modification ◽  
Climate Indicators ◽  
Present Complex ◽  
Control Versus ◽  
Climate Indicator ◽  
Political Party Affiliation ◽  
The Impact

AbstractVisual climate indicators have become a popular way to communicate trends in important climate phenomena. Producing accessible visualizations for a general audience is challenging, especially when many are based on graphics designed for scientists, present complex and abstract concepts, and utilize suboptimal design choices. This study tests whether diagnostic visualization guidelines can be used to identify communication shortcomings for climate indicators and to specify effective design modifications. Design guidelines were used to diagnose problems in three hard-to-understand indicators, and to create three improved modifications per indicator. Using online surveys, the efficacy of the modifications was tested in a control versus treatment setup that measured the degree to which respondents understood, found accessible, liked, and trusted the graphics. Furthermore, we assessed whether respondents’ numeracy, climate attitudes, and political party affiliation affected the impact of design improvements. Results showed that simplifying modifications had a large positive effect on understanding, ease of understanding, and liking, but not trust. Better designs improved understanding similarly for people with different degrees of numerical capacity. Moreover, while climate skepticism was associated with less positive subjective responses and greater mistrust toward climate communication, design modification improved understanding equally for people across the climate attitude and ideological spectrum. These findings point to diagnostic design guidelines as a useful tool for creating more accessible, engaging climate graphics for the public.

The Relation of the Perceptions of Aesthetics and Usability

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1876-1880
Author(s):  
Dahlia Alharoon ◽  
Douglas J. Gillan
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Research Study ◽  
System Usability Scale ◽  
System Usability ◽  
Perceived Usability

Aesthetics and usability both play critical roles in product design. But how might measurement of these two conceptually-different features of products interfere with one another? The current research study examines the effect of differences in aesthetics on perceived usability. Participants completed three tasks on a simulated website with a low usability interface. One group of participants used an interface with high aesthetics, whereas a second group interacted with an interface with poor aesthetics. Both groups rated the usability and aesthetics of the interface after completing the tasks. The aesthetics manipulation was effective in that the high aesthetics group provided higher ratings on two aesthetics scales than did the low aesthetics group; however, differences in aesthetics had no significant effect on usability as measured by the System Usability Scale (SUS). These findings support the idea that users make independent judgments of usability and aesthetics.

Family Law and Social Change: Judicial Views of Joint Custody, 1998–2011

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (03) ◽  
pp. 723-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie E. Artis ◽  
Andrew V. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Joint Custody ◽  
Lower Court ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Political Party Affiliation ◽  
Depth Interviews

Rapid changes in family life over the last forty years have led to substantial alterations in family law policy; specifically, most states now endorse joint custody arrangements for divorcing families. However, we know little about how lower court judges have embraced or resisted this change. We conducted in‐depth interviews with judges in twenty‐five Indiana jurisdictions in 1998 and 2011. Our findings suggest that judges' views of joint custody dramatically changed. Judges in Wave II indicated a strong preference for joint custody—a theme that was relatively absent in Wave I. The observed change in judicial preferences did not seem to be related to judicial replacement, gender, age, or political party affiliation. Although our conclusions are exploratory, we speculate that shifts in judicial views may be related to changing public mores of parenthood and, relatedly, Indiana's adoption of Parenting Time Guidelines in 2001.

The Relationship of Political Party Affiliation to Wildlife Conservation Attitudes

2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Czech ◽  
Rena Borkhataria
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Political Party Affiliation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Species conservation via the Endangered Species Act is highly politicized, yet few data have been gathered to illustrate the relationship of political party affiliation to species conservation perspectives. We conducted a nationwide public opinion survey and found that Democrats value species conservation more highly than do Republicans, and that Democrats are also more strongly supportive of the Endangered Species Act. Republicans place higher value on property rights than do Democrats, but members of both parties value economic growth as highly as wildlife conservation. The results imply that the Democratic propensity to value species conservation reflects a biocentric perspective that does not bode well for practical conservation efforts. Species conservation will depend upon the success of academicians and progressive political leaders in educating students and members of all parties about the fundamental conflict between economic growth and wildlife conservation.

scholarly journals Spanish Version of the System Usability Scale for the Assessment of Electronic Tools: Development and Validation

10.2196/21161 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e21161
Author(s):  
Magdalena Del Rocio Sevilla-Gonzalez ◽  
Lizbeth Moreno Loaeza ◽  
Laura Sofia Lazaro-Carrera ◽  
Brigette Bourguet Ramirez ◽  
Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile App ◽  
Spanish Version ◽  
Face Validity ◽  
Electronic Systems ◽  
Validity Index ◽  
Clinical Counseling ◽  
System Usability Scale ◽  
System Usability ◽  
The Face ◽  
Development And Validation

Background The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a common metric used to assess the usability of a system, and it was initially developed in English. The implementation of electronic systems for clinical counseling (eHealth and mobile health) is increasing worldwide. Therefore, tools are needed to evaluate these applications in the languages and regional contexts in which the electronic tools are developed. Objective This study aims to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the original English version of the SUS into a Spanish version. Methods The translation process included forward and backward translation. Forward translations were made by 2 native Spanish speakers who spoke English as their second language, and a backward translation was made by a native English speaker. The Spanish SUS questionnaire was validated by 10 experts in mobile app development. The face validity of the questionnaire was tested with 10 mobile phone users, and the reliability testing was conducted among 88 electronic application users. Results The content validity index of the new Spanish SUS was good, as indicated by a rating of 0.92 for the relevance of the items. The questionnaire was easy to understand, based on a face validity index of 0.94. The Cronbach α was .812 (95% CI 0.748-0.866; P<.001). Conclusions The new Spanish SUS questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to assess the usability of electronic tools among Spanish-speaking users.

scholarly journals Viewpoint Usability for Desktop Augmented Reality

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seokhee Jeon ◽  
Hyeongseop Shim ◽  
Gerard J. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Depth Perception ◽  
Object Manipulation ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Usability Problems ◽  
Head Mounted Displays ◽  
Hand Eye Coordination ◽  
Manipulation Task ◽  
Perceived Usability

In this paper, we have investigated the comparative usability among three different viewing configurations of augmented reality (AR) system that uses a desktop monitor instead of a head mounted display. In many cases, due to operational or cost reasons, the use of head mounted displays may not be viable. Such a configuration is bound to cause usability problems because of the mismatch in the user's proprioception, scale, hand eye coordination, and the reduced 3D depth perception. We asked a pool of subjects to carry out an object manipulation task in three different desktop AR set ups. We measured the subject's task performance and surveyed for the perceived usability and preference. Our results indicated that placing a fixed camera in the back of the user was the best option for convenience and attaching a camera on the user�s head for task performance. The results should provide a valuable guide for designing desktop augmented reality systems without head mounted displays

scholarly journals The Effect of Social Class on Political Party Affiliations in the African American Community

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sindiso Mafico
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Class ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Political Party ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Economic Class ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Political Party Affiliation

Does social class affect political party affiliation in the African-American community? Drawing on two contrasting theories: the theory of group interests and class-based theories of stratification put forth by Wilson and Shelton (2006), I propose that African -Americans who report being of a high socio-economic class are more likely to be Republican than African Americans of a lower socio-economic class. Through secondary analysis of data provided by the General Social Survey (GSS), I investigate the relationship between political party affiliation and social class in the African-American community. By combining data across 20 years between 1996 and 2016, the sample size is 1557 African-Americans. Measures of socio-economic status are limited to a single variable that asks respondents about their subjective social class, while the dependent variable was operationalized by a variable that inquires the respondent's political party affiliation. Multiple regression analysis reveals that there is no statistically significant relationship between social class and political party affiliation. There is however, a relationship between political party affiliation and another measure of social class, specifically the respondents' level of education. The strongest predictor of political party affiliation is the age of the respondents which gives insight on future voting patterns in the African-American community. While the hypothesis is not supported, the results shed light on the potential reasons for increased support for the Republican Party among African-Americans and could be used to predict voting outcomes among African-Americans for future elections.

The Political Party Affiliation of College Professors

Social Forces ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Stanley Eitzen ◽  
Gary M. Maranell
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
College Professors ◽  
Political Party Affiliation
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document