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The role of spokes characters in contemporary website design : using illustration and personality to humanise a service industry web interface : a thesis for fulfilment of a Master of Design, College of Design, Fine Arts and Music, Massey University, Wellington
(Massey University, 2005) Andrews, Phillip
According to recent literature, character identities employed within advertising have played powerful roles in the creation of many a brands personality. In doing so they have established themselves as a graphic representative for the product/service they symbolise. With the advent of digital technologies the ‘spokes character’ has been increasing in popularity. Particularly with control now being given to the user through interaction. The web, with consumer accessibility now close to one billion (eMarketer. 2005), still only offers limited download speeds for the user seeking greater infotainment based content, even with the implementation of broadband technology. This presents an ideal platform for the drawn character as compared to digital video due to the smaller file sizes. Additionally, the drawn character has the ability to visually align with a service or products core function, along with the capability to present information through the medium of storytelling. This research hypothesises that an animated spokes character within the online interface would help humanise the web experience for the consumer. Not only would a character evoke greater pleasure (by aligning story and ease of use), it would be preferable to a targeted user in comparison to a non-character site delivering the same information. In testing this hypothesis the Chiropractic industry was chosen as the trial vehicle due to limited consumer awareness on the subject. Two semi-functional sites (character and non-character) were designed based on feedback from a CIT (Communication and Information Technology) professional and presented to seven consumer participants within a group interview situation. Two methodologies employing a divergence/convergence approach were adopted within this study: exploratory research in terms of an investigation into literature and business uncovered key qualities of the spokes character from likeability and gender issues to nostalgia and brand. The purpose was to establish design criteria in the creation of a communications tool and the convergence process. This was achieved by action-based research through design where the character was realised within an industry aligned application (prototype). Consumer predilection of the semi-functional prototype revealed three benefits of the spokes character site over the same non-character site: a more enjoyable user experience; shorter learning time involved in assimilating the material offered from the site; and a higher level of trust. However a group interview of the size used can provide only an indicative result. This thesis advocates character potential within web design; not just as a humanising feature, but also as an integral part of the storytelling process.
Support for decision making on the World Wide Web : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Information Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2004) Alam, Jaimee
This research explores tool support for information retrieval and comparison of multiple pieces of information on the web. The study identifies the main goals users may have in mind when using the Internet in this way, and the necessary activities users complete to fulfill their goals. The main goals web users have are information search, entertainment and consumer to business transactions. The tasks users perform on the web to fulfill their goals include collecting, comparing, filtering and processing web information. These tasks form a decision-making cycle on the web and depending on the goal at hand, users may or may not necessarily undertake all the tasks or sub-steps in any sequential order. Industry web support tools have been analyzed to find out how effective they are in supporting a common user's activities. These tools include web browsers (Netcaptor Browser and Internet Explorer), editing tools (Notes Pilot and Edit Pad), plug-ins, research tools and window management systems. Both browsers are poor at arranging multiple windows and excellent at opening web sites. The Internet Explorer browser proved to be better than the Netcaptor browser at a number of activities including, selecting web content, copying web text and images and pasting web content into editing documents. When used with either browser. Microsoft Windows is good for arranging windows but poor in switching windows views, scrolling windows and resizing and re-positioning windows. Both editing tools are poor at re-positioning and formatting web content from an HTML environment to a text-based environment. The Notes Pilot tool is also poor in making calculations and returning to the browser. It is excellent at saving work and retrieving old files. The Edit Pad tool is successful at all other activities except re-positioning and formatting web content. It can be seen that tool support is lacking or current web-based tools support the user poorly in a number of areas. The need for an integrated web support tool has been identified. The functional and non-functional requirements have been specified, the tool designed, implemented and evaluated by users. The users were requested to complete a questionnaire and conduct a think-aloud walk-through session while completing three tasks using the integrated web support tool. The sessions were observed and results recorded. Most of the users strongly agreed with the proposition that the tool would be useful for personal or academic activities. The users recognized the tool's novelty, its efficiency, and also indicated an overall level of satisfaction. The users were less satisfied about referring back to web sites, getting the software to do exactly what they wanted and arranging the work space to meet their needs. Changes were made to the tool.
Speech driven user interface for an intelligent house : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Information Engineering at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2005) Liu, Zhenqing
Speech driven user interface for an intelligent house is one of a number of Graduate research projects at Massey University. It is part of Project 'Smart House'. This thesis details development of a control system whose inputs are speech signal rather than manual. The control system consists of several sub-systems including speech recognition, command generation, signal transmission, signal reception and command manipulation. The completed speech driven user interface should operate in conjunction with Real-time implementation of a Microphone Array beam-former and Personal identity recognition that were developed concurrently with this project. The speech recognition and command generation subsystems are implemented on a PC whereas the signal transmission, signal reception and command manipulation subsystems are designed at embedded board level. The remote controller can control some electrical appliances, such as TV and CD player, and switch and dim the light.
Profile transformation in mobile technology based educational systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2005) Chen, Jueming
In order to meet the learning needs from various types of students, computer aided education systems try to include new methods to provide personalized education to every student. From the early 1970s, a lot of adaptive educational systems have been created to provide training on a variety of subjects. Combined with the Internet, the adaptive educational systems have become web-based and even more popular. Recently, the development of mobile technology has made the web-based adaptive educational systems accessible through mobile phones. It is necessary that the students can also receive adaptive educational contents on mobile phones. This research project investigated the possible student's preference differences between Personal Computer (PC) and mobile phone, and then proposed a student profile transformation framework to address such differences. This research project conducted two surveys on the student profile transformation between PC and mobile phone. A demo web-based educational system that could be accessed from both PC and mobile phone was also developed for participants of the surveys to give more real and precise responses. Based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Theory (Felder, 1993; Felder & Silverman, 1988) and the results of the surveys, this thesis proposes a student profile template and a student profile transformation framework, which both fully considered the influences of device capabilities and locations on students' preferences on mobile phones. Furthermore, the proposed framework integrates a solution for unsupported preferences and preference conflicts. By implementing the proposed template and framework, the students' preference changes between PC and mobile phone are automatically updated according to various device capabilities and locations, and then the students can receive adaptive educational contents that meet their updated preferences.
The development of an executable graphical notation for describing direct manipulation interfaces : a dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science at Massey University
(Massey University, 1993) Phillips, Christopher Henry Edwin
The research reported in this thesis involves the development of an executable semi-formal graphical notation, Lean Cuisine+, for describing the underlying behaviour of event-based direct manipulation interfaces, and the application of the notation both in 'reverse engineering', and during the early design phase of the interface development life cycle. A motivation for the research stems from the need for tools and techniques to support high level interface design. The research supports and brings together a number of views concerning the requirements of notations at this level. These are that a notation should be semi-formal, graphical, executable, and object-oriented, and that to be most effective it should be targeted at a specific category of interaction. The Lean Cuisine+ notation meets all these criteria, the underlying meneme model matching closely with the selection-based nature of direct manipulation interfaces. Lean Cuisine+ is a multi-layered notation, and is a development of Lean Cuisine (Apperley & Spence, 1989). The base layer is a tree diagram which captures part of the behaviour of an interface in terms of constraints and dependencies between selectable dialogue primitives. Further constraints and dependencies associated with the dynamics of the interface are captured through overlays to the basic tree diagram. An orthogonal task layer captures any temporal relationships between primitive task actions, and provides a link with higher level functionality. Lean Cuisine+ is able to combine both static and dynamic modelling in a coherent manner, thus avoiding the necessity of employing separate and possibly disjoint models at the early design stage. A software support environment for the notation is also specified and partially prototyped. The research demonstrates the advantages of a notation which can be executed to provide limited but valid early simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the interface under design. A mapping from Lean Cuisine+ to a dialogue implementation language, DAL (Anderson, 1993), is also developed in support of the view that a multi-notational approach to interface development is required, and that it must be possible to move easily from initial specification to prototyping and implementation. The Lean Cuisine+ descriptions of aspects of the Apple Macintosh interface included in the thesis show the notation to be capable of handling a range of direct manipulation interaction styles and a variety of interface objects. A five stage methodology for the construction of Lean Cuisine+ specifications for new interfaces is also developed, and applied in two case studies.
A menu interface development environment based on lean cuisine : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
(Massey University, 1995) Gu, Jianpeng
The integrated user interface development environment based on the Lean Cuisine graphical notation [Apperley & Spence, 89) is a combination of software tools used to support user interface development from initial design, rapid prototyping through to direct implementation. This thesis describes the development of three software tools used in the integrated user interface development environment. The Lean Cuisine graphical editor (Elc) provides an interactive design environment for graphical specifications of menu-based interfaces and shows that the Lean Cuisine notation described in (Apperley & Spence, 89] has been implemented in a practical computer environment as an interactive interface design tool. The user interface simulator (Slc) is a very effective and reliable interface simulating and testing tool which supports quick and convenient user interface simulation Using Slc, a menu interface can be quickly simulated in its design environment, where a menu-based interface can be partially or wholly simulated and invalid menu structures can be dynamically modified, or in its application environment, where evaluators are given a real feel of how this menu-based user interface works. The user interface generator (Glc) is used to generate basic interface source code files for a user interface from its Lean Cuisine graphical specification file, and a working model of a user interface can be easily and quickly implemented without programming. The integrated user interface development environment based on the Lean Cuisine graphical notation (Apperley & Spence, 89] successfully integrates a graphical notation, the visual programming technique, with an existing programming toolkit and offers advantages over other User Interface Programming Toolkits, language-based UIMSs and current Visual Programming Tools. It supports three main phases (design, prototyping and implementation) of the graphical user interface development lifecycle. This approach has not been found in previous user interface development tools and user interface management systems.
Design and evaluation of text-free map interfaces : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Technology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2016) Bao, Bojian
The aim of this research is to design and evaluate a text-free online map interface for illiterate people and non-local-language speakers. The use of online maps is developing rapidly and while a large majority of people are using these applications, there are many illiterate people who find them extremely difficult to use due to their inability to read the text on the maps. Symbols and audio are two methods that can be used to replace the reliance on traditional text. The research conducts two surveys to define the suitable symbol type and identify features for online map design; designs a set of text-free online map applications and finally, evaluates each designed map application based on a sample of 90 participants (Native English Speakers, non-English Speakers and Illiterate People). The results illustrate that illiterate people find it more difficult to use the online map application compared with literate people. Text-free online map interfaces are necessary to support illiterate people and the map that included both symbol and audio was the most suitable type of text-free online map.
The development of a computer human interface using touch input for point of sale applications : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Product Development at Massey University
(Massey University, 1998) O'Driscoll, Katharine Julia
This project developed a touch screen interface for a new generation EFTPOS sales terminal at the fuel pump in a service station. Scenario plans and creative observation of consumers and analysis of their expressed needs, wants, and requirements were developed within the context of the client's specifications. This enabled the production of a physical and graphical user interface that provided initial appeal, ease of learning, high speed of user task performance, low user error rate, subjective user satisfaction, and user retention over time. Using multimedia computer software as a rapid prototyping tool enabled realistic feedback to be obtained early in the development stages and facilitated the modification of prototypes to minimise the barriers to potential consumer acceptance. The designer was able to effectively communicate the goals and details of the product to the team implementing the design using flow charts and diagrams to define the structure and content of the interface. The process used to develop the interface was compared with published product development techniques that incorporated consumer testing checkpoints throughout the discrete phases of product creation. It was determined that the generic processes were useful in practice, but only if the checkpoints were chosen appropriately and the tests customised for the developing product. Testing at fixed stages in the design process was found to be detrimental to the project. Putting excessive emphasis on the testing of the product curbed creativity by removing valid solutions before they could be investigated fully. The touch screen interface developed will be used to lead customers through fuel deliveries, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) transactions, and the purchase of other service station related products and services. The interface allows incorporation of advertising and customisation for use in other countries, meets the company's specifications, and has polled well in consumer tests when incorporated in a simulated mounting.
The automatic generation and execution of Lean Cuisine+ specifications : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Computer Science at Massey University
(Massey University, 2003) Li, Lei
Lean Cuisine+ (Phillips, 1995), a semi-formal graphical dialogue notation for describing the behaviour of event based direct manipulation GUIs, was developed at Massey University in the early 1990s. More recently, a software environment, SELCU (Scogings, 2003) has been built for Lean Cuisine+ which permits dialogue models to be manually constructed and edited using a drag and drop approach. The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to develop extensions to SELCU, which include the automatic generation of Lean Cuisine+ diagrams, and their execution. A shortcoming of current prototyping tools and user interface builders is that although they permit the designer to construct a mock up of the look and feel of the interface, they provide no model of the interaction. The Auto-Generation Software is a tool which can automatically generate a Lean Cuisine+ diagram for a graphical user interface developed using Delphi. The generated description is represented as a text file, and in a format compatible with the SELCU system. The Lean Cuisine+ Execution Environment is embedded in the SELCU application. It supports the execution of Lean Cuisine+ specifications, including meneme selection and task action sequence, and also takes account of triggers. The SELCU extensions successfully integrate a graphical dialogue notation (Lean Cuisine+), an object oriented development environment (Delphi), and an existing support environment (SELCU). This offers a more complete environment for the early stages of the design of graphical user interfaces.
Emotion-centred design : a human factors approach in affective web design : a thesis for fulfilment of a Master of Philosophy degree, College of Design, Fine Arts and Music
(Massey University, 2002) Smith, Warren David
This thesis hypothesised that a major factor in the failure of many e-Commerce ventures was the lack of emotion imparted into the design, with trust barriers still being to the fore, and a lack of affective human factors like fun, pleasure and joy in the user experience. The human brain often acts emotionally before rationally and this affects initial reactions to experiences and the propensity to purchase online. A key to understanding human-computer communication is that form should follow emotion (as well as function). A wide range of design concepts and theories are analysed for linkages to human emotion due to the exploratory nature of this thesis. Aspects of New Media design such as video, sound, images, colour and virtual reality are covered along with previous research into affective human factors; transferability of emotional elements from other products; and the importance of trust and prevention of negative emotions. Case examples are provided throughout via screenshots and commentary, including a special section on the way that the Nike site has met many emotional design criteria. Research into the opinions of designers and users is undertaken via questionnaires to verify literary findings and measure views on emotional appeal within Websites. It was found that there are misunderstandings of human-computer communication - with designers not meeting user expectations in some areas, even though many designers agree that emotional design is important. In particular, there needs to be a better understanding of how to integrate fun, social contact, colour, trust and sound into designs. Emotion is core to human function, and evolution has seen the emotional parts of the brain grow long before rational areas arose. Given the importance of emotion it is only natural that an emphasis should be placed on it in design philosophies. Whilst some designers are realising the importance of this in consumer products this concept needs to be further emphasised in the world of e-Commerce. Designers surveyed in this thesis were nearly all following a form follows function or a subjective/intuitive design philosophy. However, it was found that there was a good level of support (70%) for emotional design. A gap was established from this fact because only 45% believe they are currently using a high level of emotional design in practice. Chi-square tests showed that there were a number of significant relationships between the level of education and other questionnaire variables such as the importance of colour and recontextualising from car and game design. Establishing trust helps to overcome the core human emotion of fear. Branding, seals of approval and high quality navigation are amongst the elements that can assist in bridging human-computer distrust. Predispositions and previous experiences can also affect initial trust values. Questionnaire results found that designers still believe that lack of trust is a major psychological barrier to purchasing online. Major trust dimensions from previous empirical research were all deemed important. It was also found that users and designers rated trust near the top of emotional themes to concentrate on in Web design. Negative emotions (anger and frustration) can also arise if the design is not inherently usable. Usability was the top-rating design theme amongst designers. There has to be a good balance between the rational and emotional sides. Further negative emotions can be evoked if the site is slow or if there are delays. Speed of loading was amongst the top emotional design elements for both users and designers. It is a difficult line for designers to tread - on one hand using speed to prevent negative emotions, but on the other hand balancing the need for other design elements that generate positive emotions through fun and pleasure characteristics (that might slow things down). Designers involved in this study were very much in agreement with the importance of choosing colours to match the emotions they wanted to evoke in visitors (based on understandings of colour-emotion stereotypes and 'temperatures'). Colour can achieve harmonious interactions or cause rejection by the human brain depending on its application. The survey of users revealed that almost half of the respondents counted colour in their top 5 emotional themes, whereas designers did not think, it was as important as other emotive dimensions. Different cultures may respond differently to metaphorical images, colours, and dimensions such as power-distance and masculinity. Nearly all designers believed that empathising with target users (a part of emotional intelligence) was very important, as was involving users in the design process (usercentred design). Only 50% of users felt that designers were respecting their demographies and culture, so there is still a large number of people who feel they could be more satisfied in this sense. It is proposed that more user testing be carried out in conjunction with frameworks that rate cultural dimensions based on target audiences. The use of video and streaming media was portrayed to be a proposition requiring careful consideration and application by previous non-empirical references. Streaming video can connect with people on an emotional level, bringing in a degree of surprise and variation, and fully highlight the appealing characteristics of the product(s) trying to be sold online. Other New Media technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and 3D have been around for quite awhile (in computer games and scientific applications) but are yet to achieve widespread usage in Website e-Commerce. Some literature is against the use of VR and 3D on the Web but several companies have been receiving accolades in this area because of the ability to bridge an emotional gap between brands and consumers. Questionnaire results showed that most design respondents did not think streaming media, 3D and VR were important in order to gain emotional connections. However, higher bandwidth speeds that will facilitate more use of streaming media and 3D are deemed favourable by designers in terms of increasing emotional appeal. The need for social contact, familiarity and recognition of expressions and gestures led to the proposition of using virtual shop assistants and agents. Contact in the form of live text chat can also fulfil some social needs and plays a big part in portraying trustworthiness since a real person is being interacted with. Designers surveyed in this study were reasonably evenly distributed amongst those in favour, unsure and in disagreement with the use of agents. Surprisingly, given that users would not have had much exposure to virtual agents and characters online, they actually deemed them amongst the highest rating emotional design elements - creating a gap between user expectations and designer actions. Resources revealed that sound can account for a large part of an overall experience. Sound creates mood and atmosphere, and is present in the physical retail environment. Although literature stresses the importance of sound to Web design, designers in this study were of quite the opposite view. Sound was not deemed to be an important experience (near the bottom of ranked emotional dimensions). Users, however, rated sound amongst the middle group of emotional elements. More use of sound is an opportunity for the future. Two broad product ranges - automobiles and computer games - were investigated to see what made them such emotion-centred items. Cars and games evoke feelings of pleasure, fun, flow and fantasy because of their design. Designers favoured interactivity, colour use and fun as gaming elements best applied to Web design. More than half of designer respondents believed that the design of cars and games can be recontextualised into Web design, and most users were definitely in favour of seeing emotional elements they like about cars and games placed into Websites. Dimensions and potential mechanisms for measuring or assessing the emotional intelligence of Websites are proposed, and these include the use of semantic maps to position and compare Websites based on their performance against dimensions such as fun, warmth, trustworthiness, use of colour and the ability to engage users on a social level. The capability of building emotion into a Website is then balanced with the need for high-quality navigation, functionality and usability - as poor efforts in these 'rational' areas can lead to negative emotions and distrust. The design also has to keep in line with the demands of the company wanting the Website built. This study was exploratory - with the aim of bringing out into the open some aspects of New Media e-Commerce design that could he better utilised in order to match the emotions and feelings of customers - potentially leading to higher degrees of sales success. This thesis is therefore hoped to be a catalyst for further study in this area.</

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