Redesigning Research Guides

Objective – We sought to develop best practices for creating online research guides in an academic library.
 
 Methods – We performed usability tests of particular library research guides in order to determine how to improve them. Students in a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) class (n=20) participated in the studies both as subjects of the tests and as evaluators of the results. The students were each interviewed and then asked to review the interviews recorded of four other classmates. Based on their own experience with the guides and their viewing of their classmates using the guides, the students worked with librarians to develop best practices.
 
 Results – Students were generally unfamiliar with the library's research guides prior to the study. They identified bibliographic databases as the most important links on the guides and felt that these should be prominently placed. Opinions about many specific features (e.g., images, length of guide, annotations) varied widely, but students felt strongly that there should be some organizational consistency among the guides.
 
 Conclusions – The importance that students placed on consistency led the library to adopt guidelines dictating the inclusion of a table of contents and short list of major databases at the top of each guide, as well as uniform placement of certain other elements.

NASA's projected return to the lunar surface with the Artemis program opens the possibility for technological developments that maximize human exploration in ways that were unimaginable during the Apollo program. Specifically, the implementation of heads-up displays (HUD) has the potential to greatly increase astronaut performance during extravehicular activities (EVA) by increasing their situational awareness, providing relevant scientific resources, and presenting live personal biometric data that can safeguard mission success and astronaut health. Though they are an excellent mechanism for conveying information without incurring unnecessary physical strain, the implementation of heads-up displays in the vacuum of space presents challenges including: illumination variance; brightness; contrast; interface control mechanisms; and the general volume of data that can be conveyed without inducing cognitive burnout through clutter. To satisfy the desire to improve astronaut performance with HUDs while also accounting for the above design challenges, ALEXEI, short for Augmented Lunar Exploration and Extravehicular Interface, was developed in the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Spacesuit Utilization of Innovative Technology Laboratory (S.U.I.T. Lab) to be an augmented reality interface that can enhance an astronauts ability to conduct successful, scientifically relevant EVAs on the lunar surface. The resulting deliverable was created for the 2020 NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) Challenge and balances features that past and current astronauts have expressed a functional desire for while also being cautious of human limitations in terms of visualizing and synthesizing information. Those features include a simplistic visual appearance, which displays a breadth of information that monitors mission progress, provides detailed instructions of mission tasks, and displays biometric vital signs, while only requiring a minimalistic level of input control. Future development of this system will include implementing silent speech control (sponsored by the ERAU Office of Undergraduate Research), which reduces the amount of physical strain needed to control the interface, a robust navigational aid, and user testing in a high-fidelity environment to confirm the usability of the interface. Continued refinement of this device will meet 2021 NASA SUITS Challenge objectives and continue the S.U.I.T. Lab's mission of human-centric design to aid in exploration of the cosmos. The following paper will discuss the history of EVA mission architecture, current methodologies used to aid astronauts on EVA, demonstrate the need for AR display technology in an EVA environment, describe the human factors principles that guided the design of ALEXEI, and discuss the plans for future development and testing.

Adult code cart redesign: Clinical implications.

A comprehensive compilation of the current (January 1975) state-of-the- art understanding of fuel pin response to reactivity insertion events up to and including failure threshold is presented. All mixed oxide fuel, transient overpower tests conducted to date are described and the data collected therein are presented. Current understanding of fuel pin cladding failure mechanisms is discussed, and interpretations of fuel pin cladding failure thresholds are presented as revealed by individual tests and by the several tests collectively. Plans for future tests are discussed. (auth)

Usability testing is a widely used evaluation method for product design during and after the development. Conventional usability testing applies short and discrete test tasks and task scenarios that are based on the tasks the product is designed to support. Thus, conventional test task design relies heavily on the representations of the specified context of use and the specified user requirements of the proposed design solution. However, a premature commitment to the specified context, requirements and proposed solutions may limit the scope of usability testing in a manner that hinders its capability to elicit and validate new user requirements, which is one of the objectives of the evaluation phase in the iterative user-centered design process. In this paper, we introduce a user-centered task design approach, which allows test participants to follow their natural work flow and freely express their needs during a test session. The main idea of this open-ended task approach is to break the tight link between the produced design solutions and the tasks used in the usability test and in this way increase the probability that novel user needs can emerge during a test session. Empirical results from a case study are used to depict the approach and its prerequisites, strengths, and limitations are discussed.

Abstract
 
 Objective – This article describes a mixed methods usability study of research guides created using the LibGuides 2.0 platform conducted in 2016 at an urban, public university library. The goal of the study was to translate user design and learning modality preferences into executable design principles, and ultimately to improve the design and usage of LibGuides at the New York City College of Technology Library. 
 
 Methods – User-centred design demands that stakeholders participate in each stage of an application’s development and that assumptions about user design preferences are validated through testing. Methods used for this usability study include: a task analysis on paper prototypes with a think aloud protocol (TAP), an advanced scribbling technique modeled on the work of Linek and Tochtermann (2015), and semi-structured interviews. The authors introduce specifics of each protocol in addition to data collection and analysis methods.
 
 Results – The authors present quantitative and qualitative student feedback on navigation layouts, terminology, and design elements and discuss concrete institutional and technical measures they will take to implement best practices. Additionally, the authors discuss students’ impressions of multimedia, text-based, and interactive instructional content in relation to specific research scenarios defined during the usability test. 
 
 Conclusion – The authors translate study findings into best practices that can be incorporated into custom user-centric LibGuide templates and assets. The authors also discuss relevant correlations between students’ learning modality preferences and design feedback, and identify several areas that warrant further research. The authors believe this study will spark a larger discussion about relationships between instructional design, learning modalities, and research guide use contexts.

Evaluation of Premium Ultrasound Systems With Sonographers: How Comparative Usability Testing Can Reveal Human Factors Issues Prior to Errors in the Exam Room1

Initial closed operation of the CELSS Test Facility Engineering Development Unit

This paper describes the development and testing of the initial version of a common space systems ontology (CoSSO) for use by the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The ontology provides a shared conceptualization of concepts of interest to the ACO for modeling aerospace systems concepts in a pre-phase A context to aid with the transition to a more model-based paradigm. The ontological concepts and relations, as well as the anticipated use cases, were developed through interactions with the relevant subject matter experts at the ACO and implemented in the Ontological Modeling Language (OML). The ontology builds on the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO). While most of the ontology is still in the initial stages, an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) ontology is being built on top of the main CoSSO and heavily developed as a proof of concept. The ECLSS ontology is designed with different use cases in mind, namely predicting and diagnosing errors in ECLS systems on long-duration missions, with a focus on the Four-Bed CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> carbon dioxide scrubber currently on board the ISS. The ECLSS ontology is being developed in a similar manner to the CoSSO, and designed to be compatible with it. The current state of both ontologies is presented and discussed, along with plans for future development and testing.

The means to detect, visualize and survey different kinds of gases within industrial and energy processes, technical infrastructure, landfill bodies, indoor and outdoor environment are discussed. The current status and future plans for IR imaging technologies in the U.S. and in Sweden are described. Primary consideration is given to mobile and airborne remote sensing systems, such as current laser-based imaging technologies, advanced IR systems with and without filter techniques, and two-dimensional gas-correlation techniques, being used or under development. Results of recent laboratory and field experiments involving the imaging of natural gas leaks under both controlled and actual conditions are presented and discussed. Plans for future field testing and technology improvements are described.

Use of the Internet for health promotion is increasing; however, the lack of published research regarding website usability suggests that health promotion websites are being developed without consultation with their users or formal evaluation. This study conducted usability testing of an existing health promotion website to inform modifications and to identify common usability themes that should be addressed by organisations developing or maintaining a health promotion website. A combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques were implemented during the usability testing sessions to gather data from users while completing tasks on the website. Techniques included performance measures (time taken), direct observation (participant observation) and subjective user preferences (questionnaire and interview). Improvements to the website were measured in terms of reduced problems reported, reduced time taken to complete tasks and increased subjective reports. Seven usability themes emerged from the data: design, feedback, format, instructions, navigation, terminology and learnability. This study demonstrates the application of usability testing to the design and modification of a health promotion website and illustrates the areas or themes that can be used as a framework for testing and modification.

An approach to usability testing is described that can help ensure user-based designs: it places usability testing in a problem-solving context. Attention is given to areas in the test development process where problems may occur, problems that pull the focus of the test away from the user. Finally, the author suggests some research needed in usability testing if one is to move beyond the constraints imposed by the industry environment and grow a responsible methodology. She describes a typical test plan, some situational constraints that affect it, and alternative plans that might grow out of dealing with constraints. >

Usability testing is a recommended main testing method to evaluate the usability or ease of use of a software. However, this approach can induce bias. Usability testing with survey method using questionnaire instruments and interview has a risk of generating lack of objectivity from the participants because the facilitator can influence the evaluation results. The evaluation process is not optimal and the biases that arise from usability testing can affect the success or failure of a software in the market. A method for validating usability testing results needs to be studied to ensure whether the test results obtained are valid and unbiased. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is one of the tool that can be used to validate usability testing. This study aims to conduct usability testing of the three most popular e-marketplace applications in Indonesia. From the results it can be seen that usability testing using user-based testing gives a fairly good result in term of accuracy. Usability testing using EEG gives lower results than user-based testing. Nevertheless, we cannot rule out EEG as a usability testing method in the future.

Hallway testing, Remote Usability testing, Expert review, Automated expert review and A/B testing are the methods commonly used for Usability testing. However, there is no reliable system that integrates Brain Computer Interface (BCI) into the testing process with focus given towards user emotion analysis using electroencephalography (EEG) signals. This paper proposes a system that would be able to identify user emotions while they are conducting usability tests and the results would be able to increase the accuracy of the usability test. In the proposed system the results of the usability test would be displayed in real time on a dashboard and a summary report can be generated for distribution.

Amblyopia is a childhood condition in which best-corrected visual acuity in one eye is poorer than the other. Current treatments involve forcing the brain to privilege the affected eye, usually by blocking vision through the better one. Few studies have considered the binocular affordances provided by virtual reality (VR) headsets and the engaging qualities of electronic games as a treatment. To explore these opportunities, we introduce AmblyopiaVR. The system calibrates a user's VR view separately for each eye and engages them in play experiences. The objective is to encourage prolonged exposure to the treatment and improve vision in the weak eye. Specific aspects of the VR image can be altered in real-time, enabling researchers to investigate driving factors in amblyopia treatment. This paper presents the conceptualization and design of the system and its implementation, prototype-game ideas, and future user testing plans.