Digital repositories contain a large amount of content, which is available to heterogeneous groups of people. As such, in many cases people encounter difficulties in finding specific content which is related to their preferences. In view of this compelling need and towards advancing human-computer interaction, this paper presents a recommender system which is incorporated in a digital repository. The recommender system is designed using multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and more specifically the weighted sum model (WSM) in order to refine the delivered content to the users. It also considers several users’ characteristics (their preferences as depicted by the content they visited or searched and by the frequency of searches/visits) and features of the content (content types and traffic). The recommender system outputs the suggestions of content to users based on their preferences and interests. The presented recommender system was evaluated by real users, and the results show a high degree of accuracy in the recommended content and satisfaction by users.

Learning to memorize the Quran presents a challenge. This paper reports the development and alpha testing of a mobile application called “EzHifz” for Quran memorization based on the VARK learning style. The application received positive feedback for user acceptance testing and heuristic testing. The Fleiss kappa coefficient (κ) results for user acceptance testing show a very good level of agreement (κ = 0.850). Heuristic testing results show that κ = 0.731 for content, manual guide, memorization activities, performance information, and tasmik assessment attributes, while κ = 0.727 for presentation design, interactivity, multimedia elements, attraction, and motivation attributes. These results show a good level of agreement, which indicates that the EzHifz application meets the requirements of design and development based on the attributes evaluated. A combination of memorizing techniques in the application helps strengthen the use of preferred VARK learning styles. The techniques support the use of multiple senses that could facilitate the process of memorizing the Quran independently. This study contributes to the novel design and evaluation of the Quran memorization application based on the Quran memorization model. The application supports the teaching and learning of Quran memorization where it allows students to select their preferred VARK learning style with the technique of memorizing the Quran. This mobile application learning approach based on VARK’s learning style has the potential to be implemented in the process of memorizing the Quran as well as retaining memory through the use of memory senses in support of the learning materials developed.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is present in many countries globally, including Tanzania, especially Gairo district. The data shows that 78% of livestock keepers in Gairo district had already observed FMD infection in their cattle, and the pastoral communities were mostly affected. Currently, vaccination is the main tool for controlling FMD because there are no therapeutic intervention tools. Therefore, effective communication among livestock stakeholders can be used as an essential tool of preparedness for the disease’s impact. This study had two specific objectives: (i) to explore the challenges of communicating FMD events among livestock keepers and other livestock stakeholders in Gairo district and (ii) to propose an information system for sharing FMD events among the livestock stakeholders in Gairo district. The study found that there was a delay when communicating FMD events in Gairo district due to the long chain of information flow. Therefore, the system aims to reduce the communication chain by allowing livestock keepers to report disease outbreaks directly to the system. Livestock keepers may also access FMD precaution measures, negative impacts, clinical signs transmission ways, and current outbreaks directly from the system using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Short Message Services (SMS), robocalls, and feature phones. The system also provides a common platform for sharing FMD outbreaks data and events to other stakeholders based on the system’s privileges. In this study, a closed-ended interview using a questionnaire was used for data collection. The PHP hypertext processor, jQuery, HTML, JSON, JavaScript, Apache web server, and MySQL database were used for developing the system.

The contextual changes of the present age have altered the former order of personal and social relations in such a way that the creation of a new order is accompanied by an epistemic crisis; the crisis of knowledge of new relationships has rendered past valuations inefficient and invalid. In this regard, Kotler considers authenticity as the most influential element in this era of achieving sustainable development and customer trust, and since the production of university knowledge is the key to sustainable development, today it is faced with quality issues. This study aimed to investigate the effect of two marketing strategies, namely, authentic marketing and pragmatic marketing, through paradigm shifts as a solution to the epistemic crisis of brand authenticity. The research method of this study is based on quantitative and descriptive survey. The case study consists of Iranian students of Islamic Azad Universities (IAUs) stratified random sampling and sample size based on Morgan table were 385 people. Data were collected and distributed by questionnaire. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least squares approach and SmartPLS2 software were used for data analysis. The findings indicate that both authentic marketing and pragmatic marketing are more effective on brand authenticity through paradigm shift.

TransPrint is a method for fabricating flexible, transparent free-form displays based on electrochromism. Using screen-printing or inkjet printing of electrochromic ink, plus a straightforward assembly process, TransPrint enables rapid prototyping of displays by nonexperts. The displays are nonlight-emissive and only require power to switch state and support the integration of capacitive touch sensing for interactivity. We present instructions and best practices on how to design and assemble the displays and discuss the benefits and shortcomings of the TransPrint approach. To demonstrate the broad applicability of the approach, we present six application prototypes.

Through play, typically developing children manipulate objects and interact with peers to establish and develop physical, cognitive, language, and social skills. However, children with complex disabilities and/or developmental delays have limited play experiences, thus compromising the quality of play and acquisition of skills. Assistive technologies have been developed to increase opportunities and level of interaction for children with disabilities to facilitate learning and development. One type of technology, Socially Assistive Robotics, is designed to assist the human user through social interaction while creating measurable growth in learning and rehabilitation. The investigators in this study designed, developed, and validated a semiautonomous Socially Assistive Robot to compare with a switch-adapted toy to determine robot effectiveness in quantity of, changes in, and differences in engagement. After interacting with both systems for three sessions each, five of the eight subjects showed a greater level of positive engagement with the robot than the switch-adapted toy, while the remaining three subjects showed slightly higher positive engagement with the toy. The preliminary results of the study suggest that Socially Assistive Robots specifically designed for children with complex cerebral palsy should be further researched and utilized to enrich play interactions and skill development for this population.

The complexity of nowadays car manufacturing processes increases constantly due to the increasing number of electronic and digital features in cars as well as the shorter life cycle of car designs, which raises the need for faster adaption to new car models. However, the ongoing digitalization of production and working contexts offers the chance to support the worker in production using digital information as well as innovative, interactive, and digital devices. Therefore, in this work we investigate a representative production step in a long-term project together with a German car manufacturer, which is structured into three phases. In the first phase, we investigated the working process empirically and developed a comprehensive and innovative user interface design, which addresses various types of interactive devices. Building up on this, we developed the device score model, which is designed to investigate interactive system and user interface in production context due to ergonomics, UI design, performance, technology acceptance, and user experience. This work was conducted in the second phase of the project, in which we used this model to investigate the subjective suitability of six innovative device setups that implement the user interface design developed in phase one in an experimental setup with 67 participants at two locations in south Germany. The major result showed that the new user interface design run on a smart phone is the most suitable setup for future interactive systems in car manufacturing. In the third and final phase, we investigated the suitability of the two best rated devices for long term use by two workers using the system during a full shift. These two systems were compared with the standard system used. The major conclusion is that smartphones as well as AR glasses show very high potential to increase performance in production if used in a well-designed fashion.

Lately, different wearable form factors have reached the consumer domain. Wearables enable at-a-glance access to information and can continually sense the surrounding environment. Internet of Things (IoT) researchers have focused on the main enabling factors: the integration of several technologies and communication solutions. Less effort has been devoted to exploring how not-so-tech-savvy end users can discover and directly interact with the numerous connected things predicted by the IoT vision. This paper presents a novel IoT interaction concept called UbiCompass. A functional, smartwatch face prototype of the UbiCompass was developed and integrated with an existing smart home system, in which five different connected devices could be controlled using simple interaction. It was then compared to a traditional smartphone mobile application in a controlled experiment. The results show statistically significant differences in favor of the proposed concept. This highlights the potential the UbiCompass has as an IoT interaction concept.

Life-like characters are playing vital role in social computing by making human-computer interaction more easy and spontaneous. Nowadays, use of these characters to interact in online virtual environment has gained immense popularity. In this paper, we proposed a framework for a text-based chat system embodied with a life-like virtual agent that aims at natural communication between the users. To achieve this kind of system, we developed an agent that performs some nonverbal communications such as generating facial expression and motions by analyzing the text messages of the users. More specifically, this agent is capable of generating facial expressions for six basic emotions such as happy, sad, fear, angry, surprise, and disgust along with two additional emotions, irony and determined. Then to make the interaction between the users more realistic and lively, we added motions such as eye blink and head movements. We measured our proposed system from different aspects and found the results satisfactory, which make us believe that this kind of system can play a significant role in making an interaction episode more natural, effective, and interesting. Experimental evaluation reveals that the proposed agent can display emotive expressions correctly 93% of the time by analyzing the users’ text input.

As gestural interfaces emerged as a new type of user interface, their use has been vastly explored by the entertainment industry to better immerse the player in games. Despite being mainly used in dance and sports games, little use was made of gestural interaction in more slow-paced genres, such as board games. In this work, we present a Kinect-based gestural interface for an online and multiplayer chess game and describe a case study with users with different playing skill levels. Comparing the mouse/keyboard interaction with the gesture-based interaction, the results of the activity were synthesized into lessons learned regarding general usability and design of game control mechanisms. These results could be applied to slow-paced board games like chess. Our findings indicate that gestural interfaces may not be suitable for competitive chess matches, yet it can be fun to play while using them in casual matches.