Thursday
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Victoria Carlsson
Bernt Schiele
Non-desktop workplaces often generate challenging multitasking situations for a user attempting to interact with supporting technology. Multimodal applications promise great advantages in this type of context. However, current research does not provide enough knowledge for the ergonomic optimization of multimodal interfaces. In order to advance in the research area concerning non-desktop work, a systematic research approach is needed. This paper discusses a possible strategy for advancing towards systematic research, and describes a preliminary experiment attempting to evaluate a real scenario using this strategy.
Grace Kim
In January of 2006, Adobe Systems introduced the public beta of Lightroom, a digital imaging solution designed specifically for professional photographers and serious amateurs. The appeal of Lightroom is that it offers a modular, task-based environment that flexibly supports a complete photography workflow. This paper describes two foundation-setting research strategies pursued during the early concept and definition phases of Lightroom. It discusses why certain research strategies were undertaken by the placing the decisions to pursue these strategies within a broader context, including the stage of LightroomÂ’s development, the evolving assumptions of the Lightroom team, product positioning issues, time and resource constraints, and stakeholder engagement. To emphasize the context in which specific research approaches were crafted rather than simply executed, the term research strategies is used in favor of research methods.
Philip Strain
A. Dawn Shaikh
Richard Boardman
This paper discusses some of the methodological challenges that can be encountered when usability testing with visually impaired users. These include (1) the need for customized test environments, (2) the potential for audio interference between screen reader output and the moderator to participant dialogue, and (3) the difficulty for observers inexperienced in accessibility technology. In this paper we outline several techniques for dealing with these challenges, including some variations on traditional think-aloud techniques that are useful when a usability participant is using a screen reader.
Brenton Elmore
Subbarao Ivaturi
Stuart Hamilton
Home networking continues to expand into a collection of computers and networked devices that are becoming more complex to setup and manage. Research indicated that new techniques were needed to help people set up a secure home network. The techniques should satisfy the expectations of advanced users, without requiring technical knowledge on the part of novice users. A central design theme influenced the software solution: If a networking expert was advising a user on how to set up, configure, and secure a home network, what would this person tell the user to do? In this case study, insights about creating a new home networking program to solve the challenges are discussed. Results indicated animations, good default settings and a network map increased the user success rate for network setup.