20100922 - Loser, Computer conference message...Usability evaluation...

Computer conference message navigation, structure, and organization: Usability evaluation of a spatial interface by Loser, Marilyn Maguire, Ph.D., The University of New Mexico, 2001 , 226 pages; AAT 3011569 My Interest: 1) Usability inspection by expert judges. 2) Evaluation by end users. 3) 2 usability criterion i.e. Satisfaction and Effectiveness. Action: Medium-low priority to read the Dissertation in future; scanned version. Research Goals The study investigated the impact of a computer-conferencing interface, Discourse, that was designed for improved message navigation and organization, on end-users' abilities to interact with the conference. The foundation for the interface prototype is a computer conferencing communication model developed for the study that proposed improving conference navigation, structure and organization * to reduce end-user feelings of being lost and of information overload and * to increase end-user ability to relate local and global contexts and * to find relevant information. Individual differences of spatial visualization ability (SVA) and computer experience were explored in relationship to the interface. Development of Computer-Conferencing Interface The development of the computer-conferencing interface was user-centered and followed usability-engineering techniques. The initial design and implementation of the interface was based on the communication model. The interface was refined following usability inspection by expert judges, and finally, end-users evaluated the interface based on two usability criterion, satisfaction and effectiveness. As a control, a second set of end-users evaluated a modified hierarchical version of Discourse that lacked the spatial layout. Comments: She did an experiment and a control experiment. Would be interested to learn more of this comparative study…how she compared the 2. Results Discussion End-users were significantly more satisfied with the spatial interface than with previously experienced computer-conferencing interfaces and with the control interface used for the study. Those who evaluated the spatial interface, regardless of SVA and computer experience, reported significantly higher scores for overall satisfaction, ability to avoid information overload, and ability to relate local and global contexts than did end-users who evaluated the control hierarchical interface. Those who evaluated the spatial interface, regardless of SVA, reported significantly higher scores for the ability to maintain sense of location. Note: Year 2001. Softcopy Dissertation is scanned version; difficult to copy & paste, difficult to blog about it.