The present dissertation deals with the ergonomic design of data visualizations. Four empirical s... more The present dissertation deals with the ergonomic design of data visualizations. Four empirical studies were carried out, and a practical design and application recommendations were derived. Each study addressed one of the following steps within the user-centered development process: context analysis, task analysis, and evaluation. The first study (1a) examined health information needs of older adults through a qualitative-quantitative mixed-method design. Information needs were considered as a context and prerequisite for the visualization of health data. Different needs were identified: some deal with health data as a coping strategy, while others avoid health data for fear of causing or exacerbating illness. Many older people are already collecting paper-based health information as a basis for sharing with healthcare professionals or making decisions about their own health. Results of the first study motivated the further age-differentiated consideration of the ergonomic visualization of health data. Study 1b additionally demonstrated the expected relationship between information needs and technology usage on the basis of a representative German survey. According to the survey, an increased need for information leads to an increased use of mobile information and communication technology among older people. Study two identified e-health tasks and data types relevant for older people and e-health experts and summarized them into an empirically built general task-data-taxonomy. Practitioners can use this taxonomy to investigate functional system requirements, while researchers can use it to select experimental tasks for evaluation studies. Overall, time-based, multivariate data and health monitoring were the most relevant task and data type. Building on previous studies, in study 3 the influence of pre-attentive graphical features on the performance and demands of young, old and very old people in dealing with data visualizations was investigated. With regard to the task execution time and the number of errors, n [...]
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Aug 7, 2018
Deep understanding of users’ needs is crucial for developing successful digital health technology... more Deep understanding of users’ needs is crucial for developing successful digital health technology. At the beginning of system development, it is thus important to analyze and specify the context of use within the users-centered development process. Knowing what patients need to know about their health and which information sources they apply to find those, bears implications for personal health ICT conveying health information to the elderly patient. Present results from a survey on health information need and seeking behaviour of N = 551 older adults in Germany suggest that older adults are fairly satisfied with the information they get, indicating a low need to acquire health information. Higher health information need corresponds with a larger amount of health apps installed on older adults tablet PC and with the usage of smartwatches and apps in general. Finally, results support the theoretical influence of demographic variables. Here, educational attainment significantly revealed to be a main influence on information need.
Das Fitts'sche Gesetz wird in ergonomischen Studien eingesetzt, um Bewegungszeiten vorherzusa... more Das Fitts'sche Gesetz wird in ergonomischen Studien eingesetzt, um Bewegungszeiten vorherzusagen. In Fitts" Experimentalaufgabe wurden rechteckige Zielobjekte mit geringerer Breite als Hohe auf einer horizontalen Achse positioniert und von den Probanden gepointet. Der Anwendungsbezug in der Mensch-Rechner Interaktion besteht jedoch in zweidimensionalen Aufgaben. Um das Fitts'sche Gesetz auf bivariate Zeigeaufgaben zu ubertragen, muss die Definition der Zielweite angepasst werden. Das Zielweitenmodell W" (in Bewegungsrichtung) wurde in der DIN EN ISO 9241-9:2000 zum Standard erklart, jedoch wird in den meisten wissenschaftlichen Studien weiterhin das Wmin-Modell (die kurzere Seitenlange) verwendet. Die Frage welche Definition der Zielweite - entweder W" oder Wmin - besser geeignet ist, um Bewegungszeiten in bivariaten Zeigeaufgaben vorherzusagen, ist noch ungeklart. In diesem Beitrag wird eine empirische Studie mit 30 Probanden zwischen 20 und 73 Jahren vorgestellt, in welcher die Zielweitenmodelle W" und Wmin untersucht wurden. Hierbei wurde anhand einer Zeigeaufgabe an einem grosflachigen, beruhrungssensitiven Bildschirm die Zielweite W" durch Rotation von Rechtecken systematisch variiert. Wmin wurde durch die Rotation nicht verandert. Andere Einflussfaktoren wie Amplitude und Winkel wurden konstant gehalten. Die Auswertung erfolgte im Hinblick auf die steigende Anzahl alterer Computerbenutzer altersdifferenziert. Es zeigte sich eine deutlich bessere Passung des W'-Modells als des Wmin-Modells.
How can we support the development of age-appropriate system design in a society with new informa... more How can we support the development of age-appropriate system design in a society with new information and communication technologies (ICT) emerging at an ever-increasing rate, making it imperative to consider age-appropriate design to achieve the best possible usability and acceptance for older adults? This paper describes the development of a style guide within the Historytelling Project to increase the consistency and therefore efficiency of the interface and to gain a higher software development efficiency. The implementation of the style guide is based on the preexisting CSS framework Bootstrap because of its high amount of predefined UI elements. The developed style guide consists of two components: the actual implementation of the style guide in the form of CSS customizations and the associated documentation. Both components are freely accessible and editable online. An adjusted interface was tested against a standard Bootstrap interface with 31 older adults aged 51 to 93 (M =...
This paper briefly describes the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive website for ol... more This paper briefly describes the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive website for older adults to share life experiences. It focuses on the evaluation (N=10 people aged 57 to 70 years) of age appropriate feedback within a high-fidelity prototype created in the human centered design process.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2018
As a result of the demographic change, the population of the older adults within our society incr... more As a result of the demographic change, the population of the older adults within our society increases steadily. If done right, information and communication technology offer great potential benefit for older users. Thus, we focus on a human-centered design approach for aging (HCD+). This Paper describes the development of an input component for the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive platform for older adults to connect life stories with historic events and appreciate the potential for older adult’s life experience. We conducted a task analysis based on requirements for the Historytelling project and developed a high-fidelity prototype which was tested with eleven older adults. The prototype was valued highly overall but still had minor usability issues. Thus, we could show that a rather complex task such as telling a life story with various multimedia objects can be executed by older adults if they are integrated into the design process from early on.
Advances in Human Factors, Software, and Systems Engineering
The use of network diagrams in project management software is a useful tool when planning project... more The use of network diagrams in project management software is a useful tool when planning projects. However, working with these diagrams can quickly become confusing when dealing with complex project plans. This effect is even more pronounced for older persons as they have to deal with age-related changes in perception, cognition and motor control. Nevertheless, project planning is often accomplished by older employees due to their knowledge and experience. There are certain aspects of layout structures that can support perception and decision making when working with complex diagrams. This paper describes an age-differentiated study in which the factors symmetry and spatial distance between activities were investigated. In order to gain practical relevance, the study combined different tasks and different complexities of visualization. In addition to reaction times and errors, eye tracking data was analyzed to acquire additional information. The results of this study reveal that th...
The present dissertation deals with the ergonomic design of data visualizations. Four empirical s... more The present dissertation deals with the ergonomic design of data visualizations. Four empirical studies were carried out, and a practical design and application recommendations were derived. Each study addressed one of the following steps within the user-centered development process: context analysis, task analysis, and evaluation. The first study (1a) examined health information needs of older adults through a qualitative-quantitative mixed-method design. Information needs were considered as a context and prerequisite for the visualization of health data. Different needs were identified: some deal with health data as a coping strategy, while others avoid health data for fear of causing or exacerbating illness. Many older people are already collecting paper-based health information as a basis for sharing with healthcare professionals or making decisions about their own health. Results of the first study motivated the further age-differentiated consideration of the ergonomic visualization of health data. Study 1b additionally demonstrated the expected relationship between information needs and technology usage on the basis of a representative German survey. According to the survey, an increased need for information leads to an increased use of mobile information and communication technology among older people. Study two identified e-health tasks and data types relevant for older people and e-health experts and summarized them into an empirically built general task-data-taxonomy. Practitioners can use this taxonomy to investigate functional system requirements, while researchers can use it to select experimental tasks for evaluation studies. Overall, time-based, multivariate data and health monitoring were the most relevant task and data type. Building on previous studies, in study 3 the influence of pre-attentive graphical features on the performance and demands of young, old and very old people in dealing with data visualizations was investigated. With regard to the task execution time and the number of errors, n [...]
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Aug 7, 2018
Deep understanding of users’ needs is crucial for developing successful digital health technology... more Deep understanding of users’ needs is crucial for developing successful digital health technology. At the beginning of system development, it is thus important to analyze and specify the context of use within the users-centered development process. Knowing what patients need to know about their health and which information sources they apply to find those, bears implications for personal health ICT conveying health information to the elderly patient. Present results from a survey on health information need and seeking behaviour of N = 551 older adults in Germany suggest that older adults are fairly satisfied with the information they get, indicating a low need to acquire health information. Higher health information need corresponds with a larger amount of health apps installed on older adults tablet PC and with the usage of smartwatches and apps in general. Finally, results support the theoretical influence of demographic variables. Here, educational attainment significantly revealed to be a main influence on information need.
Das Fitts'sche Gesetz wird in ergonomischen Studien eingesetzt, um Bewegungszeiten vorherzusa... more Das Fitts'sche Gesetz wird in ergonomischen Studien eingesetzt, um Bewegungszeiten vorherzusagen. In Fitts" Experimentalaufgabe wurden rechteckige Zielobjekte mit geringerer Breite als Hohe auf einer horizontalen Achse positioniert und von den Probanden gepointet. Der Anwendungsbezug in der Mensch-Rechner Interaktion besteht jedoch in zweidimensionalen Aufgaben. Um das Fitts'sche Gesetz auf bivariate Zeigeaufgaben zu ubertragen, muss die Definition der Zielweite angepasst werden. Das Zielweitenmodell W" (in Bewegungsrichtung) wurde in der DIN EN ISO 9241-9:2000 zum Standard erklart, jedoch wird in den meisten wissenschaftlichen Studien weiterhin das Wmin-Modell (die kurzere Seitenlange) verwendet. Die Frage welche Definition der Zielweite - entweder W" oder Wmin - besser geeignet ist, um Bewegungszeiten in bivariaten Zeigeaufgaben vorherzusagen, ist noch ungeklart. In diesem Beitrag wird eine empirische Studie mit 30 Probanden zwischen 20 und 73 Jahren vorgestellt, in welcher die Zielweitenmodelle W" und Wmin untersucht wurden. Hierbei wurde anhand einer Zeigeaufgabe an einem grosflachigen, beruhrungssensitiven Bildschirm die Zielweite W" durch Rotation von Rechtecken systematisch variiert. Wmin wurde durch die Rotation nicht verandert. Andere Einflussfaktoren wie Amplitude und Winkel wurden konstant gehalten. Die Auswertung erfolgte im Hinblick auf die steigende Anzahl alterer Computerbenutzer altersdifferenziert. Es zeigte sich eine deutlich bessere Passung des W'-Modells als des Wmin-Modells.
How can we support the development of age-appropriate system design in a society with new informa... more How can we support the development of age-appropriate system design in a society with new information and communication technologies (ICT) emerging at an ever-increasing rate, making it imperative to consider age-appropriate design to achieve the best possible usability and acceptance for older adults? This paper describes the development of a style guide within the Historytelling Project to increase the consistency and therefore efficiency of the interface and to gain a higher software development efficiency. The implementation of the style guide is based on the preexisting CSS framework Bootstrap because of its high amount of predefined UI elements. The developed style guide consists of two components: the actual implementation of the style guide in the form of CSS customizations and the associated documentation. Both components are freely accessible and editable online. An adjusted interface was tested against a standard Bootstrap interface with 31 older adults aged 51 to 93 (M =...
This paper briefly describes the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive website for ol... more This paper briefly describes the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive website for older adults to share life experiences. It focuses on the evaluation (N=10 people aged 57 to 70 years) of age appropriate feedback within a high-fidelity prototype created in the human centered design process.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2018
As a result of the demographic change, the population of the older adults within our society incr... more As a result of the demographic change, the population of the older adults within our society increases steadily. If done right, information and communication technology offer great potential benefit for older users. Thus, we focus on a human-centered design approach for aging (HCD+). This Paper describes the development of an input component for the Historytelling project, a cooperative interactive platform for older adults to connect life stories with historic events and appreciate the potential for older adult’s life experience. We conducted a task analysis based on requirements for the Historytelling project and developed a high-fidelity prototype which was tested with eleven older adults. The prototype was valued highly overall but still had minor usability issues. Thus, we could show that a rather complex task such as telling a life story with various multimedia objects can be executed by older adults if they are integrated into the design process from early on.
Advances in Human Factors, Software, and Systems Engineering
The use of network diagrams in project management software is a useful tool when planning project... more The use of network diagrams in project management software is a useful tool when planning projects. However, working with these diagrams can quickly become confusing when dealing with complex project plans. This effect is even more pronounced for older persons as they have to deal with age-related changes in perception, cognition and motor control. Nevertheless, project planning is often accomplished by older employees due to their knowledge and experience. There are certain aspects of layout structures that can support perception and decision making when working with complex diagrams. This paper describes an age-differentiated study in which the factors symmetry and spatial distance between activities were investigated. In order to gain practical relevance, the study combined different tasks and different complexities of visualization. In addition to reaction times and errors, eye tracking data was analyzed to acquire additional information. The results of this study reveal that th...
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Papers by Nicole Jochems