Tim Comber Copyright (c) 2012 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber Recent documents in Tim Comber en-us Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:30:40 PDT 3600 Girls get IT http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/29 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/29 Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:59:47 PDT In this article, we describe high school promotional visits and campus workshops developed to encourage female junior high school students to consider a career in information technology. The students were exposed to programming concepts and activities in a manner that made such content enjoyable and relatively easy to understand and were given pre and post workshop questionnaires. Students perceived programming as simpler and themselves as being more capable after attending these workshops. The article demonstrates the potential for such workshops to address aspects of perceived difficulty and of self-perceptions in ability to master such content.

]]> Raina Mason et al. It’s (no longer) a remote chance for girls in IT http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/28 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/28 Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:59:43 PDT This paper reports on an IT Girls Day Outreach program initiative to girls from Year 6 to Year 11 in a remote NSW school. The program involved three days of activities based around image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop and programming with both Lego Mindstorms NXT robots, and the Alice 3D programming environment, and information about IT careers, all conducted by female-only presenters. Students had positive shifts in their confidence in programming; increased their knowledge of IT career options, and reported raised aspirations to pursue a career in IT. This demonstrates that outreach programs can be delivered to a remote community, with positive outcomes of raising knowledge, confidence and aspirations in students.

]]> Raina Mason et al. An analysis of entropy, redundancy and complexity in graphical user interfaces http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/27 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/27 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:56:16 PDT This thesis introduces a new sequential data analysis technique for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) based upon the communication theory of Shannon. This study addresses two research questions:

Research Question 1: Can an entropy analysis of a sequence of operations be used to estimate the quality of the user‟s work?

Research Question 2: Can an entropy analysis of a sequence of operations be used to detect usability problems?

Shannon‘s entropy equation is applied to a word processor ―language‖ for 24 users and a language entropy value is obtained for each. This value is correlated with metrics associated with experience, skill, knowledge and percentage of task completed. The results show a sufficiently high correlation to justify the use of language entropy as an independent user competencey and/or application usability metric. It is suggested that new GUI applications be built (or existing ones patched) to provide an automated entropy ―score‖ for user sessions. The advantage is that a user‘s language entropy can be automatically determined during a normal work session, negating the need for costly, labour intensive and time-consuming methods such as interviews, questionnaires and other usability protocols. An argument is presented to (a) incorporate the entropy score into user-centred design and evaluation sessions as a new usability metric, and (b) use the score as a measure of the effectiveness of user training and the degree of user competence when undertaking GUI software tasks.

]]> Tim Comber The importance of text width and white space for online documentation http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/26 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/26 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:27:17 PDT This study investigates the importance of text width and passive white space on comprehension, speed of reading and user satisfaction for text displayed on the monitor of a personal computer. Thirteen subjects were tested with 8 different text widths and white space or no white space, 16 conditions in all. The results showed no relationships between the different text widths and white space for reading speed and comprehension but a significant relationship for satisfaction was found. The results suggest that individual differences in reading abilities are more important to reading speed and comprehension than text formats. However for maximum user satisfaction, text should have margins and be between 3 and 5 inches in width. Guidelines based on studies of print media may not be entirely applicable to computer displays. Future studies should investigate longer text passages and interactive help.

]]> Tim Comber Internet and computer usage: comparisons among metropolitan centres, coastal regional centres and inland regional centres http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/25 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/25 Tue, 26 May 2009 23:16:09 PDT In this exploratory paper the authors compare Internet and computer usage data from the Basic Community Profiles (BCP) of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001d). The data is compiled from Census information collected in 2001. The comparisons examine data extracted from three metropolitan centres, three regional coastal centres, and three regional inland centres. The data collected by the ABS enabled comparison of computer usage by age categories and gender. Data on Internet usage enabled comparison by gender and usage location (work, home, school, etc). The picture of computer and Internet usage shown by the ABS data differs from that painted by some government sources, however, the differences could be due to varied samples and skewed distributions based predominantly on metropolitan based respondents.

]]> D Bruce Armstrong et al. Managing your business through effective IT management - secure it or lose it http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/24 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/24 Tue, 26 May 2009 23:15:51 PDT D Bruce Armstrong et al. Investigating layout complexity http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/23 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/23 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:43 PDT This paper presents work-in-progress in assessing the usefulness of the layout complexity metric in evaluating the usability of different screen designs. The metric is based on the Shannon formula from communication theory. Initially the metric was applied to thirteen Windows applications where thirty subjects were asked to rank screens on the basis of “good” design. A significant negative correlation was found between the subjects’ rankings and the complexity ratings, indicating that users do not like “simple” screens. For the next stage a pilot application, “Launcher”, was developed in Visual Basic to calculate complexity and collected usability data. Seven subjects provided some evidence that complexity could be of benefit to the screen designer. However, though Launcher proved useful in collecting data, some problems needed to be overcome, namely more concise data collection and a better method for building screens, before more data can be collected. The final version of “Launcher” should provide conclusive evidence of the worth of the layout complexity metric as well as showing that usability metrics can be built into the design environment.

]]> Tim Comber et al. Layout complexity: does it measure usability? http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/22 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/22 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:42 PDT This research investigates the validity of the layout complexity metric to GUI screen design. This metric offers a simple method to gauge the complexity of the visual design of a computer screen by classifying screen objects into classes based on common dimensions and positions. However, though it has been used by other interface researchers, it is not clear that it is a valid metric for GUIs. Initial work suggests that users prefer more complex layouts rather than the simple ones suggested by guidelines. The pilot study showed that screens midway between complex and simple were the most usable. The next experiment is at the data collection stage. It uses four screens differing in complexity and a Latin-squares design to avoid experimental bias and nuisance variables. Twenty-four human participants are randomly assigned to blocks. The final experiment will attempt to gain a wider range of users with a more complex task.

]]> Tim Comber et al. Evaluating usability of screen designs with layout complexity http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/21 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/21 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:41 PDT This paper presents work-in-progress in assessing the usefulness of the layout complexity metric in evaluating the usability of different screen designs. An application "Launcher" was developed in Visual Basic that calculated complexity and collected usability data. Seven subjects provided some evidence that complexity could be of benefit to the screen designer. However, though Launcher proved useful in collecting data, some problems needed to be overcome, namely more concise data collection and a better method for building screens, before more data can be collected

]]> Tim Comber et al. Achieving balance in software engineering curricula http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/19 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/19 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:40 PDT Achieving balance is an issue that faces all curriculum designers. The complexity of the software process demands a pluralistic approach to systems development. This pluralism must also be reflected in the education and training of future software engineers. How can we integrate the diverse views into a unified curriculum framework? How can we cover all topics that are deemed essential for the discipline. We must balance specialised software engineering topics with fundamental topics in computer science and we must also balance the variety of software engineering topics amongst themselves within the relatively short three-year undergraduate curriculum. Very often, what is left out is just as important as what is left in. This paper describes the process and outcomes of a recent attempt at Southern Cross University to develop a balanced software engineering course. Comparisons were made between this implementation and the ACM/IEEE model curriculum and other related efforts.

]]> Tim Comber et al. Building usable web pages: an HCI perspective http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/16 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/16 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:38 PDT New web pages are being added to the World Wide Web at a rapid rate. Consulting a list of new web pages such as Yahoo! on any day will show growth rates of up to hundreds of new pages a day. Most web page authors are experienced progammers or know how to program, [Second WWW User Survey] and yet many web pages present usability problems despite the number of guides to writing html. Each of these guides refers to some aspects of usability such as suggestions to date pages and place the author's name on the page but the articles mostly concentrate on the mechanics of marking-up documents. It is important to remember that "...there is a limit to how well users can adapt to a poorly designed interface" (Smith & Mosier 1986). This paper offers specific guidelines to writing usable web pages by concentrating on those aspects of web page design that affect usability: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction (Nielsen 1993, Lindgaard 1994). Guidelines are presented under the headings of information content, visual appearance, navigation and testing and a brief summary is given. References are made to HCI research where applicable.

A number of potential research questions are indicated: What are the time limits before a reader will cancel a download? Do users need verbal as well as visual cues to follow links? What is the best way to provide navigation aids within a web system? What are the best means for indicating the authority of the document? How should icons be laid out? A web page is defined as the information retrieved by invoking a single URL and is often referred to as a document. I prefer to call it a web page so as to highlight that a document published on the web is not the same as a paper document. A web system is defined as a collection of web pages that is controlled by one person or corporate identity.

]]> Tim Comber User operations as language elements: measuring usability and user competence through redundancy http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/14 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/14 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:37 PDT Tim Comber et al. Screen complexity and user design preferences in windows applications http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/15 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/15 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:37 PDT This paper evaluates the validity of a formal method for assessing the quality of screen layouts in graphical user interfaces. A technique developed by Bonsieppe for quantifying the layout complexity of a printed page has been applied to the opening screens in thirteen Microsoft Windows applications. Thirty subjects were asked to rank the same thirteen screens on the basis of "good" design. A significant negative correlation was found between the subjects’ rankings and the complexity ratings, indicating that users’ do not like “simple” screens. The reasons for this negative correlation are explored.

]]> Tim Comber et al. A formal method for evaluating GUI screens http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/13 http://works.bepress.com/tim_comber/13 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:55:36 PDT Tim Comber et al.