Diverse User Groups Research Articles

Factors Influencing Usability of Rehabilitation Robotic Devices for Lower Limbs

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of elderly people in South Korea; this has led to rising costs and concerns on the quality of physical therapy treatment involving rehabilitation robotic devices. Therefore, the government has asked academia to expand its research scope to evaluate the usability of these devices. Hence, this study aimed to identify the major factors influencing the usability of a rehabilitation robotic device for lower limbs and the reasons for involving several diverse user groups for a more comprehensive evaluation. To measure usability as perceived by three primary user groups of user experience (UX) professionals, rehab professionals, and lay people, this study collected 196 survey. The results of an EFA showed that among three general quality factors and five device specific factors, visual pertinence, use confidence, and safety were the critical factors influencing usability, and the results of ANOVA offered that there was discrepancy in the influential factors, namely visual pertinence, transferring, and holding the body. These findings indicate that the necessity of employing a posture-centered approach and multiple user groups in assessing the usability of rehabilitation devices. Given these findings, it is suggested that the industry and design community should move toward implementing a more explorative perspective to enable a more human-centered and posture-concerned approach to provide better usability to the diverse users of medical devices.

Assessing Risk in a Postfire Landscape: Are Currently Available Tools Good for the Local Land Owner?

Wildfires and events that follow such as flooding and erosion are natural disturbances in many ecosystems. However, when these types of postfire events threaten life, property, and resources they become a concern for resource managers, communities, and private landowners. A procedure for rapid assessment that uses different tools exists for federally owned lands, however after wildfire many non-federal landowners wonder how to manage and reduce risk on their lands. For this reason it is important to understand whether tools used by federal teams are accessible and approachable for non-federal users. We critically assessed tools for evaluating postfire landscapes that are used by federal teams through a scoring system for practicality of use by private or community land managers. Each tool was scored based on three criteria: required inputs, required equipment, and available guidance. Tools were further characterized by scope, scale, use of Curve Numbers, and capacity to incorporate treatments. Results show that the Soil Burn Severity Datasheet, the Burned Area Reports Database, the Rule of Thumb by Kuyumjian, and USGS Regression Equations are most accessible for non-federal audiences. FERGI and HEC-HMS are the least transferable. Currently available postfire assessment tools are usable by non-federal audiences, with some more approachable than others. As new tools are developed, opportunities exist to build tools that are more accessible to more diverse user groups.

Towards a pro-community-based water resource management system in Northwest Cameroon: practical evidence and lessons of best practices

This paper examines community-based water supply management (CBWSM) in three rural districts of Northwest Cameroon as well as a review of the literature focusing on some successful community-based natural resource management initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. Using empirical and secondary data collected through participatory research methods, it is argued that CBWSM has failed to achieve sustainable water supplies in Northwest Cameroon. Findings revealed that centralized control, the prevalence of poverty, passive involvement of public, private and grassroots community has continued to thwart water supplies within these districts. It is important to note that in any natural resource management system, power becomes a crucial factor as it determines who has and does not have access to common-pool resources. This paper argues that argues that strong traditional leadership, resolute devolution, and active participation of rural communities will facilitate and invigorate a platform for capturing the views of diverse user groups and this can bring about a people-centered and community-driven development process. Some aspects of best practice arising from successful case studies in Cameroon can contribute significantly to promoting the development of effective CBWSM in other rural communities with similar characteristics in and out of Cameroon. This will be possible only if rural groups are involved and engaged in the management of their resources while integrating some aspects of best practice.

Open Systems Pharmacology Community-An Open Access, Open Source, Open Science Approach to Modeling and Simulation in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Systems pharmacology integrates structural biological and pharmacological knowledge and experimental data, enabling dissection of organism and drug properties and providing excellent predictivity. ...

Understanding the insight of factors affecting mHealth adoption

Numerous studies have addressed the different context of mHealth services among diverse user groups. But due to a lack of understanding the insight of factors affecting the mHealth adoption, it’s crucial need to conduct a systematic review on this issue. The objective of this study was to synthesize the present understanding of the influential factors of mHealth adoption. We performed a systematic literature search on eight electronically reputed scientific databases from 2010 to March 2019, such as Science Direct, Springer, IEEE Xplore, JMIR, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, Mary Ann Liebert and Google Scholar. This was accomplished by gathering data including authors, countries, years, target population, sample size, models/theories, and key influential factors. Primarily, a total of 2969 potentially relatable papers were found, of which 50 met the inclusion criteria. It was found that cross-sectional approach, survey methods and structural equation modeling (SEM) were the most explored research methodologies whereas PLS-SEM was found to be the largest used analysis tools. From the analysis, a total of ninety-four influential factors were clearly recognized and the findings represent that the following 15 factors appeared most recurrently and significantly; perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social-influence, subjective norms, self-efficacy, trust, facilitating conditions, technology anxiety, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, cost, attitude, resistance to change, perceived privacy and security, and perceived behavioral control. The research results have significant theoretical and practical implications for mHealth services providers, researchers and policy makers with regards to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) allied to healthcare.

Social media as a recruitment method to reach a diverse sample of bereaved parents

BackgroundRecruiting a diverse group of parents who are grieving the loss of a child into research is challenging. Social media users represent all demographic groups in the United States. Online platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, may be one potential method to reach and recruit a diverse group of bereaved parents. To our knowledge, this is the first known article to describe social media as a recruitment mechanism for bereaved parents. PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe 1) how the social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter were used to recruit bereaved parents into a cross-sectional, online survey, and 2) the effectiveness of social media as a recruitment tool for this population. ConclusionsSocial media has the potential to be an effective recruitment tool to reach a diverse group of users. More research is needed, however, to determine the best methods to reach fathers as well as racial and ethnic minorities.

AHRQ EPC Series on Improving Translation of Evidence: Web-Based Interactive Presentation of Systematic Review Reports

An open-source Web-based interactive report presentation of a systematic review was developed to allow users to generate their own "reports" from the information produced by the review. Data from a broad-scope systematic review were used with network meta-analysis conducted on nonsurgical treatments of urinary incontinence (UI) in women. Stakeholders informed and piloted the tool and assessed its usefulness. The final tool allows users to obtain descriptive and analytic results for a network of treatment categories and various outcomes (cure, improvement, satisfaction, quality of life, adverse events) across several subgroups (all women, older women, or those with stress or urgency UI), along with study-level information, and overall conclusions. The stakeholders were satisfied with the functionality of the tool and proposed a number of improvements regarding presentation (for example, present information on numbers of trials in figures), analyses (for example, allow on-the-fly subgroup analyses, explore trade-offs between several outcomes), and information sharing (for example, provide ability to import/export data from/to other software). A prototype tool to present customized analyses from broad-scope systematic reviews is presented. Further improvements are suggested to develop a scalable tool to make systematic reviews useful to increasingly diverse user groups.

Assessing National Antimicrobial Resistance Campaigns Using a Health Equity Assessment Tool (HEAT).

It has been widely recognised that a significant proportion of the world’s population suffer inequalities in accessing high quality healthcare and wider services. Within healthcare, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat to public health affecting all healthcare systems and growing at an alarming pace. To ensure that national AMR campaigns developed by Public Health England are inclusive of all populations within the target audience a health equity assessment tool (HEAT) was used. The project leads for each campaign completed the HEAT independently with a follow up meeting with the study team to discuss and clarify the responses. A trend analysis was carried out with common themes being used to provide recommendations. The campaigns have demonstrated equality and diversity based on the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, particularly age, sex, and race protected characteristics. Some notable results include the translation of website materials in over 30 languages and reaching individuals in 122 countries. It was however noted that several of the protected characteristics were not applicable. The continuous development of resources with collaboration from a variety of diverse user groups would be advantageous towards aiding future campaign reach. The use of the HEAT has demonstrated the ease and cost-effective way to assess any health inequalities and would be a useful addition to antimicrobial stewardship and public health campaigns.

Is Wearable Technology Becoming Part of Us? Developing and Validating a Measurement Scale for Wearable Technology Embodiment.

BackgroundTo experience external objects in such a way that they are perceived as an integral part of one’s own body is called embodiment. Wearable technology is a category of objects, which, due to its intrinsic properties (eg, close to the body, inviting frequent interaction, and access to personal information), is likely to be embodied. This phenomenon, which is referred to in this paper as wearable technology embodiment, has led to extensive conceptual considerations in various research fields. These considerations and further possibilities with regard to quantifying wearable technology embodiment are of particular value to the mobile health (mHealth) field. For example, the ability to predict the effectiveness of mHealth interventions and knowing the extent to which people embody the technology might be crucial for improving mHealth adherence. To facilitate examining wearable technology embodiment, we developed a measurement scale for this construct.ObjectiveThis study aimed to conceptualize wearable technology embodiment, create an instrument to measure it, and test the predictive validity of the scale using well-known constructs related to technology adoption. The introduced instrument has 3 dimensions and includes 9 measurement items. The items are distributed evenly between the 3 dimensions, which include body extension, cognitive extension, and self-extension.MethodsData were collected through a vignette-based survey (n=182). Each respondent was given 3 different vignettes, describing a hypothetical situation using a different type of wearable technology (a smart phone, a smart wristband, or a smart watch) with the purpose of tracking daily activities. Scale dimensions and item reliability were tested for their validity and Goodness of Fit Index (GFI).ResultsConvergent validity of the 3 dimensions and their reliability were established as confirmatory factor analysis factor loadings (>0.70), average variance extracted values (>0.50), and minimum item to total correlations (>0.40) exceeded established threshold values. The reliability of the dimensions was also confirmed as Cronbach alpha and composite reliability exceeded 0.70. GFI testing confirmed that the 3 dimensions function as intercorrelated first-order factors. Predictive validity testing showed that these dimensions significantly add to multiple constructs associated with predicting the adoption of new technologies (ie, trust, perceived usefulness, involvement, attitude, and continuous intention).ConclusionsThe wearable technology embodiment measurement instrument has shown promise as a tool to measure the extension of an individual’s body, cognition, and self, as well as predict certain aspects of technology adoption. This 3-dimensional instrument can be applied to mixed method research and used by wearable technology developers to improve future versions through such things as fit, improved accuracy of biofeedback data, and customizable features or fashion to connect to the users’ personal identity. Further research is recommended to apply this measurement instrument to multiple scenarios and technologies, and more diverse user groups.

Evolving the Physical Global Ocean Observing System for Research and Application Services Through International Coordination

Climate change and variability are major societal challenges, and the ocean is an integral part of this complex and variable system. Key to the understanding of the ocean's role in the Earth's climate system is the study of ocean and sea-ice physical processes, including its interactions with the atmosphere, cryosphere, land and biosphere. These processes include those linked to ocean circulation; the storage and redistribution of heat, carbon, salt and other water properties; and air-sea exchanges of heat, momentum, freshwater, carbon and other gasses. Measurements of ocean physics variables are fundamental to reliable earth prediction systems for a range of applications and users. In addition, knowledge of the physical environment is fundamental to growing understanding of the ocean’s biogeochemistry and biological/ecosystem variability and function. Through the progress from OceanObs’99 to OceanObs’09, the ocean observing system has evolved from a platform centric perspective to an integrated observing system. The challenge now is for the observing system to evolve to respond to an increasingly diverse end user group. The Ocean Observations Physics and Climate panel (OOPC), formed in 1995, has undertaken many activities that led to observing system-related agreements. Here, OOPC will explore the opportunities and challenges for the development of a fit-for-purpose, sustained and prioritized ocean observing system, focusing on physical variables that maximize support for fundamental research, climate monitoring, forecasting on different timescales, and society. OOPC recommendations are guided by the Framework for Ocean Observing (Lindstrom et al. 2012) which emphasizes identifying user requirements by considering time and space scales of the Essential Ocean Variables. This approach provides a framework for reviewing the adequacy of the observing system, looking for synergies in delivering an integrated observing system for a range of applications and focusing innovation in areas where existing technologies do not meet these requirements.

A pilot investigation of anterior tilt use among power wheelchair users

Purpose To examine the influence of use of the anterior tilt-in-space power seat function on performance of functional activities, physical health, and user satisfaction on among power wheelchair users. Materials and methods Ten full-time power wheelchair users with a seat elevator on their current chair participated in a mixed-methods, repeated measures study. At Visit 1 participants completed the Wheelchair Outcome Measure, Functional Mobility Assessment, Wheelchair Users Shoulder Pain Index, Fatigue Severity Scale, and the Spinal Cord Injury Secondary Conditions Scale. Physical assessments were performed to examine transfer quality (transfer assessment instrument), functional reach, activities of daily living (performance assessment of self-care skills), seated balance (function in sitting test), spasticity, respiratory function, and speech production. Approximately 3 days later (Visit 2), participants were trained on use and provided a power wheelchair with anterior tilt to trial for two weeks. After two weeks (Visit 3), the Visit 1 protocol was repeated and a semistructured interview conducted. Results Participants lived with disabilities of cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy and multiple sclerosis. With use of anterior tilt, significant improvements were seen among safety of meal preparation, p = 0.033, dz = 0.91 and functional reach in the vertical direction, p = 0.000, dz = 2.62. Subjectively, participants found anterior tilt helpful in performance of reaching tasks in but found the safety equipment restrictive. Conclusion Preliminary results indicate that use of the anterior tilt may help to improve performance of functional activities. Additional research is needed to examine the long-term influence of the technology. Implications for rehabilitation The anterior tilt seat function changes the seat angle orientation in relation to the ground in the sagittal plane and angles the seat forward. As a result, the individual using the assistive technology is positioned in a semistanding position. Preliminary results of this study indicate that with use of anterior tilt, safety of meal preparation and functional reach in the vertical direction significantly improved. Subjectively, participants found anterior tilt helpful in performance of reaching tasks but found the safety equipment restrictive. Additional research is needed to examine the long-term influence of anterior tilt on functional activities, physical health and user satisfaction on among a large and diverse group of power wheelchair users.

A Climate Event Portal for Citizen Science

Abstract. Climate change as both a local and global phenomenon causes numerous societal and financial implications every year. Its perception among citizens, however, is highly controversial. For example, in August 2018, the negative effects of climate change were very prominent in the state of Bavaria, when farmers lost large amounts of feed crop due to a drought in the same year. While governments can initiate policies in response to this, implementing these policies in a democracy requires the approval of the public, which is mainly composed of non-experts. In order to mobilize citizens for their own benefit, thus promote citizen science, the Bavarian Climate Research Network (BAYKLIF) was launched. One of the objectives deals with the creation of a portal and a number of mobile services for citizens, domain specialists and decision makers. This paper is dedicated to a project within this network, which is relevant to cartography. It aims to create a Climate Event Portal accessible by normal citizens who may also contribute with their own data to the portal or validate existing climate events based on their knowledge and supported by visualization tools. The anticipated portal consists of five core concepts. First, the OpenEventCollector, which will search for climate events by categories and collect event data in an interactive and intuitive way. Second, an OpenEventCrawler, that should automatically search open digital archives and social media, thus keep generating data about climate events. Third, an OpenEventEditor, to visualize the data for the user, allow them to interact with the data, and contribute their own (Fig. 1). This, however, must all be possible within the technical limitations of smartphones or web-applications. Fourth, an OpenEventDetector, which should automatically detect climate events from datasets, via machine learning. Fifth, an OpenEventAnalysor that explains the context of climate events, the visualizations and the process of generating this data. The purpose of this Climate Event Portal is to involve the user, thus ensuring that all data permits the re-use is necessary. Its development reveals three interrelated challenges: (1) examining user-generated data for relevance and legal compliance, (2) improving representative user feedback, which requires the participation of diverse user groups and (3) sustaining users’ interest and attention, which requires innovative incentives for users’ contributions (e.g. gamification-oriented visualization, visual storytelling etc.). This work will contribute to the knowledge on how to adapt presentations based on citizens’ interaction, as well as create an event portal, where citizen-contributed data and expert-generated data are coalesced. The authors aim to share their experiences and findings with researchers engaged in similar projects of citizen science.

Universal Design Considering Physical Characteristics of Diverse Users

To achieve a universal design that satisfies diverse user requirements associated with aging and internationalization, designers must make a decision based on diverse user requirements. Designers have generally incorporated average human physical characteristics in their designs. Thus, user limitations are critically important. Traditional design methods often regard engineering and product design as iterative processes based on point values. However, when user information is represented as a point value, the resulting product satisfies only that specific user group and does not necessarily satisfy diverse user groups. This study proposes a universal design method that obtains diversely ranged design solutions for user requirements. The proposed method defines diverse user requirements, design variables, and user characteristics as sets, which range in value. To represent user information accurately, users are classified into numerous groups using classification techniques. Design variables are divided into two types: control and noise. Control factors are designer-controllable variables that are based on design specifications. Noise factors are designer-uncontrollable variables representing user characteristics. To derive a ranged design solution set, designers clarify the relationship between performance and design variables. Ranged solutions satisfying required performance are derived for each group using all relational expressions and ranged variable values. The combinations of divided design variables that cannot satisfy the required performance are eliminated from the design proposal, and the narrowed range of design variables become ranged solutions. The ranged solutions are derived for each group, and the common range of design variables is the ranged solution for all users. This paper chooses the design problem of the strap height of a train as a case study of the proposed universal design method. In this case study, we consider diverse user requirements based on the variability of physical characteristics. This paper discusses the suitability of our proposed approach for obtaining ranged solutions that reflect the physical characteristics of diverse users.

Angler Attitudes Explain Disparate Behavioral Reactions to Fishery Regulations

Recreational fishery management poses unique challenges as diverse user groups often maintain disparate attitudes and behaviors, limiting our ability to predict how fishing mortality may change under future regulatory conditions. We surveyed Striped Bass Morone saxatilis anglers from multiple coastal Atlantic states to explore how potential policies may change fishing behavior, assess angler motivations and catch‐related attitudes, and determine whether attitudes correlate with intended behavior. Results revealed that rule changes fundamentally changed effort allocation, whereby participants often shifted fishing effort to other saltwater species. However, disparate groups of anglers responded quite differently to potential policies. Importantly, differences in participant attitudes about fishing, such as how much they value keeping fish, were important predictors of intended behavior. Overall, our study illustrates how behavior, and thus fishing mortality, may shift under future management scenarios, and that an understanding of the characteristics of recreational fishing populations may help to predict the directionality and magnitude of these changes.

The social and technical conditions enabling innovations in information infrastructures: A case study from public health in Tanzania

One of the hallmark characteristics of information infrastructures is their gradual evolution to adapt to changes in technologies and requirements from diverse user groups. Evolution manifests through innovations on and within infrastructures as they respond to the changes. These innovations, however, are not straight forward, following complexities in technologies, organizations, and actors. Few succeed, some take too long while others fail to even start. This study, therefore, investigates the social and technical conditions enabling innovations on information infrastructures. We employed a qualitative case study method where we investigated the development of a mobile platform called DHIS2 touch. Our key contribution is that of identifying the social and technical factors enabling innovations on information infrastructures to complement the existing discourses on how innovations are enabled. We, in particular, identified eight conditions enabling innovations on information infrastructures and we classify them into three categories – structural arrangements, technical facilities, and process support. We argue that in the course of cultivating an infrastructure, these conditions need to be created and nurtured.

Technology to encourage meaningful activities following brain injury

Background: Cognitive and behavioural difficulties after acquired brain injury (ABI) may lead to reduced engagement in leisure and social activities. Increasing participation is a goal of neuropsychological rehabilitation and assistive and behaviour change technology can play an important role in this. Focus groups and interviews were conductive with brain injury rehabilitation stakeholders (n = 24): people with ABI (n = 9), family members (n = 3) and care providers (n = 12) in order to understand the barriers to engaging in meaningful activities and what helps to overcome these barriers. A collaborative thematic analysis was performed by a multi-disciplinary research team using an approach based on Grounded Theory. Results: Four central, interlinked, barriers were found: Access, Cognitive Difficulties, Anticipation (of Physical or Cognitive Difficulties) and Motivation. To overcome these barriers, participants cited themes such as External Motivation from both Other People and Technology, Maintaining Momentum and different aspects of Being Planful. Conclusions: The results point to future directions for the purposeful development of effective assistive technology for this user group. Technology that is social, persuasive, adapts to individual needs and supports people to plan activities are likely to be particularly useful within neuropsychological rehabilitation. Implications For Rehabilitation Adults with ABI and their carers describe problems accessing activities, cognitive difficulties, anticipationof physical or cognitive difficulties and low motivation as the key barriers to undertaking meaningfulactivities. Current solutions are external prompting, maintaining momentum and being planful. This detailed qualitative analysis of a diverse group of carers and service users allows insight into theassistive technologies that could aid rehabilitation.

Building an International Consensus on Multi-Disciplinary Metadata Standards: A CODATA Case History in Nanotechnology

Science today is rapidly becoming both multi-disciplinary and data-driven. These two trends pose new challenges to the capture, management, sharing, and dissemination of research data. Multi-disciplinary science means diverse data generation communities and equally diverse user groups. Data-driven means that sharing data among different communities is more important than ever because of the growth of modeling and knowledge discovery. Nanotechnology is a prime example, involving chemistry, physics, materials science, toxicology, environmental science, and many other disciplines. During the past few years, CODATA has created an international, multi-disciplinary Working Group that has developed a number of critically important metadata standards to facilitate sharing nanomaterials data. In this paper, we discuss the challenges faced in starting and executing this work, as well as the approaches taken to make progress on producing internationally accepted metadata standards. Many of these approaches are directly applicable to other multi-disciplinary subjects.

Developing a Data Dashboard Framework for Population Health Surveillance: Widening Access to Clinical Trial Findings.

BackgroundPopulation surveillance sites generate many datasets relevant to disease surveillance. However, there is a risk that these data are underutilized because of the volumes of data gathered and the lack of means to quickly disseminate analysis. Data visualization offers a means to quickly disseminate, understand, and interpret datasets, facilitating evidence-driven decision making through increased access to information.ObjectivesThis paper describes the development and evaluation of a framework for data dashboard design, to visualize datasets produced at a demographic health surveillance site. The aim of this research was to produce a comprehensive, reusable, and scalable dashboard design framework to fit the unique requirements of the context.MethodsThe framework was developed and implemented at a demographic surveillance platform at the Africa Health Research Institute, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This context represents an exemplar implementation for the use of data dashboards within a population health-monitoring setting. Before the full launch, an evaluation study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the dashboard framework as a data communication and decision-making tool. The evaluation included a quantitative task evaluation to assess usability and a qualitative questionnaire exploring the attitudes to the use of dashboards.ResultsThe evaluation participants were drawn from a diverse group of users working at the site (n=20), comprising of community members, nurses, scientific and operational staff. Evaluation demonstrated high usability for the dashboard across user groups, with scientific and operational staff having minimal issues in completing tasks. There were notable differences in the efficiency of task completion among user groups, indicating varying familiarity with data visualization. The majority of users felt that the dashboards provided a clear understanding of the datasets presented and had a positive attitude to their increased use.ConclusionsOverall, this exploratory study indicates the viability of the data dashboard framework in communicating data trends within population surveillance setting. The usability differences among the user groups discovered during the evaluation demonstrate the need for the user-led design of dashboards in this context, addressing heterogeneous computer and visualization literacy present among the diverse potential users present in such settings. The questionnaire highlighted the enthusiasm for increased access to datasets from all stakeholders highlighting the potential of dashboards in this context.

High-Fidelity Prototyping for Mobile Electronic Data Collection Forms Through Design and User Evaluation.

BackgroundMobile data collection systems are often difficult to use for nontechnical or novice users. This can be attributed to the fact that developers of such tools do not adequately involve end users in the design and development of product features and functions, which often creates interaction challenges.ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to assess the guidelines for form design using high-fidelity prototypes developed based on end-user preferences. We also sought to investigate the association between the results from the System Usability Scale (SUS) and those from the Study Tailored Evaluation Questionnaire (STEQ) after the evaluation. In addition, we sought to recommend some practical guidelines for the implementation of the group testing approach particularly in low-resource settings during mobile form design.MethodsWe developed a Web-based high-fidelity prototype using Axure RP 8. A total of 30 research assistants (RAs) evaluated this prototype in March 2018 by completing the given tasks during 1 common session. An STEQ comprising 13 affirmative statements and the commonly used and validated SUS were administered to evaluate the usability and user experience after interaction with the prototype. The STEQ evaluation was summarized using frequencies in an Excel sheet while the SUS scores were calculated based on whether the statement was positive (user selection minus 1) or negative (5 minus user selection). These were summed up and the score contributions multiplied by 2.5 to give the overall form usability from each participant.ResultsOf the RAs, 80% (24/30) appreciated the form progress indication, found the form navigation easy, and were satisfied with the error messages. The results gave a SUS average score of 70.4 (SD 11.7), which is above the recommended average SUS score of 68, meaning that the usability of the prototype was above average. The scores from the STEQ, on the other hand, indicated a 70% (21/30) level of agreement with the affirmative evaluation statements. The results from the 2 instruments indicated a fair level of user satisfaction and a strong positive association as shown by the Pearson correlation value of .623 (P<.01).ConclusionsA high-fidelity prototype was used to give the users experience with a product they would likely use in their work. Group testing was done because of scarcity of resources such as costs and time involved especially in low-income countries. If embraced, this approach could help assess user needs of the diverse user groups. With proper preparation and the right infrastructure at an affordable cost, usability testing could lead to the development of highly usable forms. The study thus makes recommendations on the practical guidelines for the implementation of the group testing approach particularly in low-resource settings during mobile form design.

Communicating Museum Collections Information Online

Cultural heritage institutions are spending considerable effort and resources to provide online access to their collection catalogues and collection management systems, usually through their institutional websites. This improves accessibility and supports research and engagement by diverse user groups, as well as meeting the increasing expectation by audiences that this type of information will be freely and easily available online. However, cultural organisations have not responded to these needs in the same way and have been employing different web tools and features to present their collections online. In this article, we argue that the technological implementation choices and the type of content provided reflect also the philosophy of communication of the institution itself. We used the constructivist approach's learning theory and theory of knowledge and combined these interrelated epistemological and cognitive perspectives to analyse the communication philosophy of a large number of museum online catalogues. The article presents the research carried out initially in 2007 through 2009 and then again in 2017, studying the provision of collections information online by different types of museums across Europe and in the United States. This enabled us to establish categories of presentation types and study the changes over time. The results highlighted the major shift towards participatory practices which have been transforming the cultural heritage world over the past years.