Usability testing avalanche bulletins of the Alpine arc

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As a follow-up study to the redesign of the Slovenian avalanche bulletin from the past year, the Computer Systems Department of the Jožef Stefan Institute is conducting an online usability evaluation of the avalanche bulletins from the Alpine arc region. There are 20 SUS questionnaires, 1 for each bulletin, waiting for responses at the links below:

Please help us spread the word and get as many responses as possible from people who use the bulletin. It will help us evaluate future bulletin redesigns and hopefully improve the safety of our mountains.

Interactive Video Management by means of an Exercise Bike

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Jan Štrekelj, Branko Kavšek
University of Primorska Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies Glagoljaška 8, 6000 Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: This paper describes the concept of virtual reality and the use of this technology in practice. The main part of the work is about reviewing the various stages of the development of a prototype system for interactive video management by means of an exercise bike. Systems, that are currently available on the market, are, due to their ease of use, closed units, for which upgrades are not possible or come at a great expense. The main advantage of the presented prototype, besides affordability, is a simple option to upgrade the system by adding sensors and/or modules; this allows us to extend the system in every stage of development. A low-cost computer (Raspberry Pi) is used as a processing unit, for calculating the speed of the wheel and sending this information to the control unit. The control unit processes the received data and sets the playback speed of the video clip accordingly. There is great potential for improvement on the developed prototype. Thus, ideas for further development are presented in the concluding section.

 

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I was here: a system for creating augmented reality digital graffiti in public place

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Erik Šimer, Matjaž Kljun, Klen Čopil Pucihar
University of Primorska, FAMNIT, Glagoljaška 8. Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: Since ancient times travelers and tourists try to leave their marks in places they visit. However, carving or writing on historic landmarks can cause irreversible damage on such sites. One possible solution are digital graffiti. These can for example be created through projection mapping where beams of light wrap the object with the digital graffiti created by users so everyone at the site can see them. However this may disturb other visitors being there at the same time. In this paper we explore an alternative solution for creating digital graffiti by utilizing Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) technology. We developed a mobile application which allows users to: (i) select an object or a building, (ii) map a 3D mesh onto it in order to prepare its 2D plane , and (iii) draw a graffiti on this plane. After completing the drawing the application wraps the object or the building with a modified 2D texture creating an illusion of digital graffiti. In order to (i) evaluate the social acceptance of placing digital graffiti onto historic landmarks and to (ii) evaluate if the use of our prototype is socially acceptable in public spaces, we carried out a small reflective user study. We created a couple of simple graffiti on different historic buildings and posted them on social networking site Facebook. Despite amateur appearance, posted photos received attention and generated some positive responses and questions.

Virtual graffiti

Virtual graffiti

Full paper: link

Towards affordable Mobile Crowd Sensing device

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Gal Pavlin
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering Trzaska 25 1000 Ljubljana
Marko Pavlin
Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: In this paper, we describe first prototype of mobile crowd sensing device. The device serves as a source for signals in the potential crowd sensing studies. Presented device has no intention to compete with the existing mobile devices, such as mobile phones, but to complement them where they lack of the features like affordability, simple use and new opportunities in different segments of our lives. Our main goal was to develop a device, which can cover all aspects of mobile crowd sensing and at the same time to keep the device cost at very affordable level. The described device is capable of integration into most widely available sunglasses. The complete device consisting of two separate “lenses” forms distributed ecosystem serving as source for sound, light, acceleration and temperature signals while at the same time providing actuator function with integrated LED matrix display.

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Towards the improvement of GUARD graphical user interface

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Žiga Kopušar
Guardiaris d.o.o., Podjunska ulica 13, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Franc Novak
Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: In this paper, we describe a case study of usability testing of the GUARD Control Desk graphical user interface, which is a part of the GUARD simulator and is used for exercise planning, execution and evaluation in soldier training. The usability testing was performed in the development phase of a new version of user interface.

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Wizard of Oz experiment for Prototyping Multimodal Interfaces in Virtual Reality

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Blaž Gombač, Matej Zemljak, Patrik Širol, Damir Deželjin, Klen Čopič Pucihar, Matjaž Kljun
University of Primorska, FAMNIT, Glagoljaška 8, Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: In recent years the field of virtual reality has witnessed a rapid growth with significant investments in both hardware and software development. It has several potential applications for entertainment, education and enterprise where users benefit from being immersed into virtual worlds. VR headsets are available in several forms and price ranges from simple and inexpensive Google Cardboard to more complex products such as Oculus Rift. Nevertheless, designing fully operational virtual reality applications for researching new complex multimodal interaction possibilities (e.g. mid-air gesture, voice, haptics, etc.) may be difficult to implement, costly and time consuming. For this reason we have looked into ways of rapidly prototyping virtual reality interactions. Our approach consists of the Wizard of Oz experiment in which subjects interact with a computer system believing to be autonomous, but is in reality operated by researchers. The presented system allows non-technical designers to explore various multimodal interactions with rapid prototyping of VR environments.

Full paper: link

Evaluation of common input devices for web browsing: mouse vs touchpad vs touchscreen

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Andrej Maleckar, Matjaž Kljun, Peter Rogelj, Klen Čopič Pucihar
University of Primorska, FAMNIT, Glagoljaška 8, Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: With the ever increasing connectivity to the Internet the use of the web has spread from static environments of desktop computers to mobile context where we interact with the web though laptop computers, tablet computers, mobile phones and wearable devices. Recent studies have shown that young people access the web using various devices and input techniques and spend on average more than 20 hours a week on the web. In this paper we plan to investigate which input technology is most usable or preferred for performing different tasks on the web. We decided to compare and evaluate the usability of the three most used input devices for web browsing, namely: a computer mouse and a touchpad on a laptop, and a touchscreen on a smartphone. For this purpose we have built a custom web page where users had to perform seven common tasks on web: open a URL address, copy/paste a URL address, copy/paste text, scroll up-down, scroll left-right, zoom in the context of a web page, and navigate a map. The results show that the mouse is still a preferred input device with shortest completion times, followed by the touchscreen interface even if it performed slower at some tasks compared to touchpad, which was marked as least preferred.

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Improving the usability of online usability surveys with an interactive Stripe scale

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Matevž Pesek, Alja Isakovic, Gregor Strle, Matija Marolt
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science, Laboratory for Computer graphics and Multimedia, Večna Pot 113, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: The paper introduces Stripe, an interactive continuous scale for online surveys that makes it easy to compare multiple answers on a single screen. The Stripe is evaluated as an alternative to the n-point Likert scale, which is commonly used in online usability questionnaires like the System Usability Scale (SUS). The paper presents the results of a user study, which confirmed the validity of results gained with the proposed Stripe interface by applying both the Stripe and the Likert interface to an online SUS questionnaire. Additionally, the results of our study show that the participants favor the Stripe interface in terms of intuitiveness and ease of use, and even perceive the Stripe interface as less time consuming than the standard Likert scaled interface based on radio buttons.

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Redesign of Slovenian Avalanche Bulletin

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Vanja Blažica, Janez Jaka Cerar, Aleš Poredoš
Slovenian Environment Agency, Vojkova 1b, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: We present the redesign of the Slovenian avalanche bulletin, published regularly during the winter season to warn against avalanche danger and to provide specific information for advanced users. The former version included an estimation of danger on a scale from one to five with supporting text for the whole country, while the new one offers an additional graphical description, specified for several geographical regions. The redesign profoundly influenced the work of avalanche forecasters by introducing a new interface, additional input and database storage. At the same time, users welcomed the additional information, international comparability and user friendliness of the new bulletin.

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Designing visual interface for nutrition tracking of patients with Parkinson’s disease

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Peter Novak, Barbara Koroušić Seljak, Franc Novak
Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the design of a visual interface of a mobile a mobile app for tracking nutrients and foods consumed by patients with Parkinson’s disease. The interface should enable the patients to recognize objects on the screen, easily perceive their function and interact with them thus providing an efficient way of entering the dietary intake data. The app has been validated by five patients and the preliminary results are encouraging.

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Full paper: link