Human Factors

From Guinea Pigs to Design Partners: Working with Older People in ICT Design

by Sarah Lewthwaite

Edlin-White, R., Cobb, S., Floyde, A., Lewthwaite, S., Wang, J. and Riedel, J. (2012) From Guinea Pigs to Design Partners: Working with Older People in ICT Design IN Langdon, et al. (eds.) Designing Inclusive Systems. Springer London.

Governments worldwide are recognising the reality and challenges of aging societies. Aging is often accompanied by... more Governments worldwide are recognising the reality and challenges of aging societies. Aging is often accompanied by increased incidence of impairments in the physio-motor, sensory and cognitive domains, as well as health problems, reduced socialisation, poorer finances, reduced sense of purpose and sometimes marginalisation from society. Technology can be very beneficial for older people but is too often problematical, sometimes creating digital exclusion

Accessibility for Older Users through Adaptive Interfaces: Opportunities, Challenges and Achievements

by Sarah Lewthwaite

Engineering psychology/human factors/ergonomics

by Rebecca Grier

Coauthored with Michael J. Paley. Chapter in Rogelberg, S. (Ed) Encyclopedia of Industrial/Organizational Psychology (2006).

Human factors across business sectors: Similarities and differences.

by Rebecca Grier

Coauthored with Lizza, G., Bangor, A., Patterson, M.J. Published int he 2009  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.

A test of intra- versus inter-modality interference as a function of time pressure in a warfighting simulation.

by Rebecca Grier

Coauthored with Parasuraman, R., Entin, E., Bailey, N., & Stelzer, E. Published in the 2008 Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting in New York City.

The Entropy Conservation Principle: Applications in Ergonomics and Human Factors

by S. Lee Hong

Patterns in Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia: A Taxonomy of Learning Styles

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
Brown, E.,Cristea, A., Stewart, C. and T. Brailsford (2005) Patterns in Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia: A Taxonomy of Learning Styles. Journal of Educational Technology & Society 8 (3), 77-90.

This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational... more This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.

Reappraising cognitive styles in adaptive web applications

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
Brown, E., Brailsford, T., Fisher, T., Moore, A. and H. Ashman (2006) Reappraising cognitive styles in adaptive web applications. Proceedings of the 15th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2006), Edinburgh, UK, 22-26 May 2006, pp327-335.

The mechanisms for personalisation used in web applications are currently the subject of much debate amongst... more The mechanisms for personalisation used in web applications are currently the subject of much debate amongst researchers from many diverse subject areas. One of the most contemporary ideas for user modelling in web applications is that of cognitive styles, where a user’s psychological preferences are assessed stored in a database and then used to provide personalised content and/or links. We describe user trials of a case study that utilises visual-verbal preferences in an adaptive web-based educational system (AWBES). Students in this trial were assessed by the Felder-Solomon Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument, and their preferences were used as a means of content personalisation.

Contrary to previous findings by other researchers, we found no significant differences in performance between matched and mismatched students. Conclusions are drawn about the value and validity of using cognitive styles as a way of modelling user preferences in educational web applications.

Adapting for visual and verbal learning styles in AEH

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
Brown, E., Stewart, C. & T. Brailsford (2006) Adapting for visual and verbal learning styles in AEH. Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2006), Kerkrade, The Netherlands, 5-7 July 2006, pp1145-1146. [Awarded Best Paper Award in the Adaptive Web-Based Education and Learning Styles (AWELS) workshop]

This paper describes how visual and verbal learning styles have been successfully integrated into an adaptive... more This paper describes how visual and verbal learning styles have been successfully integrated into an adaptive educational environment. User trials of this system were carried out, to determine the effect of the adaptation, and although these user trials do not indicate any statistically significant differences, the qualitative information gleaned from the study indicated that students preferred using this environment over other traditional revision methods, and that they perceived personalized tuition to be better than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Embedding ergonomics in hospital culture: top-down and bottom-up strategies

by Sue Hignett

A review of environmental hazards associated with in-patient falls

by Sue Hignett

Postural analysis of nursing work

by Sue Hignett

Intervention strategies to reduce musculoskeletal injuries associated with handling patients: a systematic review

by Sue Hignett

Work‐related back pain in nurses

by Sue Hignett

Rapid entire body assessment (REBA)

by Sue Hignett

Finding ergonomic solutions—participatory approaches

by Sue Hignett

Using VGI to enhance user judgements of quality and authority

by Christopher Parker

Geographical Information Science Research UK (GISRUK) 2012 Conference Proceedings

Amateur Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been used together with Professional Geographic Information (PGI)... more Amateur Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been used together with Professional Geographic Information (PGI) since its inception during the mid 00's alongside neogeography. While the geographic accuracy and quality of VGI has been demonstrated to be more than good enough, no previous research has been published on the influence VGI has on the user perceptions of the mashup. This paper presents a quantitative investigation into how including VGI in mashups, and telling users their mashup contains VGI influences user perceptions of quality and authority- which ultimately decide if the user wishes to utilise the mashup or not.

PhD thesis: The Use of Learning Styles in Adaptive Hypermedia

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

PhD thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham (School of Computer Science), October 2007.

Full citation:
Brown, Elizabeth (2007) The use of learning styles in adaptive hypermedia. PhD thesis. University of Nottingham: UK.

Computer-based learning has become a common phenomenon in the modern age. Many distance-learning systems distribute... more Computer-based learning has become a common phenomenon in the modern age. Many distance-learning systems distribute educational resources on the Internet and indeed entire study programmes are now widely available online. Such a large amount of content and information can be intimidating to learners, who may exhibit different individual characteristics, such as variation in goals, interests, motivation and/or learning preferences. This suggests that a uniform approach taken by learning environments to deliver materials and resources to students is not appropriate and that personalisation of such materials/resources should address users’ differences to provide a customised learning experience, thus enhancing its effectiveness, lowering drop-out rates and maintaining high student motivation.

This thesis addresses the latter issue of learning preferences, specifically investigating learning styles as an adaptation mechanism for personalised computer-based learning. A number of previous studies indicated the positive effect that this kind of adaptation provides, but under closer examination these were not conducted in a scientifically rigorous manner and thus their findings are somewhat limited. This research utilises a quantitative and highly objective approach to investigate visual/verbal and sequential/global learning styles in different user groups. Three user trials were carried out to discover whether there were any benefits to using these learning styles for studying in an adapted environment.

Overall, no statistically significant benefits were found and these findings now shed doubt as to whether learning styles are indeed an effective mechanism for personalised learning.

MicPen: Pressure-Sensitive Pen Interaction Using Microphone with Standard Touchscreen

by Sungjae Hwang

This paper introduces MicPen, a low-cost pressure-sensitive stylus pen interface for standard touchscreen displays... more This paper introduces MicPen, a low-cost pressure-sensitive stylus pen interface for standard touchscreen displays that uses a microphone to estimate the amount of pressure applied to the pen. This is achieved by filtering and analyzing the acoustic signal generated when the tip of the pen is rubbed on the touchscreen. The advantage of this approach is that it is inexpensive, reliable and suitable for mobile interaction because it does not require mechanical parts to sense the input pressure. Results from a user study shows that the participants recognized five out of ten different pressure levels with perfect accuracy, and nine out of ten with minimal error.

Information Technology: a Study of Performance and the Role of Human and Organizational Factors

by Richard Hull

1997, published in Ergonomics, Co-authored with Clegg, Axtell, Damadoran, Farbey, Lloyd-Jones, Nichols, Sell and Tomlinson

Reports results of interviews with 45 of the leading UK experts on the performance of IT and the role of human and... more Reports results of interviews with 45 of the leading UK experts on the performance of IT and the role of human and organisational factors.