| New Ways of Working: A Proposed Framework and Literature Review | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 3-12 | |
| Merle Blok; Liesbeth Groenesteijn; Christiaan van den Berg; Peter Vink | |||
| The drive towards new ways of working is of great relevance to our modern
world. Many companies and organizations have introduced aspects of this new
approach in recent years, while many others are on the verge of doing so. The
new way of working consists of a large variety of measures enabling flexibility
in time and place Expectations are often high: those who embrace such
innovations aim to reduce operating costs and create more productive employees.
However, it is worth asking whether these expectations are realistic. To date,
very little research has been done on how the introduction of new ways of
working affects operational objectives. This article is aimed to provide an
overview of the available knowledge of the effects of the new way of working
concept through scientific research and by developing a clearly defined
framework. Some of the most important findings are outlined. Keywords: New way of working; flexible working; telecommuting; teleworking; home
working; activity related work; social ICT; flexible office environment | |||
| Beyond the Technology Acceptance Model: Elements to Validate the Human-Technology Symbiosis Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 13-21 | |
| Eric Brangier; Sonia Hammes-Adelé | |||
| This chapter forms part of an area of research on the
Human-Technology-Organisation relationship. This research has emphasised the
emergence of closely linked, intense and symbiotic forms of activity in
workplaces and at home. Despite the relevance of the "Technology Acceptance
Model", the use of technology doesn't always depend on "perceived usefulness"
and "perceived usability", but on the level to which a process of human-machine
symbiosis has developed. Based on a survey of 482 respondents we examine this
technosymbiosis on three dimensions: (a) a sense of control; (b) the benefit of
human-machine mutual adaptation; and (c) the perception of utility. We show
that the use of a new technology is correlated with a high level of
technosymbiosis, i.e. correlated with these three elements. Finally, the link
between these dimensions and the use of technology is established. This
validation is based on the correlation between the average score of the rating
of attitudes in a questionnaire and the number of technologies the respondents
reported using (r = .597, p <.0001). In addition, these three dimensions
explain for 35% of the variance (adjusted R² = .355) in the use of
technology. Keywords: Technosymbiosis; Neosymbiosis; Technology Acceptance; Human-technology
relationship | |||
| The Interaction Effect of Posture and Psychological Stress on Neck-Shoulder Muscle Activity in Typing: A Pilot Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 22-29 | |
| Wei-Ying Chou; Bi-Hui Chen; Wen-Ko Chiou | |||
| Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are common among computer users,
especially involving the neck and shoulder region. Previous studies showed
subjects with neck pain had altered muscle recruitment patterns that persisted
throughout the sustained computing task. Moreover, some studies reported that
working posture and psychological stress also influence muscle recruitment.
Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the interaction effect of
working posture and psychological stress on muscle activity. Fourteen subjects
(7 neck pain subjects and 7 healthy subjects) were recruited in this study.
This study designated two working postures (upright sitting posture/ backward
sitting posture) and two levels of psychological stress (standard typing task/
stressful typing task), and used surface EMG to collect the muscle activity of
the upper trapezius and cervical erector spinae during a10-min typing process.
Results showed psychological stress trends to increase the muscle activity,
while a backward sitting posture trends to decrease muscle activity.
Considering the busy and stressful life in modern lifestyle, this study
suggests subjects with neck pain should maintain a backward sitting posture
during computer use. Keywords: Neck pain; Typing task; EMG; Working posture; Psychological stress | |||
| Management Standardization Versus Quality of Working Life | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 30-39 | |
| Przemyslaw Drozyner; Pawel Mikolajczak; Jaroslaw Szuszkiewicz; Malgorzata Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek | |||
| In the paper there was defined notion of "quality of working life", starting
from the definition included in the ISO90000 norm. The results of employees'
satisfaction survey carried out in the following three years in the company
having the integrated management system (ISO 9k, ISO 14k, ISO 18k & SA
8000) have been presented. The statistical analysis of the obtained results was
carried out and the employees' satisfaction assessment method was proposed. The
global assessment coefficients, variance analysis between groups of the
employees, assessments correlation analysis and trend coefficient of changes
received on the basis of the regression model were taken into account. Keywords: quality; working life; statistical analysis; management systems | |||
| Human-Computer Interaction in Office Work: Evaluation of Interaction Patterns Using Office Equipment and Software during Data Entry and Navigation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 40-48 | |
| Ernesto Filgueiras; Francisco Rebelo; Fernando Moreira da Silva | |||
| This paper presents a study which objective was to investigate the human
interaction with the equipment of an office workstation (mouse, keyboard,
monitor, paper sheets, pens and calculator) during the activities of reading,
writing, data entry and navigation in a computer system for long periods of
time and with ecological validation. A sample of 22800 observations, which
corresponds to 760 work-hours of 30 office workers, was classified into sixteen
Interaction's Categories (IC). The results show that the participants read on
the monitor more than on paper and they had a larger use of the mouse instead
of the keyboard. Findings of this study allow suggesting what graphical
interface designers must seek for new strategies and solutions to reduce the
mouse need, exploring other peripherals as keyboard or voice recognition
devices; or, at least, diminishing the amplitude of movement with the mouse
during the interaction with office's software like the Microsoft® Office
2003. Keywords: Office workers product interaction; Ergonomics procedures; Observations
methods; Video display terminal | |||
| Preventive and Pro-active Ergonomics Influence on Maintenance Excellence Level | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 49-58 | |
| Malgorzata Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek; Przemyslaw Drozyner | |||
| The equipment maintenance is an indispensable function in a manufacturing
enterprise [1]. The role of maintenance is to reduce business risks in a cost
effective manner. Thus achieving excellence in maintenance issues has to be
treated as a strategic issue for manufacturing organizations to create
world-class-manufacturers (WCM) [2]. In the following papers, the examples of
activities realized to achieve excellence in maintenance area in two large
companies working in food industry, especially in terms of their ergonomics,
safety and employees' health. Keywords: maintenance excellence; ergonomics; safety; health of employees | |||
| Effects of Meeting Room Interior Design on Team Performance in a Creativity Task | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 59-67 | |
| Elsbeth de Korte; Lottie Kuijt; Rick van der Kleij | |||
| This study examines the effects of spatial characteristics of meeting rooms
on the divergent phase in the creativity process of a group and on the mood
states arousal and psychological safety. Thirty participants (12 male and 18
female) were randomly allocated to 10 mixed-gender three-person groups. They
performed two creativity tasks in three different rooms: neutral, with high
arousal and with high psychological safety. Overall impression of the meeting
room interiors, psychological safety, arousal and creative performance were
measured with questionnaires. HRV was used as physiological measure. Results
showed that physical space affected arousal and the impression of the meeting
rooms. HRV appeared to be a good predictor for arousal. A relation was found
between HRV and idea originality. An interaction effect between meeting room
interior and task was found. It may be concluded that the meeting room interior
has to be adapted to the type of creativity task to gain optimal results. Keywords: New ways of working; meeting room; innovation spaces; team performance;
creativity; mood; arousal; psychological safety; heart rate variability | |||
| LED Office Lighting to Promote Performance and Well-Being | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 68-77 | |
| Katrin Moeller; Vincent Grote; Katharina Keller; Dieter Lorenz; Maximilian Moser; Tran Quoc Khanh | |||
| This paper aims to introduce a research project to investigate and compare
the effect of dynamic lighting on people for different light sources in an
office setting. Basic differences of short term effects on human between static
and dynamic lighting as well as light-emitting diodes (LED) and fluorescent
lamps will be investigated in a laboratory study. Two identical rooms will be
set up, with the light source LED and fluorescent lamp being the only
difference. Four different dynamic sequences will be compared for each light
source. Therefore eight lighting situations will be investigated. Long-term
effects will be investigated within a field study of one year. To study the
impact of dynamic lighting on performance and well-being different methods will
be used as questionnaires, tests and the collection of physical data,
especially heart rate variability. Keywords: lighting; office; dynamic; LED; heart rate variability; well-being | |||
| Is the Presence of a Companion Animal Dog Beneficial for Computer Operators? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 78-87 | |
| Rie Takeshima; Iiji Ogawa | |||
| This research was conducted to assess whether workers' social
facilitation-inhibition could be evoked by introducing a companion animal dog
into the workplace or not. The experiments were carried out with three kinds of
work conditions: working alone, presence of a person, and presence of a dog.
There were two different discrimination tasks using PC. During each task
performance, participants' response times and the number of errors were
measured to investigate their performance. Also, workers' Heart Rates and
Oxidation-Reduction Potentials of Saliva were measured to monitor their
physiological changes. Before/after each performance, their emotional states,
as defined by the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, were measured. The
results suggest that for complex tasks, a companion animal can produce
inhibition effects. However, the results also suggest that for more complex and
difficult tasks, the presence of a familiar companion animal dog might produce
facilitation effects. Keywords: companion animal dog; social facilitation and inhibition; task performance;
physiological changes | |||
| Analysis on Flight Fatigue Risk and the Systematic Solution | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 88-96 | |
| Lei Wang; Ruishan Sun | |||
| The aim of this study was trying to analyze flight fatigue risks and find
out a systematic solution for risk controlling. Firstly the model of Human
Information Processing was introduced to analyze fatigue manifestations and
risks in flight operation. Secondly causes leading to flight fatigue were
specified from the 4 aspects of personal, organizational and social factors.
Thirdly a framework of controlling flight fatigue risk was put forward in the
systematic perspective. The framework contains three levels which are Fatigue
Contributing Factor Level, Fatigue Measurement Level and Fatigue Prevention
Countermeasure Level. Then a Fatigue Measurement and Warning System was worked
out as a case study. Finally it concluded that flight fatigue is an important
and long-term issue in aviation transportation industry, the systematic
solution proposed in this paper is effective but there is a long way to go for
implementing it. Keywords: flight fatigue; risk; fatigue measurement | |||
| Healthcare and Security: Understanding and Evaluating the Risks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 99-108 | |
| Aubrey Baker; Laurian C. Vega; Tom DeHart; Steve Harrison | |||
| Part of the job of healthcare providers is to manage client information.
Most is routine, but some is sensitive. For these reasons physicians' offices
provide a rich environment for understanding complex, sensitive information
management issues as they pertain to privacy and security. In this paper we
present findings from interviews and observations of 19 physician's offices in
rural-serving southwest Virginia. Our work presents examples of what might be
labeled as security violations. In particular, we found that the tensions
between work practice and security, and between electronic and paper records,
resulted in issues that need broader discussion in relation to the role of the
social in the management of patient information. Keywords: Healthcare; security; usable security; privacy; work practice | |||
| The Disability-Simulator: Simulating the Influences of Disabilities on the Usability of Graphical User Interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 109-118 | |
| Kai Breiner; Tobias Wüchner; Malte Brunnlieb | |||
| Today's software systems and especially graphical user interfaces are mostly
designed to fit to the needs of an ideal target audience -- most often purely
focusing on young, physically and mentally healthy persons. Not even the
development of tailored (e.g. to elderly people) user interfaces but also the
testing is a challenging task, because a large set of test persons suffering
from specific impairments needs to be recruited which in practice often is
unfeasible and the reason for statistically insignificant results. But software
systems and their graphical user interfaces have to be designed to cope with
the special needs of also handicapped persons. In this paper we introduce a
method to support the target oriented design process and evaluation of such
graphical user interfaces by simulating specific disabilities and typical
impairments. Therefore we emulate the influences of such impairments on the
performance while using any graphical user interfaces by applying specific
filter algorithms on the target interface. This enables evaluations of the GUI
under realistic conditions without being forced to actually involve real
impaired participants. Keywords: Disability Simulator; Impairment Simulator; Usability Test Tool | |||
| Advancing Critical Care in the ICU: A Human-Centered Biomedical Data Visualization Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 119-128 | |
| Anthony Faiola; Christine M. Newlon | |||
| The purpose of this research is to provide medical clinicians with a new
technology for interpreting large and diverse datasets to expedite critical
care decision-making in the ICU. We refer to this technology as the medical
information visualization assistant (MIVA). MIVA delivers multivariate
biometric (bedside) data via a visualization display by transforming and
organizing it into temporal resolutions that can provide contextual knowledge
to clinicians. The result is a spatial organization of multiple datasets that
allows rapid analysis and interpretation of trends. Findings from the usability
study of the MIVA static prototype and heuristic inspection of the dynamic
prototype suggest that using MIVA can yield faster and more accurate results.
Furthermore, comments from the majority of the experimental group and the
heuristic inspectors indicate that MIVA can facilitate clinical task flow in
context-dependent health care settings. Keywords: Biomedical data visualization; human-computer interaction; health care;
health information technology; interface design | |||
| A Comparative Study of Children's eHealth Design between East and West: A Case Study of Children's Health Websites in China, Taiwan, the UK, and the US | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 129-138 | |
| Yah-Ling Hung; Catherine Stones | |||
| A good developing model of children's health could reduce health care costs
and improve quality of life across the children life span. What are the key
communication issues and technology concerns involved in the design of
children's health websites? When parents evaluate a children health website,
they always have some concerns: Is the health information credible? Is the
interpretation clear and adequate? Is the media application suitable? Is the
interface design user-friendly? With recent advances in computer technology,
its impact on health communication is continually increasing. However, how to
design an effective children's health website to enhance parents' cognition, to
promote their active processing, and to increase their interaction frequency,
is still very much a question that remains unanswered. This research was
implemented in three stages. Firstly, the Chinese
keywords,"兒童保健網" and the English keywords,
"children's health website" were entered into Google to search for the 20 most
popular Chinese and English-speaking websites. Secondly, existing literature
was reviewed to ascertain the critical category and evaluation guidelines for
designing children's eHealth. Thirdly and finally, a selection of these
websites from China, Taiwan, the UK, and the US were evaluated by using a
content analysis methodology, applying the criteria developed from the
literature review. This study finds that in terms of information design,
credibility is better presented in the West than in the East, whereas users'
needs are better presented in the East than in the West. In terms of multimedia
design, demonstrations and humanity are better presented in the West than in
the East, and the segmentation of demonstrations is valued by both the East and
the West. In terms of interface design, the West presents a better appearance
than the East, and methodology is valued by both the East and the West. Keywords: eHealth Evaluation; Information Design; Multimedia Design; Interface Design | |||
| Visually Exploring Multivariate Trends in Patient Cohorts Using Animated Scatter Plots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 139-148 | |
| Alexander Rind; Wolfgang Aigner; Silvia Miksch; Sylvia Wiltner; Margit Pohl; Felix Drexler; Barbara Neubauer; Nikolaus Suchy | |||
| The effectiveness of animation in visualization is an interesting research
topic that led to contradicting results in the past. On top of that, we are
facing three additional challenges when exploring patient cohorts: irregular
sampling, data wear, and data sets covering different portions of time. We
present TimeRider, an improved animated scatter plot for cohorts of diabetes
patients that tackles these challenges along with its evaluation with
physicians. Results show that animation does support physicians in their work
and provide further domain-specific evidence in the discussion on the
effectiveness of animation. Keywords: Information Visualization; animation; time; medical data | |||
| Emerging Triage Support Environment for Dementia Care with Camera System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 149-158 | |
| Taro Sugihara; Tsutomu Fujinami | |||
| This study proposes a new concept called a Triage Support Environment based
on the authors' research at three care homes. We believe that this study will
help develop information and communication technology (ICT) systems for caring
for people with dementia (PWD). We installed a video monitoring system for
caregivers in three homes and observed the positive and negative effects of
applying the system to caregiving. In terms of positive effects, the video
monitoring system enabled caregivers to optimize their work and helped them
concentrate on their tasks at hand, reducing both mental and physical stresses.
On the other hand, some caregivers expressed concerns over being watched by
other caregivers through the monitor, especially when their activities were
recorded. We discuss these issues and explain how the concept of a Triage
Support Environment may lead to a solution for these problems. Keywords: triage; group home; persons with dementia; camera system | |||
| Nonvisual Effects of Led Coloured Ambient Lighting on Well-Being and Cardiac Reactivity: Preliminary Findings | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 159-167 | |
| Michel Varkevisser; Roy J. E. M. Raymann; David V. Keyson | |||
| This study examined the immediate nonvisual effects of ambient lighting
colours and illuminance on momentary wellbeing and physiology during daytime.
As reported in recent literature, the effects of lighting extend beyond comfort
and safety issues. Illuminance level and ambient colours appear to have
differing effects on perception and to some degree on physiological parameters.
In the present study, LED lighting was used in a mock-up office to expose 37
participants to two levels of illuminance, being 45 lx and 195 lx on the eye,
and four ambient colour combinations, being Red-Green, Red-Blue, Green-Blue,
Red-Green-Blue. Overall, the results showed interactions between lighting
condition and illuminance levels on the currently investigated subjective and
objective parameters. The expected arousing impact of colour combinations with
a blue component was only partially observed in the current study. The results
may have implications for future office design in which coloured lighting takes
a central role. Keywords: Nonvisual effects; LED; illuminance; colour lighting; well-being; cardiac
reactivity Note: Best Paper Award | |||
| The Effect of Vibrotactile Feedback on Novice Older Adults in Target Selection Tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 171-179 | |
| Bora Üzüm; Mehmet Göktürk | |||
| In this study, older adults are examined as computer users, their
characteristics and problems they are facing with computer systems are
described; utilization of vibrotactile feedback mouse in graphical user
interfaces is proposed to enhance their computer usability experience. An
original Fitts experiment variation with 9 participants (mean age 69.67), who
are novice computer users without any health related issues which may interfere
with performance, has been done and the results of 2880 trials were analyzed.
Results indicated that in vibrotactile mode, subjects completed the tasks
faster (60%) and increased their target selection performances measured by
Fitts' index of performance (43%, p<0.05). Keywords: Human computer interaction; older adults; Fitts' Law; vibrotactile feedback | |||
| Multi-Resolution-Display System for Virtual Reality Setups | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 180-189 | |
| Jürgen Grüninger; Hilko Hoffmann; Uwe Kloos; Jens Krüger | |||
| Most large-area video projection systems offer only limited spacial
resolution. Consequently, images of detailed scenery cannot be displayed at
full fidelity. A possible but significantly more costly strategy is a tiled
projection display. If this solution is not feasible then either aliasing
occurs or some anti-aliasing method is used at the cost of reduced scene
quality.
In this paper we describe a novel cost effective multi-resolution display system. It allows users to select any part of a stereoscopic projection and view it in significantly higher resolution than possible with the standard projection alone. To achieve this, a pair of video projectors, which can be moved by stepper motors, project a high-resolution inset into a small portion of the low-resolution image. To avoid crosstalk between the low and high resolution projections, a mask is rendered into the low resolution scene to black out the area on the screen that is covered by the inlay. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our multi-resolution display setup it has been integrated into a number of real life scenarios: a virtual factory, an airplane cabin simulation, and a focus and context volume visualization application (see Figure [1]). Keywords: projection; virtual reality; multi-resolution | |||
| Alternative Workstations May Be New But Are They Better? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 190-198 | |
| Alan Hedge | |||
| An ergonomics survey of 84 employees who moved to an alternative workspace
with smaller workstations equipped with various ergonomic products is reported.
Half of the employees received some ergonomics training. Results showed that
25-40% reported the ergonomic products were somewhat or much less comfortable
to use, and around the same proportion found them somewhat or much more
comfortable to use. Between 25-40% of employees reported frequent neck,
shoulder, back and right wrist discomfort and many reported that these symptoms
interfered with work activities. There was clear evidence that levels of
discomfort increased over the course of the work day. Employees were equally
split on whether the office changes helped or hindered their work productivity.
Comparison of the trained versus untrained employees showed that training
reduced the problems associated with their new workstations. Overall, the
results suggest that ergonomic products alone may not compensate for problems
associated with smaller workstations. Keywords: ergonomics training; alternative workspaces; musculoskeletal injuries;
keyboard tray; ergonomic chair; productivity | |||
| Improving the Online Video Chat Experience | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 199-208 | |
| Asim Kadav; Chelsea Wanta; Nai-Wen Claire Yu; Kyung Lee; Enid N. H. Montague | |||
| With the recent proliferation of netbooks and tablets with webcams
transforming oneself virtually is easier than ever before. However, the
software used for such devices like video chat programs and online role playing
do little to enhance the connectedness of the users involved. In this paper, we
present Touch Live Connect (TLC), a product concept for an enhanced video chat
experience that is aimed towards improving the online shared experience. TLC
enhances the online experience by enabling people to do activities together in
video mode. Users watch online videos together, transform to different
backgrounds and also perform multi-way chat. TLC can also detect user motions
and appropriately enhance the environment of the chat. This helps people
emulate the face to face experience beyond just chatting and makes them feel
connected. We developed three prototypes of the product concept and tested them
on sets of users, and conclude that (1) Users feel more connected by sharing
experiences rather than just seeing visual representation of self, (2)
Amplification of human gestures over video is an important feature to improve
video communication and (3) Users find a handheld tablet as most useful device
for video communication and television as least useful. Keywords: Online collaboration; sharing; virtual relationships; video chat | |||
| DeskTop: A Design Guideline to Creating a Multi-touch Desk Prototype | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 209-217 | |
| Jerome McClendon; Joshua I. Ekandem; Austen L. Hayes; Amy Catherine Ulinski; Larry F. Hodges | |||
| In many multi-touch tables, a projector is used to project an image onto the
surface and a camera is used to detect user touches. The optical paths for both
the camera and projector limits the physical design of multi-touch tables. Our
research focuses on the creation of a multi-touch desk that improves on the
physical design of past multi-touch tables by using a combination of multiple
cameras and a liquid crystal display to create a physical design that is
ergonomic, mobile, collaborative/scalable and simplistic in design. Keywords: Multi-touch tables; Ergonomic design | |||
| Changing Color over Time | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 218-225 | |
| Dragan Sekulovski; Ingrid Vogels; Ramon Clout; Malgorzata Perz | |||
| The revolution in lighting we are experiencing goes beyond the basic
capabilities of the light sources used and has enabled new ways of improving
the overall experience of both lighting and displays. However, specifics of
LEDs, the technical driving force behind the revolution, also introduce new
challenges. One of those challenges is the temporal control of full-color light
systems. In this work we explore the properties of human color vision relevant
to the generation of pleasant dynamic light effects. We show that the spatial
models of color are unsuitable for predicting temporal phenomena and give steps
towards building a new, temporal model. Keywords: dynamic light; color vision; smoothness perception; flicker perception;
chromatic flicker; peripheral vision; preferred color path | |||
| SmartHeliosity: Emotional Ergonomics through Coloured Light | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 226-235 | |
| Oliver Stefani; Milind Mahale; Achim Pross; Matthias Bues | |||
| In this paper we present research activities on the interaction between
light and human emotion. We describe the SmartHeliosity prototype which
evaluates human emotions to provide appropriate coloured light in order to
enhance emotional wellbeing within the working environment. We present
technical specifications, colour concepts to provoke certain emotions and user
feedback to the prototype system. Keywords: Adaptive light; coloured light; emotion; face detection | |||
| All in Hand Keyboard Designing and Researching Based on Ergonomics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 236-243 | |
| Zhenya Wang; Heshan Liu; Song Hao; Yandong Wang | |||
| Traditional keyboard can easily cause discomforts, keeping hands and arms
under constant strains, especially when people have to work on computers for a
long time. For that reason, some companies have introduced types of ergonomic
keyboards. However the problem of straightening the wrists and arms has not
been solved. Combining the ancient oriental's Buddhism Mudras and Chinese
finger calculation method, we proposed a new keyboard operating mode. This kind
of keyboard could be worn on fingers, and every finger prominence represents a
letter input button. The information could be input by touching the special
keyboard material which could transfer perceive and record press signals in
position magnitude and direction. In addition, the design of number keyboard
and mouse integration was also analyzed and discussed in this paper. Keywords: keyboard design; ergonomics; input device; finger calculation method | |||