An empirical study examined the effects of two influencing factors in usability tests on user performance and usability ratings. Product aesthetics (high vs. low) as the main independent factor and prior usage event (positive vs. negative) as a subsidiary independent factor were varied in a between-participants design. 60 participants took part in…

Although the influence of colour on size perception has been known for a century, there is only limited research on interventions that can reduce this effect. This study was therefore undertaken in order to identify appropriate interventions and propose design guidelines for information visualisation, especially in applications where size…

Zoomable user interfaces (ZUIs) have received a significant amount of attention in the 18 years since they were introduced. They have enjoyed some success, and elements of ZUIs are widely used in computers today, although the grand vision of a zoomable desktop has not materialised. This paper describes the premise and promise of ZUIs along with…

Mobile devices offer much potential to support older adults (age 65+). However, older adults have been relatively slow to adopt mobile devices. Although much ongoing HCI research has examined usability problems to address this issue, little work has looked at whether existing graphical icons are harder to use for this population compared with…

To investigate the most efficient way to represent text in reading Chinese on computer displays, three typographic variables, character size (41[feet] arc/24 pixels and 60[feet] arc/32 pixels), character spacing (1/4 and 1/8 character width) and font type (Kai and Ming), were manipulated. Results showed that the reading speed for Chinese…

Information systems increasingly provide options for visually inspecting data during the process of information discovery and exploration. Little research has dealt so far with user interactions with these systems, and specifically with the effects of characteristics of the displayed data and the user on performance with such systems. The study…

An important issue of the demographic change in the German population is the maintenance and promotion of the employability of aging workforces. However, there are hardly any suitable concepts or usable tools available to realize this goal. Possible approaches should push the individual strengths of the aging workers to the foreground and…