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With digitization of production technology changes in technology infrastructure will become more frequent and more important for the competitiveness of organizations. Here, a crucial factor lies in the acceptance of such novel technology by users. Technology acceptance models aim to predict the adoption of new technology in an organization. They are however static in nature and fail to capture to dynamic process of adoption. To overcome this limitation, we utilize quantitative data from a small organization to understand both acceptance patterns and social structure of the organization. Both are used in an agent-based simulation to predict acceptance integrating social effects of diffusion over time. Our simulation achieves very similar results as the quantitative real-world data.
In: International Conference on Competitive Manufacturing, 2019
Preprint Project Slides

Against the background of a digitalizing industry (industry 4.0) the question of how companies and future staff are prepared for these changes is becoming increasingly important. That is why the focus of this empirical-experimental study was put on the investigation of the choice of job of Millennials and their requirements on the ideal workplace. The perspective of high potentials within the group of Millennials was collected by means of two focus groups (n=8) which were carried out prior to the main study, a quantitative conjoint study (n = 165). By applying conjoint analysis, the study empirically investigated the relationship between the attributes job tasks, flexibility, family-friendliness, and salary.
In: International Conference on Competitive Manufacturing, 2019
Preprint Project Slides

The filter bubble theory, popularized by Eli Pariser in 2011 is subject of academic discussion. With political polarization seemingly increasing, this issue increases in relevance. As recommender algorithms in news-related data bases or search engines such as Google are often intransparent, the project Datenspende: BTW17 aimed at providing data from the users point of view. Google search results for the major German political parties and their leaders of over 1000 participants were collected in order to make sophisticated analyses possible. Based on the data provided, we conducted exploratory tests to investigate how search results of different users differed. As we deemed the order of the search results relevant as well, we compared how the first three, six and nine results were different respectively. We found that differences were the strongest for the first three results, with large differences between the search terms as well, indicating that for some queries filter bubbles could exist.
In: European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, 2018
Preprint Project Slides

Democracies in the late 2010s are threatened by political movements from the borders of the political spectrum. Right-wing populist parties increasingly find agreement in larger parts of the population. How are these people convinced to these political beliefs? One explanation can be seen in polarization and the phenomena that arise from it such as the spiral of silence. In this article we empirically investigate how digital media usage influences the perception of polarization in Germany using a survey with 179 respondents. We use polarized opinions and mea- sure agreement from two perspectives with them. We find an influence of social media usage on the perception of polarization in our sample. Further, polarization seems to be perceived differently depending on the topic. The results contribute to an understanding of how to adequately design presentation of sensitive or controversial topics in digital social media and could be utilized in student eduction to sensitize social media users to the effect of polarization of opinions.
In: European Symposium Series on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, 2018
Preprint Project Slides

As an interdisciplinary research network, the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” (CoE) comprises of around 150 researchers. Their scientific background ranges from mechanical engineering and computer science to social sciences such as sociology and psychology. In addition to content- and method-based challenges, the CoE’s employees are faced with heterogenic organizational cultures, different hierarchical levels, an imbalanced gender distribution, and a high employee fluctuation. The sub-project Scientific Cooperation Engineering 1 (CSP1) addresses the challenge of interdisciplinary cooperation and organizational learning and aims at fostering interdisciplinarity and its synergies as a source of innovation. Therefore, the project examines means of reaching an organizational development, ranging from temporal structures to a sustainable network in production technology. To achieve this aim, a broad range of means has been developed during the last twelve years: In addition to physical measures such as regular network events and trainings, virtual measures such as the Terminology App were focused. The app is an algorithmic analysis method for uncovering latent topic structures of publications of the CoE to highlight thematic intersections and synergy potentials. The detection and promotion of has been a vital and long known element in knowledge management. Furthermore, CSP1 focusses on project management and thus developed evaluation tools to measure and control the success of interdisciplinary cooperation. In addition to the cooperation fostering measures, CSP1 conducted studies about interdisciplinarity and diversity and their relationship with innovation. The scientific background of these means and the research results of CSP1 are outlined in this paper to offer approaches for successful interdisciplinary cooperation management.
In: ICICKM 2018 (South Africa), 2018
Preprint PDF Project

Research on spatio-temporal visualization is driven by the develop- ment of novel visualization and data aggregation techniques. Yet, only little research is conducted on the systematic evaluation of such visualizations. Evaluation of such technology is often conducted in real-life settings and thus lacks fundamental requirements for laboratory-based replication. Replication requires other researchers to independently conduct their own experiments to verify your re- sults. In this position paper, we discuss the requirements for repli- cation studies of spatio-temporal visualization systems. These re- quirements are often impossible to achieve for highly contextual visualizations such as spatio-temporal visualizations. We argue that reproducibility—allowing other researchers to validate your findings from your data—is a better aim for highly contextual visualiza- tions. We provide a sample workflow to ensure reproducibility for spatio-temporal visualization and discuss its implications.
Beliv Workshop 2018 held at IEEE VIS 2018, 2018
Preprint Project

The use of recommendation systems is widespread in online com- merce. Depending on the algorithm that is used in the recommender system diferent types of data are recorded from user interactions. Typically, better recommendations are achieved when more detailed data about the user and product is available. However, users are often unaware of what data is stored and how it is used in recommendation. In a survey study with 197 participants we introduced diferent recommendation techniques (collaborative filtering, content-based recommendation, trust-based and social recommendation) to the users and asked participants to rate what type of algorithm should be used for what type of product category (books, mobile phones, contraceptives). We found diferent patterns of preferences for diferent product categories. The more sensitive the product the higher the preference for content-based iltering approaches that could work without storing personal data. Trust- based and social approaches utilizing data from social media were generally rejected.
In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, pp. 306–310, 2018
Preprint PDF Dataset Project Poster Slides

In this chapter, we propose and discuss a lightweight framework to help organize research questions that arise around biases in visualization and visual analysis. We contrast our framework against the cognitive bias codex by Buster Benson. The framework is inspired by Norman’s Human Action Cycle and classifies biases into three levels: perceptual biases, action biases, and social biases. For each of the levels of cognitive processing, we discuss examples of biases from the cognitive science literature, and speculate how they might also be important to the area of visualization. In addition, we put forward a methodological discussion on how biases might be studied on all three levels, and which pitfalls and threats to validity exist. We hope that the framework will help spark new ideas and guide researchers that study the important topic of biases in visualization.
In: Cognitive Biases in Visualizations, Springer, Cham, pp. 13–27, 2018
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When social media becomes a dominant channel for the distribution of news, manipulation of the news agenda and news content can be achieved by anyone who is hosting a website with access to social media APIs. Falsehoods masked as legitimate news with the intent to manipulate the public are called Fake News. This type of propaganda is disseminated by sharing of individual social media users. Fake news pose a threat to democracies as they influence the public agenda and contribute to polarization of opinions. To limit the dissemination of fake news, social media websites utilize fact-checking badges to flag possibly fabricated content. It has however not been investigated whether these badges are effective and who responds to them. In a survey study with 120 participants we found little evidence for the effectiveness of such badges. However, believability of news in a social media sites were generally rated rather low.
IEA 2018: Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) pp 469-477, 2018
Preprint PDF Project Slides

Democracies in the late 2010s are threatened by political movements from the borders of the political spectrum. Right-wing populist parties increasingly find agreement in larger parts of the population. How are these people convinced to these political beliefs? One explanation can be seen in polarization and the phenomena that arise from it such as the spiral of silence. In this article we empirically investigate how digital media usage influences the perception of polarization in Germany using a survey with 179 respondents. We use polarized opinions and mea- sure agreement from two perspectives with them. We find an influence of social media usage on the perception of polarization in our sample. Further, polarization seems to be perceived differently depending on the topic. The results contribute to an understanding of how to adequately design presentation of sensitive or controversial topics in digital social media and could be utilized in student eduction to sensitize social media users to the effect of polarization of opinions.
In: International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, pp. 189–202, 2018
Preprint PDF Project Slides

The complex interaction of humans with digitized technology has far reaching consequences, many of which are still completely opaque in the present. Technology like social networks, artificial intelligence and automation impacts life at work, at home, and in the political sphere. When work is supported by decision support systems and self- optimization, human interaction with such systems is reduced to key decision making aspects using increasingly complex interfaces. Both, algorithms and human operators become linchpins in the opaque workings of the complex socio-technical system. Similarly, when looking at human communication flows in social media, algorithms in the background control the flow of information using recommender systems. The users react to this filtered flow of information, starting a feedback - loop between users and algorithm — the filter bubble. Both scenarios share a common feature: complex human-algorithm interaction. Both scenarios lack a deep understanding of how this interaction must be properly designed. We propose the use of agent-based modeling to address the human-in-the-loop as a part of the complex socio-technical system by comparing several methods of modeling and investigating their applicability.
In: International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, pp. 357–371, 2018
Preprint PDF Project Slides

Advancing automation in many technical areas (mobility, production, medicine, etc.) is accompanied by new challenges for the interaction between humans and technical systems. Trust in automation is a key element for the use of technology and for compliance with its recommendations. This also applies to decision support systems (DSS) in the production domain. These can make the increasing complexity of production processes and networks manageable but can lead to serious financial losses in case of error as well. The present study addresses the restoring of trust in those DSS after a failure. In an exploratory two-stage approach, interviews were used to identify user requirements for trust restoring measures, followed by a questionnaire study including a business simulation game to quantify those measures in an exemplary manner. Preliminary results suggest that trust can only be restored to a very limited extent by specific intervention measures, but that systems must laboriously rebuild trust by long-term error-free functioning.
In: International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, pp. 115–126, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

Privacy is a major good for users of personalized services such as recommender systems. When applied to the field of health informatics, privacy concerns of users may be amplified, but the possible utility of such services is also high. Despite availability of technologies such as k-anonymity, differential privacy, privacy-aware recommendation, and personalized privacy trade-offs, little re- search has been conducted on the users’ willingness to share health data for usage in such systems. In two conjoint-decision studies (sample size n = 521), we investigate importance and utility of privacy-preserving techniques related to sharing of personal health data for k-anonymity and differential privacy. Users were asked to pick a preferred sharing scenario depending on the recipient of the data, the benefit of sharing data, the type of data, and the parameterized privacy. Users disagreed with sharing data for commercial purposes regarding mental illnesses and with high de-anonymization risks but showed little concern when data is used for scientific purposes and is related to physical illnesses. Suggestions for health recommender system development are derived from the findings.
In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2018
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Der Einsatz von mobiler und autonomer Robotik gewinnt zunehmend an Bedeutung, sowohl in Fertigung und Montage im industriellen Kontext als auch in der Servicerobotik. Die Autonomie als zentrale Eigenschaft eines Roboters ist dabei Ursprung von Sehnsucht und Befürchtungen zugleich. Nur ein autonomer Roboter kann in einer komplexen Welt eine Entlastung darstellen. Nur ein autonomer Roboter kann Entscheidungen fällen, die Menschen bedrohen. Neben dem generellen Misstrauen gegenüber moderner Technik und Sensorik, können Fragen des Datenschutzes bei der elektronischen Verarbeitung der Sensordaten, sowie Fragen der Akzeptanz von Autonomie in Technik in den Mittelpunkt gesellschaftlichen Diskurses geraten und somit weitere Fragen vor der technischen Umsetzbarkeit in den Vordergrund rücken. In diesem Buch werden studentische Projekte, die sich mit dem Thema Akzeptanz autonomer Robotik auseinandersetzen präsentiert.
Apprimus Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-86359-600-2, 2018
PDF

An abundance of information is available on the Internet. At the same time the quality of information fluctuates largely. When people use such information for making important decisions, this becomes an issue. “Health” is one of the most searched topics on the Web and search results might have the biggest consequences for one’s life. However, trust in found information, or lack thereof, filters usage. To understand which elements on a website convince people to trust the information or not, we conducted a study with two aims: firstly, identify factors which trigger credibility; secondly, investigate to what extend both the medial presentation and the severity of the related disease influence the assessment of credibility. Possible factors were first collected in three focus groups and then operationalized in a questionnaire. We collected 184 responses where three different health websites differing in complexity and in the severity of disease (light vs. life striking) were presented and assessed. Results show that for more severe diseases more complex information is preferred. Further actually being ill influences the criteria significantly.
In: 4th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health, pp. 169–177, 2018
Preprint

In virtual environments, the space that can be explored by real walking is limited by the size of the tracked area. To enable unimpeded walking through large virtual spaces in small real-world surroundings, redirection techniques are used. These unnoticeably manipulate the user’s virtual walking trajectory. It is important to know how strongly such techniques can be applied without the user noticing the manipulation - or getting cybersick. Previously, this was estimated by measuring a detection threshold (DT) in highly-controlled psychophysical studies, which experimentally isolate the effect but do not aim for perceived immersion in the context of VR applications. While these studies suggest that only relatively low degrees of manipulation are tolerable, we claim that, besides establishing detection thresholds, it is important to know when the user’s immersion breaks. We hypothesize that the degree of unnoticed manipulation is significantly different from the detection threshold when the user is immersed in a task. We conducted three studies: a) to devise an experimental paradigm to measure the threshold of limited immersion (TLI), b) to measure the TLI for slowly decreasing and increasing rotation gains, and c) to establish a baseline of cybersickness for our experimental setup. For rotation gains greater than 1.0, we found that immersion breaks quite late after the gain is detectable. However, for gains lesser than 1.0, some users reported a break of immersion even before established detection thresholds were reached. Apparently, the developed metric measures an additional quality of user experience. This article contributes to the development of effective spatial compression methods by utilizing the break of immersion as a benchmark for redirection techniques.
In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, (24), 4, pp. 1623–1632, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

In times of demographic change, skill shortage and disruptive innovations, organizational knowledge management and innovative capacity are the key to a company’s success. But how can knowledge be retained with fast staff turnover, global project-based work and parental leaves? Using enterprise social media to improve knowledge dissemination at work seems promising, when looking at the success of private social networking sites. In this article we combine ten different empirical studies which investigated different aspects of how user diversity influences the motivation to use social media at work. The emerging meta-study using the DerSimonian–Laird method (total sample size N = 522) analyzes different aspects of user diversity and their correlation with eight motives for SNS usage: information, importance, contact, self-presentation, autonomy, social comparison, and power and control. We found that that the individual achievement motivation correlates positively with the motives importance, power, information and self-presentation. The need for autonomy correlates with openness to new experiences and the need for social comparison with gender and neuroticism. From our findings, we derive practical implications for designing a social networking site for work which fulfills the users’ needs and functions along their motivation.
In: Universal Access in the Information Society, (17), 3, pp. 549–566, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

We investigate priming and anchoring effects on perceptual tasks in visualization. Priming or anchoring effects depict the phenomena that a stimulus might influence subsequent human judgments on a perceptual level, or on a cognitive level by providing a frame of reference. Using visual class separability in scatterplots as an example task, we performed a set of five studies to investigate the potential existence of priming and anchoring effects. Our findings show that—under certain circumstances—such effects indeed exist. In other words, humans judge class separability of the same scatterplot differently depending on the scatterplot(s) they have seen before. These findings inform future work on better understanding and more accurately modeling human perception of visual patterns.
In: IEEE Transactions on Visualization & Computer Graphics, 1, pp. 584–594, 2018
Preprint PDF Project Video

The emergence of cyber-physical production systems poses new challenges for designing the interface between production systems and the human-in-the-loop. In this study, we investigate how human operators interact with risks in a supply chain scenario. We varied the financial magnitude and the expected value of the decisions, the combination of two types of risk (risk in delivery amount and risk in timeliness), as well as three different task displays as within-subject factors. As explanatory user factors we studied the influence of Need for Achievement and the Attitude towards Risk-taking on the dependent variables task speed and accuracy. Results of the user study with 33 participants show that each of the investigated factors either influences decision speed, decision accuracy, or both. Consequently, the human-in-the-loop profits from adequate decision support systems that help to increase decision efficiency and effectiveness and reduce uncertainty and workload. The article concludes with a research agenda to support the human-in-the-loop in production systems.
In: Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, pp. 421–430, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

Cybersickness poses a crucial threat to applications in the domain of Virtual Reality. Yet, its predictors are insufficiently explored when redirection techniques are applied. Those techniques let users explore large virtual spaces by natural walking in a smaller tracked space. This is achieved by unnoticeably manipulating the user’s virtual walking trajectory. Unfortunately, this also makes the application more prone to cause Cybersickness. We conducted a user study with a semi-structured interview to get quantitative and qualitative insights into this domain. Results show that Cybersickness arises, but also eases ten minutes after the exposure. Quantitative results indicate that a tolerance towards Cybersickness might be related to self-efficacy constructs and therefore learnable or trainable, while qualitative results indicate that users’ endurance of Cybersickness is dependent on symptom factors such as intensity and duration, as well as factors of usage context and motivation. The role of Cybersickness in Virtual Reality environments is discussed in terms of the applicability of redirected walking techniques.
In: International Conference on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, pp. 82–101, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

Energy infrastructure projects often bring along protests. Protests as a form of political participation reveal perceptions of locals regarding a specific project. However, it is still unclear who protesters are and what drives them. Specifically, the attitude towards protest has not been extensively studied. We conducted an online survey study with 464 participants and used partially-least squares structural equation modeling to identify antecedents to protest attitudes. We included opinion leadership, trust in institutions, political efficacy and demographic factors in our model to determine possible causal relationships between these factors. We found that protest attitude is predominantly influenced by income, protest experience and political efficacy. No direct association was found for trust in institutions and opinion leadership.
In: Energy research & social science : ERSS, (43), pp. 132–143, 2018
Preprint PDF Project

In times of the ongoing digitalization in private and public areas, online privacy is a specific good that should be handled with care. This is relevant for many social and economic contexts, but is most sensible in the health and medical sector. On the one hand the sharing of medical data increases public knowledge and enables the development of digital (health) services and innovations, on the other hand the protection of individual privacy is of para- mount importance. From a technical perspective, there are approaches to protect privacy, such as differential privacy or privacy-aware recommendation systems. Yet, little is known about the users’ willingness to share data, especially against the offering of individual benefits and the perceived risk of identification, but also the impact of data type and data recipients. Taking an age-perspective, focus groups were run first followed by a conjoint-decision study (n = 173), in which we empirically investigated individual decisions to share medical data, exploring the importance and utility of four attributes related to sharing of personal health data. Results show both, age-sensitive as well as age-insensitive findings. Independently disliked of their age, users disagreed to sharing data regarding mental illnesses, also disliked high identification risks and commercial use of the data, but would be willing to share data scientific purposes. The findings might contribute to understanding users’ privacy perceptions and to develop information and communication strategies.
In: International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, pp. 186–201, 2018
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Diabetes prevalence has steadily been increasing over the last decades and is expected to continue in this trajectory. Diary keeping is considered the central part of any successful therapy. Since paper-based diary keeping is often poor and electronic diaries often challenging for elderly users, we developed Diabetto. Using focus groups and interviews we analyzed the requirements for Diabetto. It uses a LiveScribe Echo pen as a replacement for a regular pen in traditional paper-based diary keeping, while at the same time adds interactive therapy support and access to a nutrition database through pen-input and text-to-speech. By enhancing an al- ready familiar process we managed to achieve a high acceptance of the device. In an experimental evaluation using an extended TAM model we analyzed the influence of user-diversity factors on the acceptance. Interest- ingly typical predictors of acceptance, such as efficiency during use, did not influence ease of use, indicating that the digital pen might not be perceived as computerized technology.
In: 4th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health, pp. 74–86, 2018
Preprint Slides

Supply Chains and production networks are complex sociotechnical systems whose performance is determined by system, interface, and human factors. While the influence of system factors (e.g., variances in delivery times and amount, queuing strategies) is increasingly well understood, the influence of the interface and human factors is currently insufficiently explored. Previous research has shown that decision support systems may help to enhance performance by improving the interface. In this work, we address the users’ trust in a decision support system. In a user study (n = 40), using a business simulation game, we investigated how four dimensions of attribution theory relate to trust in decision support systems and further to task performance. The results show that human factors, especially trust in automation and attribution theory relate to the performance in the business simulation game. We conclude that attribution relates to job compliance and performance in material disposition tasks and supply chain management.
In: International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, pp. 11–23, 2017
Preprint PDF Project

The 2017 Workshop on Health Recommender Systems was held in conjunction with the 2017 ACM Conference on Recommender Systems in Como, Italy. Following the firts workshop in 2016, the focus of this workshop was on enhancing the results of the first workshop by elaborating discussions on the topics, attracting scientist from other domains, finding cross-domain collaboration, and establishing shared infrastructures.
In: Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, pp. 374–375, 2017
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Massive online communication systems such as social net- works, message boards and comment sections are widely used, yet fail in conveying a diverse public opinion. Limitations of models and protocols do not allow users to precisely express their intention and to maintain a complete overview in large-scale discussions. Data-driven approaches fail as well, as they remove the nuances of human communication and use coarse representations like trends, summaries and abstract visualizations. We argue that a new discussion model and a large-scale communication protocol is needed. We evaluate the comprehensibility of a hyperedge connection in modeling arguments for online discussions. An initial mechanical turk study (n = 200) revealed that 30% of the subjects intu- itively considered using hyperedges. This was followed by a user study of a prototype (n = 51), where 80% actively used hyperedges. Both find- ings were independent of user diversity factors (age, gender, graph theory knowledge). The prototypical implementation was evaluated positively.
In: International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management, pp. 248–258, 2017
Preprint PDF Project

Supply Chains and production networks are complex sociotechnical cyber-physical systems whose performance is determined by system, interface, and human factors. While the influence of system factors (e.g., variances in delivery times and amount, queuing strategies) is well understood, the influence of interface and human factors on supply chain performance is currently insuffi‐ ciently explored. In this article, we analyze how performance is determined by the correctness of Decision Support Systems and specifically, how correct and defect systems influence subjective and objective performance, subjective and objective compliance with the system, as well as trust in the system. We present a behavioral study with 50 participants and a business simulation game with a market driven supply chain. Results show that performance (−21%), compliance (−35%), and trust (−25%) is shaped by the correctness of the system. However, this effect is only substantial in later stages of the game and occluded at the beginning. Also, people’s subjective evaluations and the objective measures from the simulation are in congruence. The article concludes with open research ques‐ tions regarding trust and compliance in Decision Support Systems as well as actionable knowledge on how Decision Support Systems can mitigate supply chain disruptions.
In: International Conference on HCI in Business, Government, and Organizations, pp. 333–348, 2017
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The aging workforce is already impacting on companies, particularly those in countries of the industrialized Western world. Furthermore, Western companies are coming under the increasing influence of technological developments, such as ‘Industrie 4.0’, which are in the process of completely changing traditional working environments. In order to maintain their industrial competitiveness, companies need to synchronize these technological developments with their own organizational requirements and in particular with the requirements of an aging workforce. We show how different types of competencies may be categorized in order to enable a successful synchronization. In addition, we take a look at recent developments in the domain of ‘Industrie 4.0’ and derive future research areas for solving the challenges involved.
In: International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, pp. 537–556, 2017
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The aspect of control in recommender systems has already been extensively researched in the past. Quite a number of studies performed by various researchers reported that an increase in control had a positive effect for example on user satisfaction with a system, or recommendation accuracy. Recent studies investigated whether this positive effect of control applies to all users, or finer distinctions have to be made between different user groups, which in turn require different levels of control. Those studies identified several characteristics, along which users could be divided into groups: expertise in recommender systems, domain knowledge, trusting propensity, persistence. They reported different needs of control for different user groups. However, the effect of those characteristics has not been systematically examined with regard to all three recommendation phases introduced earlier by Pu and Zhang, namely initial preference elicitation, preference refinement, result display. This paper suggests, that for different levels of expertise and trust, different levels of control are necessary during preference elicitation, whereas persistence does not play a prevalent role in this phase. Further assumptions are made for preference refinement and result display. In addition to the three phases, context, type of information required and visualization of control methods are identified as factors influencing the request of users for control.
In: International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management, pp. 308–323, 2017
Preprint PDF Project

People increasingly use the Internet for obtaining information regarding diseases, diagnoses and available treatments. Currently, many online health portals already provide non-personalized health information in the form of articles. However, it can be challenging to find information relevant to one’s condition, interpret this in context, and understand the medical terms and relationships. Recommender Systems (RS) already help these systems perform precise information filtering. In this short paper, we look one step ahead and show the progress made towards RS helping users ￿nd personalized, complex medical interventions or support them with preventive healthcare measures. We identify key challenges that need to be addressed for RS to o￿er the kind of decision support needed in high-risk domains like healthcare.
In: Proceedings of the 2017 international conference on digital health, pp. 157–161, 2017
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Scientific Cooperation Engineering researches, fosters and supports scientific cooperation on all hierarchical levels and beyond scientific disciplines as a key resource for innovation in the Cluster of Excellence. State-of-the-art research methods—such as structural equation models, success models, or studies on success factors—that are frequently used in IS research are applied to create profound knowledge and insights in the contribution and optimal realization of scientific inter and trans-disciplinary communication and cooperation. A continuous formative evaluation is used to derive and explore insights into interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation processes from a management perspective. In addition, actor-based empirical studies are carried out to explore critical factors for interdisciplinary cooperation and intercultural diversity management. Based on these results, workflows, physical networking events and tailor-made training programs are created and iteratively optimized towards the cluster’s needs. As Scientific Cooperation Engineering aims to gain empirical and data-driven knowledge, a Scientific Cooperation Portal and a prototypic flowchart application are under development to support workflows and project management. Furthermore, data science methods are currently implemented to recognize synergetic patterns based on bibliometric information and topical proximity, which is analyzed via project terminologies.
In: Integrative Production Technology, Springer, Cham, pp. 993–1046, 2017
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Understanding multi-dimensional data and in particular multi-dimensional dependencies is hard. Information visualization can help to understand this type of data. Still, the problem of how users gain insights from such visualizations is not well understood. Both the visualizations and the users play a role in understanding the data. In a case study, using both, a scatterplot matrix and a HyperSlice with six-dimensional data, we asked 16 participants to think aloud and measured insights during the process of analyzing the data. The amount of insights was strongly correlated with spatial abilities. Interestingly, all users were able to complete an optimization task independently of self-reported understanding of the data.
In: International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management, pp. 225–236, 2017
Preprint PDF Project Slides

Medical product development is becoming more and more complex and requires highly-specialized and interdisciplinary collaborations. Their success relies essentially on the selection of suitable partners. However, how to find suitable partners and how to match capabilities of an unknown partner with complex project requirements? Suitability must at least be judged with respect to professional competencies, collaboration capability and project-specific requirements — none of which are easily determined. So, partner selection is mostly dominated by regional proximity or even coincidence. This is a typical scenario for recommender systems. Therefore, we aim at discovering the unexploited potential of collaboration part- ners by proposing a novel recommendation approach that merges trust with health-sensitive semantic information. This hybrid ap- proach should help to identify collaborators matching complex project requirements faster, better and more holistically.
In: Second International Workshop on Health Recommender Systems, pp. 36, 2017
PDF Project

In times of the demographic change and the increasing need of novel concepts to meet the requirements of older adults’ care in the near future, health care robots could be a potent solution to meet shortcomings in the health care sector. Even though the potential of robotic home care assistance is promising, the question if older persons would accept a robotic assistance at home is still underexplored. Adopting a three-step procedure, older adults’ perceptions towards home care robots are empirically explored. In a first step, focus groups were accomplished to understand older persons’ perceptions on benefits and barriers. Second, a survey study was applied to determine acceptance criteria, the perceived usefulness and the extent and types of concerns toward a domestic robot in homecare. Finally, in a further survey study, specific care situations in the home care settings had to be evaluated in a third study, thereby comparing preferences for a human care persons vs. a robotic care assistant. Outcomes reveal both, age-sensitive as well as age-insensitive findings. While overall a positive attitude towards home care robots was found, serious concerns in terms of fear of loss of control and connection to family members are prevailing. Outcomes contribute to an understanding of social factors in the development and implementation of accepted home care solutions and might be helpful to develop age-sensitive information and communication concepts.
In: International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, pp. 57–74, 2017
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Understanding how members of a research team cooperate and identifying possible synergies may be crucial for organizational success. Using data-driven approaches, recommender systems may be able to find promising collaborations from publication data. Yet, the outcome of scientific endeavors (i.e. publications) are only produced sparingly in comparison to other forms of data, such as online purchases. In order to facilitate this data in augmenting research cooperation, we suggest to combine data-driven approaches such as text-mining, topic modeling and machine learning with interactive system components in an interactive visual recommendation system. The system leads to an augmented perspective on research cooperation in a network: Interactive visualization analyzes, which cooperation could be intensified due to topical overlap. This allows to reap the benefit of both worlds. First, utilizing the computational power to analyze large bodies of text and, second, utilizing the creative capacity of users to identify suitable collaborations, where machine-learning algorithms may fall short.
In: Production Engineering, (11), 2, pp. 213–220, 2017
Preprint PDF Project Slides

In this position paper, we propose and discuss a lightweight frame- work to help organize research questions that arise around biases in visualization and visual analysis. We contrast our framework against cognitive bias codex by Buster Benson. The framework is inspired by Norman’s Human Action Cycle [23] and classifies biases into three levels: perceptual biases, action biases, and social biases. For each of the levels of cognitive processing, we discuss examples of biases from the cognitive science literature, and speculate how they might also be important to the area of visualization. In addition, we put forward a methodological discussion on how biases might be studied on all three levels, and which pitfalls and threats to validity exist. We hope that the framework will help spark new ideas and discussions on how to proceed studying the important topic of biases in visualization.
In: DECISIVe 2017, 2017
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Deep penetration of modern information and communication technology in manufacturing companies (vertical integration) and across supply chains (horizontal integration) leads to an increasing amount and complexity of information that needs to be perceived, filtered, processed, and reacted to. Yet, the human factors that influence performance are insufficiently understood. This article outlines that individual factors, interface factors, and system factors affect overall performance and it presents two complementary research methodologies for identifying and quantifying these factors. On one side, we show that controlled laboratory experiments with singular decision tasks can precisely identify and quantify factors contributing to performance. On the other side, we use business simulation games with realistic decision tasks that can quantify the complexity of the underlying system. Our studies show that information amount, complexity, and presentation affect performance and that Decision Support Systems can increase performance and decrease error rates if and only if they are designed correctly. The article concludes with a research agenda to specifically understand which factors influence performance and how humans in the loop can be supported.
In: Mensch und Computer 2016–Workshopband, 2016
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How can you discover something new, that matches your interest? Recommender Systems have been studied since the 90ies. Their benefit comes from guiding a user through the density of the information jungle to useful knowledge clearings. Early research on recommender systems focuses on al- gorithms and their evaluation to improve recommendation accuracy using F-measures and other methodologies from signal-detection theory. Present research includes other aspects such as human factors that affect the user experience and interactive visualization techniques to support transparency of results and user control. In this paper, we analyze all publications on recommender systems from the scopus database, and particularly also papers with such an HCI focus. Based on an analysis of these papers, future topics for recommender systems research are identified, which include more advanced support for user control, adaptive interfaces, affective computing and applications in high risk domains.
In: Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, pp. 123–126, 2016
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Interdisciplinary collaboration and its success is still not fully understood. In two explorative studies we examine both the existence of benefits and barriers of interdisciplinary collaboration as well as the leverage of a social portal to support benefits and lower the barriers of such cooperations. As core issues we identified problems of language and missing depth as the strongest barriers in a triangulation of qualitative (N=6) and quantitative results (N=45). In contrast we found intrinsic motivation and widening of one’s horizon as well as the combination of knowledge as key benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration. In the second interview study (N=5) we found that our social platform approach could address theses barriers and leverage the benefits from the first study.
In: International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of Information, pp. 402–413, 2016
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The increasing dynamic and complexity of todays global supply chains and the growing amount and complexity of information challenge decision makers in manufacturing companies. Decision Support Systems (DSS) can be a viable solution to address these challenges and increase the overall decision effi‐ ciency and effectivity. However, a thought-through design and implementation of these systems is crucial for their efficacy. This article presents the current state-of-the-art of Decisions Support Systems and highlights their benefits and pitfalls. Also, we present an empirical study in which we compared different levels of decision support and decision automation in a simulated supply chain game environment. We identify and quantify how human factors influence the decision quality and decision performance in this supply chain scenario. We show that an adequately designed system raises the overall performance. However, insuffi‐ ciently designed systems have the reverse effect and lead operators to miss severe situations, which can have fatal consequences for manufacturing companies.
In: International Conference on HCI in Business, Government and Organizations, pp. 16–27, 2016
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In order to support interdisciplinary collaboration in a large organization, providing opportunities to meet new collaborators is essential. Besides offline approaches (e.g., conferences, colloquia, etc.) data driven and online approaches can be considered. Using the publication data and the additional profile information of researchers on a scientific portal, we try to support the process of uncovering opportunities for collaboration. For this purpose we develop a visualization that focuses on revealing potential co-authors that are a good fit according to track- record and profile information. In a design study we present the result of an iterative user-centered design process – a novel prototype and its eval- uation. Overall, our visualization was able to inform researchers about valid collaboration opportunities while at the same time effectively con- veying organizational information. Our prototype showed a high usability and loyalty score (SUS=82.5, NPS=40).
In: International Conference on HCI in Business, Government and Organizations, pp. 350–361, 2016
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Interdisciplinary collaboration is seen as a means to solve complex problems that surpass disciplinary boundaries. By combining methods from different disciplines advances can be achieved that were previously inaccessible. In the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” — a research cluster with over 180 staff members from various disciplines — interdisciplinary collaboration is applied intensively. In order to support this collaboration process, we set up a scientific cooperation portal that supports the researchers in various ways.
In: Social Computing and Social Media: 8th International Conference, SCSM 2016, Held as Part of HCI International 2016, Toronto, ON, Canada, July 17–22, 2016. Proceedings, pp. 405, 2016
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Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen sind häufig nur von einer Vielzahl unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Fachdisziplinen zu beantworten. Dies gilt besonders für Forschung im Bereich des Maschinenbaus und speziell im Bereich der Produktionstechnik. Zielsetzung ist dabei, die Kombination verschiedener Kompetenzen aus unterschiedlichen Fachdisziplinen zur Lösung von Forschungsfragen und Problemstellungen einzusetzen, die sich an Schnittstellen der Fachdisziplinen ergeben. Voraussetzung hierfür ist die Integration dieser verschiedenen Fachdisziplinen in eine interdisziplinären Community. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird zunächst ein Analyseinstrument vorgestellt, das zur Erfassung von Bedarfen zur Integration innerhalb der interdisziplinären Community dient. Drei Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung dieser Integration werden vorgestellt, deren Entwicklung auf Basis von Bedarfen der Community begonnen wurde und auf dieser kontinuierlich aktualisierten Grundlage iterativ fortgeführt wird. Das Ziel dieses Vorgehens ist die Unterstützung einer kontinuierlich optimierten Integration der Community im Exzellenzcluster „Integrative Produktionstechnik für Hochlohnländer“.
In: Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015⁄2016, Springer, Cham, pp. 193–201, 2016
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In the face of global warming, CO2 emissions have to be reduced. Everybody can contribute by making CO2 aware decisions. But what decisions are good? Next to texts and figures, visualizations are an important communicative tool to encapsulate information in a way that is understood quickly and po- tentially changes consumer behavior. To have an impact, they have to evoke the trust of the recipient. In this qualitative study we address the mostly neglected topic of how individuals come to trust visuali- zations. We conducted interviews with eight subjects to compare trustworthiness of two visualizations of CO2 emissions of different means of transportation. Either using a bar chart or a chart that depicts differently sized clouds. We analyzed the answers by categorizing different criteria. Overall, the bar chart was considered trustworthier. We argue that trustworthiness of visualizations follows a complex process, which considers different criteria that interact with each other. The criteria with the most influence trustworthiness are: completeness of information, necessity of information, neutrality, reading accuracy and plainness of the graph. Lastly, trust might follow a U-shaped curve when plotted over the density of graph-features.
In: Mensch und Computer 2016–Workshopband, 2016
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Recommender Systems are a perfect example for automatic Machine Learning (aML) – which is the fastest growing field in computer science generally and health informatics specifically. The general goal of ML is to develop algorithms which can learn and improve over time and can be used for predictions and decision support – which is of the central interest of health informatics. Whilst automatic approaches greatly benefit from big data with many training sets, in the health domain experts are often confronted with a small number of complex data sets or rare events, where aML- approaches suffer of insufficient training samples. Here interactive Machine Learning (iML) may be of help, which can be defined as “algorithms that can interact with agents and can optimize their learning behaviour through these interactions, where the agents can also be human”. Such a human can be an expert, i.e. a medical doctor, and this “doctor-in-the-loop” can be beneficial in solving computationally hard problems, e.g., subspace clustering, protein folding, or k-anonymization of health data, where human expertise can help to reduce an exponential search space through heuristic selection of samples. Therefore, what would otherwise be an NP-hard problem, reduces greatly in complexity through the input and the assistance of a human expert agent involved in the learning phase. Important future research aspects are in the combined use of both human intelligence and computer intelligence, in the context of hybrid multi-agent recommender systems which can also make use of the power of crowdsourcing to make use of joint decision making – which can be very helpful e.g. in the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases.
In: Mensch und Computer 2016–Workshopband, 2016
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With the broad success of Web 2.0, organizations have become interested in using social media for professional applications. To date related research has mainly focused on the social impact of social media. However, little is known about the circumstances under which employees will invest time in using social media, especially the perceived benefits and its barriers within enterprises need further research. Different aspects of organizational knowledge management bring along different requirements for social-media-based solutions. This chapter focusses on providing both a theoretical background on social media acceptance and concepts, as well as empirical findings from practice and research investigating acceptance-relevant needs and demands of social media users in different contexts. Findings from practice corroborate that the complexity of the plethora of communication paths can be supported by social media. Findings from research reveal that regarding the users’ (emotive) needs is critical when dealing with sensitive communication/data. Combining both practice and research tries to bridge the knowledge gap existing in fast paced developments like social media.
In: Innovations in Knowledge Management, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 147–176, 2016
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Recommender systems are a classical example for machine learning applications, however, they have not yet been used extensively in health informatics and medical scenarios. We argue that this is due to the specifics of benchmarking criteria in medical scenarios and the multitude of drastically differing end-user groups and the enormous context-complexity of the medical domain. Here both risk perceptions towards data security and privacy as well as trust in safe technical systems play a central and specific role, particularly in the clinical context. These aspects dominate acceptance of such systems. By using a Doctor-in-the-Loop approach some of these difficulties could be mitigated by combining both human expertise with computer efficiency. We provide a three-part research framework to access health recommender systems, suggesting to incorporate domain understanding, evaluation and specific methodology into the development process.
In: Machine Learning for Health Informatics, Springer, Cham, pp. 391–414, 2016
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The Internet of Things will influence how production systems of the future will work. An expected change is the increase in complexity when production system will start communicating with each other. This complexity can be managed by applying socio-technical approaches. This includes analyzing a production system regarding the domains: tasks, actors, technology, and structure. We identified three topics per domain that we think need further investigation, as they may influence complexity to a strong degree. For tasks we suggest looking into urgency, habituation, and strategies; for actors we suggest looking into skills, human factors, and user diversity. In the field of technology we find visualization, decision support, and interactions to be most pressing, while in the field of structure we see responsibility, delegation, and communication.
In: Competitive Manufacturing (COMA), 2016
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This is a half-day workshop proposal that focuses Human Factors in Information Visualization and Decision Support Systems. Participants should submit articles that present research data and derive novel research agendas for human factors or usability aspects in both fields. Presentations are 20 minutes long. Submissions will be published in the workshop addendum.
In: Mensch und Computer 2016–Workshopband, 2016
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Digital libraries are becoming larger, while suffering from inefficient interfaces and search patterns. Recommender Systems are a sensible and important service for users of digital libraries. The aim of recommender systems is to reduce cognitive effort, simplify search and to embed results in a larger context. In this article we compare to recommender systems – the Action Science Explorer and Papercube. Both systems are used to recommend scientific literature and use graph-based approaches. From user studies we derive the need for research to understand complexity of graphs.
In: Mensch und Computer 2016–Workshopband, 2016
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In times of demographic change, skill shortage, and disrup- tive innovations, organizational knowledge and innovative capacity are the key to a company’s success. But how can knowledge be retained with fast staff-turnover, global project-based work and parental leaves? Using social networking sites to improve knowledge dissemination at work seems promising, when looking at the success of private social net- working sites. In this article we investigate how user diversity influences the motivation to use such a site at work. We conducted a survey in a company that successfully implements social networking for knowledge dissemination (n = 50) and analyzed differences in usage motivation using multiple linear regression analysis. Among other effects, we found that women use such a system because of a stronger need for social interac- tion and information. From our findings we derive practical implications for designing a social networking site for work.
In: International Conference on Learning and Collaboration Technologies, pp. 663–674, 2016
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In the Cluster of Excellence (CoE) “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage countries” at RWTH Aachen University, scientists from different institutions investigate interdisciplinary ways to solve the polylemma’s tradeoffs between scale and scope as well as between plan and value oriented production. Next to the CoE’s four scientific subfields – the Integrative Cluster Domains (ICDs) – there are three additional subprojects performing cross sectional research and providing means for physical and virtual cross-linkage, the Cross Sectional Processes (CSP). Scientific cooperation in such a large and diverse consortium – as a meta-structure to the structures present in the member institutes – poses many challenges. To tackle these, an online learning and collaboration platform is developed, called the “Scientific Cooperation Portal”, to optimize the cluster-wide cooperation process. Technically building on the Liferay framework, the portal provides basic features like a member list and an event calendar as well as functionalities to help cluster members to gain a deeper understanding of the CoE’s current state regarding the diversity in interdisciplinary terminology, patterns in publication relationships, knowledge management and developed technologies.
In: Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015 2016, Springer, Cham, pp. 203–215, 2016
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Entropy, originating from statistical physics is a fascinating and challenging concept with many diverse definitions and various applications. Considering all the diverse meanings, entropy can be used as a measure for disorder in the range between total order (structured) and total disorder (unstructured), as long as by ‘order’ we understand that objects are segregated by their properties or parameter values. States of lower entropy occur when objects become organized, and ideally when everything is in complete order the Entropy value is zero. These observations generated a colloquial meaning of entropy.
In: Mathematical Foundations and Applications of Graph Entropy, (6), pp. 174, 2016
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The usage and application of graph databases is increasing. Many research problems are based on understanding relation- ships between data entities. This is where graph databases are power- ful. Nevertheless, software developers model and think in object-oriented software. Combining both approaches leads to a paradigm mismatch. This mismatch can be addressed by using object graph mappers (OGM). OGM adapt graph databases for object-oriented code, to relieve the developer. Most graph database access frameworks only support table- based result outputs. This defeats one of the strongest purposes of using graph databases. In order to harness both the power of graph databases and object-oriented modeling (e.g. type-safety, inheritance, etc.) we pro- pose an open-source framework with two libraries: (1) renesca, which is a graph database driver providing graph-query-results and change- tracking. (2) renesca-magic, a macro-based ER-modeling domain specific language (DSL). Both were tested in a graph-based application and lead to dramatic improvements in code size (factor 10) and extensibility of the code, with no significant effect on performance.
In: IFIP WG 8.4, 8.9, TC 5 International Cross-Domain Conference, CD-ARES 2016, and Workshop on Privacy Aware Machine Learning for Health Data Science, PAML 2016, Salzburg, Austria, August 31-September 2, 2016, Proceedings, pp. 204–218, 2016
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Discovering relevant publications for researchers is a non- trivial task. Recommender systems can reduce the effort required to find relevant publications. We suggest using a visualization- and user-centered interaction model to achieve both a more trusted recommender system and a system to understand a whole research field. In a graph-based visualization papers are aligned with their keywords according to the relevance of the keywords. Relevance is determined using text-mining approaches. By letting the user control relevance thresholds for individ- ual keywords we have designed a recommender system that scores high in accuracy, trust, and usability in a user study, while at the same time providing additional information about the field as a whole. As a result, the inherent trust issues con- ventional recommendation systems have seem to be less significant when using our solution.
In: International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of Information, pp. 89–100, 2015
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In order to cope with the growth of information complexity, organizations have started to implement various forms of knowledge management applications. Approaches range from file-, data-, information-centric software to information retrieval, search engines, and decision support systems. Thereby, the data presentation plays often a crucial part in making knowledge available in organizational settings. We examine two visualizations and investigate their capabilities to support organizational knowledge and their usability. One is a document-keyword centric graph-based visualization, while the other is person-institute centric. Both were evaluated positively in supporting improvement of organizational knowledge.
In: Learning and Collaboration Technologies, Springer, Cham, pp. 449–459, 2015
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The professional use and implementation of social media or social media related applications are booming. Solutions like business internal communities promise to connect employees in a more flexible way than old-fashioned mailing lists or static network drives ever could. New solutions are perceived to support communication independent from time and space and in allow a more flexible way of communicating direct as well as indirect through the offer of different communication media (chat, voice over IP, mail, blog, etc.). But in contrast to remarkably good application scenarios, reality is not keeping up. Therefore more investigations of usage conditions and acceptance parameters are needed to find out which showstoppers interfere with a successful implementation. Due to the fact that acceptance by future users is one core condition for a successful implementation of software within operational structures and processes, this paper presents a study with focus on motivational issues to use business communities depending on diversity factors. In this study the focus is set on the diversity factors age, gender, social media expertise, achievement motivation, and perceived locus of control over technology (ploc). First results revealed that the classical user diversity variables age and gender do not influence the motives to use business communities. In contrast technology related diversity factors and achievement motivation revealed correlations with usage motives (r > .3). The most important motives were the need for information and autonomy. Achievement motivation showed the strongest correlation with the need for social interaction (r = .51), indicating that highly motivated people can be motivated to use a SNS if it facilitates social interaction.
In: Procedia Manufacturing, (3), pp. 645–652, 2015
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At RWTH Aachen University the research cluster “Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” engages in advancing the polylemma of production. In many cases engineers and physicists develop simulation tools, machine interfaces, and data exploration tools but lack essential training in Human- Computer Interaction. Without proper training the interaction of visual, cognitive and task complexity can lead to solutions that are valuable only to the developers themselves, but are not usable without extensive training. We show the most critical ergonomic factors for developing software in a scientific engineering setting that focuses on complex problems. We present an overview of usability methods as well as complexity reduction methods and their applicability in engineering software design. We present an exemplary study for the case of supply chain management, where the approaches were successfully integrated into a serious game not only serving as an investigatory tool but also as a training utility for supply chain managers.
In: Proceedings 19th Triennial Congress of the IEA, pp. 14, 2015
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Interdisciplinary research and large research organizations such as research clusters represent an approach in tackling large complex problems that can not be satisfyingly be answered by individual researchers or disciplines. In order to support the collaboration in these organizations, measures must be taken to foster the flow of information between researchers. As one measure we present a collaboration support tool that helps researchers identify possible collaborators and understand the overall structure of the (often loosely coupled) research organization. Using a participatory design process we first generated requirements for such a solution and integrated them in a design study prototype. This prototype was then tested in a user study with researchers from a research cluster. As key benefits we identified the identification of new knowledge and the confirmation of existing knowledge, along with assistance in problem solving from our visualization. Analysis of results is done qualitatively and quantitatively. We evaluated the tool positively using the system usability scale (84.5) and the net-promoter score (80%). It was furthermore evaluated by the cluster COO, who frames the use of the tool from a managerial point of view and how it can be used in steering processes to ensure success of the overall venture.
In: Procedia Manufacturing, (3), pp. 363–370, 2015
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Mobile health apps make up an enormous market in mobile phone app stores. These apps allow automatic measurement of vital parameters and transmission of data to the doctor. Older users often reject mobile health apps for various reasons. We investigate the influence of several user factors on the willingness to use a health app integrated in a mobile phone vs. a stand-alone device. Furthermore we look into the modality for data transmission and its influence on the overall acceptance. In a questionnaire study (n=245) we ask both healthy and chronically ill (heart disease and diabetes) for their preferences. Using multiple linear regression analysis we found that the motives to use such a device influence the preference for an integrated device four times more strongly than the participants age. Still, the older the users are the more they prefer a stand-alone device.
In: International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, pp. 38–49, 2015
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Soziale Medien werden heutzutage sowohl in professionellen als auch privaten Kontexten genutzt. Hierbei formt insbesondere der private Nutzungskontext sowohl Nutzungsgewohnheiten als auch implizite und explizite Gründe der Nutzung. Die Wahrnehmung des Nutzers in Bezug auf den beruflichen Nutzungskontext ist bisher noch nicht völlig verstanden. Um die beiden Kontexte zu vergleichen, haben wir in einer Fragebogenstudie (N = 48) die Motivation zur Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken in einem Unternehmen untersucht. Hierfür wurden zentrale Nutzungsmotive, sowie motivierende Funktionen des Netzwerkes mit Nutzerdiversitätsfaktoren (Alter, Geschlecht, Social Media Erfahrung, Leistungsmotivation) und dem wahrgenommenen Teamklima in Beziehung gesetzt. Faktoren der Nutzerdiversität zeigten hierbei starke Einflüsse auf die Nutzungsmotivation, wogegen das Teamklima nahezu keine Auswirkung zeigte.
In: Exploring Demographics, Springer Spektrum, Wiesbaden, pp. 657–666, 2015
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Der demografische Wandel birgt – neben den in der Öffentlichkeit diskutierten negativen Aspekten – auch vielfältige Chancen und Möglichkeiten im Hinblick auf Innovationen in Unternehmen und der Gesellschaft. Konzentriert sich die Wissenschaft vielfach auf die Überalterung der Belegschaft, den prognostizierten Fachkräftemangel und die dadurch entstehenden Folgen für die Unternehmens- und Arbeitsorganisation, so werden in diesem Buch ergänzende Perspektiven aufgezeigt: die Digitalisierung und die dadurch möglichen Innovationen im Bereich der Unternehmenskommunikation und -kollaboration. Die im privaten Alltag gelebten Kommunikations- und Kollaborationsmöglichkeiten erhalten Einzug in die Unternehmenswelt und schaffen neue Möglichkeiten und Bedingungen für den Austausch und das Zusammenarbeiten von mehreren Personen innerhalb der Unternehmen. Die Nutzung Sozialer Technologien, wie bspw. Social-Software-Lösungen und (Experten-)Communitys innerhalb der Unternehmen, schaffen in Zeiten veränderter Arbeitszeitmodelle, räumlich getrennter Arbeitsplätze und veränderter Erwerbsbiografien ideale virtuelle Umgebungen zum Austausch, zur Sicherung und zur Erweiterung von Wissen der einzelnen Mitarbeiter. Abteilungsübergreifende Vernetzung und die offene Kommunikation zwischen Standorten haben bereits in vielen Unternehmen zu Effektivitäts- und Effizienzgewinnen innerhalb der Kommunikations-, Kollaborations- und Innovationsprozesse geführt. Diese Möglichkeiten, die sich durch die neuen technologischen Innovationen ergeben, dürfen in Unternehmen nicht durch starre IT-Prozesse und rechtliche Aspekte ausgebremst werden, sondern sollten durch eine Realisierung vielmehr zu einem Innovationsschub führen und zu der Sicherung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit des Wirtschaftsstandorts Deutschland beitragen.
In: Zukunft gestalten: Soziale Technologien in Organisationen in Zeiten des demografischen Wandels, FIR e.V. an der RWTH Aachen, pp. 13–17, 2015
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As a consequence of ongoing globalization processes and demographic change, many small and medium-sized companies face the problem of knowledge loss. To counteract this, companies are adopting Web 2.0 applications to accumulate and store the knowledge of their employees. However, little is known about the circumstances under which employees are willing to invest time in social media as a part of their work routine. Thus, this paper introduces an exploratory case study focusing the motivational factors that influence the use of an online expert community in business context. The results of the performed focus groups and interviews show that particularly intrinsic motivational factors are considered to be relevant. The attitude towards extrinsic motivational factors and related tangible motivational factors is highly controversial, whereas intangible motivational factors such as social and organizational motivational factors seem to have a positive impact on the motivation to use an intra- organizational online communities (OC). Supplementary motivational factors mentioned by the interviewees refer to the platform itself. Overall, the results indicate that the implementation of Web 2.0 applications in business contexts requires a tailored incentive system that suits to the company-specific requirements and takes into account the employees’ needs.
In: Advances in the Ergonomics in Manufacturing: Managing the enterprise of the future, Krak\‘ow, Orlando, FL: AHFE Conference, pp. 152–163, 2014
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A major challenge in modern data-centric medicine is the increasing amount of time-dependent data, which requires efficient user-friendly solutions for dealing with such data. To create an effective and efficient knowledge discovery process, it is important to support common data manipulation tasks by creating quick, responsive and intuitive interaction methods. In this paper we describe some methods for interactive longitudinal data visualization with focus on the usage of mobile multi-touch devices as interaction medium, based on our design and development experiences. We argue that when it comes to longitudinal data this device category offers remarkable additional interaction benefits compared to standard point-and-click desktop computer devices. An important advantage of multi-touch devices arises when interacting with particularly large longitudinal data sets: Complex, coupled interactions such as zooming into a region and scrolling around almost simultaneously is more easily achieved with the possibilities of a multi-touch device than compared to a regular mouse-based interaction device.
In: International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and Security, pp. 124–137, 2014
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The present work deals with the user-centered design process and its impact on technology acceptance of small screen devices for diabetics. The aim of this interdisciplinary work is to conceptualize a compact diabetes management assistant that meets the needs and requirements of its potential users. Moreover, a better understanding of the relationships of technical expertise, domain specificity, diversity and user acceptance should be obtained in relation to medical technology. Another research question deals with the purposeful endowment of acceptance: Can the user-centered design process, when it is accompanied by methods of technology acceptance research, systematically generate products that show more acceptability? How this can be achieved, is demonstrated in this work.
Apprimus Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-86359-239-4, 2014
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Interdisciplinary scientific cooperation plays a decisive role for the generation of new knowledge. The augmenting dynamic and complexity of scientific forms of cooperation require new approaches for interlinking people and knowledge from different disciplines to enable people for succeeding in interdisciplinary cooperation. Concerning the case of the cluster of excellence Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries at RWTH Aachen University this challenge is addressed by cross sectional processes (CSP). CSP are supporting networking processes and strategic cluster development by means of learning and knowledge management. Through cross-sectional activities, a new method for knowledge and organizational development was identified – scientific cooperation engineering. It aspires to support the transfer of highly complex, dynamic and interdisciplinary research cooperation into sustainable and robust structures. The design of scientific cooperation engineering will be outlined in this position paper.
In: Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2013 2014, Springer, Cham, pp. 103–109, 2014
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In this paper we introduce the Scientific Cooperation Portal (SCP), a social enterprise software, and how it is integrated into our process of Scientific Cooperation Engineering. This process is applied in a large-scale interdisciplinary research cluster to ensure and manage the success of the interdisciplinary cooperation of over 180 researchers in different qualification levels. We investigate the influence of shared method competencies as an exemplary driver for collaboration. From the results we address both offline and online measures to improve interdisciplinary collaboration. We show how the knowledge generated from offline measures such as colloquia are transferred to the SCP and connected with other data available on the portal. This includes the handling of interdisciplinary terminologies, the disposability of publications and technology data sheets. The portal fosters knowledge exchange, and interdisciplinary awareness within the research cluster as well as technology dissemination both within the cluster, across the university, and into industry. The effectiveness of the approach is continuously assessed using a traditional balanced scorecard approach as well as additional qualitative measures such as interviews and focus groups.
In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics, and Scientometrics (WIS) : 15th COLLNET Meeting, Ilmenau, Germany, 3-5 September 2014, pp. 77–86, 2014
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Since the success of social media in private usage settings, social media applications spread rapidly in the working context. In busi- ness internal contexts these applications seem useful as a measure for strategic knowledge management. Social media in this context promises to offer adequate facilities to support a systematic storage of knowledge as well as a support of knowledge exchange and communication in en- terprises. But since social media is only successful when used, the usage motivation of employees is one central key for their success. Therefore this paper focusses on the motivation to use social media profession- ally. To achieve this were are investigating the influence of user diversity factors such as age, gender, and social media expertise on aspects of us- age motivation. In a study with N=84 the employees of an enterprise were asked which reasons for using social media are relevant to them. Findings show that both factors age and gender reveal a relatively low influence on the factors evaluation of usage motives, tools (as a measure for motivation), and incentives/reinforcements for social network usage. In contrast both expertise with social media and achievement motivation revealed many correlations with both usage motives and tools as well as incentives and reinforcements.
In: International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, pp. 385–396, 2014
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The use of mobile computing is expanding dramatically in recent years and trends indicate that “the future is mobile”. Nowadays, mobile computing plays an increasingly important role in the biomedical domain, and particularly in hospitals. The benefits of using mobile devices in hospitals are no longer disputed and many applications for medical care are already available. Many studies have proven that mobile technologies can bring various benefits for enhancing information management in the hospital. But is mobility a solution for every problem? In this paper, we will demonstrate that mobility is not always an advantage. On the basis of a field study at the pediatric surgery of a large University Hospital, we have learned within a two-year long mobile computing project, that mobile devices have indeed many disadvantages, particularly in stressful and hectic situations and we conclude that mobile computing is not always advantageous.
In: International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and Security, pp. 110–123, 2014
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In large-scale research projects active management of the cooperation process is necessary, e.g. to ensure systematic transfer of knowledge, alignment of research goals, or appropriate dissemination of research efforts. In a large scale research-cluster at the RWTH Aachen University a cybernetic management approach is applied. As a planned measure, publishing efforts (i.e. bibliometric data) will be visualized on a social software platform accessible by researchers and the steering committee. But do researchers agree with the chosen style of visualization of their publications? As part of a user centered design, this paper presents the results of an interview study with researchers (n=22) addressing the usefulness and applicability of this approach. As central findings arguments for using the publication visualization are identified such as enabling retrospective analysis, acquiring new information about the team, improvement in dissemination planning, but at the same time contrasted by arguments against this approach, such as missing information, a possibly negative influence on workflow of researchers, and the bad legibility of the visualization. Additionally requirements and suggested improvements are presented.
In: International Conference on Human Interface and the Management of Information, pp. 298–309, 2014
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Kleine und mittlere Unternehmen werden zunehmend mit den Auswirkungen des demographischen Wandels (Ruhestandswelle hoch qualifizierter Experten) und sich verändernden Erwerbsbiografien (neue Arbeitszeitmodelle, hohe Mobilität, Telearbeit, Elternzeit, etc.) konfrontiert. Wie sich dies konkret auf Unternehmen auswirken kann und welche Möglichkeiten auf Unternehmensseite im Umgang mit diesen neuen Herausforderungen besteheh, ist Gegenstand des Projektes iNec - Innovation durch Experten-Communities im demographischen Wandel.
In: Zeitschrift für innovative Arbeitsgestaltung und Prävention, (3), 1, pp. 22–23, 2013
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Social media and social network sites (SNS) are a central medium for communication within the Internet. There has never been a faster possibility for information exchange across the globe with a compa- rable range and size of audience. So far, SNS are very popular in private communication. But can other fields of application profit from this role model? To find out more about the comparability of the two contexts (private and business) and to specify transferable design guidelines, we investigated the willingness to disclose private data in both private and business context, knowing that data disclosure is one significant success factor for SNS and communities. Therefore, an exploratory questionnaire study (N = 151) was designed. The focus of the study is based on the question whether there is a difference between the contexts and whether these differences are related to user diversity factors (age, gender, per- ceived locus of control over technology (PLoC), and personality traits according to Five Factor Model (FFM)). First results reveal that there is a significant difference between the two contexts that is hard to explain using only factors of user diversity.
In: Human factors in computing and informatics, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 174–193, 2013
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In order to stay globally competitive enterprises face an increasing pressure to be innovative. Furthermore, the rising complexity of new technologies forces enterprises into RnD-cooperations with third parties as technology development can often not be handled by one organization on its own. In spite of this need for technological innovations, lots of excellent research results from academia remain unexploited. The reason for this often lies in a lacking industrial partner for commercialization of developed technologies, which again is often caused by lacking visibility. Although several measures are taken to bridge the gap between research and industry, their success is not broadly achieved. In the past years, with the rising technical capabilities of modern Web 2.0 and social software technologies, several web-based platforms were built up in order to support technology transfer, and increase the visibility of the developed technologies at various research establishments. In this paper of ongoing research, different types of platforms are introduced and analyzed. Based on this analysis of existing platforms and the characterization of specific transfer situations we introduce a concept of a social technology transfer platform which is currently established within the Cluster of Excellence in Aachen “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries”.
In: Technology Management in the IT-Driven Services (PICMET), 2013 Proceedings of PICMET’13:, pp. 858–866, 2013
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Interdisciplinary research is currently the central scientific approach, assumed to be the answer to large-scale research problems (e.g., health and aging, economics and production in high wage countries). Although it is quite popular, there is still a lack of knowledge about how to measure, steer, support, and manage interdisciplinary success. This paper presents an approach to analyze, steer, and manage the structure and success of interdisciplinary cooperation by implementing a publication network visualization tool into an interdisciplinary research cluster. The presented study is an exploratory interview study addressing the significance of mixed node publication visualization usage within interdisciplinary teams. Members of a sample research group (N = 5) were asked to evaluate the publication visualization approach in order to find out more about the usefulness of such a tool for the interdisciplinary workflow. First results show that benefits of such a tool are seen in the ease of finding potential partners for cooperation. Barriers were seen, on one hand, in the limitation of parameters that can be visualized, and on the other hand, in effects that could follow an implementation (e.g., pressure to publish, competition between team members, etc.).
In: Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2013 IEEE International, pp. 1–8, 2013
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Today social media is used extensively in both private and professional contexts, with using habits and conventions shaped by the private using context. It is unknown how in the users perception professional social media usage might differ from the private context and which implicit or explicit etiquette criteria apply. With an empirical questionnaire approach (N=99, ages 20-59) we examined the impact of perceived formal correctness, formal politeness and workflow compatibility of social media applications (email, blog and chat) on the acceptance of social media in the working context. We additionally analyzed the impact of personality on users perceptions toward social media etiquette. Therefore we examined correlations between two Five Factor Model (FFM or Big Five) personality traits (conscientiousness and agreeableness) and requirements for formal correctness, formal politeness and compatibility. Linear regression shows that requirements for social media etiquette are strongly influenced by conscientiousness, age and social media expertise. Differences in etiquette are evaluated in regard to formal addressing, correct spelling, acronym and emoticon usage, work disruption and perceived urgency. Furthermore differences in etiquette between different media are explained.
In: Human factors in computing and informatics, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 427–446, 2013
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Many research problems are extremely complex, making in- terdisciplinary knowledge a necessity; consequently cooperative work in mixed teams is a common and increasing research procedure. In this pa- per, we evaluated information-theoretic network measures on publication networks. For the experiments described in this paper we used the net- work of excellence from the RWTH Aachen University, described in [1]. Those measures can be understood as graph complexity measures, which evaluate the structural complexity based on the corresponding concept. We see that it is challenging to generalize such results towards different measures as every measure captures structural information differently and, hence, leads to a different entropy value. This calls for exploring the structural interpretation of a graph measure [2] which has been a challenging problem.
In: International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and Security, pp. 354–362, 2013
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In: Translational twists and turns: Science as a socio-economic endeavor. Proceedings of STI 2013 Berlin – 18th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators., pp. 594–598, 2013
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Demographic change and the aging population push health and welfare system to its limits. Increased physical fitness and increased awareness for health issues will help elderly to live independently for longer and will thereby reduce the costs in the health care system. Exergames seem to be a promising solution for promoting physical fitness. Still, there is little evidence under what conditions Exergames will be accepted and used by elderly. To investigate promoting and hindering factors we conducted a user study with a prototype of an Exergame. We contrasted young vs. elderly players and investigated the role of gamer types, personality factors and technical expertise on the performance within the game and changes in the attitude towards individual health after the game. Surprisingly, performance within the game is not affected by performance motivation but by gamer type. More importantly, a universal positive effect on perceived pain is detected after the Exergame intervention.
In: Human factors in computing and informatics, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 349–362, 2013
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Die Innovationsfähigkeit eines Unternehmens ist bestimmend für dessen wirtschaftlichen Erfolg (Brenken/Gudergan 2010). Demnach sind innovative Unternehmen wirtschaftlich deutlich erfolgreicher als solche, deren Innovationsfähigkeit weniger stark ausgeprägt ist. Mehr noch: Eine hohe Innovationskraft bildet die Grundlage für langfristigen Erfolg. Innovationen entstehen dabei zu einem erheblichen Teil durch Mitarbeiter und Mitarbeiterinnen, die persönlich miteinander vernetzt sind, und zwar nicht nur innerhalb ihrer Abteilungen, sondern auch darüber hinaus. In formellen oder informellen Gesprächen und Treffen tauschen sie bewusst oder ganz beiläufig ihre Erfahrungen, ihre Ideen und ihr Wissen über Kunden oder Produkte aus, diskutieren und verknüpfen ihre Gedanken zu immer wieder neuen Lösungs- ansätzen. Allerdings führt die derzeitige Entwicklung unserer Gesellschaft immer mehr dazu, dass diese personengebundenen Vernetzungen aufbrechen. Sowohl die demografische Verschiebung als auch neue Formen der Arbeit werden in Zukunft die Erwerbsbiografien grundsätzlich verändern. Dies wird eine immer stärkere Auflösung traditioneller Formen des Miteinanders und der Vernetzung in der Arbeitswelt zur Folge haben (Steiner/Geyer 2010). Durch eine Ruhestandswelle aufgrund des Ausscheidens demografisch starker Jahrgänge aus dem aktiven Berufsleben wird dieser Trend in den nächsten Jahren noch dramatisch verschärft.
In: Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel : Beiträge der Demografietagung des BMBF im Wissenschaftjahr 2013, Campus Verlag, pp. 87–103, 2013
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Large-scale research problems (e.g. health and aging, eonomics and production in high-wage countries) are typically complex, needing competencies and research input of different disciplines [1]. Hence, cooperative working in mixed teams is a common research procedure to meet multi-faceted research problems. Though, interdisciplinarity is – socially and scientifically – a challenge, not only in steering cooperation quality, but also in evaluating the interdisciplinary performance. In this paper we demonstrate how using mixed-node publication network graphs can be used in order to get insights into social structures of research groups. Explicating the published element of cooperation in a network graph reveals more than simple co-authorship graphs. The validity of the approach was tested on the 3-year publication outcome of an interdisciplinary research group. The approach was highly useful not only in demonstrating network properties like propinquity and homophily, but also in proposing a performance metrics of interdisciplinarity. Furthermore we suggest applying the approach to a large research cluster as a method of self-management and enriching the graph with sociometric data to improve intelligibility of the graph.
In: International Conference on Active Media Technology, pp. 606–617, 2012
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In an increasingly faster paced innovative world, maintaining the ability to innovate in spite of an aging work force will become every company’s strongest leverage for success. Tapping the latent knowledge resources and creativity of overlooked employees and persisting crucial information for business conduct are promising results for social networking sites (SNS) in a working context. Usability and usefulness are exponential factors in creating a successful SNS. In order to make a SNS usable for a heterogeneous user group, analyses of user diversity in regard to social media need to be done. Furthermore differences in communication medium and frequency in regard to age, content, hierarchy position, departmental thresholds and company size need to be analyzed. For analysis purposes both qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied. Strong effects of age and communication content were found in survey with 194 participants.
In: Work, (41), Supplement 1, pp. 3459–3467, 2012
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There were 940 million social network users in 2010 in the world (Belleghem Van 2011). This fact makes social network sites (SNS) an integral part of the Internet. Knowing that health affairs are a central topic in the Internet makes this issue into an addressee for SNS. So-called health social network sites promise to be beneficial by lining up with the success of SNS like Facebook. Due to the fact that many promising technical approaches fail at the market, because of a lack of user acceptance we started an exploratory study to find out criteria for a successful health social network approach, improving health promotion. Being aware that health and health related information reveal special acceptance patterns, especially when provided via Internet, we wanted to define user-centered design criteria and acceptance requirements for a health SNS. Central findings show that neither age, gender, field of work nor private social media usage impact willingness to disclose personal health related information. Health related SNS are generally perceived positively (77%) but are more likely to be used as a source for professional information. Key issues like data security create a gap between willingness to share and willingness to consume information. Recommending a health SNS could only work if done by personal friends or the private physician. Commercial advertising or insurance company recommendations are rather distrusted.
In: Advances in Human Aspects of Healthcare, (79), 2012
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Interdisciplinary scientific cooperation plays a decisive role for the generation of new knowledge. The augmenting dynamic and complexity of scientific forms of cooperation require new approaches for interlinking people and knowledge from different disciplines to enable people for succeeding in interdisciplinary cooperation. Concerning the case of the cluster of excellence Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries at RWTH Aachen University this challenge is addressed by cross sectional processes (CSP). CSP are supporting networking processes and strategic cluster development by means of learning and knowledge management. Through cross-sectional activities, a new method for knowledge and organizational development was identified – scientific cooperation engineering. It aspires to support the transfer of highly complex, dynamic and interdisciplinary research cooperation into sustainable and robust structures. The design of scientific cooperation engineering will be outlined in this position paper.
In: Proceedings of ICERI2012 Conference, ISBN: 978-84-616-0763-1, 2012
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Technology acceptance is a widely acknowledged key player in explaining technology adoption. However, there is a notable knowledge gap concerning the impact of cultural factors on technology acceptance, especially in the medical sector. It is evident though that countries differ greatly regarding their technical proneness, development and usage habits what should have considerable impact on acceptance. This study compares the openness to accept medical technology in Germany, Poland and Turkey. 300 respondents (19-85 years, 56% women, 38% chronically ill) participated in a survey, in which the pros and cons for using medical technologies were examined as well as the underlying acceptance motives and utilization barriers. The effects of different cultures, but also of age, gender and health status were analyzed regarding their impact on acceptance patterns. Results reveal both, culturally insensitive as well culturally sensitive acceptance, with strong effects of gender and exercising frequency. Overall, the study corroborates the importance of cultural views on technology acceptance.
In: Symposium of the Austrian HCI and Usability Engineering Group, pp. 151–170, 2011
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Mobile small screen technology increasingly penetrates health care and medical applications. However, usability research regarding the ease of using these devices, as well as acceptance issues did mostly address aspects of IC-Technologies in younger and healthy users. This study investigates impacts of ageing and domain knowledge on user interaction using the example of diabetes. First, the software for the monitoring of diabetes had been developed and implemented on a PC. The simulated diabetes assistant was displayed on a small screen device as well as on a very large display, simulating an ambient assisted living environment. In a second step, the navigation behavior of younger and older diabetes patients as well as healthy users was assessed. Results show that age and display-size have a big impact on the device interaction, independently of domain knowledge. Furthermore, it was found that simple usage of a bigger screen could be helpful for tutoring patients in using a mobile electronic living assistant.
In: Information Society (i-Society), 2010 International Conference on, pp. 514–521, 2010
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Mobile small screen technology increasingly penetrates health care and medical applications. However, usability research regarding the ease of using these devices, as well as acceptance issues did mostly address aspects of IC-Technologies in younger and healthy users. This study investigates impacts of ageing, technological expertise and domain knowledge on user interaction using the example of diabetes. First, the software for the monitoring of diabetes had been developed and implemented on a PC. The simulated diabetes assistant was displayed on a small screen device as well as on a very large display, simulating an ambient assisted living environment. In a second step, the navigation behavior of younger and older diabetes patients as well as healthy users was assessed. Results show that age and display-size have a big impact on the device interaction, independently of domain knowledge. Furthermore, it was found that simple usage of a bigger screen could be helpful for tutoring patients in using a mobile electronic living assistant. In order to assess usability of the device acceptance was measured after the experiment and was found to be positivley correlated with effectiveness.
In: International Journal for Digital Society (IJDS), (1), 4, pp. 298–307, 2010
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Demographic change in regard to an aging population with an increasing amount of diabetes patients will put a strain on health care rentability in all modern societies. Electronic living assistants for diabetes patients might help lift the burden on taxpayers, if they are usable for the heterogeneous user group. Research has shown that correct mental models of device menu structures might help users in handling electronic devices. This exploratory study investigates construction and facilitation of spatial mental models for a menu structure of a diabetes living assistant and relates them to performance in usage of a device. Furthemore impact of age, domain knowledge and technical expertise on complexity and quality of the mental model are evaluated. Results indicate that even having a simplified spatial representation of the menu structure increases navigation performance. Interestingly not the overall correctness of the model was important for task success but rather the amount of route knowledge within the model.
In: Computers Helping People with Special Needs, pp. 584–591, 2010
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With the rise of mobile Internet and cloud computing new ubiquitous medical services will emerge coinciding with changes in demographics and social structures. Mobile e-health and Wellness applications can help relieving the burden of accelerating health care costs due to aging societies. In order to leverage these new innovations a holistic approach must be considered. Facilitating user centered design, acceptance models for user diversity and cultural as well as hedonic aspects can lead to development of services that improve therapy compliance and can even change the youth’s lifestyle. An overview of such applications is presented and put into a cultural context.
In: Pervasive Computing and Applications (ICPCA), 2010 5th International Conference on, pp. 38–45, 2010
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The poor general state of health of the Austrian youth – which is pos- sibly representative for the western industrial world – will have dramatic effects on our health care system in years to come. Health risks among adolescents, in- cluding smoking, alcohol, obesity, lack of physical activity and an unhealthy diet, will lead to an increase in chronic diseases. A preventive measure against such a development could be to reinforce health awareness through the use of web and mobile applications supporting self observation and behavior change. In this paper, we present an overview of the latest developments in the area of mobile wellness and take a look at the features of applications that constitutes the current state of the art, as well as their shortcomings and ways of overcom- ing these. Finally, we discuss the possibilities offered by new technological developments in the area of mobile devices and by incorporating the character- istics that make up the Web 2.0.
In: Symposium of the Austrian HCI and Usability Engineering Group, pp. 71–81, 2010
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Technology acceptance has become a key concept for the successful rollout of technical devices. Though the concept is intensively studied for nearly 20 years now, still, many open questions remain. This especially applies to technology acceptance of older users, which are known to be very sensitive to suboptimal interfaces and show considerable reservations towards the usage of new technology. Mobile small screen technology increasingly penetrates health care and medical applications. This study investigates impacts of aging, technology expertise and domain knowledge on user interaction using the example of diabetes. For this purpose user effectiveness and efficiency have been measured on a simulated small screen device and related to user characteristics, showing that age and technology expertise have a big impact on usability of the device. Furthermore, impacts of user characteristics and success during the trial on acceptance of the device were surveyed and analyzed.
In USAB 2009, 2009
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