Search Results (77)

In January 2023, Wikipedia introduced its most significant user interface (UI) redesign in over a decade, aiming to improve readability, accessibility, and navigation across devices. Despite the scale of this change, little empirical work has assessed its actual impact on user behavior. This study employs a natural experiment framework, leveraging Wikipedia’s exogenous, site-wide redesign date and large-scale, publicly available data—including clickstream, pageview, and edit histories—to evaluate user experience before and after the change. Using a quasi-experimental design, we estimate an immediate jump of ~1.06 million monthly internal link clicks at launch, while average hourly pageviews in January rose 1.25% despite a one-time –1.79 million dip at rollout. These results highlight the potential of large-scale UI changes to reshape user interaction without broadly alienating users and demonstrate the value of quasi-experimental methods for Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Our approach offers a replicable framework for evaluating real-world design interventions at scale. Full article

Research on extreme environmental exploration using unmanned robots has recently attracted significant attention. In particular, unmanned robot exploration in vast areas such as Antarctica requires a system capable of remotely monitoring and controlling multiple robots. This paper proposes an integrated control system designed to monitor, control, and assign exploration tasks to multiple robots operating in extreme environments. This system utilizes GPS-based collaboration to support specific tasks, such as crevasse exploration and automatic battery charging, in Antarctic target areas. The system’s user interface (UI) is designed for efficiency and integrates elements such as remote control and mission execution commands tailored to the Antarctic environment. The proposed system was implemented using three robot platforms, and through performance evaluation tests in Antarctica, it achieved a cumulative driving distance of over 500 km and over 200 h of operation for over a month. The successful execution of simultaneous crevasse exploration by three robots highlights the system’s capability for coordinated multi-robot operations in extreme environments. Full article

Background/Objective: The global acceleration of population aging presents profound challenges to the physical, psychological, and social well-being of older adults. As traditional exercise programs face limitations in accessibility, personalization, and sustained social support, there is a critical need for innovative, inclusive, and community-integrated digital movement solutions. This study aimed to develop and evaluate Movement Poomasi, a hybrid digital healthcare application designed to promote physical activity, improve digital accessibility, and strengthen social connectedness among older adults. Methods: From March 2023 to November 2023, Movement Poomasi was developed through an iterative user-centered design process involving domain experts in physical therapy and sports psychology. In this study, the term UI/UX—short for user interface and user experience—refers to the overall design and interaction framework of the application, encompassing visual layout, navigation flow, accessibility features, and user engagement optimization tailored to older adults’ sensory, cognitive, and motor characteristics. The application integrates adaptive exercise modules, senior-optimized UI/UX, voice-assisted navigation, and peer-interaction features to enable both home-based and in-person movement engagement. A two-phase usability validation was conducted. A 4-week pilot test with 15 older adults assessed the prototype, followed by a formal 6-week study with 50 participants (≥65 years), stratified by digital literacy and activity background. Quantitative metrics—movement completion rates, session duration, and engagement with social features—were analyzed alongside semi-structured interviews. Statistical analysis included ANOVA and regression to examine usability and engagement outcomes. The application has continued iterative testing and refinement until May 2025, and it is scheduled for re-launch under the name Wello! in August 2025. Results: Post-implementation UI refinements significantly increased navigation success rates (from 68% to 87%, p = 0.042). ANOVA revealed that movement selection and peer-interaction tasks posed greater cognitive load (p < 0.01). A strong positive correlation was found between digital literacy and task performance (r = 0.68, p < 0.05). Weekly participation increased by 38%, with 81% of participants reporting enhanced social connectedness through group challenges and hybrid peer-led meetups. Despite high satisfaction scores (mean 4.6 ± 0.4), usability challenges remained among low-literacy users, indicating the need for further interface simplification. Conclusions: The findings underscore the potential of hybrid digital platforms tailored to older adults’ physical, cognitive, and social needs. Movement Poomasi demonstrates scalable feasibility and contributes to reducing the digital divide while fostering active aging. Future directions include AI-assisted onboarding, adaptive tutorials, and expanded integration with community care ecosystems to enhance long-term engagement and inclusivity. Full article

Face recognition technology is a biometric technology, which is based on the identification or verification of facial features. Automatic face recognition is an active research field in the context of computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) that is fundamental for a variety of real-time applications. In this research, the design and implementation of a face verification and identification system of a flexible, modular, secure, and scalable architecture is proposed. The proposed system incorporates several and various types of system components: (i) portable capabilities (mobile application and mixed reality [MR] glasses), (ii) enhanced monitoring and visualization via a user-friendly Web-based user interface (UI), and (iii) information sharing via middleware to other external systems. The experiments showed that such interconnected and complementary system components were able to perform robust and real-time results related to face identification and verification. Furthermore, to identify a proper model of high accuracy, robustness, and performance speed for face identification and verification tasks, a comprehensive evaluation of multiple face recognition pre-trained models (FaceNet, ArcFace, Dlib, and MobileNetV2) on a curated version of the ID vs. Spot dataset was performed. Among the models used, FaceNet emerged as a preferable choice for real-time tasks due to its balance between accuracy and inference speed for both face identification and verification tasks achieving AUC of 0.99, Rank-1 of 91.8%, Rank-5 of 95.8%, FNR of 2% and FAR of 0.1%, accuracy of 98.6%, and inference speed of 52 ms. Full article

In wireless communications and radio frequency courses, Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) offer students hands-on experience with software-based signal processing on programmable hardware platforms such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). While some remote SDR laboratories enable students to access real hardware, they typically lack support for Partial Reconfiguration (PR)—a powerful FPGA capability that allows sections of a design to be reconfigured at runtime without disrupting the main system operation. This capability enhances real-time adaptability and optimizes resource utilization, making it highly relevant for modern SDR applications. This study addresses this gap by extending an existing SDR remote lab to support PR, enabling students to explore reconfigurable hardware design within a remote learning environment. Two integration architectures were developed: one based on a graphical user interface (UI) and another utilizing a command-line workflow, both accessible via a web browser. Preliminary experiments using Red Pitaya SDR platforms—reportedly the first use of these devices for educational PR exploration—examined the impact of PR on logic resource utilization and total power consumption across three levels of design complexity. These results were compared to equivalent static FPGA designs performing the same functionality without PR. By making PR experimentation accessible through a remote platform, this work enhances STEM education by bridging advanced FPGA techniques with practical learning. It will equip students with industry-relevant skills for developing agile, resource-efficient wireless systems and foster a deeper understanding of adaptive hardware design. Full article

Traditional Extended Reality (XR) and Metaverse applications focus heavily on User Experience (UX) but often overlook the role of emotions in user interaction. This article addresses that gap by presenting an emotion-aware Metaverse application: a Virtual Reality (VR) fire drill simulator for shipboard emergency training. The simulator detects emotions in real time, assessing trainees’ responses under stress to improve learning outcomes. Its architecture incorporates eye-tracking and facial expression analysis via Meta Quest Pro headsets. Two experimental phases were conducted. The first revealed issues like poor navigation and lack of visual guidance. These insights led to an improved second version with a refined User Interface (UI), a real-time task tracker and clearer visual cues. The obtained results showed that the included design improvements can reduce task completion times between 14.18% and 32.72%. Emotional feedback varied, suggesting a need for more immersive elements. Overall, this article provides useful guidelines for creating the next generation of emotion-aware Metaverse applications. Full article

The advantages of mHealth applications have been widely recognized. However, the existing literature rarely explores how user interface (UI) design and individual cultural values influence elderly users’ mHealth application stickiness, particularly among the young elderly. This study examines how two UI design attributes (usability and aesthetics) and individual uncertainty avoidance (from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions) influence elderly users’ stickiness to mHealth applications. The study used PLS-SEM to analyze survey data from 492 elderly people in China. The research results indicate that uncertainty avoidance cultural values are negatively correlated with psychological engagement. The UI design attributes (aesthetic and usability) are positively correlated with psychological engagement, with learnability (usability sub-attributes) having the most significant impact. Furthermore, the study also reveals the serial mediation role of psychological engagement and user internal experiences (satisfaction and attachment). Notably, this study enriches the current literature on user behavior regarding mHealth applications by elucidating the process of user stickiness, incorporating UI design attributes and individual uncertainty avoidance cultural values. These findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights. Full article

This paper presents an interactive online e-portal development and application using Shiny/R version 4.4.0 programming for personalised varifocal lens surface design and manufacturing in an agile and responsive manner. Varifocal lenses are specialised lenses that provide clear vision at both far and near distances. The user interface (UI) of the e-portal application creates an environment for customers to input their eye prescription data and geometric parameters to visualise the result of the designed freeform varifocal lens surface, which includes interactive 2D contour plots and 3D-rendered diagrams for both left and right eyes simultaneously. The e-portal provides a unified interactive platform where users can simultaneously access both the specialised Copilot demo web for lenses and the main Shiny/R version 4.4.0 programming app, ensuring seamless integration and an efficient process flow. Additionally, the data points of the 3D-designed surface are automatically saved. In order to check the performance of the designed varifocal lens before production, it is remodelled in the COMSOL Multiphysics 6.2 modelling and analysis environment. Ray tracing is built in the environment for the lens design assessment and is then integrated with the lens additive manufacturing (AM) using a Formlabs 3D printer (Digital Fabrication Center (DFC), London, UK). The results are then analysed to further validate the e-portal-driven personalised design and manufacturing approach. Full article

As graphical user interfaces continue to become more complex; it is becoming increasingly important for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers to understand how design elements influence user attention. This study investigates the impact of button shape on user perception, focusing on shape preferences, attention distribution, and perceived pleasantness. To isolate the effect of shape, buttons with five different corner radii (completely angular to completely curved) were presented without contextual influences in a pairwise comparison. The research combined eye-tracking technology with digital questionnaires to collect both objective and subjective data. The results obtained revealed a preference for buttons with moderate corner radii, while buttons with completely angular corners received the least attention and were the least favored. Notably, discrepancies emerged between subjective preferences and objective attention rankings, particularly for wireframe buttons. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of eye-tracking in UI/UX design studies and provides valuable insights into the relationship between attention and preference for abstract design elements. The findings offer fundamental theory for creating more intuitive and effective graphical user interfaces, while also highlighting the limitation and importance of examining design elements within relevant contexts in future studies. Full article

The Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) security system follows the “never trust, always verify” principle. The process constantly verifies users and devices trying to access resources. This paper describes how Microsoft Azure uses ZTA to enforce strict identity verification and access rules across the cloud environment to improve security. Implementation takes time and effort. Azure’s extensive services and customizations require careful design and implementation. Azure administrators need help navigating and changing configurations due to its complex user interface (UI). Each Azure ecosystem component must meet ZTA criteria. ZTAs comprehensive policy definitions, multi-factor and passwordless authentication, and other advanced features are tested in a mid-size business scenario. The document delineates several principal findings concerning the execution of Azure’s ZTA within mid-sized enterprises. Azure ZTA significantly improves security by reducing attack surfaces via ongoing identity verification, stringent access controls, and micro-segmentation. Nonetheless, its execution is resource-demanding and intricate, necessitating considerable expertise and meticulous planning. A notable disparity exists between theoretical ZTA frameworks and their practical implementation, characterized by disjointed management interfaces and user fatigue resulting from incessant authentication requests. The case studies indicate that although Zero Trust Architecture enhances organizational security and mitigates risks, it may disrupt operations and adversely affect user experience, particularly in hybrid and fully cloud-based settings. The study underscores the necessity for customized configurations and the equilibrium between security and usability to ensure effective ZTA implementation. Full article

Companies have tried to innovate in their training processes to increase their productivity indicators, reduce equipment maintenance costs, and improve the work environment. The use of Augmented Reality (AR) has been one of the implemented strategies to upgrade training processes, since it optimizes, through User Interface (UI) Design, experiences designed for users (UX) that are focused on education and training contexts. This research describes the definition and implementation of an IT architecture based on the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 standard using the Zachman and Kruchten frameworks. The methodological proposal presents an architecture seen from a business perspective, taking into account the strategic and technological components of the organization under a strategic alignment approach. The result is a six-layer architecture: The Government Strategy Layer (1) that accounts for the strategic component; the Business Layer (2) that presents the business management perspective; the Information Layer (4) that defines the metrics system: efficiency through task time, effectiveness through tasks completed, and satisfaction with overall satisfaction. In the Data Layer (4), the data collected with the metrics are structured in an industrial scenario with a cylinder turning process on a Winston Lathe. The experiment was carried out with two groups of 272 participants. In the Systems and Applications Layer (5), two applications were designed: a web client and a mobile application with augmented reality, and finally, the Networks and Infrastructure Layer (6), which delivers the two functional applications. The architecture validation was carried out using the mobile application. The analysis of the results showed a significance value of less than 0.001 in the three indicators: efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction in the Levene test and Student’s t-test. To corroborate the results, a test of equality of means with the Mann–Whitney U was carried out, showing that the three indicators presented significantly different values in the two experimental groups of this study. Thus, the group trained with the application obtained better results in the three indicators. The proposed architecture is adaptable to other training contexts. Information, data, and systems and application layers allowed for the exchange of training processes so that the augmented reality application is updated according to the new requirements. Full article

The paper presents an innovative virtual reality (VR)-based environment for personalized telerehabilitation programs. This environment integrates a parallel robotic structure designed for the lower limb rehabilitation of patients with neuromotor disabilities and a virtual patient. The robotic structure is controlled via a user interface (UI) that communicates with the VR environment via the TCP/IP protocol. The robotic structure can also be operated using two controllers that communicate with a VR headset via the Bluetooth protocol. Through these two controllers, the therapist demonstrates to the patient various exercises that the robotic system can perform. With the right-hand controller, the therapist guides exercises for the hip and knee, while the left-hand controller manages ankle exercises. The therapist remotely designs a rehabilitation plan for patients at home, defining exercises, interacting with the rehabilitation robot in real-time via the VR headset and the two controllers, and initiating therapy sessions. The user interface allows monitoring of patient progress through video feedback, electromyography (EMG) sensors, and session recording. Full article

Understanding document layouts is vital for enhancing document exploration and information retrieval for sighted individuals. However, for blind and visually impaired people, it becomes challenging to have access to layout information using typical assistive technologies such as screen readers. In this paper, we examine the potential benefits of presenting documents on two-dimensional (2D) refreshable tactile displays. These displays enable the tactile perception of 2D data, offering the advantage of dynamic and interactive functionality. Despite their potential, the development of user interfaces (UIs) for such displays has not advanced significantly. Thus, we propose a design of an intelligent tactile user interface (TUI), incorporating touch and audio feedback to represent documents in a tactile format. Our exploratory study for evaluating this approach revealed satisfaction from participants with the experience of directly viewing documents in their true form, rather than relying on screen-reading interpretations. Additionally, participants offered recommendations for incorporating additional features and refining the approach in future iterations. To facilitate further research and development, we have made our dataset and models publicly available. Full article

Multidimensional enterprise performance characteristics (enterprise operational data, financial transactions records) are stored in the company’s database (warehouse), and their volume and variety are huge. Financial transaction data are directly and indirectly related to value chain processes, various physical objects of activity, and their attributes. There are data mining (DM) and process mining (PM) methods for analyzing enterprise operational data and identifying deficiencies in business process management. There is a need to find new user experience (UX)-driven methods for user interface with the specification of DM and PM tools on the level of business process management concepts. The paper presents the UX design-based approach to designing the user interface (UI) of process mining and data mining systems and is based on a conceptual semantic model named financial data space (FDS). The peculiarity of FDS is that it can include the characteristics of financial data and other UX-related characteristics (events, environmental and internal changes, business location) that may have an impact on changes in the values of financial objects (FO). The presented multidimensional financial data model helps increase the possibility of uncovering management weaknesses by identifying anomalies in large amounts of financial data. The prototypes of components of the financial data analysis system are described and developed using the process mining tool. The presented method of a multidimensional representation of financial data and transformation into a PM project is a user-friendly solution that allows to increase the analytical capabilities of the auditor’s work with large amounts of data, providing a more flexible view of the financial indicators of the company’s activity. Full article

Edge-assisted IoT technologies combined with conventional industrial processes help evolve diverse applications under the Industrial IoT (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 era by bringing cloud computing technologies near the hardware. The resulting innovations offer intelligent management of the industrial ecosystems, focusing on increasing productivity and reducing running costs by processing massive data locally. In this research, we design, develop, and implement an IIoT and edge-based system to monitor the energy consumption of a factory floor’s stationary and mobile assets using wireless and wired energy meters. Once the edge receives the meter’s data, it stores the information in the database server, followed by the data processing method to find nine additional analytical parameters. The edge also provides a master user interface (UI) for comparative analysis and individual UI for in-depth energy usage insights, followed by activity and inactivity alarms and daily reporting features via email. Moreover, the edge uses a data-filtering technique to send a single wireless meter’s data to the cloud for remote energy and alarm monitoring per project scope. Based on the evaluation, the edge server efficiently processes the data with an average CPU utilization of up to 5.58% while avoiding measurement errors due to random power failures throughout the day. Full article