12351696
The importance of affective quality
Users aren't always rational logical beings---emotion plays an often overlooked role in user acceptance of technology.
1522370
A two factor theory for Website design
This study was designed to verify whether an analogy to Herzberg's hygiene-motivational theory about workplace could be used in the Web environment. According to this analogy, the presence of hygiene factors would provide the basic functionality of a Web site, while their absence would create user dissatisfaction. Motivating factors are those that contribute to user satisfaction. They add additional value and may entice users to keep returning to a Web site. In Phase I, we identified 44 core features in the Web environment that were classified into 12 categories by subjects. In Phase II, a different group of subjects in a pilot study were asked to distinguish between the hygiene and motivational characteristics of these features and categories. The preliminary results show that 4 categories and 14 features were judged to be primarily motivational, while 3 categories and 13 features were perceived to be primarily hygiene in nature. The remaining 5 categories and 17 features were perceived to be both.
6107762
Re-examining IT Enabled Change with a New Model of the Information Field: The Tiger Creek Case
This paper demonstrates the application of a new model of the information field (I-model) (Zhang & Benjamin 2006) to deconstructing case studies in the information field so that they can be easily analyzed, understood and compared. The expense tracking system at Tiger Creek case (Zuboff & Bronsema 1984) is selected owing to it beings historically important in illustrating various issues brought by informated change (Zuboff 1989), and changes in the traditional command and control process (Benjamin & Levinson 1993). Our re-examination of the case using the I-model highlights the dynamics and complex issues resulted when access to information modifies the power relationships in organizations that seem ever present in IT implementations. It also sheds new insight on research in IT-enabled change. We conclude that the I-model can provide a framework for analyzing other cases in the information field
2843157
Expectations and rankings of Web site quality features: results of two studies on user perceptions
In the emerging electronic environment, the creation of customer-centered Web sites is becoming increasingly important. We report on two exploratory studies on user perceptions of using Web sites. We first use Kano's (1984) Model of Quality to conduct an investigation of quality features in the Web environment. An independently conducted study later expands the first study by addressing several limitations. The results of both studies suggest that: the Kano quality model can be used as a framework to control Web site quality in terms of three quality types and the time transition of the quality nature; not every feature is regarded as equally important within a Web domain; and different domains have different rankings of important features, although there are certain features that are regarded as highly important among domains studied. These studies provide some empirical evidence on user perceptions of Web site quality features and lead to further theoretical investigations.
27857321
Human-computer interaction research in the management information systems discipline
Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) crosses various disciplines, including Management Information Systems (MIS), Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Information Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology (Nah et al., 2005). Recent years have witnessed a steady growth of HCI research in the MIS discipline (Zhang et al., 2002; Zhang and Dillon 2003; Zhang et al., 2004; Nah et al., 2005; Zhang and Li, 2005; Zhang et al., 2005). HCI has become an important theme at major MIS conferences while cross-disciplinary research in HCI is also increasing. In this special section, we showcase exemplary HCI research in MIS. It is our hope that the sharing of these works with the HCI community in other disciplines will help to develop more synergy across areas.
5702445
The role of moderating factors in user technology acceptance
Along with increasing investments in new technologies, user technology acceptance becomes a frequently studied topic in the information systems discipline. The last two decades have seen user acceptance models being proposed, tested, refined, extended and unified. These models have contributed to our understanding of user technology acceptance factors and their relationships. Yet they have also presented two limitations: the relatively low explanatory power and inconsistent influences of the factors across studies. Several researchers have recently started to examine the potential moderating effects that may overcome these limitations. However, studies in this direction are far from being conclusive. This study attempts to provide a systematic analysis of the explanatory and situational limitations of existing technology acceptance studies. Ten moderating factors are identified and categorized into three groups: organizational factors, technological factors and individual factors. An integrative model is subsequently established, followed by corresponding propositions pertaining to the moderating factors.
10549314
The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR): a model organism database providing a centralized, curated gateway to Arabidopsis biology, research materials and community
Arabidopsis thaliana is the most widely-studied plant today. The concerted efforts of over 11 000 researchers and 4000 organizations around the world are generating a rich diversity and quantity of information and materials. This information is made available through a comprehensive on-line resource called the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) (http://arabidopsis.org), which is accessible via commonly used web browsers and can be searched and downloaded in a number of ways. In the last two years, efforts have been focused on increasing data content and diversity, functionally annotating genes and gene products with controlled vocabularies, and improving data retrieval, analysis and visualization tools. New information include sequence polymorphisms including alleles, germplasms and phenotypes, Gene Ontology annotations, gene families, protein information, metabolic pathways, gene expression data from microarray experiments and seed and DNA stocks. New data visualization and analysis tools include SeqViewer, which interactively displays the genome from the whole chromosome down to 10 kb of nucleotide sequence and AraCyc, a metabolic pathway database and map tool that allows overlaying expression data onto the pathway diagrams. Finally, we have recently incorporated seed and DNA stock information from the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) and implemented a shopping-cart style on-line ordering system.
23861564
Boundary vertices in graphs
The distance d(u, v) between two vertices u and v in a nontrivial connected graph G is the length of a shortest u-v path in G. For a vertex v of G, the eccentricity e(v) is the distance between v and a vertex farthest from v. A vertex v of G is a peripheral vertex if e(v) is the diameter of G. The subgraph of G induced by its peripheral vertices is the periphery Per(G) of G. A vertex u of G is an eccentric vertex of a vertex v if d(u, v)= e(v). A vertex x is an eccentric vertex of G if x is an eccentric vertex of some vertex of G. The subgraph of G induced by its eccentric vertices is the eccentric subgraph Ecc(G) of G. A vertex u of G is a boundary vertex of a vertex v if d(w,v) ≤ d(u,v) for all w ∈ N(u). A vertex u is a boundary vertex of G if u is a boundary vertex of some vertex of G. The subgraph of G induced by its boundary vertices is the boundary ∂(G) of G. A graph H is a boundary graph if H = ∂(G) for some graph G. We study the relationship among the periphery, eccentric subgraph, and boundary of a connected graph and establish a characterization of all boundary graphs. It is shown that per each triple a, b, c of integers with 2 ≤ a ≤ b ≤ c, there is a connected graph G such that Per(G) has order a, Ecc(G) has order b, and ∂(G) has order c. Moreover, for each triple r,s,t of rational numbers with 0 < r ≤ s ≤ t ≤ 1, there is a connected graph G of order n such that |V(Per(G))|/n=r, |V(Ecc(G))|/n = s, and |V(∂(G))| n=t.
6799021
Task-based interaction with an integrated multilingual, multimedia information system: a formative evaluation
This paper describes a formative evaluation of an integrated multilingual, multimedia information system, a series of user studies designed to guide system development. The system includes automatic speech recognition for English, Chinese, and Arabic, automatic translation from Chinese and Arabic into English, and query-based and profile-based search options. The study design emphasizes repeated evaluation with the same (increasingly experienced) participants, exploration of alternative task designs, rich qualitative and quantitative data collection, and rapid analysis to provide the timely feedback needed to support iterative and responsive development. Results indicate that users presented with materials in a language that they do not know can generate remarkably useful work products, but that integration of transcription, translation, search and profile management poses challenges that would be less evident were each technology to be evaluated in isolation.
6793819
Convexity in oriented graphs
For vertices u and v in an oriented graph D, the closed interval I[u,v] consists of u and v together with all vertices lying in a u−v geodesic or v−u geodesic in D. For S⊆V(D), I[S] is the union of all closed intervals I[u,v] with u,v∈S. A set S is convex if I[S]=S. The convexity number con(D) is the maximum cardinality of a proper convex set of V(D). The nontrivial connected oriented graphs of order n with convexity number n−1 are characterized. It is shown that there is no connected oriented graph of order at least 4 with convexity number 2 and that every pair k, n of integers with 1⩽k⩽n−1 and k≠2 is realizable as the convexity number and order, respectively, of some connected oriented graph. For a nontrivial connected graph G, the lower orientable convexity number con−(G) is the minimum convexity number among all orientations of G and the upper orientable convexity number con+(G) is the maximum such convexity number. It is shown that con+(G)=n−1 for every graph G of order n⩾2. The lower orientable convexity numbers of some well-known graphs are determined, with special attention given to outerplanar graphs.
44929965
On the planarity of jump graphs
Abstract For a graph G of size m⩾1 and edge-induced subgraphs F and H of size k ( 1⩽k⩽m ), the subgraph H is said to be obtained from F by an edge jump if there exist four distinct vertices u,v,w, and x in G such that uv∈E(F) , wx∈E(G)−E(F) , and H=F−uv+wx . The minimum number of edge jumps required to transform F into H is the k -jump distance from F to H . For a graph G of size m⩾1 and an integer k with 1⩽k⩽m , the k -jump graph J k (G) is that graph whose vertices correspond to the edge-induced subgraphs of size k of G and where two vertices of J k (G) are adjacent if and only if the k -jump distance between the corresponding subgraphs is 1. All connected graphs G for which J 2 (G) is planar are determined.