Reports on the human factors considered in the design and implementation of a digital museum for historic costume. Starting with an elicitation and analysis of the qualitative and functional needs of its users, an evolutionary prototype was developed for a model of digital archiving that delivers a gratifying Web experience, visually and…

Fifty-two subjects participated in a study of attitudes toward typographic treatment in print advertising. Twenty variations of a basic ad layout, based on nine typographic variables (five for display type and four for body copy), were developed to reflect current trends in fashionable/conservative advertising typography. The subjects sorted the…

Research was conducted upon relationships between students' conceptual level (CL) and form of course organization (high/low structure) as it affects student attainment of course objectives. In addition, feelings toward the training organization were observed. Synectics training was conducted in which thirty-six undergraduate teacher trainees were…

Advertisers and other mass media communicators are interested in the potential cognitive and affective effects of various graphic designs, specifically relating to the recall of information and the attitude toward information presented. This study deals with the respondent's recall of information contained within an advertisement as well as the…

This paper describes the design of a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) World Wide Web site to act as a living documents repository for university accreditation. Topics addressed include: instructional design and development of a functional flowchart; interface design; and interactive elements, including bulletin boards and…

The usability test team examined design problems that limit the ability of instructors at the Indiana University to use data entry forms on the School of Education Web site. The forms permit instructors to publish information about themselves and about courses they teach on the School of Education Web site. Faculty and graduate student instructors…

Because the complex link and node structure awaiting users can lead them into becoming lost in hyperspace and cause them cognitive overload, navigating the hypertext system is often not an easy task, especially for novices. They may have difficulty perceiving a structure of an entire system, locating specific information, or using a navigational…

This paper addresses problems and issues that arise in electronic communications, and offers guidelines and etiquette. Topics covered include: (1) drafting an electronic message, including width of messages, abbreviations and smileys, salutation, name, author address, and responding to a message; (2) "Webtiquette" (i.e., guidelines for…

In order to discover reader reactions to color on a newspaper page, specifically eye movement and overall opinion of the paper, identical pages were created and printed by the "St. Petersburg Times" (Florida). The content of fifteen front pages, six lifestyles pages, and three sports front pages were nearly identical, differing only in the kind…

Using data from a previous study, this study investigated the adoption of modern graphic design techniques by daily newspapers. A scale of modern design was constructed from available literature and tested for internal validity by determining what design practices were included in sample papers. The scale was then used to test assumptions about…

This paper discusses the need for and the design requirements of generic chatroom software that is readily configurable to particular domains and that is also extensible. The architecture of a client/server chatroom generation system, ChatterBox, implemented in Java, is presented. The following components of ChatterBox are described: (1) the basic…

This paper presents a research project conducted by the Department of Information Science in cooperation with the Saarland Museum, the art museum of the Federal State of Saarland, Germany. The study had two aims. The first was to evaluate some methods of usability engineering for the Web, and the second was to evaluate the usability of the…

This paper reports the findings of an ongoing study of engagement in computer-based learning environments. The purpose of the study was to look at what engages people in computer games and to see how those patterns of engagement might be used within computer-based learning environments. The age of participants ranged from four to adulthood.…

Findings from a study of users' multitasking searches on Web search engines include: multitasking searches are a noticeable user behavior; multitasking search sessions are longer than regular search sessions in terms of queries per session and duration; both Excite and AlltheWeb.com users search for about three topics per multitasking session and…

This article describes the evolution of computer interface research issues from text-based interface design guidelines to more complex issues, including media selection, interface design, and visual design. This research is then integrated into the Analysis-based Message Design (AMD) process. The AMD process divides the interface design process…