Based on experiences of the Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute, Indiana, this article outlines ways libraries can attract patrons to their Web sites and features that can keep them returning. Discusses marketing and publicity; basic content and special sources and services; attractive and easy-to-use site design; good Web site maintenance;…

Discusses the design of an innovative learning system that uses new technologies for the man-machine interface, incorporating a combination of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text To Speech (TTS) synthesis. Highlights include using speech technologies to mimic the attributes of the ideal tutor and design features. (AEF)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore both accessibility and usability and examine the inhibitors and methods to evaluate site accessibility. Design techniques which improve end-user access and site interactivity, demonstrated by practical examples, are also studied. Design/methodology/approach: Assesses various web sites for…

The following study investigates the relative importance of Web management practices in business curricular pedagogy from an undergraduate student perspective. Using conjoint methodology, the results suggest that students early in their program of studies tend to most value (more) tests in terms of course attributes, while students later in their…

Today we are confronted with a new challenge in product development: "Diversity" needs to be implemented in the engineering design and development teams. Such diversity means to "mirror" within the teams the characteristics of different customer groups: the two genders, the different age groups, and the different cultural…

Think of New England higher education and one probably thinks of ivy-covered brick or perhaps 1950s concrete, but the environment of New England's college campuses is far more diverse, more complex, more daring, and more educational than the stereotype. It is changing fast, thanks to profound forces such as consumerization among students,…

What would it take for libraries to provide their patrons with the same kind of success in finding information using their resources as they achieve with Google, and as quickly? This author asserts that the answer is not that complicated: be more like Google, and then move beyond Google. With the technology available right now, this is not an…

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their…

Although there are efforts to equalize educational methods and materials, some differences between males and females may be better served by emphasizing rather than neutralizing gender. One such point is in the area of visual imagery. Studies have shown that imagery preferred by males and females differs in certain visual characteristics. The…

In addition to serving as executive enclosures, offices illustrate organizational goals and reflect the communication climate of the organization. Traditional office designs accentuate personal territory, in which communication is largely controlled by the occupant of the office, and space often becomes a symbol of status. One of the first major…

This study compared the effects of computer and print text density on learning using 48 undergraduate teacher education majors as subjects. Three separate studies tested the effects of text density and presentation modes (print or computer), learner control, and screen density. Dependent variables for the first two studies--which were…

Detailed information concerning the kinds and quantities of possessions of a representative group of University of California students is presented. The findings permit appraisal of the degree of effectiveness of existing student storage elements. Inventory questionnaires were distributed to single students on four University of California…

Findings from a study of living accommodations for young people are given in the first part. Features are identified that are regarded as important by management and residents. Suggestions are made as to how user response may be predicted and the responses of the residents to eight schemes are examined in detail. Also considered are--(1) the…

Discusses informational books for children, how they have improved, and how to teach children to select the book best suited to their purpose and gather pertinent information from it. Notes that well-designed books have an attractive format, adequate white space and margins, and thoughtful placement of illustrations and text. (SRT)

Using a participatory approach, 11 middle school children created paper prototypes for Web search engines. The prototypes were analyzed in relation to content-related spaces, specific spaces, general spaces, instruction spaces, and other spaces. Children's comments about the purposes of the interfaces were analyzed in terms of functionality and…