Introduction to Volume 3, Issue 3

Welcome to the third issue of volume 3 of JUS! Our invited essay by Dr. Deborah Mayhew adds a new and different perspective on the evolution of the usability practice. Deborah has been around for quite some time, and has had an active and influential role in the shaping of the discipline. In her essay, […] [Read More]

User Experience Design: The Evolution of a Multi-disciplinary Approach

An Early and Brief History of Software Engineering The following sections present the history of software engineering in the 1960’s through the 1980’s. The 60’s and 70’s In the beginning (let’s say in the late 1960’s), there were programmers. Period. There was little or no real division of labor or specialization in the software development […] [Read More]

An Empirical Investigation of Color Temperature and Gender Effects on Web Aesthetics

Abstract Limited research exists on the relevance of hedonic dimensions of human-computer interaction to usability, with only a small set of this research being empirical in nature. Furthermore, previous research has obtained mixed support for gender differences regarding perceptions of attractiveness and usability in Web site design. This empirical research addresses the above gap by […] [Read More]

A Study of the Effect of Thumb Sizes on Mobile Phone Texting Satisfaction

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of participants’ varying thumb sizes in relation to the experience of using mobile phone keypads for sending text messages. The keypad design factors considered in the study were key size, shape, texture, space between keys, layout, and simplicity. One hundred and ten people participated in the study. Their age […] [Read More]

Examining Users on News Provider Web Sites: A Review of Methodology

Abstract This project implemented and reviewed several methods to collect data about users’ information seeking behavior on news provider Web sites. While browsing news sites, participants exhibited a tendency toward a breadth-first search approach where they used the home page or a search results page as a hub to which they returned and then linked […] [Read More]