Yang, Lu (2015) An Activity Theory Evaluation of a User Interface for a Web-based Virtual Research Environment (VRE). Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

Activity Theory is a framework or descriptive tool which is commonly used in Human-computer Interaction. In particular, it is used more and more in the design and evaluation of some collaborative systems such as a modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment. Activity Theory offers many advantages to interface design for interactive systems when compared with the traditional cognitive psychology approach. This is because the traditional cognitive method cannot penetrate the human side. Therefore, the thorough analysis of human activities in Activity Theory makes it an effective and efficient method for evaluation and design of a system. There is currently some ongoing research work on the design or evaluation of interactive systems, in particular commercial information systems. However, none of them are about online virtual research environments. Therefore, this project aims to evaluate the interface of an online virtual research environment called CRADLE using Activity Theory. We will conduct a humanities study in this project, which seeks to find contradictions between the current interface and user expectations, which will in turn be used to design the next generation of CRADLE. In order to find a better way to represent the human community in CRADLE’s digital humanities context, we proposed two candidate proposals and refined them based on participants feedback.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Additional Information:	Taught Masters Thesis for the Erasmus Mundus MSc in Dependable Software Systems
Keywords:	Activity Theory; Usability Testing; Interface Design; Virtual Research Environment; VRE;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science
Item ID:	7095
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	04 May 2016 13:15
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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