Browsing by Author "Marsden, Gary"

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    A bluetooth educational content distribution system modelled on a service-oriented architecture
    (2008) Bugembe, Kamulegeya Grace; Marsden, Gary
    In this research, we design and prototype an educational content distribution system modeled on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm and implemented using Web services, XML and Bluetooth technology. In the prototype, we use an Open Source Learning Management System (LMS) Sakai implemented in Java and branded Vula for the University of Cape Town (UCT). Web services and its specification of SOAP, XML and Bluetooth technology are used to integrate the disparate technologies that form the service architecture. The disparate technologies include among others Bluetooth enabled mobile phones and PDAs, services (modules) which may be running on different operating systems, and deployed over Local Area Networks (LANs) or Internet. The service is meant to leverage the existing infrastructure to provide a new, cheap channel for education content distribution to mobile devices in learning institutions especially Universities in the developing world and Africa in particular. We design, implement and evaluate the prototype for performance and scalability. During the designing and implementation of the architecture, we incorporate SOA principles of service/module re-use, service composition, loose-coupling, standard data exchange within the system or services, and extensibility of the services among others. The aim of the service is to distribute education content uploaded in Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to Bluetooth enabled mobile devices that are increasingly held by students in developing world Universities. The service is intended to supplement existing Web-based and lecture room content distribution channels by opening up the mobile device space. For the prototype, we focus on repackaging structured text content and distributing it to Bluetooth enabled phones and PDAs using Bluetooth technology. We evaluate our prototype for performance using experimental studies.
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    A tool to assess the feasibility of VOIP for contact centres
    (2005) Venter, Anton; Marsden, Gary
    With Voice-over-Internet-Protocol 1 (VO IP), voice calls travel over the same network as data, potentially making the voice network redundant and thereby reducing an organisation's investment in network infrastructure and its support and administration costs. Since voice is the primary communication medium for customer servicing, other benefits could potentially be realized when VOIP is applied in contact centres. However the feasibility of VOIP depends on many factors and makes the evaluation of its feasibility a complex issue. This research proposes an assessment tool to evaluate the feasibility of VOIP in the contact centre(s) of a business, given the current and intended characteristics of the contact, centre and its technology infrastructure. Execution of the assessment requires input from an individual familiar with the current contact centre and its basic technology infrastructure, rather than VOIP itself From past implementations of VOiP and literature available, this research identifies the relevant factors that influence the feasibility of VOIP. These are used to formulate questions that make up a questionnaire. The answers to the questionnaire are applied to a calculation to produce an overall rating of the feasibility of VOIP for the organisation's particular situation. The assessment tool was implemented as a web-based interactive application, which interrogates a user by way of the questionnaire and immediately gives a "score" indicating the feasibility of VOiP as a new technology. The resulting tool also indicates which factors made a considerable negative contribution towards VOIP not being feasible for the particular organisation.
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    A virtual environment authoring interface for content-expert authors
    (2005) Tangkuampien, Jakkaphan; Marsden, Gary; Blake, Edwin H
    [pg 47 missing] Since the advent of virtual reality (VR), the technology has been exploited in many areas to aid information transfer. In this respect, virtual reality can be regarded as a medium across which authors can communicate with a target group. However, many experts in non-computer-related areas, looking to exploit VR often come unstuck trying to take advantage of this medium. In these cases, one cannot blame these content-expert authors as they have successfully exploited other media prior to VR. On the other hand, the fault can not lie with the medium itself since it has been effectively exploited by other groups of authors. One probable cause could be the authoring tools themselves, or rather their interfaces to be more accurate. A tool's authoring interface is the only access point into the VR medium and one can only assume that the interfaces are not doing their job effectively. Our study was aimed at investigating authoring interfaces especially from the point of view of content-expert authors. Our approach was to involve such authors who have been able to master existing authoring tool mostly on their own. These authors were in a unique position - having managed to overcome initial difficulties, they have come to understand the inner working of the medium itself. The study was also well-suited to the appreciative inquiry (AI) methodology - a community-centric methodology that has rarely been applied in the area of computer science. Appreciative inquiry, with its root in action research, encourages a similar spiral-based methodology but with positive approach in all phases. With a group of content-expert VR authors, we applied a cycle of AI, resulting first in a list of interface issues that required some attention as well as some idea of how they can be resolved. The second phase of AI involved working closely with the authors to come up with resolution strategies to each of these issues. These solutions were then assessed for the level at which they have addressed their respective issue by another group of content-expert authors. Finally, an online survey was conducted to extend our results to the wider population of content-expert authors. The survey results confirmed that the interface issues discovered applied to the general population and that the proposed solutions were generally thought to be advantageous to the authoring process. Additionally, these positive results were encouraging since it means that our adaptation of AI was successful.
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    Analyzing the impact of mobile technology on mobile-centric youth in South Africa
    (2012) Allen, Sena Lee; Marsden, Gary
    Our research documents the successful development of a system for stakeholders in the low-income urban environment, to facilitate the dissemination of information through enhanced mobile technology. The research project took place in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Before beginning the formal study we entered the environment to better understand mobile technology practices amongst low-income urban teenagers and how we could supplement these practices by providing a means of media dissemination to the relevant stakeholders in the environment. We allied ourselves with two local stakeholders, the Ikamva Youth NGO and the Nazeema Isaacs local library staff. These organizations would provide us with access to low-income urban teenagers, and they were interested in adopting alternative technology to disseminate media to these youth.
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    Assessing the suitability of user centric design methods when applied in a developing world context
    (2010) Maunder, Andrew James; Marsden, Gary
    The application of information and communication technologies to development (ICT4Dev) is widely believed to have the potential to improve livelihoods in developing regions. Within the field of HCI, it is recognised that user-centred design (UCD) methodologies need to be applied if ICT4Dev activities are to yield locally appropriate technologies. However, there is no overarching methodology or framework for the application of UCD within 4Dev design initiatives. This thesis sets out to explore which UCD methods best enable designers to work successfully outside their own contexts, what challenges arise and how UCD methodologies can be developed to support ICT4Dev designers. Two field studies were conducted, applying two UCD methodologies: An empathic and a technology probing approach. In each case the author designed an artefact, evaluated it in situ and reflected on the suitability of the design methods, tools and techniques employed. The design environments were the rural Eastern Cape Province and the township of Khayelitsha near Cape Town, both in South Africa. An empathic approach was found to have two major shortcomings: It was unable to overcome significant communication challenges and, partly as a result, it failed to identify major design problems until very late in the process. The major benefit of technology probing was its open-ended nature, which fostered user engagement and participation and yielded valuable design inspiration for future modifications of the probe. However, the emergent scenarios of use in the case of a technology probe were heavily influenced by the nature of the technology itself. We thus conclude that technology probing, while it has a valuable place in the ICT4Dev design toolbox, should be deployed in tandem with other techniques to ensure that important livelihoods problems are not overlooked.
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    Can health workers capture data using a generic mobile phone with sufficient accuracy for Capture at Source to be used for clinical research purposes?
    (2014) Workman, Michael; Marsden, Gary; Hawkridge, Anthony
    Objective: To determine the accuracy, measured by error rate, with which Clinical Research Workers (CRWs), with minimal experience in data entry, could capture data on a feature phone during an interview using two different mobile phone applications, compared to the accuracy with which they could record data on paper Case Report Forms (CRFs). Design: A comparative study was performed where 10 participating CRWs performed 90 mock interviews using either paper CRFs or one of two mobile phone applications. The phone applications were a commonly used open source application and an application custom built for this study that followed a simplified, less flexible user interface paradigm. The answers to the interview questions were randomly generated and provided to the interviewees in sealed envelopes prior to the scheduling of the mock interview. Error rates of the captured data were calculated relative to the randomly generated expected answers. Results and Conclusion: The study aimed to show that error rates of clinical research data captured using a mobile phone application would not be inferior to data recorded on paper CRFs. For the custom application, this desired result was not found unequivocally. An error in judgment when designing the custom phone application resulted in dates being captured in a manner unfamiliar to the study participants, leading to high error rates for this type of data. If this error is condoned by excluding the date type from the results for the custom application, the custom application is shown to be non-inferior, at the 95 confidence level, to standard paper forms when capturing data for clinical research.
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    Co-present photo sharing on mobile devices
    (2008) Ah Kun, Leonard Martin; Marsden, Gary
    This dissertation researches current approaches to photo sharing. We have found that most current methods of photo sharing are not as compelling as traditional photo sharing - with the increasing in popularity of digital photography, consumers do not print photos as often as before and thus typically require a group display (such as a PC) to view their photographs collectively. This dissertation describes a mobile application that attempts to support traditional photo sharing activities by allowing users to share photos with other co-present users by synchronizing the display on multiple mobile devices. Various floor control policies (software locks that determine when someone can control the displays) were implemented. The behaviour of groups of users was studied to determine how people would use this application for sharing photos and how various floor control policies affect this behaviour.
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    A community-based approach to new medium integration in South African education : a combination of ICT4D process approach and ethnographic action research techniques
    (2013) Tangkuampien, Jakkaphan; Marsden, Gary
    Our initial study indicates that successful integration of new communication medium into South African schools is not only challenging from the financial point of view, but also in terms of designing tools that fit within educational goals, as well as the training and support of relevant personnel in order to use the new medium effectively. Training and support effort, however, are often seen as top-down or outside-in approach that many teachers and past integration efforts have identified as being one of the contributing factors to integration failure. By looking at past integration efforts, as well as through our own initial study and in the field, we recognise similar results and challenges in efforts to introduce information and communication technologies into developing communities. Work done by Heeks et al. (Heeks & Molla, 2009) (Walton & Heeks, 2011) identified the Process approach as a contributing factor towards successful Information and communication technologies for development projects. We developed a novel approach to medium integration in education by combining the Process approach with Ethnographical Action Research techniques as well as taking into account recommendations made by past medium integration in education. To evaluate our approach we implemented the Process approach at an Ethnographical Action Research site with the researcher as one of the teachers with the objective of integrating the mobile medium into the school.
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    Customisable abstract representation layer for digital libraries
    (2006) Feng, Fu-Yao Kevin; Marsden, Gary
    The user interface is a very important component in a piece of software as it is the layer which allows user interaction with the underlying functionality. Within the domain of digital libraries modification to the interface layer, to make it more appropriate for target users, requires substantial programming skill. This research studies the possibility of making a user customisable interface system by using HeI methodologies for user requirements identification and evaluation, as well as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) for design and development. The final prototype allows users to directly design pages by adding, deleting, dragging and dropping elements in a Web browser. The research ends with an expert evaluation of such a system where satisfactory results were shown.
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    The design considerations and development of a simulator for the backtesting of investment strategies
    (2011) Gounden, Kevin; Marsden, Gary
    The skill of accurately predicting the optimal time to buy or sell shares on the stock market is one that has been actively sought by both experienced and novice investors since the advent of the stock exchange in the early 1930s. Since then, the finance industry has employed a plethora of techniques to improve the prediction power of the investor. This thesis is an investigation into one of those techniques and the advancement of this technique through the use of computational power. The technique of portfolio strategy backtesting as a vehicle to achieve improved predictive power is one that has existed within financial services for decades. Portfolio backtesting, as alluded to by its name, is the empirical testing of an investment strategy to determine how the strategy would have performed historically, with a view that past performance may be indicative of future performance.
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    The design of a mobile user interface for an interest rate calculator
    (2012) Swanepoel, Arie Willem; Marsden, Gary
    In our search towards an interactive mobile fixed rate calculator, in this dissertation, we are interested in the human-centred design and in particularly exploring the mobile user interface design and the user experience (usability) thereof. A mobile solution will allow real time rate quotes to Relationship Executive while they are on the move or out of the office rather than a desktop application.
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    Designing an architecture for secure sharing of personal health records : a case of developing countries
    (2014) Ssembatya, Richard; Kayem, Anne; Marsden, Gary
    While there has been an increase in the design and development of Personal Health Record (PHR) systems in the developed world, little has been done to explore the utility of these systems in the developing world. Despite the usual problems of poor infrastructure, PHR systems designed for the developing world need to conform to users with different models of security and literacy than those designed for developed world. This study investigated a PHR system distributed across mobile devices with a security model and an interface that supports the usage and concerns of low literacy users in developing countries. The main question addressed in this study is: “Can personal health records be stored securely and usefully on mobile phones?” In this study, mobile phones were integrated into the PHR architecture that we/I designed because the literature reveals that the majority of the population in developing countries possess mobile phones. Additionally, mobile phones are very flexible and cost efficient devices that offer adequate storage and computing capabilities to users for typically communication operations. However, it is also worth noting that, mobile phones generally do not provide sufficient security mechanisms to protect the user data from unauthorized access.
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    Designing an interface to provide new functionality for the post-processing of web-based annotations
    (2014) du Toit, Nicola; Marsden, Gary
    Systems to annotate online content are becoming increasingly common on the World Wide Web. While much research and development has been done for interfaces that allow users to make and view annotations, few annotation systems provide functionality that extends beyond this and allows users to also manage and process collections of existing annotations. Siyavula Education is a social enterprise that publishes high school Maths and Science textbooks online. The company uses annotations to collate collaborator and volunteer feedback (corrections, opinions, suggestions) about its books at various phases in the book-writing life cycle. Currently the company captures annotations on PDF versions of their books. The web-based software they use allows for some filtering and sorting of existing annotations, but the system is limited and not ideal for their rather specialised requirements. In an attempt to move away from a proprietary, PDF-based system Siyavula implemented Annotator (http://okfnlabs.org/annotator/), software which allowed for the annotation of HTML pages. However, this software was not coupled with a backend interface that would allow users to interact with a database of saved annotations. To enable this kind of interaction, a prototype interface was designed and is presented here. The purpose of the interface was to give users new and improved functionality for querying and manipulating a collection of web-based annotations about Siyavula’s online content. Usability tests demonstrated that the interface was successful at giving users this new and necessary functionality (including filtering, sorting and searching) to process annotations. Once integrated with front-end software (such as Annotator) and issue tracking software (such as GitHub) the interface could form part of a powerful new tool for the making and management of annotations on the Web.
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    Designing digital storytelling for rural African communities
    (2011) Reitmaier, Thomas Oliver; Marsden, Gary
    This thesis situates digital storytelling in rural African communities to enable rural people to record and share their stories and to express their imaginations digitally. We explore the role of design and the methods and perspectives designers need to take on to design across cultures and to understand the forms and meanings behind rural African interpretations of digital storytelling. By integrating ethnographic insights with previous experiences of designing these kinds of systems, we implement a method using cell-phones to localize storytelling and involve rural users in design activities– probing ways to incorporate visual and audio media in storytelling. Our mobile digital storytelling system proved to be useable and useful, also allowing users to form their own interpretations of digital storytelling and (re)appropriate our system to alternative ends.
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    Designing mobile multi-touch drum sequencing applications
    (2015) Lekena, Mohato Karabo; Marsden, Gary; Suleman, Hussein
    Digital music software can limit the forms of music we create by using interfaces that directly copy those of the analogue instruments that came before. In this study we report on a new multi-touch interface that affords a completely new form of drum sequencing. Based on ideas from Avant-guard music and embodied interaction, a technology probe was created and then evaluated by a wide range of users. We found that for users with no musical training, and for users with a large amount of musical training, the software did allow them to be more creative. However, users with limited training on existing sequencing software found the new interface challenging.
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    Designing Umeli: A Case for Medsersiated Design, a participatory approach to designing interactive systems for semi-literate users
    (2012-10) Gitau, Shuko; Marsden, Gary
    This dissertation documents a journey into the design of Ummeli with a community of semi-­‐literate job seekers in Khayelitsha, Cape Town whose primary access to the internet was through their mobile phones. Working closely with this community over many months, we developed Ummeli, a suite of tools that allow the user to build their CVs; browse and apply for employment and training opportunities; recommend and post jobs; get employment tips and connect to other job seekers. To design Ummeli, Ethnographic Action Research (EAR) was embraced, not as a methodology, but as a research approach, a foundation from which to incorporate participatory approaches to designing Information communication technologies for development (ICT4D). User Centered Design (UCD) was incorporated as a design approach. Ummeli was built by a combination of insights drawn from a lived-­‐in experience, and employing UCD informed methods of participatory design (PD). Here we employed Human Access Point (HAP) a form of PD that allows for a member of the community to be a proxy for the design process. Learn to Earn, an NGO based in Khayelitsha became the HAP, and took the critical role in that they, highlighted, translated, evaluated and represented what was most crucial for the community; their input allowed Ummeli to match the community’s need. In the process, we came across concepts such as Umqweno, which represents yearnings and desires, replacing our own perception systems requirements. Siyazenzela, representing a communal participatory approach to doing life; and Ubuntu, which captures the spirit behind Africa’s communal identity, which were all adopted into the original EAR framework. In this document we set out to demonstrate what it means to be a “reflective practitioner” as we adopted appropriated and reconfigured aspects of participatory UCD methods to fit culturally relevant contexts. The process allowed for constant reflections leading to “aha” moments. In the end, we had created Ummeli, with over 80,000 users, and developed Mediated Design, a culturally indoctrinated xii participatory approach to designing interactive system with and for semi-­‐literate people.
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    Designing Ummeli a case for mediated design, a participatory approach to designing interactive systems for semi-literate users
    (2013) Gitau, Silvian Wanjiku; Marsden, Gary; Donner, Jonathan
    This dissertation documents a journey into the design of Ummeli with a community of semi‐literate job seekers in Khayelitsha, Cape Town whose primary access to the internet was through their mobile phones. Working closely with this community over many months, we developed Ummeli, a suite of tools that allow the user to build their CVs; browse and apply for employment and training opportunities; recommend and post jobs; get employment tips and connect to other job seekers. To design Ummeli, Ethnographic Action Research (EAR) was embraced, not as a methodology, but as a research approach, a foundation from which to incorporate participatory approaches to designing Information communication technologies for development (ICT4D). User Centred Design (UCD) was incorporated as a design approach. Ummeli was built by a combination of insights drawn from a lived-in experience, and employing UCD informed mtheods of participatory design (PD).
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    Development of a prototype for user-driven email classification
    (2008) Wessels, David Johann; Marsden, Gary
    Enormous volumes of email are proliferated around the world every day, and a significant number of users believe that a large proportion of their time is being wasted dealing with the resultant inbox 'flooding'. This research studies existing email classification techniques which aim to reduce the burden of the burgeoning inbox. It then develops the first iteration of a prototype which makes use of sender-assisted classification techniques, having used HCI investigative techniques to develop a set of improvements to existing email clients. This prototype is then evaluated. The suggested improvements are incorporated into a second prototype based on the recommendations from the first prototype.
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    The efficient and cost effective asynchronous mail sender for road warriors
    (2007) Lee, Kuo-Hung; Marsden, Gary
    Email has become a very important communication tool. The rise of SPAM, however, has forced system administrators to restrict the usage of their SMTP servers. Such a restriction causes problems for users who send emails from different locations because it becomes necessary for the users to change email settings when they move between different networks. This research studied the problems and difficulties users have in sending emails from different networks and then employed Hel techniques to design and evaluate a program aimed at solving these problems. The final program allows the user to set up and manage the connections the user connects to, and apply the SMTP settings specific to the current active connection to send emails. The connection settings contain a set of emailing rules for each connection. Users can use the rules to filter the outgoing emails and thus utilise the connections in a more efficient and cost effective way.
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    Firewall information and security visualization : improving the usage and adoption of modern network firewalls by novice users
    (2007) Gasant, Mogamad Yaqeen; Marsden, Gary
    The increasing number of people having access to computers and the Internet and the numerous services provided by the Internet - e.g., Internet banking, online shopping, eBay, email - emphasizes the need for computer security which is understandable to novice users. Whilst the technology underlying a firewall is effective, most users have no idea how to configure the software to suit their needs. This research focuses on personal firewalls because it is our belief and I will show that personal firewalls are more at risk than those of large corporations. Our hypothesis for this research is that many of the users who install personal firewalls lack the knowledge to properly configure them. We propose that the problem with a personal firewall is that most users do not have the correct conceptual models of interaction between computer, firewall, and security in order to configure these personal firewalls correctly. We aim to use information visualization [3] as a possible solution to the problem of novice users configuring their personal firewalls.