Conference Presentations by Alan Chan
The rapid development of technology has caused the emergence of various sophisticated information... more The rapid development of technology has caused the emergence of various sophisticated information and communication technologies much cheaper than in previous years. Therefore, the penetration of technology is not only into every aspect of highly developed societies but also into developing countries such as Indonesia, as more and more people can afford to buy a variety of technologies. However, to use the technologies, many of the users in developing countries need to make a rapid technology leap; hence many of them are having difficulty in using the technologies. This paper will look at the cellular phone which is one of the technologies widely used in developing countries. Many people can afford to have cell phones but experience difficulties in making full use of them, such that they only operate the basic functions. One of the reasons for this is the low comprehension level of icons being used in the interface. This study explores the use of alternative icons that may improve user comprehension level by considering the social and cultural background of Indonesian users.
Index Terms—e-literate, icon, interface design, usability
Papers by Alan Chan
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00140139 2010 527018, Nov 24, 2010
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00222895 2014 974494, Dec 1, 2014
ABSTRACT Three experiments are reported, investigating the effects of using 1 or 2 hands when mak... more ABSTRACT Three experiments are reported, investigating the effects of using 1 or 2 hands when making convergent low index of difficulty (ID) and visually controlled movements (2 hands meeting together). The experiments involved movements in four different cases-a probe held in the right hand and moved to a target held in the stationary left hand, vice versa of this arrangement, both hands moving with the probe in the right hand and target in the left hand, and vice-versa of this arrangement. Experiments were the standard Fitts' paradigm, moving a pin into a hole and a low-ID task. In Fitts' task, 2-hand movements were faster than 1 hand only at higher IDs; this was also the case in the pin-to-hole transfer task and the movement times were lower when the pin was held in the preferred hand. Movements made with low ID showed a small effect of 1- or 2-handed movements, with the effective amplitude of the movement being reduced by about 20% when 2 hands were used.
Journal of the Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers, Oct 1, 2012
ABSTRACT This study investigated students’ objective performance and subjective preference for th... more ABSTRACT This study investigated students’ objective performance and subjective preference for the conventional, liberal, and confidence marking multiple-choice methods. Eighty-one university students answered multiple-choice quiz questions on human factors engineering using each of the three methods and then provided feedback on each method. Relative to the conventional method, the liberal and confidence marking methods were useful for extracting information about partial knowledge and increased the variance of performance scores. The different multiple-choice methods could cause students to change their response criterion in performing the assessment, whereas the ability to discriminate correct answers from distracters did not vary across the multiple-choice methods. Regarding subjective preferences, the conventional method was the most preferred followed by the liberal method and then the confidence marking method. The findings of this study would be useful for the selection of effective multiple-choice methods for academic assessments.
Ergonomics, 2015
Experiments were designed to investigate the effects of control type and display location, relati... more Experiments were designed to investigate the effects of control type and display location, relative to the operator, on the strength of control/display stereotypes. The Worringham and Beringer Visual Field principle and an extension of this principle for rotary controls (Hoffmann E.R., and Chan A.H.S. 2013). "The Worringham and Beringer 'Visual Field' Principle for Rotary Controls. Ergonomics." 56 (10): 1620-1624) indicated that, for a number of different control types (rotary and lever) on different planes, there should be no significant effect of the display location relative to the seated operator. Past data were surveyed and stereotype strengths listed. Experiments filled gaps where data are not available. Six different control types and seven display locations were used, as in the Frame of Reference Transformation Tool (FORT) model of Wickens et al. (Wickens, C.D., Keller, J.W., and Small, R.L. (2010). "Left. No, Right! Development of the Frame of Reference Transformation Tool (FORT)." Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting September 2010, 54: 1022-1026). Control/display arrangements with high stereotype strengths were evaluated yielding data for designers of complex control/display arrangements where the control and display are in different planes and for where the operator is moving. It was found possible to predict display/control arrangements with high stereotype strength, based on past data. Practitioner Summary: Controls and displays in complex arrangements need to have high compatibility. These experiments provide arrangements for six different controls (rotary and translational) and seven different display locations relative to the operator.
Ergonomics, Jan 15, 2015
Two experiments are reported that were designed to investigate control/display arrangements havin... more Two experiments are reported that were designed to investigate control/display arrangements having high stereotype strengths when using circular displays. Eight display locations relative to the operator and control were tested with rotational and translational controls situated on different planes according to the Frame of Reference Transformation Tool (FORT) model of Wickens et al. (2010). (Left. No, Right! Development of the Frame of Reference Transformation Tool (FORT), Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting, 54: 1022-1026). In many cases, there was little effect of display locations, indicating the importance of the Worringham and Beringer (1998. Directional stimulus-response compatibility: a test of three alternative principles. Ergonomics, 41(6), 864-880) Visual Field principle and an extension of this principle for rotary controls (Hoffmann and Chan (2013). The Worringham and Beringer 'visual field' principle for rotary controls. ...
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, 2008
Nondestructive testing (NDT) does rely heavily on human judgment and visual capability to identif... more Nondestructive testing (NDT) does rely heavily on human judgment and visual capability to identify any faults or defects on the specimen at the end of the process. Despite the fact that a human plays an important role on the reliability of the NDT test results, very little research work has been carried out to study the ergonomics and human factors in using various NDT methods. Among the wide variety of NDT methods, dye penetrant inspection, magnetic particles inspection, ultrasonic inspection, and eddy current inspection are four of the most commonly used NDT techniques in industry. In this chapter, several human factors that could affect the reliability of the tests are discussed and some recommendations are also provided to improve the tests.
Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing
In practice, many visual search tasks are performed under dynamic conditions. An experiment was c... more In practice, many visual search tasks are performed under dynamic conditions. An experiment was conducted here to test visual search strategy adopted by a person in a dynamic visual search and to investigate the effects of display movement velocity on search time and detection accuracy in it. Thirty-five participants were randomly tested with all 10 angular velocities of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 32 deg/s. The data obtained fitted the random search model well. The results revealed that observers utilized a random search strategy during the dynamic visual search process and that display movement velocity influenced search performance. In comparison with static visual search, an angular velocity faster than 4 deg/s resulted in a significant decrement in search performance. The variations of duration of individual fixations, the probability of target detection in a single fixation and visual lobe area were discussed. The obtained relationships between display movement velocity...
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, 2012
ABSTRACT
This research was conducted to investigate the relationship between the rate of natural speech an... more This research was conducted to investigate the relationship between the rate of natural speech and intelligibility, and to examine the effects that some subject and task factors may have on Chinese speech perception. Other than the objective measure of speech intelligibility, subjective preferences of listeners towards speech rate and presentation mode were also investigated. Sixty subjects performed a set of intelligibility tests and subjective preference evaluations. The results indicated that at the rate of 4.3 characters per second (231 ms per character) previously established for professional newscasters, subjects perceived information with correctness of up to 99% and a maximum preference level was observed. Speech rates and presentation modes that were preferred by the subjects were also more easily intelligible. There was a binaural advantage over the monaural mode of presentation in speech intelligibility, and subjects generally preferred the binaural presentation to the monaural presentation. An accurate prediction of speech intelligibility was possible based on age of listener, presentation mode, and speech rate. The older subjects perceived speech less accurately and preferred slower speech than the younger subjects. The study demonstrated the importance of considering subject and task factors for compilation of standard speaking time for practical applications.
Work (Reading, Mass.), 2014
Orthographically similar drug names create confusion errors and pose a potential threat to medica... more Orthographically similar drug names create confusion errors and pose a potential threat to medication safety. Enhancing the differing letters in similar drug names is one possible way to address the problem. This study investigated the effects of text enhancement methods(tall man, bold face, larger lowercase, and red lettering with lowercase as the comparison group) and orthographic similarity (referred to the extent to which the letters that made up the two names in a pair were similar to each other) on the differentiation performance of look-alike drug names. Sixty individuals from a university and its affiliated hospital participated in the differentiation test in which they determined whether the two drug names in each of the 120 confusable name pairs were the same or different. Outcome measures were response time and proportion of correct responses. Using larger lowercase and red lettering resulted in significantly shorter response times. Drug names that were more similar to ea...
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, 2008
Page 1. Chapter 3 Factors Influencing Symbol-Training Effectiveness Annie WY Ng and Alan HS Chan ... more Page 1. Chapter 3 Factors Influencing Symbol-Training Effectiveness Annie WY Ng and Alan HS Chan Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of symbol training in the past 40 years. Three symbol ...
Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, Jan 24, 2014
Racing games have emerged as top-selling products in the video and computer game industry. The ef... more Racing games have emerged as top-selling products in the video and computer game industry. The effect of playing racing games on the inclination of gamers to take risks has been investigated. Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, the impact of personality traits on the effects of playing racing games on risk-taking inclination was examined. The Vienna Test System, which includes the Eysenck Personality Profile Test and the Vienna Risk-Taking Test, was used to measure risk-taking inclination and risk-taking while driving. Experiment 2 was designed and conducted to analyse the effects of different intensity levels of car racing games on risk-taking inclination, and to study the relationship between physiological data and risk-taking inclination. Physiological data on skin conductance, heart rate and blood pressure were measured with the NeuroDyne System. Participants playing a racing game were more inclined to take risks in critical road traffic situations than those playin...
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2008
This study examined the effects of foot-side, sex, movement amplitude, and target width on latera... more This study examined the effects of foot-side, sex, movement amplitude, and target width on lateral and nonvisually controlled foot-movement time with a reciprocal foot-tapping task in sitting and standing postures. 9 male and 9 female right-foot dominant undergraduates (ages 20 to 25 years) with no reported physical and health problems with their lower limbs voluntarily participated. Analysis indicated foot-movement time in a standing posture was much faster than that in a sitting posture. Target width and movement amplitude had significant effects on foot-movement time, while the effects of foot-side and sex were not significant. Multiple regression models with inclusion of the significant factors were examined which should be useful in predicting foot-movement time required for different tasks in sitting and standing postures. Possible applications of the results may be made to the design of work and foot controls in terms of the related task factors for person-machine interfaces with two or more pedals.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2005
The current study calculated a set of 16 shape indices of six subjects (4 men and 2 women, 21-28 ... more The current study calculated a set of 16 shape indices of six subjects (4 men and 2 women, 21-28 years old) for easy and precise quantification of visual lobe shapes using Visual Lobe Measurement System (VILOMS) software. The indices can be used in mathematical models of visual search for better understanding of search behaviour and higher accuracy of search performance prediction. General patterns in the shape indices showed that visual lobes of the subjects were slightly irregular, with low sphericity, a moderately rough boundary, horizontally elongated and slightly asymmetric along both axes. Given the complex relationships among visual lobe area, lobe shape, and search strategy, it seems that a more detailed analysis than hitherto attempted will be necessary. Quantifying lobe shape with the 16 shape indexes is a useful step to performing such analysis.
Journal of Safety Research, 2008
Problem: This paper addresses the effects of driver factors and sign design features on the compr... more Problem: This paper addresses the effects of driver factors and sign design features on the comprehensibility of traffic signs. Methods: A survey was designed to capture subjects' personal particulars, ratings on sign features, and comprehension scores, and then administered to 109 Hong Kong full driving license holders. Results: Years with driving license and education level were significant predictors of sign comprehensibility. Contrary to expectation, the driver factors of age group, years of active driving, hours of driving, last time driving, driving frequency, and non-local driving experience had no effect on comprehension performance. Sign familiarity was correlated with comprehension score for licensed drivers, whereas sign concreteness, simplicity, and meaningfulness were not. Impact on Industry: The results of this study provide useful guidelines for designing more user-friendly traffic signs in the future. It identified particular driver groups who lacked good understanding of traffic signs, and this information may assist the relevant organizations to better allocate traffic training resources, and better target future studies of traffic sign comprehension.
Journal of Occupational Health, 2005
Kong-The extensive use of multiple organic solvents in offset lithographic printing causing high ... more Kong-The extensive use of multiple organic solvents in offset lithographic printing causing high emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) indeed poses a serious risk to printing workers' health. In this study, indoor air quality (IAQ) assessments were carried out in seven printing plants and the main objectives were to understand the effect of VOC emissions on IAQ and develop effective mitigation measures to protect workers. The thorough gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) measurements showed that although a variety of VOCs were presented in the indoor air, none of them was found close to individual 8-h timeweighted average (TWA) of the occupational exposure limit (OEL). The additive effect was also found below the critical value of unity. However, short-term personal exposure to total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) was exceedingly high when a print worker carried out blanket and ink roller cleaning procedures. Therefore, the occupational health risk was mainly due to repeated short-term exposures during intermittent VOC-emitting procedures rather than long-term exposure to background VOCs. Push-pull local exhaust ventilation (LEV) was identified as an effective mitigation measure. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to study the push-pull LEV operation. It was found that there existed a threshold LEV air flow rate for an abrupt reduction in the worker's exposure to VOCs. The reduction was less sensitive when the LEV airflow was further increased beyond the threshold. These phenomena, consistent with experimental results reported by other investigators, were explained by detailed CFD analysis showing the competition between the general ventilation and the push-pull LEV to become the dominating driving force for the resultant local flow pattern. (J Occup Health 2005; 47: 540-547)
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Conference Presentations by Alan Chan
Index Terms—e-literate, icon, interface design, usability
Papers by Alan Chan
Index Terms—e-literate, icon, interface design, usability