Abstract The integration of human-centric approaches has gained more attention recently due to more automated systems being introduced into our built environments (buildings, roads, vehicles, etc.), which requires a correct understanding of how humans perceive such systems and respond to them. This paper introduces an Immersive Virtual Environment-based method to evaluate the infrastructure design with psycho-physiological and behavioral responses from the vulnerable road users, especially for pedestrians. A case study of pedestrian mid-block crossings with three crossing infrastructure designs (painted crosswalk, crosswalk with flashing beacons, and a smartphone app for connected vehicles) are tested. Results from 51 participants indicate there are differences between the subjective and objective measurement. A higher subjective safety rating is reported for the flashing beacon design, while the psychophysiological and behavioral data indicate that the flashing beacon and smartphone app are similar in terms of crossing behaviors, eye tracking measurements, and heart rate. In addition, the smartphone app scenario appears to have a lower stress level as indicated by eye tracking data, although many participants do not have prior experience with it. Suggestions are made for the implementation of new technologies, which can increase public acceptance of new technologies and pedestrian safety in the future. 

/pdf/rethinking-infrastructure-design-evaluating-pedestrians-and-gj0vwbch.pdf

Rethinking infrastructure design: evaluating pedestrians and VRUs’ psychophysiological and behavioral responses to different roadway designs

Addressing the Influence of End User Human Aspects on Software Engineering

Use of personas in Requirements Engineering: A systematic mapping study

The range of technology users is continuously increasing from adults to children as well as seniors. This introduces new age-related requirements and considerations. Modelling frameworks are used to assist the software development independently of the platform and the coding technology. However, very limited research has been done on age-related issues within the modelling and design frameworks. In this paper, we investigate how human-centric aspects regarding age can be better modelled by extending wire-frames. We collected both developers and end-users feedback through questionnaires and introduced an extension of wire-frames to cater for decisions regarding age within the modelling framework. We then conducted a usability testing by using the extended age-modelling wire-frame approach to design a news app. This shows that when using our extended wire-frames, developers can cater for different user types and their accessibility needs easily. We finally conducted cognitive walk-throughs with three personas, representing children, adults and seniors to evaluate the prototype app. The results proved the usability of the app for all age groups. 

Modelling Age of End-Users Using Wire-Frames

IEEE COMPSAC Workshops series is an established research event that complements the main focus of the IEEE COMPSAC conference, by focusing on specific topics that gain momentum in the research community. This paper introduces the overview of the IEEE COMPSAC 2022 co-located workshops, and discusses some open research issues that have emerged from the different workshops' topics and selected contributions. 

IEEE COMPSAC 2022 Co-Located Workshops Summary

Finding a parking space can be very stressful and time consuming. A variety of different vehicle parking applications have been developed but many fail to support diverse end-users. We captured diverse human-centric issues from user reviews and literature, and then created personas that encompass a wide representative range of parking app user groups. Using these personas, user stories were created, categorized and parking app tasks prioritized. We used these to develop a prototype new "smart parking app". A cognitive walk-through was employed using each of the personas and user stories to evaluate the app. With more human-centric factors taken into account in the design and development of the app, we found that majority of the human-centric frustrations identified were resolved, when compared with a commonly used parking app.

Yuting Yu

Papers

A human-centric approach to building a smarter and better parking application