ASSIGNMENTS-1500 Words

Community Policing/Community Policing and Drugs

1. The author’s make the statement “the war on drugs is cloaked in imagery.” First describe what is meant by this statement and then discuss how this imagery impacts certain segments of society.

2. One drug control strategy has been to interdict shipments of illicit drugs and narcotics by focusing on high-level dealers. What effect has this strategy had on drug kingpins and their organizations? On the price and availability of illicit drugs?

3. When and where were DARE programs implemented? What have research studies concluded about the effectiveness of DARE programs?

    4.Because of the vast number of different kinds of problems that drugs create, a community problem-solving approach will be more effective than responding to individual incidents. Do you agree or not? Why? Provide the rationale for your opinion one way or the other.

DISCUSSION-50 WORDS

    Investigation Of Organized Crimes/Terrorism and Organized Crime

    1.Since 9/11 there has been continuing concern about the possibility of terrorists entering the U.S. through the porous Southern border. Why do you agree or disagree that this is a concern?

    2.Many have asked "what is a militia"? The Federalist Papers were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, respectively, the fourth President of the U.S., first Secretary of Treasury, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. These roles came long after the Federalist Papers because the Federalist Papers were written in order to convince the public to ratify the newly written United States Constitution.

Read Federalist Paper #46. It is written in the dense, thoughtful English of the period and may take a few readings to get through. After reading, answer this: do you believe today's militias reflect the intent of Madison? Should militias be considered terrorists?

ASSIGNMENT-500 WORDS EACH

    Investigation Of Organized Crimes/Terrorism and Organized Crime

    1.If you were the Director of National Security and the president asked you to redefine terrorism for the 21st Century, what would you suggest and why? Explain how terroristic events - both foreign and domestic - play into your redefining of the word.

    2.Discuss the ways state-organized crime can be characterized as terrorism. Cite specific examples that have had an impact on you or someone you know.

    3.Still playing the role of Director of National Security, craft a high-level document the president could use as a basis for all Americans to help protect themselves from the threat of domestic terrorism. Include suggestions for legislation if you think that should be one of the ways.  If not, explain why.

    4.Discuss how you think terrorism will evolve over the upcoming decade. Include the reasoning behind your viewpoint and include any relevant data or information.

ASSIGNMENT-1200 WORDS-The Investigation Of White Collar Crimes/Crimes by the Government

1.Who were the main players in the Watergate Affair? Where are they now? Look at both Nixon-affiliated people and those charged with the investigation or prosecution, including Congressmen and legal staff. what short and long-term effects did this scandal have on federal intelligence agencies? Report your findings in a paper and submit it to your professor at the end of this week.  

2.Is the United States’ position on nuclear capability of Iran a violation of sovereignty? Why or why not?

3.Research Daniel Ellsberg. What happened with the Pentagon Papers? What did Ellsberg do, and what happened to him? How does this compare with what happened to the Nixon conspirators?

Benefits, Barriers, and How to Overcome the Barriers of Using and Implementing Big Data Analytics throughout Supply Chain Management in the Medical Industry

Adelaide Navickas

Harrisburg University

12/04/2016

Presentation Agenda

Introduction

Research Question

Research Methodology

Literature Review

Results

Limitations of the Research, Future Work Planned, and Lessons Learned

Conclusion and References

Introduction

Big Data

Volume

Velocity

Variety

Big Data Analytics

Supply Chain

Procurement/sourcing

Logistics

Operations

Marketing

Author’s Background

Masters in Analytics

Working for Medical Device company in a Customer Care role

As previously mentioned Big Data has frequently been defined as data with high volume, velocity, and variety [5] [6] [7], while Wamba et al. goes on to add veracity and value as key components in the definition of Big Data [2].

BDA is the application of Business Analytics on Big Data. Business Analytics refers to statistical analysis, forecasting, predictive modeling, and optimization techniques

3

Research Question

Specific

Benefits

Barriers

How to overcome these

Implementation and continued use

Leadership

Talent Management

Company Culture

Survey supply chain team members

Limitations

Not exhaustive

No suggestions for how to overcome unless provided by survey respondent

Research Methodology

Identified the target respondents.

Wrote the questions and interactive statements for the survey.

Survey was reviewed by two individuals.

Survey was revised based on feedback from previous step.

Three people re-reviewed the survey

Final changes to the survey based on feedback from previous step were made and the questions were uploaded the online survey site SoGoSurvey.

Survey was sent out to potential respondents over a month long period via individual emails.

Data from the survey was exported to an Excel file and analysis of the results was conducted in order to identify common trends among the answers as well as identifying anomalies.

Literature Review

Overview of existing Literature

With the ever-increasing amount of Big Data available to and collected by companies, BDA has emerged as a key tool for businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage, new insights, and added value (full reference provided in paper)

There are many BDA applications that can be applied to all parts of the supply chain. Waller and Fawcett suggest that business and supply chain leaders must understand and use BDA to support decision-making in SCM (full reference provided in paper)

In Sanders’ article, “How to Use Big Data to Drive Your Supply Chain,” the survey used indicated that the majority of executives believe that BDA is a priority for the future, but also admitted there were concerns about the cost and the choices available that would best suit their needs (full reference provided in paper)

Recent literature reviews broke down the current studies by varying categories:

Type of analytics used (predictive, prescriptive, or descriptive)

Types of value creation found by using BDA

Varying other criteria: focus, research approach, method triangulation, data generation, range, timeline, theoretical background, and target audience

Limitations of Existing Studies

BDA is still gaining momentum in the world of SCM. While there are plenty of businesses that are using it, there is very little research on the benefits and barriers associated with continued use of BDA due to its newness

S. F. Wamba et al. brings up the lack of research on how leadership, talent management, technology, culture, data privacy, and decision-making processes impact the use of BDA (full reference provided in paper)

Goal of this presentation is to bridge the gap between formal research and industry usage by providing supply chain executives with the necessary information to understand the benefits of and overcome the barriers to implementing and continuing use of BDA in SCM

Results

General Survey Statistics

Table 1 shows the breakdown of respondents’ industries within the medical field

Majority of responses are from hospitals

But there is a good mix of other industries as well

Breakdown of time using BDA in supply chain

44% of respondents using BDA have only been using it for one to three years

19% have been using BDA for four to six years

15% for seven to nine years

7% for ten to twelve years

8% have been using it for 13 or more years

Table 2 shows the majority of companies with over 1000+ employees are using BDA in their supply chain (20 of 24)

Due to low response rate from smaller companies the author makes no conclusion as to whether or not there is a trend for or against BDA usage in companies of that size

The majority of respondents, regardless of company size, are using BDA (27 of 32)

Table 3 shows the breakdown by component. Please note there is overlap as a company could be using BDA in 1-4 of the components

Marketing is the component of supply chain that uses BDA the least right now

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

It was also shown through the survey that of the four respondents using BDA in marketing, three were using BDA in all other components as well suggesting that marketing is the last piece of the puzzle when implementing BDA in the supply chain

8

Benefits

Of the 27 respondents who use BDA in their supply chain, 26 provided answers that equated to 59 individual benefits

Financial benefits were by far the most prevalent benefit (23 of 59)

Optimization and maximization was the next most frequent benefit (9 of 59)

Better tracking/reporting/insight (8 of 59)

Other common benefits include:

Identifying trends (5)

Better models (4)

Monitoring inventory levels (5).

Reducing excess (2)

Identifying fraud (2)

Increasing process efficiency (1)

Specific Examples

In regards to optimizing human resources, one respondent specifically discussed the use of a system that tracks an employee’s work progress through time, speed and logistical status by way of an RF scanner. Not only did it help improve employee efficiency, but it also allowed that company to pick better locations for items to increase picking efficiency.

“Patient demographic information has been analyzed to determine where our patients come from to assist in marketing. In addition, analyzing data that identifies if a patient was referred to our Health Care system from a smaller organization has allowed us to strategically form alliances with surrounding health care providers that serve as a feeder for patients requiring more complex care than what they can provide. As a result we have maintained steady/or increasing volumes of patients and we are often treating the more critically ill that bolsters our reputation as well as giving us the opportunity to increase revenues.”

The benefits identified by respondents were varied but did have common themes. Of the 27 respondents who use BDA in their supply chain, 26 provided answers that equated to 59 individual benefits.

Financial benefits were by far the most prevalent benefit. Such benefits were identified 23 separate times. These financial benefits included lowering the cost of devices or distribution, reducing costs through better negotiating and review of contracts, reducing labor costs through the balancing of human resources, and lowering freight bills.

Optimization and maximization was the next most frequent benefit listed encompassing nine of the 59 benefits. Examples include optimizing item location within a warehouse, optimizing inventory levels as well as human resources, maximizing sales through better service levels, and increasing patient volume with targeted marketing.

The third most frequent benefit was found to be better tracking/reporting/insight and was mentioned in eight of the 59 benefits. Examples include providing leadership with a big picture view of daily operations, providing information on clinical use of products which leads to standardization of product decisions, tracking compliance with contracts, and a better notification system to remind employees of what is coming next.

Other common benefits include identifying trends (5), better models (4), and monitoring inventory levels (5). Trends were mentioned to be found in customer behavior, expenses, operational, and financial categories. Models mentioned were used for a centralized supply chain (for multiple hospitals) and predictive analytics. One example described using models to predict usage spikes so that they could be proactive in their procurement as opposed to reactive. The last few benefits included reducing excess (2), identifying fraud (2), and increasing process efficiency (1).

9

Barriers for companies not yet using BDA

5 respondents’ barriers:

A current model that is more granularly focused

A lack of data analysts

A lack of proper systems (mentioned by three of the five respondents)

Resources needed for implementation

High cost involved in system add-ons

No noted ways to overcome these barriers by these respondents

However, similar barriers were listed by the respondents who had implemented BDA along with ways to overcome those barriers

Barriers and How to Overcome Them

Barriers

Of the 27 respondents using BDA, 26 of them provided 52 individual barriers

The largest category was data integration (11 of 52)

Companies are working with data in inconsistent formats across multiple systems that may or may not initially pair successfully with each other

Data Accuracy (9) and Data Validation (8)

Shared between 12 respondents – 5 of which listed both barriers

Data accuracy barriers included not trusting the data source (customers, physicians, nurses), knowing data was manually entered (always a chance for human error), and not trusting the system it is being pulled from to provide consistent results

Data validation barriers included manual checks of the data to make sure results and reports were accurate, questioning the data rather than the analysis, and having to validate the source data used in the analytics

Remaining barriers:

Technology for data manipulation (4), technology for data storage (3), database reporting logic (3), calculation accuracy (3), data security (2)

10 other individual barriers

Methods to get past them (if provided)

4 of 11 respondents who faced data integration barriers overcame them

By developing a system to standardize data collection, enforcing policy and procedure, persistence, or creating an automated process making data more readily available

7 of 12 respondents who faced data validation and data accuracy barriers overcame them

By revising reporting tools, educating staff who uses the data about the value of the data and its accuracy, trial and error, continued use of the data allowing for regular adjustments that provide better information, or developing a system that allowed for more data to be collected at a greater depth so that it could be cross-validated across datasets

workforce resistance to their actions being tracked and measured, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) limitations, lack of human resources, building an effective business case to show leadership the benefits of implementing BDA, pushback from suppliers on pricing benchmarks, internal stakeholder pushback, data volume, steep learning curve, end-user pushback, and the ability to drill down into the data

11

Leadership, Talent Management, & Company Culture

50% of responses mentioned leadership

A quarter of these had a lack of leadership support

The remaining three-quarters noted that they had strong leadership buy-in and support which continues to help their team provide benefits to their company

40% discussed the need for strong human resources with analytical skills (talent management)

It was noted that it is important to hire people with BDA experience and for the focus of their role to be solely on BDA

More than 2/3 already had a strong analytics team while the other 1/3 is searching for better human resources

40% also wrote about how company culture played a role in their BDA usage

3 of 9 truly felt that their company culture helped support BDA usage in their supply chain

2 of 9 don’t have a strong positive or negative connotation

4 of 9 felt culture was hindering their BDA usage and found it particularly difficult trying to work together with other departments

24 of the 27 respondents using BDA answered this question.

This was the last question of the survey and may not have been worded very clearly because 6 of the 24 who answered did not directly mention leadership, talent management, or company culture in their response.

Limitations of the Results, Future Work Planned, Lessons Learned

Future Work Planned:

More research specifically on how talent management, leadership, and company culture affect BDA use in SCM in the medical industry

Lessons Learned:

Don’t rely on one person or company to distribute a survey – take responsibility yourself

More respondents were using BDA than initial assumption (this is good in the author’s humble opinion)

Many respondents had barriers that they had solved, but there were also others that hadn’t solved theirs yet – it was nice to see that they were still persevering and not just giving up

Limitations of Results:

Results are specific to the 32 respondents

While there were a variety of regions and industries presented the small sample size makes it hard to say that the results would be consistent with a larger group

Thank you!

References and appendices are provided in the paper with the same title as this presentation

Final Proposal.docx

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE

12

IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE

Importance of E-Commerce in the Healthcare Sector

Final Report

Sai Sindhura Siram

224769

Harrisburg University

Table of Contents  Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 3 Importance of E-Commerce in the Healthcare Sector 4 I. Business to Business 4 II. Business to Consumer 4 III. Consumer to Consumer 4 Significance 5 Research Question 6 Justification 7 Literature Review 9 Importance of e-commerce in the health sector 10 E-commerce in health care supply chain management 11 E-consultation Services 13 Challenges of e-commerce in the health sector 15 Methodology 22 Sample population 22 Data collection 23 Research Questionnaire 25 Data analysis 26 Expected outcome 27 Conclusions 27 References 28

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to contribute on the introduction of e-commerce in health sector, its importance and its necessity in healthcare and to help identify the challenges, gaps and unmet demands of health care by e-commerce technologies. E-commerce technologies have proven to be important and helpful in health sector. Though e-commerce technologies present a great potential and empowerment of healthcare for the implemented initiatives, the area still faces a great challenge in its remote operation, and there are unmet demands. The digital divide is amongst the many challenges facing the area. The paper uses an interpretive paradigm in its research design and data collection methods. Purposive sampling is used as a sampling technique to reach the target population. Web-based questionnaires and direct observation are the data collection methods used to inform the research, which is most convenient. The two methods are intended to complement each other and influence a more accurate data finding. In conclusion, e-commerce is essential in health care and helps improve both its product and service industry though there remain challenges in figuring out the most successful implementation of e-health care systems with minimal failure.

Introduction

The continuous change in global climate and a rise in pollution have created a global massacre condition throughout the world. Climatic change has also led to rising of global warming at an exponential rate. All these factors have accumulated and resulted in evolution of natural conditions that are pushing human body to its limits. This has resulted in sharp increase in the demand for healthcare support and other attributes related to healthcare industry. To overcome this challenge related to the healthcare, requirements for filling the gap of the rising demand for healthcare needs throughout the globe, the healthcare industry opened up new strategic approach to meet the demand by the introduction of E-Commerce platform in the field of healthcare. ("E-commerce and its role in the healthcare sector - The Care Issue," 2019).

Keywords: Global change, demand for health care, the purpose of E-Commerce

Importance of E-Commerce in the Healthcare Sector

E-commerce or electronic commerce is a platform across the internet forum that helps people acquire goods and services delivered to them at doorsteps when you place an order from comfort of their homes. E-Commerce platform works under three main entities, as mentioned below:

I. Business to Business

II. Business to Consumer

III. Consumer to Consumer

Most healthcare services are applying the three main entities in their treatment processes. Although the three entities are useful in the health sector, the paper gives a discussion of e-commerce platform from a perspective of business to consumer aspect. The main reason for selection of business to consumer perspective is to get more insight into e-commerce platform and its effects on healthcare systems. ("E-commerce and its role in the healthcare sector - The Care Issue," 2019).

Healthcare department majorly focuses on service and products that are useful and serve a purpose of patients in better of human health. However, there are certain aspects of the healthcare industry that plays a huge role as a follow up of treatment for patients. To fulfill the requirement of that demand and the rising gap of healthcare department, there is a need to introducing e-commerce, which is useful in improvement of healthcare department (Caldbick, 2001).

The purpose of the thesis is to understand how E-Commerce platform has played a major role in the healthcare sector. This paper also gives narrows down all information useful in analysing gap and problems that are available in healthcare department evident at different times. To find detailed understanding of this topic, thesis cover grounds on the e-commerce background as well as healthcare industry. Further, it also focuses on learning from usage of e-commerce platform in development of healthcare at a point of meeting-related healthcare issues. To carry forward the research of this paper, a survey method will be used across employees of healthcare sector and consumer who uses E-Commerce platform for healthcare requirements. On completion of survey and based on the understanding of the present structure and operation of E-commerce platform in healthcare industry, it would be possible to define a room for expansion of e-commerce platform in healthcare to overcome other challenges related to healthcare department (Caldbick, 2001)

Significance

The study gives details of thorough introspection on the e-commerce platform and healthcare platform. It is also significant on how embracing for both the platform has been able to cut down on the gap of the rising demand in the healthcare industry. The paper will further help cover ground on different healthcare services and products that are presently not available across the e-commerce platform in spite of customer demand.

This will help us draw metrics on how those products and services can be implemented in e-commerce platform in future and also the different measures that need to be taken to ensure that the performance of this platform improves over time with more customers getting used to an idea of e-commerce. Further, the paper will reflect on intricate details of the functionality of e-commerce platform in the healthcare sector to understand the present scenario and structure of the e-commerce platform and how the different product and services are being passed on to final consumer ("E-Commerce in Healthcare: Changing the Traditional Landscape," 2019)

Research Question

E-Commerce in the healthcare department has been a clinical turn around in field of healthcare while trying to assist patients in hospital. With presently, numerous healthcare products and services available to customers, the gap between demand and products has been brought under control. However, with a rise in global challenges, these demands are taking longer strides which open proposition for other products and services. To ensure that such propositions are successfully laid out this paper, it is important to answer some questions concerning patients (Graham, 2002). Some of the questions that the paper will cover are as follows:

Is it necessary to introduce E-commerce to the healthcare sector? This question will determine details as to why e-commerce platform was first introduced in healthcare sector. Besides, the question will help in uncovering information concerning different products as available in health sector.

What are some of the challenges in health sector? This question will give different challenges of healthcare sector concerning e-commerce platform. Challenges, in this case, will help bring issues pertaining healthcare system to light. The different challenges of healthcare sector have to overcome regularly to ensure they can render quality service and products to the patients as per their demand through the e-commerce platform.

What are challenges that have been facing the healthcare sector in recent years? This questions helps us understand the challenges the healthcare industry faces in recent years. Global scenario would shed light on different health-related issues that have recently cropped up in a wider scenario. The challenges are likely to cause gap between supply treatments for patients and treatment agencies.

What are different services being provided by the health sector concerning e-commerce? The question on what are the different services that are presently not being delivered by the healthcare industry across e-commerce platform would bring under light the prospect of expansion that healthcare industry would hold in the future related to its e-commerce platform and structural variation that is needed to be implemented in order to ensure that the product and services that are not being delivered in the present scenario can be made possible in the future.

What are the different products and services provided by customers? The question of what are the different requisition of product and services that healthcare industry comes across from customers, but are not able to be made possible to provide the same to the customers, would bring under light the product and services that healthcare industry should look forward to fulfilling to overcome the gap.

These research questions highlighted above will ensure that all grounds regarding the challenges of the e-commerce platform in healthcare is covered. Also, the questions will help in getting a better way of understanding healthcare sector.

Justification

The purpose of carrying out this research is to ensure that e-commerce platform can overcome the gap between the demand for healthcare product and service-related the patients' demand. Further, the research questions also explain the different challenges that the healthcare industry has to come across from time to time. Issues pertaining healthcare sector help in curbing issues related to healthcare sector.

The question of healthcare concern would ensure that a plotline can be drawn so that challenges can be mitigated in future to ensure better product and service performance in the field. Lastly the research would open up the course of action for future research in the field of E-Commerce in healthcare and also would provide how e-commerce platform can expand to ensure that it covers larger ground in the field of healthcare product and services in the future.

The research also focuses on understanding the changing demand for different product and services related to e-commerce in healthcare. Information on provision of service and product provision is drawn to ensure that those demands can be fulfilled in future. This would bring under consideration proper requisition for expansion how and in what ways the expansion can be achieved and materialized to fulfill the demand of the customers with changing world of the diseases. ("Technological growth in US healthcare - E-Commerce," 2019)

The research will ensure that the E-Commerce platform plays a successful role in the healthcare industry in the future to come, putting the present scenario product and services as pivotal for future research and expansion.

Literature Review

Healthcare remains an important part of every society and a vital feature of every successful country’s economy (Wickramasinghe & Schaffer, 2010). People need to be healthy to contribute their maximum potential to their country’s economy. A good healthcare results in a good economy in a country. Poor healthcare means a bad economy as people get sick and are unable to work and get proper health care. A country with poor healthcare makes investors stay away from it. Therefore, health sector is a very fundamental part of human living and survival.

Healthcare entails the maintenance and the continued enhancement of health through the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of illnesses, injuries, and it comprises physical and mental impairment. Health care includes caregiving services as well for the older people and the sick and guidance and counseling for those with mental issues. The innovation brought about by e-commerce in health care helps to improve the quality of access to healthcare services (Black et al., 2011). Ecommerce refers to the purchase and selling of goods through internet. Ecommerce in health care, therefore, aids in access to healthcare online, which improves convenience, saves time, provides lower discounted prices, and offers a wide range of products.

E-commerce in health care is utilized in providing consultancy services, pharmacy/telemedicine, and caregiving services amongst many others. E-health is another word for ecommerce in the health sector (Black et al., 2011); it entails the use of electronic communication together with information technology to broadly avail medical information systems able to interconnect and communicate, it is the availability of medical informatics and telematics on online shop shelves. E-Commerce in health sector is much more driven by medical non-professionals that is the patient’s needs (Black et al., 2011).

Importance of e-commerce in the health sector

It is necessary to introduce e-commerce in the health sector because E-health empowered healthcare has the potential to address key issues facing the health sector (Wickramasinghe & Schaffer, 2010). Some of the key pressing issues in the healthcare include: the increasing health care expenses, need for empowered consumers, need for easy health adaptability, more attention on prevention and focus on external factors such as finances and technology. Based on these issues the healthcare trends include a need for change in health insurance, healthcare standardization, technology planning, and need for better healthcare services delivery.

The role of e-commerce in the health sector is devising a strategy that helps meet trends in the sector through ensuring efficient, evidence-based, educational, ethical, enhanced quality, empowered patients, extended research and equitable health care. E-health involves application of different e-commerce technologies and infrastructures (Wickramasinghe & Schaffer, 2010) and most importantly, the use of the internet to necessitate health care practice. It entails the exploitation of information and technology to connect the health care providers with the patients and the government, and it also entails educating and informing the consumers, the healthcare managers, and professionals and trigger innovation in delivery and management of health care.

E-commerce in health care tackles efficiency, which is possible through the reduction of the costs through improving communication between the healthcare facilities and establishments and the patients. Enhancing quality of healthcare is another goal of e-commerce by not only reducing the costs but also ensuring its quality by making health diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. E-commerce empowers the patients as well by empowering them and availing new online avenues where they can access medical help and education (Wickramasinghe & Schaffer, 2010).

E-commerce in health care supply chain management

Electronic commerce, famously known as e-commerce has been utilized in many organizations to aid in business and has been an area where many researchers are focusing on in the last 20 years. Regarding Business- to –Business (B2B), e-commerce encompasses utilization of internet-based technologies to support business transactions between firms in a supply chain (Sultanow et al., 2016).

The pharmaceutical industry is an example of health sector feature that has adopted e-commerce to manage its supply chain operations. Globally, the pharmaceutical sales are projected to reach $1.4 trillion by the year 2019 (Sultanow et al., 2016) which will be a remarkable increase from $870 million in 2013 (Sultanow et al., 2016). After United States, Europe is the second leading in pharmaceutical sales, owning 27% of the sales (Sultanow et al., 2016). The pharmaceutical industry has the following key players: manufacturers, the wholesalers, pharmacies and lastly, point of care providers such as hospitals and clinics (Omachonu & Einspruch, N2010).

In Europe, the largest percentage of medication is distributed through a few national wholesalers and then through regional wholesalers who make the largest percentage of the suppliers. The role of wholesalers is ensuring an assortment of medications, providing high medication stocks and timely and frequent supply and delivery to the pharmacies. In the supply chain management of healthcare in the traditional setting is to ensure quality (Wang et al., 2016). Quality is ensured by making the high of medications by the patients is met. Through a revelatory case study, Max Pharma (Sultanow et al., 2016) is a national pharmaceutical wholesaler in German who has adopted e-commerce to maintain high-quality health care.

One of the problems faced by the manufacturers and distributors is that all the drugs approaching their expiry dates ought to be destroyed, and they suffer costs of the obsolete drugs. Ecommerce is a solution to obsolete inventory difficulties for Max Pharma since it came up with an e-commerce platform to help sell the short-dated drugs at discounted prices. Some customers also use the platform to order for other regular drugs, but the sales of the short-dated drugs cannot be compared; in this case the e-commerce platform helps both the wholesaler and the customer and saves them unnecessary costs.

The adoption of the e-commerce platforms should be done strategically to bear fruits, the adoption should not be out of competition pressure but as a response to a rising need and the company IT preparedness influences the sustainability of the platform. The success of this e-commerce platform can be traced to the (Technology, organization, and environment) model. The Max Pharma teamed up with willing manufacturers to reach out customers in need of the drugs at lower prices through the distributors and the point-to-point sellers and in most occasions enabling the customers to make direct orders (Sultanow et al., 2016).

Therefore, health systems can adopt e-commerce to manage its supply chain through e-procurement through e-business platforms (Wickramasinghe & Schaffer, 2010). (Wang et al., 2016) E-commerce application in supply chain helps improve performance medical supply and distribution by ensuring timeliness and quality.

E-consultation Services

Ecommerce has necessitated consultation services through the implementation of e-consultation services that have helped to enhance access to specialty services (Keely et al., 2013). E-consultation facilitates rapid response times and reduces the requirement for face to face consultations and appointments hence reducing the cost of physical movement. One benefit of the e-consultation services is the access to specialist’s advice in a better timely manner compared to the traditional face to face referral consultations. Also, it helps to reduce the barriers of access to specialty services between the primary health care providers and patients (Keely et al., 2013).

Due to an increasing rise in the number of medical conditions requiring specialty advice, patients have to wait for the specialist advice before any recommendation on medication to be administered and sometimes the wait time to see a specialist can be very long, lasting up to even two months. However, the provision of specialist’s healthcare services online eradicates that delay with responses just taking minutes (Keely et al., 2013). E-consultation is conducted through telephones, emails however secured web-based protected web applications are widely used to provide a meeting point for the specialist and the patient. The patients are also able to give feedback on the kind of service they received, and if it pleased them, they could even refer other people (Keely et al., 2013).

Digital technology is a major driver of transformation in the health care sector by helping connect the patients to health services and data (Hollis et al., 2015). The advances in technology have empowered people to be able to communicate, share, and obtain information through information and communication technology. For instance, the access to the internet through smartphones is doubling, and many people own smartphones than before enabling them to buy goods and services in new ways through the online platforms (Hollis et al., 2015). Most importantly, some significant parts of society have become familiar with using technology to perform various transactions comfortably. Health care is an important area which has not been left out too as people use mobile phones wireless and other remote monitoring devices to access its services.

Mental health care is one area that can be greatly empowered by e-commerce. Recent technology development such as sensors, on-line psychological therapy, and remote video and mobile applications can help in e-consultation of mental health. For instance, the UK government has been encouraging its health professional to shift to remote consultations necessitated through video technology and replace it with face to face consultation (Hollis et al., 2015). E-health in mental health care empowers the mental health patients by giving them a wide variety of choices such the online psychological interventions which can help the younger people who find it difficult to access the traditional health care services, since the younger generation is the greatest user of internet services they can use technology to access psychiatrists, get their diagnosis and monitoring session online and pay for the services online (Hollis et al., 2015). Therefore, ecommerce in health sector empowers remote access to health care and eradicates the face to face discomfort during consultations through e-consultations.

Challenges of e-commerce in the health sector

Despite the potential in the e-health sector, many e-health projects and initiatives established are prone to failure due to various challenges (Mettler & Eurich, 2012). One of the challenges in this sector is the lack of understanding of the business logic behind the e-commerce complex environment. For instance, there is pressure in demand for quality health care with reduced healthcare costs (Mettler & Eurich, 2012). Additionally, in the developing countries there is increase in the aging populations and inadequately qualified health workers, high movement of patients, and very high expectations which challenge e-commerce in health care. The digital divide is another challenge of e-commerce which is the gap between those who can access computer and internet services and those who cannot be meaning that there is a group of people who face barriers in access e-health care (Hollis et al., 2015).

Keeping up with the evolving field of technology is another challenge of adopting e-commerce in health (de Lusignan, 2015). Lacking the right information at the right time to manage health care is another challenge of e-health. Inadequate exploitation of evidence based theoretical frameworks when implementing Tele-informatics is another challenge which prevents sound decision making when managing health care through e-health systems (de Lusignan, 2015).

Privacy and trust are other key issues facing e-commerce application in health sector. Issues of consent, trust, and privacy remain important in sharing of medical data (Laurenza et al., 2018). Additionally, in areas of e-services such as e-consultation entailing remote diagnosis and treatment it requires great trust such that the patients will be satisfied with the services they pay for. Contrary, the caregiver needs to be sure after giving out the health care services the consumer's purchase (Laurenza et al., 2018). The proper regulation of e-health applications by government lacks to provide invulnerable e-health platforms. The rapid development of chronic diseases is one area which is not well managed in e-health. The health practitioners report a challenge of being to manage multi-morbidity and provision of safe care (Laurenza et al., 2018).

Sultan and others (2016) use revelatory case study analysis methodology to examine adoption of e-commerce in German oncology supply chain. The authors used the recommended case analysis practices, which include use of multiple researchers, evidence, and sources. The authors used interviews to collect data on the company and industry from top executives, press releases, e-commerce websites, company documents, consulting organizations, European Union, industry associations, among other institutions.

The interview was conducted in German and transcribed into English. Information from the interviews was compared with theoretical information from literature and face validity verification done by one author. The authors intended to investigate on the cost-cutting and efficiency improvement benefits attributed to adoption of e-commerce in the pharmaceutical sector, especially after the 2012 policy that denied the manufacturers ability to set prices and only allowed for negotiated prices. Such policy resulted in reduced profit margins, and for companies to remain competitive, they had to devise mechanisms to increase their sales at low cost and adoption of e-commerce is suitable.

The authors established that Germany is faced by pressure to improve efficiency and low costs for pharmaceutical products supported by policy change in 2012 as they are supposed to negotiate prices as opposed to an earlier situation where they were price setters. The pharmaceutical sector in Germany, authors established have shifted to e-commerce to cater reduced profit margins and competition from new entrants. Besides, authors found that companies like Max Pharma have developed e-commerce solutions to sell short-dated oncology drugs at discounts. This helps the company to deal with obsolete inventory.

Max Pharma, authors, realized have the only e-commerce systems for short-dated drugs motivated by changing environment rather than competition, experienced IT developers, business partner readiness. The systems have helped Max Pharma reduce costs, increase its global visibility, creation of new customer base, and customer customization orders.

Since the authors used the case study method, they did not have result presentation, only that they evaluated the factors based on literature review and other sources within the industry. The authors' data can be subjective because and might fail to meet the required criteria to prove authenticity because they relied on a single case study and single country for their analysis on adoption of e-commerce. Though they touched on various factors and benefits of e-commerce in pharmaceutical sectors, it cannot be taken as conclusive results because they relied only on case study method.

More quantitative data is needed to achieve a conclusive finding on the subject. Graphical and numeric presentation of how many orders and the profit margin Max Pharma makes from the sale of short-date drugs should be availed to help in concluding the benefits of investing in the e-commerce sector. The qualitative arguments by the authors, however, can be used in the methods chapter because it gives guidance on the probable benefits of using e-commerce in the sector.

Black and colleagues (2011) investigated the impact of e-health on safety and quality of health care. In their methods, the researchers established three categories for classifying e-Health technologies. The first category included managing, transmission, and storing of data, second category related to clinical decision making support, and the last category related to distant care facilitation. The authors then implemented methods on relying on Cochrane Collaboration, Organization Programs, and NHS services.

Authors utilized search strategies that helped map health care safety, e-Health interventions, and quality to obtain relevant review published from 1997 to 2010. The researchers screened the identification of reviews to 53, which they used because they supported the above categories selected. In category one, they included all electronic health records and other picture storing systems. In the second category, they included computerized physician or provider e-prescribing and order entry, and in the third category, they used clinical information systems used in relation with e-Health technologies, support clinician, integrate clinical and population information.

Authors found that most of the clinical claims concerning e-Health technology lacked empirical evidence. The authors found that the evidence base that supported e-Health technologies was inconsistent and weak and e-Health technologies cost-effectiveness was insubstantial. The authors established that many benefits could hardly be realized. On the contrary, the researchers found that introduction of new technologies in health care in most instances created new risks. Such risks include prescribers’ over-reliance on e-prescribing on clinical decision support or in other instances overestimating e-Health technologies functionality hindering practitioners’ performance. E-Health cannot depend on systems that have not evidenced supporting the claims of their cost-effectiveness and patient outcome.

Although e-Health technologies have received much support, their lack of empirical evidence to support their much-hyped benefits, which result in large-scale funding. Even those e-Health technologies that have been identified as successful, less evidence exists to demonstrate that such tools can remain successful beyond the mandate they were meant for.

The findings mean that e-Health technologies need to be evaluated based on a broad set of factors stretching throughout the technology intended life cycle to maximize on the proposed patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Auditing existing e-Health technologies is also important because they can inform on future technology adoption.

Data presentation and analysis by the authors is relevant based on the retrieved reviews. Convenience sampling and selection of methodology is suitable for the kind of research the authors purposed in their scope. However, relying on evidence and information from other authors cannot guarantee accurate information. Validation of the systems and the e-Health technologies used should be done for one to make a solid conclusion on their cost-effectiveness and patient outcomes.

Literature reviews sometimes deny authors authenticity and claim for their conclusion because they use secondary data that could be subjective. It is difficult to apply such methodology in the methods section because they lack validity and can only be used to guide in the possible methods available for use. The presentation offered by the authors is not convincing, and they require to validate the technologies used to conclude that they are not cost-effective nor do they improve patient outcome. All systems require validation to disqualify them or qualify them, which is lacking from the researchers’ methodology.

Keely and others (2013) used close-out surveys to collect all e-consultations from April 2011 to June 2012. The utilization data that the authors collected included: specialist response, the time required for response by specialist and the submitted number of e-consultation. The close-out survey was used to determine the perceived benefits, and the impact e-consultations had on health care delivery. They are building the correspondence web on an existing web allowed for easy integration coupled with assured privacy after its impact assessment. The authors also used standardized electronic forms that were patient-specific for specialty services.

The setting of the system allowed for specialist notification and interaction with patients either through asking for more information or offering recommendation without face-to-face interaction or even recommend referral with continuation notification for both specialists and patients. The content of the electronic form was updated based on feedback from interest from specialists and primary caregivers. The authors collected and coded all prospective e-consultation during the specified period. The survey results compilation only included individuals with more than ten completed e-consultations.

The authors’ presentation of the results was systematic using tables, percentages, and graphs from the surveyed participants meeting the set criteria. The results and presentation from the authors offer a quantitative analysis of e-consultation use. Their findings are informative because it is statistically verifiable and had set out variables. Authors’ conclusion, such as e-consultation benefits for patients and providers are supported by evidence from the collected and analysed data.

The authors’ use of a centralized system in which they determined which services required e-consultations and which service required face-to-face consultations helped to screen information and data to eradicate any possible bias and errors. From their analysis, the authors were able to identify that e-consultation has resulted in about 50% face-to-face consultation. The authors reported satisfaction, short response time, and utilization for using e-consultation as opposed to face-to-face consultation.

The author results also indicate that use of Champlain Base system could result in satisfactory e-consultation services with potentials of eliminating the need for face-face consultation and improved access to specialty service with rapid response. The e-consultation provides an opportunity for reduced time wastage in seeking health care. The presentation adopted by the authors is effective and convincing since the values they give can be verified from their graphical presentations. Decisions and conclusions from the authors are also reliable because it is based on analytical data.

It is a suitable methodology that can be incorporated in the methods chapter of this proposal. The methodology used by the authors provides a better mechanism of testing e-commerce systems used in health care setting. Relying on literature review without validating the system cannot provide reliable conclusion. The fact that the researchers subjected their e-consultation system to validation only improves their claim on usability of the system to solve consultation problems. Face to face consultation is time-consuming and expensive, but e-consultation can reduce the cost of health care and time needed to address issues and act on emergencies.

In conclusion, e-commerce is very important in the health sector and has played a great role in availing medical services to remote areas where medical facilities and expertise is rare. The e-health sector has greatly empowered the product and service industry in healthcare through the supply chain management and use of e-commerce to sell and buy medical products and services online. However, though the e-healthcare has such a great potential it faces various challenges.

Methodology

The research will be informed through an interpretive paradigm. An interpretive paradigm seeks to understand the world or the area of study from a subjective point of view of the participants and it uses meaning oriented methodologies for collecting data which portray a subjective relationship between the researcher and the participants (Scotland, 2012). Such methods include observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The paper aims at establishing the importance of e-commerce in health care and find out the various areas in healthcare where e-commerce is applied. The research will be based on the qualitative research approach since it seeks to establish how important e-commerce is to healthcare and why it should be adopted (Scotland, 2012). Qualitative research based on the interpretive paradigm is based on opinions of the subjects which are then subject to interpretation by the researcher.

Sample population

The sampling research method will be utilized in which purposeful sampling technique will be conducted on the target population. The aim of the research surveys on how important ecommerce adoption in health care is to both the patients and the primary care providers and identify the various challenges and gaps in the e-health sector. The target population entails the primary care providers and patients who have used an e-commerce platform to provide or to access health care services. (Gentles et al., 2015)Sampling method enables researchers to come up with a piece of conclusive information about a certain population based on results from a subset of the population without necessarily having to investigate the entire population. What is fundamental is that the sampled population represent the entire populations of those accessing e-health care services. The sample population will be selected through purposive sampling strategy, which entails selecting information-rich cases for the in-depth analysis. Purposive sampling strategy involves picking participants concerning how much knowledge they have concerning the area of study (Gentles et al., 2015). Purposive sampling is non-probability sampling technique, which is subjective and which is considered limited when representing the population being researched. However, purposive sampling technique is essential when the researcher has limited resources for instance, in this case the technique will be very relevant since the targeted population is not directly found and the e-commerce platforms are just not adopted in all health care stakeholders. Therefore, the researcher will be required to identify the various stakeholders in supply chain management and e-consultation services and engage them in the research. The researcher will therefore choose at least five areas where e-health is operational and engage them .the survey forms will be distributed to at least 200 participants with an option of choosing to participate or not. The paper will then assess the submitted questionnaires against those not submitted.

Data collection

Questionnaires method will be administered to aid in data collection; a survey will be conducted through answering the provided set of questions which will be informed by the research questions. Direct observation will be another method that will be utilized. The questionnaires will be web-based, considering that the target population will be active users of technology in making transactions and accessing the e-services in the health (Van et al., 2010). A web-based questionnaire has advantages over the traditional one, which involves a paper and a pen which can be boring and tedious, as well as participants, have to write. The web-based questionnaires can be shared directly to the participants or liaise with the owners of the e-commerce platforms in the health sector to add the survey forms after some of the services where the users can fill and submit. Also, liaising with the key stakeholders in the e-commerce remains still necessary for the survey to be successful since independently the researcher is not able to interact with the stakeholders of the e-health (Van et al., 2010). Therefore, the survey questionnaire forms to reach the target population will require great cooperation of the e-commerce platforms owners.

The decision to use the web-based questionnaires as a form of online survey is good because of a couple of advantages (Van et al., 2010). The online survey provides ease of data gathering as they facilitate easy distribution to a greater number of people at just a click and eradicates the tedious process of moving from one place to another dropping the survey forms. Additionally, on-line surveys are cost-efficient, they greatly reduce costs; in the traditional setting, completing a survey requires expenditure of more than a thousand dollars especially if the number of participants is large; however, in online surveys through internet necessitates a low-cost and fast data collection without much effort (Van et al., 2010). . No paperwork required or other costs of the face to face surveys. The online surveys are automated and require the participants to input their answers online while connected on the internet, and the inputted information is stored in a database for retrieval by the researcher. Online survey facilitates increase in response rates amongst the respondents because it allows them convenience through filling out the questionnaire at their own pace and time without worrying about data loss, on-line surveys allow the participant to resume whenever they feel. Lastly, online surveys offer flexibility and allow conduction of complex data surveys since they are automated the participants do not get easily discouraged. However, online surveys have some limitations in that they do not prevent fraud surveys where people do not give helpful information to help the research but answer for the sake of it (Krosnick, 2018).

Comparing questionnaires to other forms of data collection such as interviews they have a couple of advantages (Krosnick, 2018). Questionnaires are not expensive in terms of time consumed and cost. They are also practical and can reach a large number of people, unlike the interviews which are tedious and engage one participant at a time therefore, consuming lots of time. Questionnaires are scalable and offer comparability hence giving the researcher a capability to measure change or a certain variable. They offer a quick way to get results and allow easy analysis and representation of data. Questionnaires also facilitate the respondent anonymity a very valuable aspect of data collection where respondents wish to remain anonymous.

Moreover, questionnaires do not have any time constraints, especially the online ones, and they allow the participants to respond anytime they wish. Some of the disadvantages of questionnaires include dishonest answers, left out questionnaires which respondents leave unanswered. Questionnaires are unable to convey feeling or emotions, and hey can be tedious hence, a questionnaire should have a standard length, not too short and not too long (Krosnick, 2018). If it too short it won’t provide considerable information, and it is too long it may discourage the respondents. Therefore, weighing out the advantages of the questionnaires over its disadvantages, the web-based questionnaires are reliable and convenient.

Direct observation is another data collection method that will be employed to complement the online questionnaires (Brandts & Charness, 2011). The advantages of direct observation are its simplicity and the gathering of first-hand information (Brandts & Charness, 2011).

Research Questionnaire

Question

Yes

No

N/A

Is network accessible in your areas?

If available, are there fast responses to an emergency?

If available, are there healthcare facilities around the areas?

If not, have patients been receiving quality medical care?

Is there possibility of receiving quality healthcare in the area?

Is infrastructure developed to fit healthcare services?

Are there enough and qualifies personnel in nearby healthcare?

When in need, is healthcare services a quality one?

In case of an emergency, are there possibilities of receiving urgent response through online?

Is technological development assisting in e-treatment?

If not assisting patients, are there alternatives for healthcare of patients in the area?

Can you refer someone with an urgency of treatment in this area?

Is daily treatment of patients more than 500 patients?

Data analysis

The obtained data will be evaluated through a semantic differential scale; the semantic differential scale allows the analysis of perceptions of human mind in a multidimensional manner and by giving each statement assessment a scale based on two opposite adjectives offering a range such as from bad to good with increasing points as the scale approaches the positive side (Takahashi et al., 2016). The online questionnaire should allow the participants to tell the degrees of their mental perception concerning e-health through a five-point Likert scale (Takahashi et al., 2016). The semantic differential analysis will then be applied to analyze the different degrees of mind perceptions (Takahashi et al., 2016). The obtained data can be tabulated and represented on graphs and charts for comparison purposes. The data analysis and the comparison of the data presented on the questionnaires will allow determination of the key purpose of the research on the importance of e-commerce in health care, the levels of satisfaction amongst the users of the e-commerce to access health care, the challenges, the gaps and the prospect areas and new areas of health services left out.

Expected outcome

The finding of the research after the data collection and analysis should reveal the importance of embracing e-healthcare and portray people’s appreciation of it compared to the traditional health care system. It is expected that there will be dissatisfaction as well due to the unmet demands and the challenges in the adoption of information and communication technology. It is expected that through the questionnaire survey there will be positive feedback on the benefits of e-healthcare and also a provision of insights on other possible gaps to be addressed from a consumer perspective which can help inform the health care providers to enhance their e-commerce technologies.

Conclusions

In conclusion, in developing countries, there is increase in the aging populations and inadequately qualified health workers, high movement of patients, and very high expectations which challenge e-commerce in health care. The digital divide is another challenge of e-commerce which is the gap between those who can access computer and internet services and those who cannot be meaning that there is a group of people who face barriers in access e-health care. E-consultation is conducted through telephones, emails however secured web-based protected web applications are widely used to provide a meeting point for the specialist and the patient. The patients are also able to give feedback on the kind of service they received, and if it pleased them, they could even refer other people

References

Black, A. D., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Anandan, C., Cresswell, K., Bokun, T., & Sheikh, A. (2011). The impact of eHealth on the quality and safety of health care: a systematic overview. PLoS medicine, 8(1), e1000387. Brandts, J., & Charness, G. (2011). The strategy versus the direct-response method: a first survey of experimental comparisons. Experimental Economics, 14(3), 375-398. Caldbick, M. (2001). E-Commerce Legislative Initiatives in Canada: Implications for Healthcare Institutions. Healthcare Quarterly, 4(4), 59-64. doi: 10.12927/hcq..17438 De Lusignan, S. (2015). Unleashing the power of e-Health requires the development of an evidence base for interventions that improve care. J Innov Health Inform, 22(1), 143 E-commerce and its role in the healthcare sector - The Care Issue. (2019). Retrieved from https://thecareissue.jaga-me.com/ecommerce-healthcare-sector/ E-Commerce in Healthcare: Changing the Traditional Landscape. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.himss.org/e-commerce-healthcare-changing-traditional-landscape. Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4. Graham, W. (2002). HealthPRO Electronic Commerce Alliance with Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX); A GPO Strategic Alliance with an Open Exchange Accelerates Electronic Commerce Benefits. Healthcare Quarterly, 6(1), 85-87. doi: 10.12927/hcq..16651 Gentles, S. J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J., & McKibbon, K. (2015). Sampling in qualitative research: Insights from an overview of the methods literature. The Qualitative Report, 20(11), 1772-1789. Hollis, C., Morriss, R., Martin, J., Amani, S., Cotton, R., Denis, M., & Lewis, S. (2015). Technological innovations in mental healthcare: harnessing the digital revolution. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(4), 263-265. Keely, E., Liddy, C., & Afkham, A. (2013). Utilization, benefits, and impact of an e-consultation service across diverse specialties and primary care providers. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(10), 733-738. Krosnick, J. A. (2018). Questionnaire design. In The Palgrave Handbook of Survey Research (pp. 439-455). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Laurenza, E., Quintano, M., Schiavone, F., & Vrontis, D. (2018). The effect of digital technologies adoption in healthcare industry: a case based analysis. Business Process Management Journal, 24(5), 1124-1144. Mettler, T., & Eurich, M. (2012). A “design-pattern”-based approach for analyzing e-health business models. Health Policy and Technology, 1(2), 77-85. Omachonu, V. K., & Einspruch, N. G. (2010). Innovation in healthcare delivery systems: a conceptual framework. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 15(1), 1-20. Scotland, J. (2012). Exploring the Philosophical Underpinnings of Research: Relating Ontology and Epistemology to the Methodology and Methods of the Scientific, Interpretive, and Critical Research Paradigms. English language teaching, 5(9), 9-16. Sultanow, E., Chircu, A., & Chircu, F. (2016). E-commerce Adoption: A Revelatory Case Study in the German Oncology Pharmaceutical Supply Chain'. In Proceedings of the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research ISSN (Vol. 2167, p. 1508). Takahashi, H., Ban, M., & Asada, M. (2016). Semantic differential scale method can reveal multi-dimensional aspects of mind perception. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1717. Technological growth in US healthcare - E - Commerce. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83198.html Van Gelder, M. M., Bretveld, R. W., & Roeleveld, N. (2010). Web-based questionnaires: the future in epidemiology? American journal of epidemiology, 172(11), 1292-1298. Wang, C., Mao, Z., Johansen, J., Luxhøj, J. T., O'kane, J., Wang, J., & Chen, X. (2016). Critical success criteria for B2B E-commerce systems in Chinese medical supply chain. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 19(2), 105-124. Wickramasinghe, N., & Schaffer, J. (2010). Realizing value driven e-health solutions. Report for IBM. Washington DC.

KatieTobin-Gestures-ResearchAppliedProj_Final.pdf

1

PROGRAM: ISEM

RESEARCH PAPER FOR APPLIED PROJECT

GESTURES & DESIGN PATTERNS IN TOUCHSCREEN SOFTWARE

DEVELOPMENT: A USABILITY STUDY

KATIE TOBIN

Date: December, 18th 2011

5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................3

KEYWORDS ..................................................................................................................3

1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................4

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION ..............................................................7

3. LITERATURE REVIEW - ANALYSIS OF RELATED WORK ................................................9

4. SOLUTION APPROACH ...........................................................................................15

5. WORK PLAN ..........................................................................................................20

6. PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION ..............................................................................21

7. USABILITY STUDY RESULTS ....................................................................................50

8. CONCLUSIONS REACHED .......................................................................................52

9. REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................53

APPENDICES ..............................................................................................................54

1

ABSTRACT

This goal of this research is to examine several common usability design flaws and to present a

plan to create a set of best practices that will contain both user-tested design patterns and proper

gesture use that bring about better user task outcomes. It also describes how a usability study

would be carried out, including the process of analyzing the study results and finding the best

design patterns for those tasks. This research is needed, because there are a limited amount of

usability-tested software design patterns for use on mobile touchscreen devices and this re-

searcher believes that usability has understandably suffered in this medium. As any mobile

touchscreen device user can attest, it can be surprisingly frustrating to perform a simple task -

such as copying and pasting text from one location to another, or filling out a simple form. The-

se tasks and more were tested on a mobile touchscreen device in order to identify and attempt to

solve these common usability problems.

KEYWORDS:

Touchscreen, Gestures, Software, Usability, Affordances, Usability Study, Software Design Pat- terns

5

1. INTRODUCTION

Touchscreen devices can be a nightmare to operate. Nearly everyone has experienced the “Fat

Finger Problem” when trying to type some text on a tiny touchscreen keyboard. And how many

times have you accidentally “clicked” a navigation element when you simply wanted to scroll up

or down? Not to mention, the only ways to learn how to use these devices are through trial and

error or through direct or indirect observation. These issues, and others like it, are everywhere

on mobile touchscreen devices. Using a mobile touchscreen device (i.e. smart phones, tablets,

etc.) can be extremely frustrating to users because many software developers simply ported over

design elements from websites and other desktop PC applications. However, adding the element

of touch does not make navigating through or entering data automatically easier when utilizing

these familiar design patterns. This researcher believes that the mobile touchscreen device adds

additional complexities that should be taken into consideration when designing the user interface

software [4], [7].

One good example of a common problem in touchscreen applications is there can be too many

actionable items on the screen. This may be due to a confusing design layout or the “click-able”

objects were too close together making it hard for users to select the desired item. Another

common issue is when a user performs a gesture that is incorrectly interpreted by the device. In

addition, software developers often fail to consider in what location users will be using the de-

vice/software (i.e. low light, bright light of the outdoors, using device while distracted or in

heavy vibration settings). Moreover, in many cases, the text is too small to read comfortably and

there is not always an option to make the text larger while viewing it [4], [7].

1

This researcher believes that many of these issues seem to come from software developers utiliz-

ing website application design patterns in touchscreen applications. These design patterns do not

always translate into good usability when users are trying to perform tasks. For example, in An-

droid, the flick gesture is often used to scroll through text or lists of items. However, it is all to

easy to select an option or linked text while scrolling when the user did not intend to perform this

operation. Furthermore, this often results in navigating the user away from the user’s desired

location.

Finally, this researcher believes that there seems to be a general lack of affordances and proper

feedbacks being used in many design patterns. This researcher reached this conclusion while

carefully analyzing several common design patterns present on most mobile touchscreen devices.

For example, lists do not always appear to suggest that users can scroll through the options or

rows presented.

There would be many benefits from the creation of a set of usability tested design patterns and

gesture use cases. Users will get more use out of better designed software programs because

they will be able to utilize more functionality and make less errors all while taking less time to

perform a task. Software development companies will get larger revenues from higher

touchscreen software sales because their applications are so easy to use, compared with the com-

petition who did not use a well-thought-out user interface design pattern.

5

The main motivation behind this research is to contribute a set of design patterns and gesture use

cases that can be used to make touchscreen software applications that are both usable and versa-

tile (can be used in a variety of mobile settings).

Definitions of Commonly Used Terms:

Affordance - is a quality of an object, or an environment, that allows an individual to perform an

action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling

[8].

Gesture - A gesture is comprised of 3 stages: Registration - the moment the type of action is set;

Continuation - the adjustment of the parameters of the gesture; Termination - when the gesture

ends. For example, with the Pinch gesture is registered when 2 fingers are present and start to

move towards one another. The continuation aspect is applied as long as the fingers are still

moving toward one another and the corresponding item is being shrunk in response to and scale

to the action. The termination phase is complete when the fingers stop moving toward one an-

other [7].

Fat Finger Problem - This is when the user accidentally selects a target that he/she did not in-

tend to because the target area was too small in relation to the finger or due to the device reading

the input improperly [7].

Design Pattern - is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given

context in software design [10].

WIMP - Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers - denoting a type of user-friendly screen display used

on small computers [9]

1

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION

While there are many usability design flaws present within most mobile touchscreen software,

this researcher believes that this may be due to the fact that software developers are lacking a

comprehensive set of usability tested software design patterns and gestures for mobile

touchscreen devices backed by rigorous research and usability testing. This report outlines a

plan for creating this set. It will involve creating a usability study which has the following aims:

• Create a prototype touchscreen software application and conduct a usability study utilizing the

prototype in order to gauge the usability of the standard user interface design patterns already

available on the standard device by recording measurements of overall task outcomes

• Analyze the study results and propose a set of software design patterns and gesture use cases

and best practices for mobile touchscreen systems

Touchscreen software developers also need a set of overarching principles that will help to guide

them to making the most usable systems that enhance functionality and improve user task out-

comes. There are many informal best practice guides on the internet in the form of blogs or on

vendor websites (Apple, Google, Windows, etc.), but there is a definite need to create a set of

design patterns and gesture best practice guidelines that can be used to create solid, usable and

standards-based designs that should be used to avoid common usability problems. This is why a

usability study is necessary in order to test alternate design patterns that may alleviate these

problems.

The main deliverables of this research will be a prototype and usability test plan for some of the

most common usability issues that plague mobile touchscreen device users. Out of the iterative

5

usability testing of the prototypes will be a set of best practices for use in designing software for

mobile touchscreen devices. The ultimate goal of this research is to discover what improves us-

ability in touchscreen applications from actual users. This researcher believes that a set of best

practices can be produced from the results of the usability testing (please see Figure 1: Iterative

Usability Study).

Figure 1: Iterative Usability Study

1

3. LITERATURE REVIEW -- ANALYSIS OF RELATED WORK

There were only two books that this researcher could find on touchscreen software design utiliz-

ing gestures (that were not vendor-specific) when this paper was written. In addition, this re-

searcher found only a handful of research papers published in journals that deal directly with

touchscreen software design that utilize gestures or software design patterns. Usability and mo-

bile touchscreen software design is an area where research is needed in order to understand the

unique challenges mobile touchscreen devices place on both the users and the software design-

ers. Research in this area should lead to more usability friendly software.

This researcher suspects that the predominant reason there is not much literature on the subject is

because the technology is new and still emerging in the market and not many researchers have

analyzed it yet. Certainly, touchscreen software vendors had to race to market in order to com-

pete with the iPhone and iPod Touch, the first to market the, now ubiquitous, mobile touchscreen

devices at an affordable price [15]. Furthermore, this researcher speculates that after the market

is super saturated with mobile touchscreen devices and more major companies are vying for

market share, the usability aspect will be a hot topic for consumer research and will naturally get

more mainstream attention.

The most comprehensive book on the usability and touchscreen devices is titled “Brave NUI

World: Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture” and was written by two re-

searchers who were heavily involved in the creation of Microsoft Surface, which utilizes a large

coffee-table sized touchscreen device where users can interact with the device utilizing both

hands simultaneously.

5

NUI stands for Natural User Interfaces. The authors suggest that one think of this as a Natural

User Interface, not a Natural User interface. Essentially, this means that the user should feel

natural while using the software, not that the software should mirror the “natural” world. The

authors also make two other interesting points. First, most designers have never had to “truly

design a user interface”, instead they rely on the work of others before them or what WIMP ob-

jects are already available. Links, clicks and buttons are so ingrained into users and software de-

velopers, they can’t see new possibilities. Touchscreen applications have less restrictions in

terms of user interfaces because custom objects can be build and interacted with more naturally

and intuitively with touch. Muscle memory can more easily be incorporated for certain tasks,

which makes repetitive actions faster. Second, in an ideal situation, users should feel like experts

when dealing with touchscreen devices. Ideally, it should feel like second nature to use and learn

new tasks with them rapidly [7].

According to the NUI authors, the following principles are the most important things to consider

when designing touchscreen software:

• Create an experience that can feel like an extension of one’s body

• Create experience that feels just as natural to a novice as an expert user

• Create an experience authentic to the medium, don’t mimic real-world necessarily

• Build a UI that considers context, including right metaphors, visual indications, feedback and

input/output methods for the context.

• Avoid copying other UI design patterns verbatim from other non-touchscreen platforms [7]

1

More principles and overall design guidelines can be found in Appendix A: NUI Design Princi-

ples Considered [7].

The second book, titled “Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices”,

was more generic and gave a 30,000 foot view. So, while it was good for understanding the

overall principles used in the consideration of gesture utilization, it was lacking the technical

specifications for actual software design. There were two main concepts that this researcher took

away from this book, relating to usability on touchscreen devices. First, the author suggested

using people to determine the correct gesture to use (e.g. usability studies). Second, he stated

that the “tap is the new click”. There was an entire chapter on this topic that essentially provided

an overview of how powerful and ubiquitous the tap was to touchscreen software as the mouse

was to traditional desktop computing [4].

The first study, titled “Experimental Analysis of Touch-Screen Gesture Designs in Mobile Envi-

ronments”, dealt with how situational impairments affect touch-screen users. They used two

types of situational impairment: motor activity and distraction level. For motor activity they

compared sitting and walking, while using no distraction, light distraction and attention-

saturating distraction. They found that gestures allowed users to perform many activities with a

greater degree of success on their mobile devices while their attention was distracted. Another

interesting finding was the observation that some gestures could be performed without looking at

the screen. They also found that bezel-initiated gestures had the best overall user performance.

A bezel-initiated gesture is one that requires the user to slide one finger from one side of the

screen (from the black outer part) to the other side of the screen. Finally, the researchers found

5

that mark-based gestures were the most accurate. A mark-based gesture is “typically comprised

of axis-aligned [redacted] rectilinear mark segments that form a compound path, e.g. “up” fol-

lowed by “right”...”. See image below for an example [1]:

Another study was done that used a case study styled approach, called “Building an interaction

design pattern language: A case study”. This study was intriguing because it showed a systemat-

ic approach to validating design patterns. The authors later used those design patterns to im-

prove an existing application. Of particular interest to this researcher, were the sections on User

Research, Prototyping and Testing Individual Design Patterns. For example, one of the design

patterns that was tested included a series of different solutions for organizing tabs for navigation

through a system. There were too many tabs to fit on one horizontal row, so the researchers cre-

ated several design patterns and tested them. This researcher will utilize a similar methodology

when planning the design of the prototype and the usability studies of the prototypes, in that sev-

eral experimental design patterns will be tested and evaluated [3].

The final study this researcher found was titled “Design patterns for user interface for mobile

applications”. This study built on previous work the researchers had done, but added a question-

naire that was distributed to participants who were mostly between 25 and 40 years old, were

mostly male and had an average of 5+ years of user interface design experience. The results of

the questionnaire showed that many of these designers found the recommended design patterns,

provided by the researchers, both relevant and useful [2].

1

No analysis of usability and touchscreen computing would be complete without consulting the

major software vendors for the mobile touchscreen device platforms. The three largest vendors

of touchscreen mobile operating systems (Apple, Google and Windows) have all provided design

guidelines on their respective websites. This researcher went to each site and read all the rec-

ommendations, and was surprised to see how different each vendor’s approach was (please see

Figure 1: UI Recommendations for Apple, Google and Microsoft). In summary, Apple was most

concerned with creating a homogenous look-and-feel for all applications that run on the iOS plat-

form, providing specific specifications and somewhat rigid guidelines that must be followed or

developers run the risk of not getting their applications approved and distributed. At the opposite

end of the spectrum, Google is most concerned with providing developers with the most robust,

cutting-edge functionality and flexibility in user interface design. In other words, Android is

very appealing to developers who want to create experimental designs or games while not being

too concerned about getting their applications “approved”. Google allows their application mar-

ket to regulate itself to a degree [14]. Finally, Microsoft is perched somewhere in the middle,

while taking a more pragmatic approach by emphasizing the combination of time-saving func-

tionality with consistency in user interaction metaphors [8], [9], [10].

5

1

4. SOLUTION APPROACH

The end result of this study will be a set of software design patterns and gesture use cases for

mobile touchscreen software. This set will be created from the results of detailed usability test-

ing utilizing a prototype application that will require users to perform a variety of commonly ex-

ecuted tasks on a mobile touchscreen platform.

The usability study will require the following steps:

1. Design and build a prototype application that contains the common usability issues that are

being investigated.

2. Design the usability test script and questionnaire. The questionnaire will be given to the usa-

bility study participants. This questionnaire will ask subjective questions about the tasks the

users performed. The answers to the questions will be out of a 1-5 scale to aid in quantifying

the results. These results will also be used in the analysis and formulation of the design pat-

terns.

3. Test the prototype and (informally) gather baseline statistics and metrics from a small sample

of people using the initial prototype application (5-10 people).

4. The results from the initial prototype test will be analyzed and the prototype will be refined to

include the experimental design patterns and gestures. Also, user feedback will be considered

in the design.

5. The formal usability testing will be done with the redesigned application. Statistics and other

metrics will be gathered from test subjects just as before (the goal is at least 385 total users).

Please note: the overall structure of the prototype application and tasks the users will be asked

to perform will be the same.

5

6. The results from round 2 of the usability study will be analyzed and the final conclusions

formed and documented in this report.

The usability study will have the following objectives:

1. Test the nested list design pattern for utilizing lists of actionable items (see Figure 3 for a

screen shot depicting scrollable lists that lack proper affordances).

2. Test the affect of text size on task outcomes.

3. Test the overall usability of the copy and paste functionality on the testing platform (an An-

droid device). This test will determine how many times users attempt to copy and paste and

fail on average.

4. Test the overall usability of users filling in basic form fields (there will be a form at the end to

gather information from users about their experiences while taking the test).

1

Before Scrolling While Scrolling

Figure 3: Android List Design Pattern Showing Little Affordances for Scrolling

For example, in order to test the nested design patterns for list usage, the application will require

users to choose an item from a list that will require the user to scroll in order to find the item and

to dig deeper into the nested items. For another example, when trying to test how text size

played a role in performing a user task in a low light setting, this researcher will design the ap-

plication to allow text resizing while performing the task. Another task will focus on testing the

effect of text size while not allowing the user to resize the text. This text will purposefully be

made very small. Finally, while trying to measure the overall usability of the copy and paste

functionality that comes standard on Android devices (version 3.1), the prototype will ask users

to copy a block of bold text and paste it into a text box below. If the user has trouble, a hint will

be given to help the user complete the task in the prototype. Also, this researcher will, after one

5

minute’s time, help the user to complete the task. The user will also have the opportunity to skip

the task after 3 minutes.

This study will require an Android mobile phone for the testing. It will also require gathering

around 400 total volunteers who will agree to perform the usability tests and take the question-

naire afterwards. The target user group will be college students. HU may not have enough stu-

dents who are available and willing to participate and if this is the case, this researcher will go to

other universities in the area and recruit students to participate (but only with the proper permis-

sion attained beforehand). This study may also necessitate recruiting volunteers to help adminis-

ter the usability tests and record the results.

The total number of users needed for this usability study, using the common statistical Normal

Distribution method, is at least 385. This researcher arrived at the figure by assuming there are

at least a million mobile touchscreen users in the United States, by allowing a 5% margin of er-

ror/needing a confidence level of 95% and by assuming a response distribution of 50% [16].

The validity and quality of results will be dependent upon the software’s internal measurements

of user task outcome. The total time taken to complete the task, and the number of failed at-

tempts will be recorded for each task the users perform. Statistical analysis will be performed on

the results to detect any patterns in the data. Every reasonable precaution will be taken to assure

that the measurement methods for each version of the prototype application and for each action

performed within the prototype application will be consistent. Each task will be timed and the

user will have to press a start button to initiate the timer and begin the task. The prototype’s test-

1

ing structure will not change during the duration of the usability testing study. Finally, the in-

structions and environment will be set up the same for each user taking the usability study [16].

In addition, for the formal usability testing, there will be a strict policy that no usability study

participants will be family of or friends with this researcher to assure that the results will be as

unbiased as possible. The usability script will be clear, concise and will only state that the appli-

cation is being tested as part of a student research project. The script will not mention that it is

testing design patterns or what the goals of the study are. It will only give instructions specific to

the tasks the users will be expected to perform. Participation will be voluntary only and any par-

ticipant may stop the study at any time without penalty. Participants may be offered candy or

any other small incentives as a “thank you” for participating. Any volunteers that may assist this

researcher with the study will be trained and agree to follow the stipulations provide above [16].

5

5. WORK PLAN

This researcher expects to design and build the prototype and complete the usability studies in

the fall of 2011 as part of ISEM 699 (for a task breakdown, please see Figure 3 below). This re-

searcher also plans to gather enough data from the study results to write a thesis pertaining to

improving usability on touchscreen devices. In the spring or summer of 2012, this researcher

will prepare a separate proposal for the thesis and enroll in GRAD 699.

Proposed Due Date (Fall 2011)

Event

Aug. 28th - Sept. 3rd Complete paper prototype of each application.

Sept. 4th - Sept. 10th Complete shell of prototype application for Android devic- es.

Sept. 11th - Sept. 24th Complete prototype application 1 utilizing standard rec- ommended design patterns and gestures.

Sept. 25th - Oct. 1st Complete usability test script with specific procedures to follow. Schedule a time/place to conduct usability study.

Oct. 2nd - Oct. 15th Conduct informal study with baseline application that in- cludes common usability issues.

Oct. 16th - Oct. 29th Analyze usability study results, modify prototype to in- clude experimental design patterns and gestures to test.

Oct. 30th - Dec. 8th Conduct formal usability study with modified prototype that contains experimental design patterns and gestures (need a total of 400 people).

Dec. 9th - Dec. 17th Analyze usability study results, prepare findings.

Figure 4: Proposed Timeline of Events in Usability Study

1

5. PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION

This researcher has created a web application that can be used on most mobile touchscreen de-

vices as of 3rd quarter of 2011 (phones, pads, etc.).

The following pages contain actual screenshots depicting the usability tasks users were asked to

perform.

5

Figure 5. Usability Test Web Application - Start Screen

1

Figure 6. Usability Test Web Application - Loading Graphic

5

Figure 7. Usability Test Web Application - Task 1 of 4 Part A

1

Figure 8. Usability Test Web Application - Task 1 of 4: Warning

The user will be warned if he/she chooses an incorrect option and will be reminded which option

to search for and choose.

5

Figure 9. Usability Test Web Application - Task 1 of 4 Part B

1

Figure 10. Usability Test Web Application - Task 1 of 4 Part C

5

Figure 11. Usability Test Web Application - Task 2 of 4 Start Screen

1

Figure 12. Usability Test Web Application - Task 2 of 4 Part A

Users will be required to read few paragraphs of text, intentionally made too small to read com-

fortably.

5

Figure 13. Usability Test Web Application - Task 2 of 4 Part B

The second part of task two asks users to answer questions about the what the user has just read

on the previous screen.

1

Figure 14. Usability Test Web Application - Task 2 of 4 Validation

5

Figure 15. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Start Screen

1

Figure 16. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Part A

5

Figure 17. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Part B

Depicts a user selecting text to ‘copy’.

1

Figure 18. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Part C

A user has activated the selected text and can now Share selected text or Copy it.

5

Figure 19. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Part D

1

Figure 20. Usability Test Web Application - Task 3 of 4 Part E

Depicts copied text in the text box.

5

Figure 21. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4 Start Screen

1

Figure 22. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4: Form Questions 1-5

5

Figure 23. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4: Form Question 6-6b

1

Figure 24. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4: Form Questions 7-8

5

Figure 25. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4: Form Questions 9-10

1

Figure 26. Usability Test Web Application - Task 4 of 4: Form Validation

5

Figure 27. Usability Test Web Application - Thank You Screen

1

Usability Test Script

Thank you for agreeing to volunteer as a subject for a student research project. You will be

asked to perform a series of tasks. Please keep in mind that there are no wrong ways to accom-

plish the tasks. You are permitted to ask questions, but the researcher asks that you try to com-

plete the task first on your own before asking questions. Also, as you are going through the test

the researcher asks that you narrate what you are trying to do and thinking about. The researcher

will take notes.

Privacy Statement

All information provided during the study will be kept confidential as part of the study. Study

participants have a very small chance of being contacted via email to verify participation in the

study. However, study participants are not required to respond, and will not be contacted for any

further information. By participating and providing your information within the study’s mobile

device application, you agree to these statements.

Thank you!

5

Researcher Notes

Take notes on what users seem to struggle with or hesitate on and write down any questions

asked by the user next for each task below.

Task 1:_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Task 2:_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Task 3:_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Task 4:_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Task 5:_______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

1

Did the user skip any tasks? Yes/No (circle one)

If yes, which ones? 1/2/3/4/5 (circle all applicable)

Notes on why tasks were skipped: __________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

5

Rationale for Each Task in the Usability Study

In order to expose the common problems users of mobile touchscreen software will run into, this

researcher devised an application that would call upon many of the most common actions per-

formed in a web application. The four tasks chosen were:

1. Finding an item in a set of nested lists.

2. Read a few paragraphs of very small text and then answer some questions to gauge reading

comprehension.

3. Copy and Paste some bold text as instructed.

4. Fill out a questionnaire as directed.

This research observed a general lack of affordances in lists inside of many touchscreen applica-

tions and reasoned that finding items within a set of nested lists, may pose an even greater usabil-

ity challenge for users to find the required information.

For the reading comprehension test, the text was purposefully made to be too small (9pt.) for the

average reader to see easily without squinting. The way the standard browser renders the text

and screen, makes it difficult to resize the text and also read it without scrolling from left to right.

This researcher believes this is a basic usability flaw, present in many other applications, not just

mobile touchscreen software. This researcher wanted to capture statistics on how many times a

user had to scroll back and forth and change the screen orientation while trying to read the text.

In addition, this researcher also wanted to gauge if this had a negative affect on reading compre-

hension of text presented in this manner.

1

In addition, the copy and pasting, navigating nested lists and filling out a form (the survey) tasks,

this researcher wants to test how usability-friendly the default design patterns are while utilizing

test subjects. The metrics gathered while administering the test will be compared against a base-

line. This researcher will also have a group of users click through the web application on a

standard PC. Metrics gathered during this phase will be the baseline of comparison between

standard PC and touchscreen devices.

5

7. USABILITY STUDY RESULTS

This researcher was only able to recruit 10 subjects to use the application as part of the usability

study. The website is hosted at http://www.katietobin.net/research and will remain there until the

study is complete. As such, the results detailed below only apply to the 10 subjects who partici-

pated thus far.

The results for task 1 (finding items in a series of lists) were fairly consistent among users. All

rated the task subjectively as none to low difficulty (4 none, 5 low). Only 1 out of 10 subjects

had to ask for assistance in completing the task.

For task 2 (reading comprehension of very small text), all 10 subjects answered question 1 incor-

rectly, 2 out of 10 answered question 2 incorrectly and 0 out of 10 answered the 3rd question in-

correctly. None of the subjects asked the researcher for assistance with completing the task. On

average, it took the subjects 1 minute and 38 seconds to read the very small text. Subjectively,

the subjects rated the difficulty of this task as low, on average (2 medium, 3 low, 2 none). Over-

all, this was another very consistent result amongst the subjects.

For task 3 (copying and pasting text into a textbox), 9 out of 10 users experienced some difficul-

ty completing the task. These subjects required this researcher to describe and sometimes show

them how to physically perform the gesture to copy and paste. A few subjects took 4-5 minutes

to finally complete the task. The average completion time was 3 minutes and 6 seconds and was

the task that took, on average, the longest for the subjects to complete (including task 10, which

was to fill out a 10 question form, that took, on average, 1 minute and 27 seconds to complete).

1

Subjectively, the subjects rated the difficulty of this task as, on average medium (1 severe, 1

high, 4 medium, 1 low, 1 none) .

Finally, for task 4 (filling out a questionnaire form as directed) all 9 out of 10 subjects reported

using a touchscreen device daily. Also, there were 8 males and 2 females who completed the

study. The average time the subjects took to fill in the form was 1 minute and 27 seconds. This

researcher also noted that some users (3 out of 10) accidentally pushed the “Go” button on the

keyboard, which resulted in submitting the form prior to the user wanting this event to occur.

Users were trying to hit a different key that was in very close approximate range from the desired

key. Finally, 8 subjects rated their understanding of the instructions to complete the tasks in the

study as having a difficulty level of none and 1 subject rated the difficulty level as low.

5

8. CONCLUSIONS REACHED

Currently, this researcher believes that more subjects need to be recruited to participate in the

survey and more results from the study gathered in order to draw final conclusions. However,

the results so far have consistently shown some areas that have proven difficult for many of the

subjects. It seemed that on tasks where there are little affordances and feedback within the user

interface interaction, the subjects struggled to figure out how to perform the tasks.

Nowhere was this most basic usability flaw more evident, than in task 3 (copying and pasting

text into a textbox). This researcher observed that the subjects seemed to understand what to do,

just not how to execute the complex set of gestures that consisted of pressing one finger over a

part of the desired text to be copied and waiting until a section of this text was highlighted.

Then, subjects have to drag each end of the highlighted section so that all of the desired text to be

copied is highlighted. Third, the user must tap the highlighted text once, with a single finger and

a modal window will pop over the screen. This modal window has two options: Copy and Can-

cel. After a subject chooses the Copy option, the user must then press on the text field for a mo-

ment until the textbox becomes “editable”. The keyboard will appear in the bottom half of the

screen. A modal window will appear with two options: Paste and Cancel. Upon choosing the

paste option, the subject will see the copied text pasted into the textbox. So it is no surprise that

task 3 took the longest amount of time for the subjects to complete – 3 minutes and 6 seconds, on

average. This was almost double what it took to read the very small text in task 2 or to fill in 10

fields on the form in task 4.

1

9. FUTURE WORK

This researcher intends to continue this investigation into usability issues on mobile touchscreen

devices next semester in GRAD 699. This researcher will perform the following tasks:

1. Continue recruiting volunteers to take part in the usability study and record results

2. Conduct detailed literature survey utilizing secondary sources

3. Draw conclusions based on research results

4. Create recommendations for usability methodology for mobile touchscreen devices

5

9. REFERENCES

[1] Bragdon, Andrew, et al (2011), CHI2011, May 7–12, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Experi-

mental Analysis of Touch-Screen Gesture Designs in Mobile Environments

[2] Nilsson, Erik G., (2009), Design patterns for user interface for mobile applications, Advanc-

es in Engineering Software, Vol. 40 1318-1328

[3] Pauwels, Stefan L., et al (2010), University of Basel, Faculty of Psychology, Department of

Cognitive Psychology and Methodology, Switzerland. Building an Interaction Design Pat-

tern Language: A Case Study

[4] Saffer, Dan, (2009), Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices,

O’Reilly Media, Canada

[5] Stone, Roger, (yyyy?), Loughborough University, England, Mobile Touch Interfaces for the

Elderly

[6] Unger, Russ; Chandler, Carolyn, (2009), A Project Guide to UX Design For User Experience

Designers in the Field or in the Making, New Riders, Berkeley, California

[7] Wigdor, Daniel; Wixon, Dennis, (2011), Brave NUI World: Designing Natural User Interfac-

es for Touch and Gesture, Morgan Kaufman, Burlington, Massachusetts

[8] Android. User Interface Guidelines.

http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html. Accessed August 8th,

2011.

[9] Apple Inc. iOS Human Interface Guidelines.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHI

G/Introduction/Introduction.html%23//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH1-SW1. Accessed

August 8th, 2011.

1

[10] Windows. User Experience Design Principles. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/dd834141.aspx. Accessed August 8th, 2011.

[11] Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance. Accessed August 6th, 2011.

[12] The Free Dictionary. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/WIMP. Accessed August 6th, 2011.

[13] Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern_(computer_science). Accessed Au-

gust 6th, 2011.

[14] Android. Publishing to Android Market.

http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/publishing.html#market. Accessed August

15th, 2011.

[15] Kaneshine, Tom. CIO.com. Why Apple Owns the High End: First Mover Advantage.

http://www.cio.com/article/499151/Why_Apple_Owns_the_High_End_First_Mover_Advant

age. Accessed August 15th, 2011.

[16] Kumar, Ranjit, (2011), Research Methodology a step-by-step guild for beginners, Sage,

Washington, DC

5

APPENDIX A

NUI Design Principles Considered [7]

Less is more: where possible, build on simple interactions in order to do more complex tasks

Interface control elements should not be presented if they are not needed

Most interface elements should emerge in response to user action only to communicate the state

of the system or suggest next action or consequence of action.

Software developers should not change the state of the system mid-gesture

The number of system states should be few

The system must respond to every contact immediately

Make every transition fluid, no abrupt appearance or disappearance of objects - too jarring

Make interactions as realistic as possible by mimicking mass, acceleration, friction, viscosity

and gravity

Controls for starting/ending should always be visible (do not embed major functions in menus)

All interaction metaphors start with physical manipulation and extend it

Enable users to manipulate content directly - rather than though interface controls. For exam-

ple, use a scale manipulation (2-finger gesture to zoom in/out) instead of a zoom slider button.

Ensure all actions lead to either prompting for the next step in an action sequence or foreshad-

owing the state of system/object when action is finished

At appropriate times, show affordances that guide user to access the unseen content or function-

ality (example: a list of songs showing an incomplete list that when the user selects and moves

will show more songs).

1

NUI Design Principles Considered [7]

Require explicit and intentional user input for destructive functions or to cause larger changes

or transitions

Give users the opportunity to decide to undo or traverse their previous actions by foreshadow-

ing what will happen next

Reduce number of features in an application, but provide “premium experience” for primary

actions

Make sure essential features are immediately discoverable (For example, make a blank docu-

ment load automatically in a text processing app, don’t make user select one in a menu first),

but do not explain saving files and folders until user has something to save.

Encourage discovery through exploration so functionality is revealed as users continue through

experience, but be sure visual responses communicate cause and effect

Demonstrate functionality wherever possible and

Make sure feedback contributes to better understanding of the system and its state. For exam-

ple, when users touch a control, it moves to the front, grows, and displays a drop shadow, indi-

cating a change in its position along the z-axis and reinforces position “on top” of the content.

Put users in control; don’t provide too many automated actions and keep controls enabled and

logical at all times

To avoid the Fat Finger Problem make actionable targets larger. When this isn’t feasible, de-

signers can auto-target main items on screen so that when user touches near one, the nearest one

is selected (like first person shooter games). Or they can create iceberg targets that are larger

than the item being selected.

5

NUI Design Principles Considered [7]

Mobile phone users predominantly use thumbs, while touchscreen or tablet users can use more

fingers and arms may be outstretched

Screen Shot 2019-09-09 at 8.58.10 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-09-09 at 8.58.57 PM.png

Get help from top-rated tutors in any subject.

Efficiently complete your homework and academic assignments by getting help from the experts at homeworkarchive.com