AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHALLENGES THAT FACE HCI IN MOBILE INTERFACE DESIGNS. WITH SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS BETWEEN GENDER AND AGE GROUPS

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing

By Fiona Li

Department of Computing & Information Systems Cardiff School of Management

CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY FEBRUARY, 2017 Declaration Page

I hereby declare that this dissertation entitled “An Investigation into the Challenges that Face HCI in Mobile Interface Designs. With Specific Considerations between Gender and Age Groups” is entirely my own work, and the appropriate credit has been given where reference had been made to the work of others. I also confirm that this piece of work has never been submitted nor is it currently being submitted for any other degree than the one stated.

Candidate: Fiona Li

Signature: Date:

Supervisor: Dr Ana Calderon

Signature: Date:

ii Abstract

The popular subject of human computer interaction explores the communication between a user and systems for both and hardware, assessing the interaction amongst these two entities allows development and improvements to be made in usability and functionality for new and existing technology.

With HCI becoming highly complex and the development of mobile devices overpowering society within this ever-changing digital world of technology and media, the purpose of this research project is to keep updated with the changing trends and stamp the challenges of creating a user friendly experience for all types of individual users. In addition to this, there are a large number of people who persistently complain about design and usability in technology, especially those in the elder generation. Henceforth, the main aim of this thesis is to resolve the underlying enigma pertaining to gender or age specific classifications within the subject of mobile HCI and explicit relations to interface design.

The results of utilising different forms of methodology to accumulate both qualitative and quantitative data with revised literature identified that there are potential relationships between the different age groups and the opinions on interface design than of gender where no significant connection was found. Additionally the findings discovered that all individual preferences are hard to please, but with persistent extensive research into this area can change and adapt HCI methods for the development of mobile devices in order to create more universally versatile machines that function well for every type of user.

iii Acknowledgements

On completion of my dissertation, I would like to sincerely thank my project supervisor, Dr Ana Calderon, for her utmost assistance and guidance but also her time to help me throughout the entire journey of this project. Furthermore, I extend my grateful thanks to everyone who spared their time to participate in my research for both my questionnaire and workshop interviews; the feedback from each method was incredibly valuable in improving the quality of my project and evaluating my conclusion and recommendations. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family for the indescribable support and making the experience easier within the stressful periods.

iv Table of Contents

Declaration Page...... ii

Abstract ...... iii

Acknowledgements ...... iv

Table of Contents ...... v

Table of Figures ...... ix

Chapter 1 - Introduction ...... 1 Introduction ...... 1 Purpose of Study...... 2 2.1 Aim ...... 2 2.2 Objectives ...... 2

Chapter 2 - Project Schedule ...... 3 Project Tasks ...... 3 Milestones ...... 4 Gantt Chart ...... 5 Risk Assessment ...... 6

Chapter 3 - Background & Literature Review ...... 7 Human Computer Interaction ...... 7 7.1 About HCI ...... 7 7.2 Human ...... 7 7.3 Computer ...... 8 7.4 Interaction ...... 9 7.5 Mobile HCI ...... 9 7.6 Challenges in HCI ...... 10 7.7 Gender in HCI ...... 10 7.8 Gender in Interface Design ...... 11 7.9 Age in Mobile HCI ...... 11 Mobile Platforms ...... 11 8.1 Popular Platforms ...... 11 8.2 IOS ...... 12 8.3 Android ...... 12 8.4 ...... 13 8.5 Blackberry OS ...... 13 Design Elements ...... 14 9.1 IOS ...... 14 9.2 Android ...... 15 9.3 Windows Phone ...... 16

v 9.4 Blackberry ...... 17 Current Technology ...... 20 10.1 iOS ...... 20 10.2 Android ...... 20 10.3 Windows Phone ...... 21 10.4 Blackberry ...... 22 Current Mobile Accessories ...... 22 11.1 iOS ...... 22 11.2 Android ...... 22 11.3 Windows Phone ...... 23 11.4 Blackberry ...... 23

Chapter 4 - Methodology ...... 24 Primary Research Approach ...... 24 12.1 Questionnaire ...... 24 12.2 Strengths of Questionnaire ...... 25 12.3 Weaknesses of Questionnaire ...... 25 12.4 Resolutions ...... 25 12.5 Workshop Interviews ...... 26 12.6 Strengths of Workshop Interviews ...... 26 12.7 Weaknesses of Workshop Interviews ...... 27 12.8 Resolutions ...... 27 Secondary Research Approach ...... 28 Data Collection Methods ...... 28 14.1 Questionnaire ...... 28 14.2 Workshop Interviews ...... 28 Data Analysis Methods ...... 28 15.1 Questionnaire ...... 29 15.2 Workshop Interviews ...... 29

Chapter 5 - Project Management ...... 30 Ethical Considerations ...... 30 Project Schedule Revised ...... 30 17.1 Project Tasks ...... 31 17.2 Gantt Chart ...... 32

Chapter 6 - Findings ...... 33 Questionnaire ...... 33 18.1 Gender and Age ...... 33 18.1.1 Comparisons against Gender and Age ...... 33 18.2 Occupational Area and Qualifications/Subject ...... 34 18.2.1 Comparisons against Occupation and Education ...... 34 18.3 Current Mobiles Phones Owned ...... 34 18.4 Mobile Features and Activities ...... 34

vi 18.4.1 Comparisons against Activities ...... 35 18.5 Interface Mobile Features and Improvements ...... 35 18.6 Design ...... 35 18.7 Purchasing Factors ...... 35 Workshop Interview ...... 36

Chapter 7 - Analysis & Discussion ...... 37 Data Analysis Overview ...... 37 Future Predictions ...... 38

Chapter 8 - Conclusion ...... 39 Review Aims & Objectives ...... 39 Further Research and Recommendations ...... 39

Chapter 9 - Evaluation ...... 40 Personal Reflection ...... 40 Future Work ...... 40

References ...... 42

Appendices ...... 48 Appendix A ...... 48 A.1 Project Tasks – Original ...... 48 A.2 Project Tasks – Revised ...... 49 A.3 Gantt Chart - Original ...... 50 A.4 Gantt Chart – Revised ...... 51 Appendix B ...... 52 B.1 Questionnaire Brief ...... 52 B.2 Questionnaire ...... 53 Appendix C ...... 60 C.1 Workshop Interview Brief ...... 60 C.2 Participant Consent Form ...... 61 C.3 Workshop Interview Questions ...... 62 Appendix D ...... 63 D.1 Qualtrics Results ...... 63 D.2 Qualtrics Singular Responses ...... 63 Appendix E ...... 64 E.1 Questionnaire Graphs and Statistics Tables ...... 64 E.1.1 Gender ...... 64 E.1.2 Age ...... 65 E.1.3 Occupational Area...... 66 E.1.4 Educational Qualifications ...... 68 E.1.5 Subject Area ...... 71 E.1.6 Current Owned ...... 72 E.1.7 Mobile Features ...... 74

vii E.1.8 Frequent Activities ...... 77 E.1.9 Interface Features ...... 78 E.1.10 Improvements...... 80 E.1.11 Button Design ...... 82 E.1.12 Main Menu Design ...... 83 E.1.13 Hardware and Interface Design ...... 84 E.1.14 Purchasing Factors ...... 85 E.1.15 Additional Technology ...... 88 E.2 Cross Tabulations ...... 90 E.2.1 Gender and age vs. Improvements ...... 90 E.2.2 Gender and age vs. Interface Design ...... 91 E.2.3 Occupational Area vs. Interface Design ...... 92 E.2.4 Educational Level vs. Main Menu Design ...... 94 E.2.5 Subject Areal vs. Interface Design ...... 95 E.2.6 Activities vs. Interface Design ...... 97 Appendix F ...... 98 F.1 Workshop Interview Participant Forms and Answers ...... 98 F.1.1 Female (18 to 40 Years Old) ...... 98 F.1.2 Male (18 to 40 Years Old) ...... 100 F.1.3 Female (40 to 60 Years Old) ...... 102 F.1.4 Male (40 to 60 years) ...... 104 F.1.5 Female (60 or Over Years) ...... 106 F.1.6 Male (60 or Over Years) ...... 108 F.2 Workshop Interview Observation Notes ...... 110 F.2.1 Female (18 to 40 Years Old) ...... 110 F.2.2 Male (18 to 40 Years Old) ...... 110 F.2.3 Female (40 to 60 Years Old) ...... 110 F.2.4 Male (40 to 60 years) ...... 111 F.2.5 Female (60 or Over Years) ...... 111 F.2.6 Male (60 or Over Years) ...... 111 Appendix G ...... 112 G.1 Workshop Interview Graphs ...... 112 G.1.1 Preferred ...... 112 Appendix H ...... 113 H.1 Equations ...... 113 H.1.1 Mean ...... 113 H.1.2 Variance ...... 113 H.1.3 Standard Deviation ...... 113 Appendix I ...... 114 I.1 Ethics Form Approval – 2015D0395 ...... 114

viii Table of Figures

Figure 9.1.1 The use of negative space within iOS (iOS 2015) ...... 14 Figure 9.2.1 Two applications running side-by-side in split-screen mode (Android 2016) . 15 Figure 9.3.1 Panorama Control used in Windows Phone (Rousseau 2013) ...... 16 Figure 9.3.2 Pivot Control used in Windows Phone (Rector 2013) ...... 17 Figure 9.4.1 Blackberry Hub and active frames layout (McCann 2013) ...... 18 Figure 9.4.2 Light theme (Blackberry 2015) ...... 18 Figure 9.4.3 Dark theme (Blackberry 2015) ...... 18 Figure 9.4.4 Touch vs. Physical keyboard (Blackberry 2015) ...... 19 Figure 9.4.5 Example of action bar (Neil 2015) ...... 19 Figure 10.1.1 iPhone 6s (Williams 2015) ...... 20 Figure 10.2.1 Galaxy S7 Edge (GSMArena 2000) ...... 21 Figure 10.3.1 Lumia 950 (Brewis 2015) ...... 21 Figure 10.4.1 Blackberry Passport (phoneArena 2014) ...... 22

ix Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction This report will delve into a range of different challenging areas within the world of human-computer interaction, with distinctive association to design aspects in a variety of current popular mobile platforms. It is self-explanatory that technology itself has reduced the burden of work for the average human being in many ways, and this is one of the reasons HCI is a very important subject area. Additionally, if we reflect on this generation of technology, mobile phones are definitely the ideal choice, and so this thesis concentrates on mobile HCI as it has become ubiquitous alongside mobile devices themselves. Focusing on the details of mobile interface designs with relation to gender and age specific groups, the investigation will find out the opinions and views of consumers and the attitudes towards modern design, usability and functionality. This will include questioning users on personal design preferences, likes and dislikes and examining physical interactions with a selection of mobile devices. The mobile devices in the experiment will contain particular operating systems, to complete an assessment that covers different interface structures and performance levels. Both advantages and disadvantages of design features and interface appearances will be outlined, along with defining any prominent differences between male and female users and the younger and older generations of our time. The results will also give great support in future development to alter strategies and procedures where necessary, to create detailed interface designs for all types of end-users in mobile technology and communication. With technology consistently advancing on large scales, the evolution of high quality analysis on human computer interaction has kept in balance, since the creation of personal computers. Utilising HCI for development is beneficial in all aspects and is one of the leading reasons for the first class machinery used today. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to discover any distinctive similarities or differences in the reactions from males and females on the use of mobile technology with consideration to age. Another reason for investigating into this particular area is due to a great interest and personal experience in educational modules that involved a variety of projects, which incorporated interface design and required making decisions on how to implement designs with justification to those made. This is particularly the case for mobile applications and database applications, which were the modules most enjoyed. In whole, this piece of documentation will contribute to a clearer understanding of HCI and to conclude and define certain end user groups and reactions if any. It should be noted that the research would not include the mobile platform to avoid steering the attention away from the current top platforms.

1 Purpose of Study

2.1 Aim The main aim of this research dissertation is to investigate and analyse the results of implementing different features of mobile interface design using key elements of human computer interaction. With comparisons and identifications of patterns and dissimilarities between gender and age specific groups.

2.2 Objectives 1. To investigate the most popular mobile platform used in current years along with any additional technical accessories. To carry out this investigation, secondary research methods will be used.

2. To assess whether or not the mobile interface design affects the decision of users to purchase the device causing an increase or decrease in popular platforms; using a combination of both primary and secondary sources of data for instance, a questionnaire and online websites or reports.

3. To critically assess, the specific features and strategies a range of mobile platforms use to design the interface and the advantages and disadvantages of applying them; this will consider secondary information such as online websites that detail about mobile platform design.

4. To investigate into the personal opinions of smartphone users about the design features contained in a range of mobile platforms and any improvements they would suggest. A questionnaire will be used for this.

5. To analyse how human interaction and attitudes change when functioning different mobile platforms and the ease a person may or may not have to adapt to platforms they do not regularly use. A practical test will be carried out for this.

2 Chapter 2 - Project Schedule

The project schedule was produced within the first two weeks of beginning the assignment. To observe the quality of time and project organisation, the project schedule is revised in the project management chapter, the full original and revised Gantt chart can be viewed respectively in Appendix A. To construct the Gantt charts, an online project management tools was used, known as Smartsheet.

Project Tasks The whole project has been condensed into a number of tasks that are necessary to be completed in order for a successful project. These tasks are shown below within the table with both start and end dates and duration; this can also be found in Appendix A.1.

3 Milestones A few milestones have been identified to monitor the progress of the project and that completion of work is adhering to the arranged project schedule. The milestones are listed within the table below.

Date Task

28th September 2015 Planning Project Schedule 12th October 2015 Scope and Introduction 2nd November 2015 Ethics Form 23rd November 2015 Background Research and Literature Review 18th January 2016 Methodology 1st February 2016 Launch Questionnaire 15th February 2016 Conduct Workshop Interviews 7th March 2016 Findings 21st March 2016 Discussion 28th March 2016 Conclusion 4th April 2016 Evaluation 22nd April 2016 Submission

4 Gantt Chart For the project a Gantt chart was created to view all of the tasks in a timeline display and to clarify whether the milestones outlined were fulfilled. The Gantt chart is displayed below and in Appendix A.3.

5 Risk Assessment The following points determine any potential risks that need to be considered before, during and after the completion of this project.

 To make sure that task deadlines are being met, good time management and proficient organisational skills are necessary, along with an excellent initiative to plan alternatives if situations and tasks do not go as planned.

 If not enough individuals complete the questionnaire or take part in the workshop interview, sufficient and accurate data can be hard to obtain; for this organisational skills are also a key factor.

 To ensure that no damage to the property or equipment is caused when using a pubic area to carry out workshop interviews.

 For the workshop interview dates and times are to be set at reasonable times, suitable for the interviewee to not inconvenience the individual in any way.

 Make sure to explain the full procedure clearly to participants in the workshop interviews and that all data gathered will be protected, as some candidates may not give adequate information if not evidently stated.

6 Chapter 3 - Background & Literature Review

Human Computer Interaction

7.1 About HCI Human-computer interaction (henceforth abbreviated to HCI) was firstly introduced in the early 1980s and has grown and expanded extensively over the last three decades. The study of HCI is a combination of two areas, one being psychology and social sciences and the other region being computer science and technology. A popular research topic is the scenario-based design, which is an element of design practice involving a family of techniques and focusing firstly on futuristic activities and how the user will use the system, rather than pin pointing the design work for defining system operations. (Rosson and Carroll 2009) HCI involves the research into the mannerism and approaches of humans when utilising all sorts of technology, it also examines the study of design and interface features of computer technology. Being a very broad topic, research can be based on online websites, mobiles phones, clinical systems, to gaming console such as the and Nintendo WII and also voice recognition devices etc. The concept of HCI seeded from the introduction to people and skills in cognitive science, which initiated at the same time personal computers required the need for HCI. Cognitive science includes a collection of different subject disciplines, for instance, artificial intelligence, the study of the mind, psychology, linguistics and anthropology. Consequently leading to HCI being one of the very first forms of cognitive engineering. (Carroll 2013) HCI is associated to a design discipline known as interaction design or user-centred design. The main endeavour of HCI is to comprehend and research into human demeanours and technology structures with the attempt to implement appropriate methodology in order to create interaction between the two unproblematic and placating. Economically the price of software and machinery remains relatively high, but with the support of design and user interfaces, companies are able to challenge the competition with a desirable edge in design, as the interface is the first and foremost visual the user can relate to. HCI can be separated into three different sections, humans, computers and interactions; all of these areas are bonded together within the study of HCI. (Faulkner 1997)

7.2 Human The first section is human, which relates to the physical user and the topic of ergonomics. Human input and factors occur due to the link with bodily senses; each human has five traditional senses in total, which includes hearing, smell, sight, touch and taste. In HCI and computer technology, the most important senses are sight, hearing and touch with the prime bodily contributors being the voice, eyes, fingers, head and body position. Furthermore, another significant factor is memory, which can be distinguished into three types, sensory, short-term also known as working memory and thirdly long-term. Sensory memory receives stimuli with new information from each of the senses, short-term memory accesses information rapidly and decays quickly as well,

7 whereas long-term memory has a slow retrieval reaction and decomposition time but an infinite capacity rate. (Dix 2005)

The leading action with any piece of machinery is the visual aspect, which is the reason design and exterior is a crucial domain in HCI. When a user interacts with a computer on a graphical level, features identified can involuntarily affect the experience, for example, brightness, and shade of colours, hue and saturation are spotted optically. This is similar to sound, as users can differentiate between changes of pitch and loudness or textures in terms of touch. Touch is perhaps the least contemplated area in HCI, unless the proceedings for advancement is for visually or hearing impaired users. As a result of all of this, designers need to consider these factors before making permanent design decisions. (Faulkner 1997)

7.3 Computer The computer correlates to the machinery, traditionally this involves a keyboard, mouse and screen for visual input and output, but times have moved forward to an era where these appliances are considered to be standard accessories. In contrast to the modern day equipment consisting of touch screens, speech and handwriting recognition, virtual intelligent personal assistants, facial detections and even internet systems built into fridges, washing machines and microwaves; this growth and evolution of technical devices intensifies the worth and exigency for HCI. (Dix et al. 2006) The typical and dominating text-entry device is patently the keyboard, used for textual information and instructive commands. The conventional keyboard exploits the standardised layout invented by Sholes to overcome mechanical issues, known as QWERTY. The name originates from the first line of the alphabetic key row and the key arrangement has remained unchanged for over 100 years migrating from typewriters to personal computers to mobile technology. (Mackenzie 2010) The layout of digits and letters stay the same in every QWERTY keyboard, but there is a slight disparity between the British and American arrangement with the currency sign above the number 3, a pound sign (£) is used for the UK and a dollar sign ($) for the US. In terms of user experience, the QWERTY keyboard was designed to have the frequently used keys placed under the strongest fingers to make typing fast and efficient. Other national keyboards are very similar but due to different languages such as French, some keys have locations that are not the same. For example, the first line of the French keyboard consists of AZERTY. (Dix et al. 2006)

Other text entry techniques that have broadened the field of interactive machines include handwriting, voice and facial appearance detection. Due to the fact that speech is the primary form of communication amongst users and is the quickest approach, speech recognition research gained large amount of interests. Since the 1960s, computer scientists have carried out this research with hope to discover techniques to develop computers that understand human speech; this has been an extremely challenging task particularly in the rudimentary stages. The speech-to-text method is fairly simple, the computer is programmed to obtain the vocal dialogue through recording and analyse this to interpret what the user is requesting or stating to be able to respond fittingly. (Gaikwad et al. 2010) To identify handwriting, pen-based systems were materialised with limitations on the individual’s handwriting, for instance, displaying compulsory boxes for input rather than allowing free style; using boundaries

8 makes it easier to detect the strokes with respects for upper and lower case letters entered. Variety is a key element when trying to pin point handwriting, speech and faces, as every person’s voice, style of writing and appearance is unlike. (Noyes 2001)

7.4 Interaction The final section is interaction, which can sometimes be represented as interface, but the prior is most commonly used. With the blend of humans and computers, interaction is necessary to link the two elements together to accomplish a variety of tasks. Designers of digital technology do not regard their job as fabricating exquisite and effective products, but as products that are based on user interactions. An example of designing by interactions would be the stylus input that was predominantly invented to allow one-handed interaction, which consecutively promoted portability. (Morridge 2006) When focusing on this area the prime objective is to create naturalness in the collaboration between end-user and device. As a result of this, gesture control is major component in HCI, particularly hand gestures as this is known as the most commonly used. In gesture taxonomy pertaining to HCI, movement is categorised into two classes, gestures and unintentional movements. This is done to distinguish between actions that do not deliver any information and gesticulation that are communicative and manipulative. Additional reasons for monitoring gestures in HCI processes, is to define repetitive and common behaviour, along with hand position and posture. (Pavloric 1997) The assistance of computer technology being integrated into our lives on a daily basis and its amalgamation with gesture control generated the concept of devices using mid-air gestures. Good examples of this type of device would be the Microsoft that launched in 2010 to replace the game controller and the built-in smart glasses known as the Microsoft HoloLens, which were released in 2015. (Muser 2015)

7.5 Mobile HCI Since the invention of mobile devices, HCI mobile designers have been challenged to accomplish the combination of five conditions. These conditions include designing for mobility, multitasking, varying context and a wide-ranging audience with limited facilities for input and output; this has forced designers to adapt to smaller interfaces and to be more aware of positioning. Furthermore, training for users were normally necessary to teach functionality during the introduction of early personal computers whereas, the mobile phone industry did not require any formal training due to designing for a large population spread from the beginning and the outlook that the type of device is to be used, not maintained.

Examining the conditions mentioned the design process need to consider many aspects, limitations and specific tasks the user might need to accomplish in a range of scenarios and situations. For example, when designing for mobility, environment is a major component but when creating a domain suitable for user multitasking, support for task interruption is the key element. (Dunlop and Brewster 2002)

Research methods used in HCI, usually consist of laboratory and field experiments but for mobile HCI the field experiment is a more effective assessment as mobile devices are used in dynamic social environments, giving a realistic testing milieu. To examine experimental design, there are several kinds that can be exploited but it is dependable

9 on the mobile HCI research work needed. For instance, repeated measures experimental design involves a group of participants, independent sample design is as the name declares, participants will be tested separately, whereas matched-pairs design consist of specifically chosen applicants based on a certain criteria such as age and gender. Other design testing strategies include stratified, quota, cluster and opportunity. (Love 2014)

The importance of mobile device research in HCI has proliferated alongside the massive stretch of mobile technologies available today. The proposition for futuristic mobile devices is to be designed for situational impairments and crafted to be more accessible to the aging population. Improving mobile devices through the use of HCI methodology will decrease the amount of computing executed from a desktop, expand the capabilities of smaller and smaller devices, progress accessibility for the older generation, but also tighten the unification of computing and mobile phones, all of this appoints mobile devices to represent a higher percentage for the future of HCI in comparison to the traditional desktop. (Wobbrock 2006)

7.6 Challenges in HCI The number of corporations and institutions that now incorporate HCI to advance their products to be more efficient and user-friendly has risen consistently year-by-year. However, countless of computer users complain that computer developers do not consider the percentage of users that lack in sufficient knowledge and intelligence with advanced technology. This is not to stating that computer developers do not care about usability, but that little is done about it in comparison to other areas. (Howard, 2003)

Focusing solely on creating the fastest and most powerful machines is great in many ways, but if this amazing machinery is not easy to use or manageable for all kinds of users, then it becomes more useless than useful, as it will never be utilised to its greatest potential. All end users want to optimise computer systems to improve work and interactive contexts, but the main problem that refrains them from doing so, is the difficulties found in the system. (Lieberman et al. 2006) On the other hand, computer developers argue that computers are extremely intricate products to design and construct, hence trying to combine all aspects of the device including user-friendliness, is incredibly difficult and that the technical level of users in comparison to the standard of the system is very hard to balance when the main intention is to build and improve on existing advanced technology. Additionally, developers believe that the cessation of communication between user and system must originate from the inability of the user to correspond with computer terms and not from wrong anticipation of user input. (Rose, 2003)

7.7 Gender in HCI For this paper, gender and age will be one of the prime areas that will be thoroughly examined and considered in research to determine strong contrasts if any exist to discover. There have been countless of gender based studies utilised to fathom the mannerisms of male and female in HCI, as well as to ameliorate the quality of interactive systems to accompany these behavioural differences. In these studies, it has been claimed and reported that females possess lower confidence in their abilities linked to computer activity as opposed to males. The declared reason for this is self-efficacy,

10 which is an individual’s self-judgement in performing a particular action to complete a task. (Beckwith et al. 2006)

7.8 Gender in Interface Design It has been acknowledged that biased design principles have triggered a sense of accepting biasness and that specific genders fall in certain categories within the computing world; these categories include language, colour and layout and data structures. Inside the language group, it is apparent that males commonly use more assertive and professional speech, whereas females are more conversational and less formal. For colour, males are likely to choose grey scale or black cool tone colours rather than use a variation, opposed to females who go for brighter colours. Lastly males tend to design in layouts that are condensed and rigid, but females typically use amorphous shapes with displays positioned in spacious areas. There are other bias principles when it comes to design, but these are three of the main categories. (Barth 2012)

7.9 Age in Mobile HCI Gender is not the only user characteristic necessary to ruminate, age also places hindrances into the field of HCI. For the older generation, it has been observed that there is a higher adoption rate in mobile phones in contrast to the use of the Internet with 96% of UK citizens over the age of 65 owning a mobile device in early 2006. However, development periods of the mobile phone had not considered older individuals, which has in affect caused the experience for them to be complex and rather intricate; this conflict with the information formerly conversed in section 7.5 (Wobbrock 2006). The typical complaint from the older population is that the characters, buttons, display screens and the overall interface is arduous to view; this generated a pattern to emerge by older mobile users, consisting of frequent mistakes and wrong buttons pushed.

Previously the matter has been raised that if the problem areas were addressed, mobile phones could be a great accessory for the older population in terms of security and safety. With the ability and knowledge to contact any person practically anytime and anywhere as well as being a memory aid; overall improving quality of life for the elderly. In a research project by the British Society of Gerontology it was reported that the top three problematic facets rated by users over 60 years old were navigation menus, learning how to utilise the mobile phone and selecting the correct option. (Kurniawan 2007)

Mobile Platforms

8.1 Popular Platforms Both Android and iOS are the current mobile platforms that are dominating the smartphone industry, with Android being the largest installed base worldwide and iOS following in second place and a combined average global market share of 85 to 95%. Other competitors include Blackberry and Firefox OS, but due to the limited features these platforms contain was a contribution to the affected user choice to be either Android or iOS. An example of this would be, the availability of applications as this is

11 one of the key decision breakers for when a user is purchasing a new smartphone; this is because users need the device to accommodate needs and mobile habits. (Ward 2014)

When looking at platforms like Firefox OS and Blackberry in comparison to Android and iOS, both do not contain the current popular or most recently used applications such as, Instagram and Snapchat; this is one of the reasons that these platforms fall far behind in the market area. (Betters 2015) Another contender is the Windows platform, which holds native support for products making it easy and flexible, when working and transferring files from desktop to mobile devices. Windows Phone is commonly used by users who work in businesses and require quick access to documents frequently, this is a feature that Android and iOS are not as advanced in. However, despite this substantial support from Microsoft, Windows is still unable to drive ahead of the other competitors. (Nield 2014)

8.2 IOS Despite falling in second place in the ranking of mobile platforms, iOS is a very simple coded in its native language, C. With the iPhone being the first smartphone to manipulate a touch screen and the results of the other beneficial features, demand for the product triumphs against other mobile phones. To expand on the advantages of iOS, the simplicity of its code allows less time taken for loading and a smaller quantity is seen in bugs and errors. (Sharma et al. 2013) Another reason for the large scale of demand, is that iOS is not only used in mobile phones but it has been extended to a collection of devices such as, the iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV and MacBook, all developed by Apple which can be connected to one another and used coherently. (Nosrati et al. 2012) To examine the level of security it was discovered within a study that compared the iOS and Android platforms against each other on the efficiency in encryption, memory randomisation, application sandboxing, data storage format and the fitted anti-virus system. The findings evaluated that iOS was a much more secure operating system, possibly due to the fact that Android is an open source operating system, as mentioned before. (Ahmed et. al. 2004)

8.3 Android Developed for handset manufacturers by the American multinational technology company, , Android phones have an impressive combination of functionality and features, which are the prime reason Android currently, hold the dominating position in the mobile industry. With the standardised programming language as Java and being the first open source, Linux based system opens up the advantage for the operating system to be used on a variety of platforms, resulting in good portability. (Speckmann 2008) Although being an open source platform is beneficial, one of the pitfalls to this is that an intricate and sturdy security architecture is essential to protect the personal and private data of the user from all kinds of malware attacks, for instance, Trojan horses, spyware and viruses. (Bala et al. 2015) In 2014, a detailed review was conducted on the upcoming operating systems, which included Windows 9, iOS 7 and Android 4.4. The results of this found that Android received 81.3% of the market share when comparing facilities, features and performance. (Dabhi et al. 2014)

12 8.4 Windows Phone In comparison to the other platforms, Windows Phone has a platform that is closely integrated with Microsoft services such as, Outlook and Office. This unification has led to the majority of Windows Phone users to be those that work in the world of business. Other substantial contributions to this percentage include Continuum, which is a feature that allows users to operate the phone just like a PC by simply inserting the device into a display dock. (Slater-Robins 2016)

The Windows platform does not level with Android in terms of portability of the platform, this is because a number of the applications used in the Windows system is hardware platform dependant. However, one of Windows strong points is its synchronisation between mobile and PC, ranking them at a remarkable position in the computer industry and market. (Speckmann 2008)

8.5 Blackberry OS Opposed to the other operating systems, Blackberry is shaped by Research in Motion (RIM) with its first smartphone inaugurated in 1999. Well known for its use in the QWERTY keyboard and keyboard shortcuts, making navigation easier and quicker, along with its robust message encryption and security standards when both pushing and receiving emails and instant messages; this is a brilliant business feature. (Nosrati et al. 2012) The Blackberry operating system is written in C++ and provides an excellent support infrastructure for specialised input devices adopted by RIM, particularly the track wheel, trackballs, and trackpads found in Blackberry handhelds. (Sharma et al. 2013) Despite this, the operating system was criticised on being less user friendly and reviews on the Blackberry Bold 9900 included complaints about the required reboot after updating applications, along with its confusing menu systems. (Kelion 2011) One of the infamous features on Blackberry OS is Blackberry messenger (BBM), which is basically a premier mobile instant messaging service that offers great collaboration tools. Examples of these tools include BBM Voice to make free voice calls with another BBM user from anywhere in the world and BBM Channels where users can create new channels to share ideas and thoughts or subscribe to existing channels. (BBM 2015) Previously limited to Blackberry users but availability opened up for iOS an Android in the summer of 2013. (Burlacu 2015) Following this BBM was made vacant to Windows Phone and X in 2014. (Bla1ze 2014)

13 Design Elements

9.1 IOS In contrast, iOS pay more attention to deference, clarity and depth when designing interfaces, the aim is to have precise and lucid icons with visual layers that have realistic motion; this is believed to enhance people’s pleasure and assist in the usability of the device. In iOS design, the focus of content is important so bevels and shadows that make the heavier are avoided, as this can overpower the content; the user interface is merely meant to play a supporting role for the material displayed. Following this theme, iOS also prefer to use negative space, which refers to blank areas to make content more noticeable and the visual environment clean and spacious, but still taking full advantage of the whole screen space provided. Negative space can also create a calm and tranquil sense of atmosphere, making the look of the application efficient and smart. Figure 9.1.1 shows a great example of using negative space. (iOS 2015)

Figure 9.1.1 The use of negative space within iOS (iOS 2015)

With colours, iOS tend to use a ubiquitous palette of clean system colours that work with both dark and light backgrounds to keep a consistent visual theme. (iOS 2015) However, since iOS 7 more vibrant colours for the interface have been used, along with other changes such as the default font being changed from Helvetica Neue to San Francisco. The reason for using this font is because the line height and letter spacing makes the text simple and easy to read and the text is still readable once resized. The default buttons in iOS do not take on the typical appearance of a button, it looks more like a plain text link with no borders, but it can take on different states for instance, selected, default, highlighted and disabled. (Mynttinen 2015)

In terms of navigation, the moving around of multiple applications on the iOS is very simple as it is a multi-touch interface consisting of a variety of different types of

14 gestures, this includes taping, double tapping used for zooming in and out, flicking which is a quicker version of dragging, touch and hold, shaking and patently swiping left, right, up or down. It should be noted the result of these gestures could change depending on whether or not it is application specific, which has altered the state of the behaviour behind the action performed. (Morson 2014)

Using direct manipulation makes the user more engaged with completing tasks on the device, an example of this manipulation is that users can directly expand and minimise an image or area of content using a pinching motion. (iOS 2015) For the overall interface design of the iOS a grid of icons is utilised, stacked one after another; this has not been changed or evolved over the years. (Ion, 2014)

9.2 Android In disparity to the iOS navigation, Android has split-screen multitasking windows that allow the user to function with two applications simultaneously; this is presented in Figure 9.2.1 below. Android also permit the user to customise the interface structure to reflect personal preference and alter the exterior of applications with the icon styler, giving them the freedom to be creative and originate personal themes and styles. Furthermore, the user has the ability to hide apps from the application drawer or group apps together; iOS do this by using folders. (Ion, 2014)

Figure 9.2.1 Two applications running side-by-side in split-screen mode (Android 2016)

Examining the visual design, Android follow other platforms in using standard features such as the pull down notifications section, customisable home screens and application drawers. However, to complement these basic components Android have incorporated a minimalistic domain known as Google’s material design to establish continuity amidst the platform and the Google apps. (Hill 2015)

In combination with the application drawer, apps on Android can be inserted into a favourites bar located at the bottom of the screen across all home displays. Being an open natured design, Android grants flexibility to the user with downloadable skins to alter the whole theme and guise of the layout or with mutable widgets to add useful facilitating applications to the home screen, for instance, clocks and calendars. (Thomas 2016)

15 9.3 Windows Phone The phrase “” is the approach the designers at Microsoft use when designing the Windows Phone user interface, the name was inspired by worldwide graphical visuals found in transportation systems. The whole concept is to follow and focus on five key principles, first one being light and simple, meaning to concentrate on the primary tasks and using whitespace as an advantage. Motion, to design a UI that is responsive and alive with good transitioning, typography is to focus on creating an appealing visual with details down to the font weight, balance and scale. The last principles include content, not chrome and honest, both meaning to target simplicity with authentic touches and to reduce visuals that do not contribute as content. Unlike other platforms, Window Phone does not have “Home” or “Exit” buttons and dialogs are closed using the “Back” button attached to the hardware. (Cameron 2011) To navigate around the apps within a Windows Phone, users can move forward through different views using links, but to move backwards the hardware back button is to be used; the purpose of this is to assist apps that are created to fit naturally into the Windows Phone navigation model. (Microsoft 2016) Essentially there are two controls to help the user navigate around the domain, the first one is the panorama control shown in Figure 9.3.1. This control allows the user to scroll one-way smoothly throughout the sections of the application; this is typically used with a full-bleed image as the background to give a rich magazine-like effect. Unlike the standard design of an application, the horizontal canvas is structured to extend beyond the confines of the screen. (Wilcox 2010) The panorama UI asset is designed to stimulate the user’s attention and immerse them within the experience that has been implemented into the application. Figure 9.3.1 is a demonstration of the appearance and layout of a panorama control. (Laberge 2011)

Figure 9.3.1 Panorama Control used in Windows Phone (Rousseau 2013)

On the other hand the user can make use of the pivot control displayed in Figure 9.3.2, which is meant to be data-driven consisting in large lists with a tab-like control. Similar to the panorama the pivot control wraps infinitely so that, when the user is swiping through the different pages and eventually reaches the end, instead of having to swipe all the way back to the first item, it works as a loop to return to the beginning for the user. In addition, the pivot control is great for displaying significant amounts of data

16 such as, e-mails and calendar pages. (Wilcox 2011) Although with the pivot control, only one single page can be viewed at one time, this is actually an advantage as the concept is speed and to avoid drawing the focus away from the content itself. A visual example of a pivot control is presented below. (Rector 2013)

Figure 9.3.2 Pivot Control used in Windows Phone (Rector 2013)

As an information-centric design framework, Windows Phone display application using dynamic live tiles, the word “live” refers to the fact that the tiles are continuously updating the status of applications. For instance, the latest and number of emails waiting to be read or the next appointment contained on the calendar. The tiles give the user the ability to pin items to personalise with favourite applications and live updates about sport, weather or even friend’s status’. Options to edit the size of the tiles and the colours are also available to the user. (Microsoft 2011) Some individuals complain that the tiles overcrowd the screen and complicate the location of everything on the phone, whereas Android and iOS have more open space to prevent this problem.

9.4 Blackberry The user interface design of Blackberry handsets are starting to resemble characteristics of the other popular mobile platforms, Android and iOS in particular. The new Blackberry 10 embrace mini applications, which give a synopsis of information contained inside the application with the full version launching once selected and options to close the panes; these are known as “Active Frames”. (McCann 2013)

To accompany the active frames is the Blackberry Hub, which is essentially a storage compartment for all messaging services such as emails, BBM, tweets, SMS and others. The hub is available at all times with a simple swipe across any screen that may be exhibited, saving time and eliminating the tedious job of having to find and enter several different applications to view incoming messages. (Zeis 2012) Both the Blackberry Hub and active frames and shown in Figure 9.4.1.

17

Figure 9.4.1 Blackberry Hub and active frames layout (McCann 2013)

The main target for UI design in Blackberry is to keep a fluid and content centred environment, therefore a black or white canvas is exploited for the foundation of design to present a uniformed theme that opens up the screen to improve readability and focus the content. (Blackberry 2015) Both light and dark themes are exhibited below in Figure 9.4.2 and Figure 9.4.3.

Figure 9.4.2 Light theme (Blackberry 2015)

Figure 9.4.3 Dark theme (Blackberry 2015)

With the reputation of being an exquisite mobile device company for the business entity, the focus on business logic should reflect and impact the overall design. The UI design in Blackberry is kept precise and simplified to increase the speed and promptness of the user to understand the content displayed. In addition, whitespace is a common theme throughout the UI; the purpose of this is to clearly separate sections and to add to the standard of readability. Colours are chosen to not only decorate, but to affiliate productivity and to denote alerts or actionable items that require attention. (Blackberry 2015)

Along with great messaging capabilities, Blackberry handsets have a known status of using keyboards as an input method. With previous designs exercising the physical keyboard, Blackberry have now followed the other platforms and switched to producing

18 more hardware comprising of an all touch flat screen accompanied by a QWERTY on- screen keyboard. This update is claimed to bring the same user experience as the physical entry approach, but with additional fine cursor control to improve text manipulation, highlighting text easy and copy and paste tools simple. (McCann 2013) Physical and touch keyboard versions for the Blackberry are displayed below in Figure 9.4.4.

Figure 9.4.4 Touch vs. Physical keyboard (Blackberry 2015)

In terms of navigation, the track pad is a classical way for the user to move around a Blackberry device delivering more control on the cursor with highlighted areas to show the user items that are currently in focus. Providing a cursor or pointer for the user prevents obstructions from hindering the view of the entire screen, it also keeps the navigation zone small relieving the user from stretching and moving all over the display to get to certain domains. (Reyes 2015) The action bar as seen in Figure 9.4.5 also contributes in developing an effortless manoeuvring system by giving access to tabs and action buttons effectively and in a straightforward manner. Situated at the bottom of the screen the action bar holds options for the user to interact with the screen in different ways or to return to the previous page. (Neil 2014)

Figure 9.4.5 Example of action bar (Neil 2015)

19 Current Technology

10.1 iOS The smartphones that are presently in the lead for iOS, is the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus with the iPhone 6S running on a 4.7-inch and the plus working on a 5.5-inch screen. Both of these smartphones are very similar with a few tweaks and changes made to the plus version, for example, the plus adds optical image stabilisation to the camera, improving the quality of photos in low light and shake-free videos alongside a stronger battery life. However, both devices contain 12-megapixel cameras, retina HD display and 3D Touch. The innovative 3D Touch system detects the level of pressure placed against the screen to activate other software options. (Parker 2016) Example of the iPhone 6s is shown in Figure 10.1.1.

Figure 10.1.1 iPhone 6s (Williams 2015)

10.2 Android For the Android platform, the smartphone that is taking first place is the S7 Edge, which operates on the Android 6. Although the cost of the smartphone is reasonably high, each department offers quality features with the curved screen and battery life improvements. Utilising a screen size of 5.5-inches with 32GB of storage space and 4GB of RAM, along with a 5-megapixel front camera, 12-megapixel rear-facing camera and a Touchwiz overlay. (Beavis 2016) On top of this, the S7 contains a Micro SD expansion and IP68 water resistance, which protects the device for up to 30 minutes of being in a meter of water. (Parker 2016) Example of the Edge is shown in Figure 10.2.1.

20

Figure 10.2.1 Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (GSMArena 2000)

10.3 Windows Phone Similar to iOS, Windows Phone’s top smartphone at the moment is also available in a larger version with a few extra features; this is the 950 and the XL. The Lumia 950 expends a 5.2-inch display, whereas the XL uses a slightly larger display of 5.7-inches with more robust battery life. Both devices contain an amazing 20-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, 32 GB of mass memory, 3GB in RAM, Micro SD input and Windows 10 with Continuum. Continuum lets the user transform the mobile device into PC by connecting to either a or and external computer hardware. (Devine 2016) Example of the Microsoft Lumia 950 is shown in Figure 10.3.1.

Figure 10.3.1 Microsoft Lumia 950 (Brewis 2015)

21 10.4 Blackberry In Blackberry’s territory, the latest smartphone is the Blackberry Priv, which runs on an Android OS. However, examining the Blackberry 10 OS, the Blackberry Passport is a popular choice with a 4.5-inch and condensed version of the QWERTY keyboard. As well as internal storage of 32GB that can be expanded to 128GB via a Micro SD card and 2GB RAM. For the cameras, the rear-facing camera is an 8-megapixel and the front being a 2-megapixel. It should be noted that this smartphone is designed with specific features for business such as the proximity, gyroscope and accelerometer sensors. (Gadgets360 2014) Example of the Blackberry Passport is shown in Figure 10.4.1.

Figure 10.4.1 Blackberry Passport (phoneArena 2014)

Current Mobile Accessories

11.1 iOS The iPhone alone is never short of accessories as Apple sells a great variety of different items to accompany the mobile device. These accessories include docks, speakers, styluses, selfie sticks, car mounts, fitness running bands and many more. (Frakes 2016) Being compatible with the infamous Mackintosh range, Apple watches, iPods and iPads also adds to the increasing popularity rate in the iOS as content can be transferred between all of the devices. (Price 2016)

11.2 Android For Android there is also a very diverse range of products that support Android smartphones for those with interest in fitness, music, photography etc. Examples include the Activity Wristband, the Sound PEATS Qy7 Wireless Sports/Running Ear buds or the WoodPuck Bamboo Edition Wireless Charger Pad that enables wireless charging for certain Android devices. (Cumming 2015)

22 11.3 Windows Phone For Windows Phone, the top accessories consist of retractable sync and charging cables, micro SD cards for memory expansion, wireless car mounts, the Microsoft Screen Sharing HD-10 for Lumia phones, used to connect the device to a big screen and as mentioned before, the Microsoft Display Dock for Lumia 950 or 950 XL; Bluetooth speakers and headsets are also a popular choice for Windows Phone users. (Windows Central 2016)

11.4 Blackberry Labelled as a business-orientated device, the most popular accessories for the Blackberry include sturdy phone cases or chargers and cables such as the Naztech Ultra Qi Wireless Charging Pad and the Micro USB Travel Charger. Other supportive accessories comprise of Blackberry batteries, headphones, stereo speakers and micro SD cards, analogous to the Windows Phone accessories. (Crackberry 2016)

23 Chapter 4 - Methodology

This chapter details the approach and research methods used for this field of study, but also the techniques used to collect and assess the information obtained. This methodology is exercised in order to probe further into the extant investigation in question and accumulate sufficient qualitative and quantitative data to be evaluated appropriately.

Primary Research Approach

12.1 Questionnaire As a primary source of data, a questionnaire consisting of multiple questions was fulfilled, to gather quantitative and standardised information from a number of people. The opening begins with traditional requests for gender and age; this is because the study entails specific relation to these fields. Subsequent to this, educational qualifications, occupational area and the current smartphone used by the candidates were to be stated, to establish if these factors develop a particular pattern in number of users. Within the core of the questionnaire participants were asked a diverse variety of questions, about the internal and external features on a mobile device and the level of importance or value the user would consider each one to be rated at, using Likert scales with values between 1 and 6; 1 being the least important and 6 being the most. Restrictions were placed on the rating questions to force users to place a single rating per available feature; this helped to narrow-down personal opinions to be more specific. Additionally, the participants were asked to state the facilities most actively used and personal preferences in association with interface design. For these questions, a list of options were provided for the candidate to choose from and wherever necessary a “None of the above” choice was given, alongside an “Other” option with a text area to denote detail. Finally the participants were queried about whether or not other technical devices were used in aggregation to the mobile phone to discover the quantity of people that implement this into daily events.

Conditional questions were inserted throughout to pry further data, for example, when asking for the occupational area of the candidate a list of possible answers were offered beside a “None of the above” option, if this choice was chosen a conditional question would appear after requesting the user to specify instead. It should also be mentioned that users were not permitted to return to questions that had been answered; this is to ensure precise and more accurate data could be amassed, letting participants return to alter answers could make the survey unfair and not true to opinions. The Qualtrics Survey Software was utilised to design and distribute the questionnaire to the public. This software was chosen due to the useful selection of tools available, which include creating, editing and distributing surveys along with the ability to view the number of responses and examine the results in a report or in a cross tabulation format. The survey was kept online and was not printed out for the user, this is because Qualtrics evaluates the responses and so the paper copies would not be able to be added

24 to the final results. However, to gain more participants, social media sites were used to spread the survey further, for instance, Facebook and . A copy of the questionnaire brief and questions can be found in Appendix B.1 and B.2.

12.2 Strengths of Questionnaire By using Qualtrics Survey Software, the progress of the questionnaire can be kept track of and the data can be downloaded directly from the software. In addition to this, Qualtrics supplies an assortment of question types that can be built-on to extend its beneficial uses, by providing a set of accessible limitations and conditions to obtain qualitative responses. (Qualtrics 2016)

The benefits of using a questionnaire to conduct research for this particular study is that, a large sample of diverse opinions can be gathered together in a short period of time without the extensive costs. The quantitative data from the questionnaire can then be examined to identify any common patterns and any unusual or unexpected outcomes. From this, comparisons of the preferences in gender and age groups can be established and percentages of popular or least popular choices can be evaluated to form usable statistics and numerical data to be fabricated into suitable charts or graphs. (SkillsYouNeed 2016)

12.3 Weaknesses of Questionnaire The structure of the questionnaire is very important because if the questions are not worded clearly, participants may not fully understand the complete meaning of the question. This can sometimes be hard to achieve because each candidate might comprehend the interpretation of the question differently causing confliction in answers. Another weakness would be that there is no guarantee whether the addressee was the actual person that completed the questionnaire and so this can make data inaccurate and not true to its value.(SkillsYouNeed 2016)

Although keeping the survey online is favourable in many aspects as discussed, this creates boundaries and limits on the questionnaire being circulated to those who only have adequate Internet access or computers. As a result of this, the outcomes may be hindered and become unevenly spread, especially to the older generation who are not as advanced in technology as the younger users; incomplete attempts can also affect the end results of the research. (StatPac 2014)

12.4 Resolutions To prevent confusion in the questions posed, simple terms and language are used throughout the whole form and jargon, colloquialisms and abbreviations are avoided, to achieve a well-defined and easy to understand questionnaire. As for the no guarantee of users self-completing the survey, there should be no valid reason for others to fulfil any questions on another account because all individuals are kept anonymous.

Due to the fact that this research has been carried out in this day and age, that is very technology-orientated; the problem with participants not having sufficient access to Internet or computers seems invalid. However, in order to tackle the older participants, a more direct approach would be more effective. To address the problem of incomplete attempts the Qualtrics Survey Software possesses a feature, which gives a percentage of

25 the amount of people who have not finished the questionnaire; this is known as the “dropout rate”. Answered questions from those who had discontinued would not be included into the final evaluation; this is done automatically by Qualtrics.

12.5 Workshop Interviews In conjunction to the questionnaire, to gather qualitative data workshop interviews were executed as a social interactive experiment to test physical contact of individuals with a set of designated smartphones. All of the workshop interviews were conducted as a one-on-one basis with certain individuals chosen and requested to take part due to the gender and age of the individual. The gender and age specifics included one male and one female between the age of 18 to 40 years old, 40 to 60 years old and 60 or over, which totalled to 6 candidates. Before beginning the interview, every individual was asked to sign consent forms to anonymise him or her and to either agree to audio recording or to disagree. The workshop interviews were carried out in a phone shop that had a collection of smartphones from all , for instance, Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and etc. During the time in the phone shop, the user was asked to play around with four particular smartphones and to think about the characteristics and the qualities of the entire phone, along with the elements of the interfaced design. The four smartphones chosen were an iPhone 6S, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Lumia 950 and the Blackberry Passport, this is to focus on the top trending smartphones at current time and to give a variety. There was no set time for the experimental procedure in the phone shop and the questioning process was performed elsewhere.

To carry out the questions about the devices, the individual was taken to a quiet coffee shop to discuss the features liked, disliked and reasoning for personal choices; this was done so the participant had a quiet area to reflect on the experience. Former to the fundamental questions, the individual was asked to confirm gender and age prior to continuing, once this had been accomplished the individual was queried about the overall experience and which smartphone was most liked out of the selection, as well as reasons for this. Distinctive questions about the interface were also asked and whether or not additional technology effected personal choice. Finally to conclude the procedure, the candidate could give any additional comments, it should be noted that if audio recording was initially agreed to at the start the whole course was then recorded, but only if consent was explicitly given in writing.

Workshop interviews were chosen due to the fact the topic is targeted on mobile human computer interaction; therefore the interviews would help broaden the development of the research and the physical interaction would assist in forming more accurate opinions, as it can be difficult to visualise the smartphones than materially present. A copy of the workshop interview brief, participant consent form and questions can be found in Appendix C.1, C.2 and C.3.

12.6 Strengths of Workshop Interviews By running one-on-one workshop interviews, opinions and views are from the single individual without any interference from others, this is known as social pressure and can often happen when working in groups. The workshop also allows primary reactions

26 and attitudes to be witnessed and for a series of diverse opinions from one individual to be obtained in a short space of time. (SkillsYouNeed 2016)

Due to the fact that all of the participants are different, there was no limitation on how much time was needed to be devoted in the experimental process. This is also because some individuals for example, the elderly work at a slower pace than the more youthful candidates and therefore require more time for this procedure and so consequently leading to a more fair assessment. Other strengths of carrying out workshop interviews are that with this type of examination a good range of individuals with different ages and genders are guaranteed unlike a questionnaire, where there is no definite variety in the users. As briefly mentioned before, by having each individual physically interact with each different smartphone and questions to follow directly after leads to better quality of the answers and initial opinions on every smartphone chosen can be reached. (Hagyard 2015)

12.7 Weaknesses of Workshop Interviews Albeit not limiting the time spent experimenting with each smartphone is beneficial in many aspects, the negative factor is that all of users would not have had an equal amount of time to experiment, which may cause an unfair test; despite the fact the individual decides and estimates when is suitable to finish. Notwithstanding that having the workshops to be one-on-one was a great tactic to employ, utilising groups could have given encouragement to one another’s thoughts and views and some individuals may not have considered certain factors until another suggests the idea due to the limitation on self-knowledge within an experiment like this. (PBWorks 2006)

Having the location of the workshop interviews set in a public environment is great in many ways, but being a public place the store can become very busy and crowded at certain times of the day, which can be difficult to avoid. Members of the public can also influence the individuals’ decisions or experience and if the site becomes congested, it can be hard for them to focus. Another drawback is that the users chosen cannot be declared to represent an entire gender or age group within the population but this it is understood that this method is not utilised to create standard generalisations or numeric data. (PBWorks 2006)

12.8 Resolutions With the issue of setting or not setting a time limit on the amount spent within the phone shop, all of the participants are different particularly in age, so as stated above the strength of this outweighs the weakness of deploying this method. Though having discussions in groups can be very constructive and effective, quieter individual’s opinions are often neglected or omitted especially if the group contains a member that is very strongly opinionated or persuasive, which can also cause unjust alterations in the decisions made by the more subtle candidates. On top of this, some people may not feel at ease or comfortable sharing personal views to strangers and, paradoxically if individuals know one another. Carrying out singular interviews also meant that dates and times for the assessment were easy and flexible to organise, unlike group interviews that need to be fitting and reasonable for all members.

27 The workshop interviews were necessary to conduct in the public phone shop, as it was not financially possible to purchase each smartphone solely for the use of this experiment. It was also not an option to ask smartphone owners to borrow devices because this would require a long process to address all of the ethical issues that could potentially occur and with the combination of time provided to complete all research, the risks were too high to undertake such task. To further resolve this issue, a quiet coffee shop was chosen for the second duration of the experiment because the surroundings are calmer and relaxed for the user to concentrate and to enhance communication; this was a great help when audio recording was used. Making use of public locations meant that all kinds of transport was available to the users, therefore access to the location was easy.

Secondary Research Approach In tandem with research methods to accumulate primary data, secondary sources were also used to explore various types of literature. To find suitable resources for this literature, academic search engines and the Internet were used; examples include Google Scholar and the Met Search hosted by Cardiff Metropolitan University. Both sources comprise of journals, articles and books with many available online and paper- based. In addition to this, books from the university library were borrowed and studied to extract useful pieces of text.

Data Collection Methods

14.1 Questionnaire To gather the results from the questionnaire the software used, Qualtrics provides a system, which automatically logs all of the responses in a separate space. From this, all of the data can be viewed altogether or singular responses can be examined in detail. An example of this is shown within the appendices section under Appendix D.1 and D.2.

14.2 Workshop Interviews For the workshop interviews, notes were taken throughout the duration of the interview alongside the questions outlined and audio recordings were taken where consent was granted from the user. Examples of the participant consent forms and both question and observation notes made for this process can be found under Appendix F.

Data Analysis Methods Once the research methods outlined have been successfully deployed and all of the necessary primary and secondary data has been sufficiently collected, a thematic analysis will be made for the workshop interviews and a statistical analysis will be summarised for the questionnaire. To establish the findings and analyse all of the data in the best way possible, charts, graphs and cross tabulations will be created using Qualtrics and Microsoft Excel. Along with this the notes made and recordings will be reviewed and evaluated from the workshop interviews.

28 15.1 Questionnaire For the questionnaire, appropriate bar and pie charts will be created using the Qualtrics Reporting Beta, to view the amount of male and females from each age group that answered the questionnaire and the most popular choices for each question alongside a statistics table to make useful comparisons. The answers provided by each individual will be used to respectively make comparisons to establish any substantial relationships and patterns in personal preferences and opinions.

15.2 Workshop Interviews To evaluate the data obtained from the workshop interviews, answers from each question will be assessed to identify whether gender or age is a significant influencing factor to personal views in mobile interface design. Comments made on the interaction levels and how each candidate worked with each smartphone will be assessed against the gender and age also; this is to establish any prominent patterns. Microsoft Excel will be used for this data to produce charts and graphs to view which smartphone was the most and least popular.

29 Chapter 5 - Project Management

Ethical Considerations Below are all of the ethical issues that are to be contemplated for the full course of this project, to accompany this an ethics approval form has been completed and can be found in Appendix I.

 For all of the questions asked in the questionnaire or the workshop interviews need to be carefully constructed and worded, to not cause offense to any individuals that participate.

 The data from both research methods is to be kept confidential and not passed to anyone or used for any purpose but only for this project.

 All information obtained from both the questionnaire and workshop interviews are to be securely stored in an encrypted or password protected environment.

 Data from individuals must be kept anonymous with no lead in being traced back to the user.

Project Schedule Revised As stated within the project schedule, the planning of the project was reviewed to produce a comparison with the original Gantt chart and revised version to evaluate time and project management. The full revised project task table with comments and revised Gantt chart can be found in Appendix A.2 and A.4. As displayed below in both the table and Gantt chart, it is blatant to see that timing of the tasks was affected greatly by the ethics form process, along with external factors such as other assignment work stated in the comments in the full version; this caused all other tasks to be delayed resulting in more pressure during the last two months. During this time, the standard estimation of 8 hours per day was necessary to extend up to 10-12 hours per day, in order to meet deadlines.

30 17.1 Project Tasks

31 17.2 Gantt Chart

32 Chapter 6 - Findings

This chapter illustrates all of the findings discovered from all of the research approaches exercised within this project. Appropriate charts, graphs and cross tabulations are used to display results.

Questionnaire The questionnaire was available for 4 weeks exactly and within this period of time, the total number of respondents was 83 with 78 of these being fully completed attempts. The remaining 5 individuals being the percentage that started but dropped out, therefore these 5 are not calculated in any of the end results. For each question a table was produced to view the count, percentage, text entries, mean, variance and standard deviation where suitable and for every cross tabulation a chi-square table was also produced to find the p-value. It should be noted that in all of the chi-square tables, the expected frequencies contained values less than 5 so there is a possibility for inaccurate approximations. In each cross tabulation, the highest values within the comparison have been highlighted in green and the statistical tables underneath show the p-value worked out by using the chi-square value and degrees of freedom. The significance level or alpha (α) for all of the comparisons is 0.05.

Please refer to Appendix E.1 for all of the graphs and statistics tables and Appendix E.2 for the cross tabulations. The equations used to work out the mathematical statistics can also be found in the Appendices section under Appendix H.

18.1 Gender and Age The quantity of male and female respondents was near enough equal with 40 females representing 51.28% and the other 48.72% equivalent to 38 males. Whereas, for the age groups 75.64% of respondents were aged 18 to 40 years old with 21.79% being between 40 and 60, leaving only 2.56% of candidates being 60 or over as shown within Appendix E.1.2. As mentioned before in the risk assessment within chapter 2, it can be extremely difficult to get as many respondents as possible that are ranged evenly between the age groups. Reason for the majority of participants being younger is most likely due to the infrequent usage of technology within the older generation, despite this the spread of males and females were near to being equal as clearly shown in the graph in Appendix E.1.1.

18.1.1 Comparisons against Gender and Age To determine whether there are sufficient relationships between gender and age against the answers in the improvement and interface questions, cross tabulations have been created. Keeping in mind the approximations may be inaccurate due to the spread of the data; the tabulation for the interface design questions in Appendix E.2.2 show that the p-values for gender are all bigger than α and so there is no relationship between the two variables. However, there is a potential relationship with age with p-values at 0.00 for main menu and importance of hardware and interface design. For the improvements tabulation in Appendix E.2.1, there is also no relationship for gender with a p-value of 0.32, but when comparing age with α>0.04 there is possibility of a relationship here.

33 18.2 Occupational Area and Qualifications/Subject The majority of respondents that answered the questionnaire were mainly students at 29.85% or individuals who worked in business, finance or education; other occupational areas specified included communications, fire fighter and civil engineer as displayed in Appendix E.1.3. For educational levels, most individuals possess GCSE level qualifications with only a small minority with Master level qualifications or PHD, details of this can be found in Appendix E.1.4. Specified qualifications consisted of BTECs, A level textiles and media studies etc. but not a great number at Masters or above. In addition, there were a great deal of users who had previously studied a subject in relation to technology with 58.67% studied mathematics, along with 30.67% who studied web design and 46.67% studied computing as presented in Appendix E.1.5. Educational levels and technology related subjects were requested to determine whether individuals with tech-based or higher or lower education had more of a preference to the interface design.

18.2.1 Comparisons against Occupation and Education Comparisons were also made on the individuals’ occupational area and educational level against interface design preferences; from this the outcomes of all of p-values for occupation, education and subject area in Appendix E.2.3, E.2.4 and E.2.5 were too high to identify a relationship. However, there could be a potential significance in preference to main menu design and those who studied subjects such as English, Science and ICT, as the p-values were 0.01 for both English and ICT and 0.04 for Science, which are all smaller than α. For technology related subjects, the p-value for main menu design was also substantially low at 0.02.

18.3 Current Mobiles Phones Owned The last background question was to find out the mobile phones that were most popular amongst the participants. From this question, it was discovered that 53% of users owned an iPhone; this included different models such as the iPhone 5s, 6, 6s, 6s+ etc. On the other hand, 26% of users utilises a Samsung device and most of the other mobile phones were Android phones. However, the Samsung phones did not comprise of the S7 and there was only 1 Blackberry and 1 Windows Phone as presented in Appendix E.1.6.

18.4 Mobile Features and Activities The next section of the questionnaire focused on the characteristics of a mobile phone, with the first question requesting the user to rate the following features on a scale of importance. These features consisted of colours and layout, battery life, power and speed, weight and size and lastly Internet connection. From this, it was identified that the majority rated colours and layout to be the least important factor with a mean of 2.5 and Internet connection to be the most, with a mean of 4.39. However, the spread of the data all ranged around the 1.5 mark in standard deviation. Further answers suggested, compatibility with computers and cars, accessories available, physical buttons, user friendly features, security such as, the 4 digit pin or fingerprint and most stated the camera to be an important feature. In terms of activities, the most frequently performed was text messages and calls with 42.19% and in second place was social media with 32.81%. Contrastingly, the activity performed the least was photos and videos with only

34 1.56% of votes. No user suggested any other activity for this question. In Appendix E.1.7 and E.1.8 it is clear that the results from these questions find that the use of Internet and social media is of great value to users.

18.4.1 Comparisons against Activities Whether or not frequent mobile activities had a link to personal preference in interface was also tested. From the cross tabulation in Appendix E.2.6 a similar pattern is seen, as the p-values were also too high to verify a relationship. Despite this, the main menu design’s p-value still remains notably lower than the others at 0.07.

18.5 Interface Mobile Features and Improvements To gather more detailed information about interface design, the candidates were asked to rate the importance of screen size, buttons, colours, weight of mobiles, keypads and touch screen. The majority of users voted mobile phones having a touch screen to be the most important aspect with a mean of 4.75 and the least important interface feature being buttons with a mean of 2.64 and colours very close at 2.83; details of this can be referred to in Appendix E.1.9. When asked which feature would the user improve out of the camera, functionality, graphics, social media facilities, screen design, emailing services, games, applications or none of the above, only 3.13% chose graphics and screen design, whereas, 37.50% chose the camera as seen in Appendix E.1.10. Another 25% selected none of the above with the majority not improving any feature and a small amount suggesting the battery life. The answers from these questions propose that the quality of the functions on a mobile phone is more important to the user than the interface.

18.6 Design To concentrate on the design elements, questions relating to the preference of buttons, main menus and whether or not the hardware and interface is important were enquired. The options for button design were words, pictures, icons and symbols or all that were listed, the outcomes included only 18.75% of respondents preferred words, 23.44% chose all, 59.38% favoured icons and symbols and the remaining selected pictures. For main menus, between list or grid view and a no preference option the prevalent choice was the grid view with 73.44%. To finalise this section, the user was queried about the importance of hardware and interface design as a whole. Overall the results found that 28.13% ranked it as extremely important and only a sum of 9.38% ranked it as slightly to not at all important. More information on these results are within Appendix E.1.11, E.1.12 and E.1.13.

18.7 Purchasing Factors For the final questions, participants were enquired about technical accessories and to rate features that can be considered to be affecting factors when purchasing a new mobile phone. The results demonstrated in Appendix E.1.14 show that name of the was the least influencing factor with a mean of 2.38 and although price was rated the most important, functionality had the highest votes when combining ratings 5 and 6, which resulted in a mean of 4.48 and standard deviation of 1.47. Other features mentioned to be important included camera, durability and hard-disk memory. Furthermore in Appendix E.1.15, only 17.19% of users did not use an additional device,

35 whereas 56.25% used a laptop and 40.63% used a tablet. Other devices that were specified included another mobile phone, PlayStation 4 and a heart rate monitor. This was the closing question unless the individual used extra devices, where the respondent was asked if this influenced the choice when purchasing their mobile phone, 77.36% stated that this had no impact on the purchasing decision.

Workshop Interview For the workshop interviews the target to get a total of 6 workshop interviews for this project was reached, this included 3 female and 3 male individuals, each one from the set age groups. At the beginning of each workshop interview the participant was asked to be audio recorded, but only 3 individuals agreed to these terms, therefore only the male and female between the ages of 18 to 40, along with the female between 40 to 60 years old were recorded. All of the consent forms and question answers can be found in Appendix F.1. During the experimental studies, it was discovered that both females and males between the ages of 18 and 40 or 60 and over preferred the iPhone 6s out of the 4 smartphones examined. Whereas, the male between 40 and 60 preferred the Windows Phone, the Microsoft Lumia 950 and the female preferred the Samsung S7 Galaxy Edge due to business features and the availability to control and personalise the interface. Appendix G shows this spread in detail. All of the other participants that preferred the iPhone 6s stated that it was “simple” and “easy to use” with only the female between 60 and over suggesting to improve the interface by making icons bigger to fit 3 per row; in contrast the male that chose the Windows Phone liked the active tiles and the feature to operate the device as a PC. Furthermore, the female that opted for the Samsung expressed that the Blackberry is no doubt a great phone for business, but Samsung provided business feature along with customising options to make the device personal. In addition, all of the 6 users agreed that the user interface design definitely affects the experience of using the device with comments such as, “it makes it easy to use” and “makes it better”. Assessing only the participants between 60 and over, similar opinions and preferences were retrieved from both candidates as the ability to zoom was expressed to be very handy and that the interface of the iPhone 6s is easy to set up with clear icons; contrasting views were expressed against the other smartphones to be overcrowded and “too much going on”. The outcomes of the additional technology questions found that only the female between 40 and 60 used a tablet and unanimously all participants claimed that additional technology did not affect the decision made when purchasing a mobile phone.

During the time each user interacted with each smartphone, observation notes were taken to assess the process, which can be found in Appendix F.2. From this observation it was discovered that the candidates between 18 to 40 and 40 to 60 managed to flexibly work with each smartphone, whereas it took the older users more time to adapt to each smartphone and to navigate around the device. The female between 18 and 40 and the male 60 and over shared the same views of the Windows Phone being confusing and difficult to use, similar to this the male between 18 to 40 and female 60 and over both really disliked the Blackberry handset. Users between 40 and 60 particularly disapproved of the iPhone with the male also not being a big fan of the Samsung device.

36 Chapter 7 - Analysis & Discussion

Data Analysis Overview Combining all of the findings, the overall project has shown that interfaces, colours and layout do not seem to be an influencing factor to users, especially over functionality. However, users do agree that the interface design still affects the experience of the phone. This area may need research into colour theory as colours and layouts can act as a subliminal layer in the interface that affects the user without their acknowledgement by linking to values and stories. (Treehouse 2009) Furthermore, when respondents were asked about the mobile features in the questionnaire, it was interesting to see that applications had a mean of 2.89, which is rather low considering the fact that nearly everything is implemented into an application on a mobile device and its availability is one of the key factors a user requires when purchasing a new smartphone as previously discussed. (Ward 2014) (Betters2015)

Another thing that was surprising to see is one user stated that buttons was an important feature as “too many phone are touch screen and these all have problems” another said “Being able to make calls. Phones seem to be less capable of dealing with simple calls than ever”. Although this is only a small minority of the collective data, these answers confirm that there are still users that prefer the feel of physical buttons, therefore when designing interfaces it will always be hard to please the whole population. Nonetheless, the data has displayed that touch screens, grid layouts and icons and symbols are the trending qualities for interface design, which mirrors the design elements found in the current popular smartphones, iOS and Android as deliberated within chapter 3 section 10.0. It was also discovered that prominent advancements in the quality of camera or battery life will place mobile platforms higher in the industry as this was the most requested features to be improved.

From the workshop interviews, it was unusual to see that users who worked in business did not prefer the Blackberry Passport with reasons that this smartphone was not personal enough, this gives clarification on individuals value the ability to incorporate a functional but also personalised device. It was also noticed that many of the users chose the iPhone due to already owning one. For purchasing aspects, the majority of respondents voted the name of the brand to be the least important factor. Despite this, it was unexpected to see that there were some votes of it being the most important factor out of all of the features listed; this reflects on good reputation of a company being converted into social vanity and effective branding such as the top mobile platforms, iOS and Android. (Ward 2014) On top of this, additional technology was found to be a non-influencing factor when purchasing a new mobile phone and navigation in new devices is not common ground for users, therefore it was difficult to adapt to new devices. The workshops with the older participants between 60 and over established expressive feelings for features to be increased in size and particular difficulties in navigation, this reinforces the studies discussed in chapter 3 that older users typically complain about navigation and larger interface features. (Kurniawan 2007)

37 The collective data from this research has identified potential patterns between interface design and age more than in gender with specific relations to the main menu design more than the button design, therefore this rejects the theory that there is difference in the preferences for male and females as discovered in the literature review that males and females have conflicting opinions and fall into certain categories when it comes to interface design. (Barth 2010) However, this needs sufficient support from a larger data set and more specific questions to shape and colour to be able to reach a more accurate resolution and hopefully lower p-values and standard deviations.

Future Predictions Reflecting on the analysis of the data, it is predicted that with more research into this topic with specific behaviours from genders and diverse age groups, a revolutionary solution to the challenges in mobile HCI can definitely be reached. Additionally, The older generation that will derive from the young people of today will have a better understanding and knowledge of sophisticated technology, and so the technology that is deemed to be very advanced now will be seen by those as basic machinery in years and years to come; this will hopefully narrow the problems found in not only mobile HCI but all areas of HCI. However, it should be blatant that due to human behaviours are ever- changing and computer technology is constantly developing, therefore it is inevitable to completely solve the issues of HCI and results will fluctuate if research isn’t consistent.

38 Chapter 8 - Conclusion

Review Aims & Objectives Overall a good full investigation has been carried out and appropriate research methods have been utilised to further investigate the detail of mobile interface design, with gender and age groups. Establishing challenges in HCI within the denoted areas and therefore fulfilment of the main aim for this research dissertation has been reached. An extensive literature review has been written to achieve good understanding of current trends in mobile platforms and additional accessories, along with different techniques in designing interfaces for mobile devices. Both of the research methods used gave opportunity to extract detailed information of personal opinions towards mobile interface design and to examine how users practically interact with certain smartphones. The level of influence interface design has on users was recognised and evaluated with patterns and potential relationships between existing variables. The main aim and all of the objectives outlined for this project have been achieved to a good standard, but analogous to any research accomplished, using more participants would give more accurate data.

Further Research and Recommendations During the process of carrying out this research study grounded on this specific topic, it has been noticed that there are not many studies and research experiments based around the problematic issue of the older generation’s ability to adapt to advancing machinery and the functional difficulties that they are faced with in this technology orientated society. It is necessary to initiate new research to find out more about the source of where these matters arise from, as well as to ensure that all disputes within this subject area have been discovered to enable an effective resolution to be constructed. Similar to this, it was discerned that research lacked in a great amount of gender specific based studies for mobile HCI. Research in this department is needed to fully identify whether or not the disparity between male and female is essential and cannot be changed. If gender is found to be an unjustifiable factor in mobile HCI, further study can help close the sexist gap in constantly differentiating male and female behaviours or controversially formulate better HCI methods for each gender to advance usability in mobile devices. This kind of research could also contribute to resolving the issues in feminism, which is a frequently discussed matter.

39 Chapter 9 - Evaluation

This chapter contains a self-assessment and the main achievements of the project, along with the challenges faced and lessons learnt throughout the process. It also includes a discussion of potential future work.

Personal Reflection This project has no doubt been the most challenging and overwhelming assignment that I have ever undertaken. Each stage of the course has been extremely valuable in improving a variety of transferable skills and advancing my abilities to manage an extensive project individually; this will definitely benefit me in any future work that I commence after my time in university. With no initial experience or knowledge in conducting a project on this scale of demand, I found that time management was quite hard to balance particularly when needing to carry out primary research. However, although pressure was forming in the last two months to finalise data collection and begin summarising the findings, I feel that I dealt with the situation very well even at the most stressful times by using my initiative to work around issues and self-determination to do well. As a future reference, I now understand that conducting research methods can be extremely time consuming and so it is crucial to give plenty of time for these sections, especially if participants or the public are being utilised. Due to this and the fact that total control over every aspect of the project is placed within my hands has immensely improved my project management skills and my abilities to work and communicate with many different characters of all ages. Referencing can be an incredibly tedious task, but for this project I found it easy to manage because due to experience from past assignments, I have learnt that it is best to start referencing right at the beginning rather than later on, as this can cause the task to be exceptionally difficult. One of the things I have most enjoyed about working on this research project is that I have become erudite on the subject of HCI and the aspects to interface designing, which has personally always been an interesting subject area.

This entire experience has taught me a great deal about how every individual communicates and interacts with all types of machinery differently and there are affecting reasons to these behaviours, which is capable of altering by merely using the power of interface design. To conclude, I am very pleased of the finished piece and my overall performance, as well as my utmost effort applied to each section.

Future Work Now that I have gained sufficient knowledge about good time keeping, if I was to take on a project similar to this one I would be sure to consider each task thoroughly in order to make suitable estimations when planning out the project and allocating time limits for each task. For the research methods, I would construct the questionnaire and commence the workshop interviews at an earlier stage to give more of an opportunity to be able to gather more information and carry out additional interviews; this will help to improve the accuracy of the findings and results.

40 Since the subject matter is HCI in conjunction to interface design, I would create a series of digital interface prototypes with a of features to be used in the workshop interviews. This is to get a clearer observation and opinion on specific interface elements that individuals favour, as when observing existing smartphone interfaces can be distracting from the core of focus point. These prototypes would also be used in the questionnaire with static images to find out which is the popular choice in visual display instead of an interactive opinion. By doing this, the user is introduced to only the interface elements and can be queried on new designs, reasons for this is that from this research it was found that preferences often led back to the original smartphone the user already owned.

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Williams, R. 2015. New ‘iPhone 6s’ will be rose gold. The Telegraph 13 May 2015.

Windows Central. 2016. Windows phone accessories (Chargers & cables, headsets, memory cards, screen protectors, and more) - windows central shop [Online]. Available at: http://shop.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-accessories.htm [Accessed: 29 March 2016].

Wobbrock, J.O. 2006. The future of mobile device research in HCI. What is the next generation of human-computer interaction? [Online]. Available at: https://guzdial.cc.gatech.edu/hci-seminar/uploads/1/16_wobbrock.pdf [Accessed: 10 March 2016].

Zeis, A. 2012. 10 weeks of blackBerry 10: The blackBerry hub [Online] CrackBerry.com. Available at: http://crackberry.com/10-weeks-blackberry-10-blackberry-hub [Accessed: 28 March 2016]. iOS. 2015. IOS human interface guidelines: Designing for iOS [Online]. Available at: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/ MobileHIG/ [Accessed: 13 March 2016]. phoneArena. 2014. BlackBerry passport specs [Online] Phone Arena. Available at: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/BlackBerry-Passport_id8854 [Accessed: 7 April 2016].

47 Appendices

Appendix A

A.1 Project Tasks – Original

48 A.2 Project Tasks – Revised

49 A.3 Gantt Chart - Original

50 A.4 Gantt Chart – Revised

51 Appendix B

B.1 Questionnaire Brief

52 B.2 Questionnaire

53 Qualtrics Survey Software 05/04/2016 13:49

Q4. Which of the following qualifications have you achieved? Please tick all that apply.

Bachelors GCSE A Level Degree Masters PHD

English

Mathematics

Science

History

Geography

ICT

Business

Law

Art and Design

Music

Sports

Politics

Catering

Psychology

Foreign Language

Religious Education

Q4.a. If your qualification is not stated above, please specify:

Subject Name:

Educational Level:

https://cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com/ControlPanel/Ajax.php?action=GetS urveyPrintPreview Page 3 of 8

54

55 Qualtrics Survey Software 05/04/2016 13:49

Q7.a. If any, please specify other parts of a mobile phone you find important in the box provided below:

Q8. Which of the following activities do you perform the most on your mobile phone? Please tick one box or specify in the space provided.

E-mails Photos and Videos Leisure Browsing Music Gaming Text Messages and Calls Social Media None of the Above

Q9. Rate the following features of a mobile phone on a scale of importance, with 1 being the least and 6 being the most important. Please note: (Each feature should have a different rating)

1 2 3 4 5 6

Screen Size

Buttons

Colours

Weight

Keypad

Touch Screen

Q10. Which feature would you improve on your mobile phone? Please tick one box or specify in the space provided. https://cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com/ControlPanel/Ajax.php?action=GetS urveyPrintPreview Page 5 of 8

56

57 Qualtrics Survey Software 05/04/2016 13:49

Q14. Rate the following features of a mobile phone on a scale of importance, with 1 being the least and 6 being the most important. Please note: (Each feature should have a different rating)

1 2 3 4 5 6

Name of the Brand

Appearance and Feel

Applications Available

Functionality

Price

Screen Design and Style

Q14.a. If any, please specify other features of a mobile phone you find important in the box provided below:

Q15. Do you use any other technical devices in conjunction with your mobile phone? Please tick all that apply.

Watch Printer Fitness Band Laptop Tablet None Other, please specify

Q15.a. If you use an additional technical device, did this a ffect your choice when purchasing your mobile phone? https://cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com/ControlPanel/Ajax.php?action=GetS urveyPrintPreview Page 7 of 8

58

59 Appendix C

C.1 Workshop Interview Brief

60 C.2 Participant Consent Form

FOR INTERVIEWS AND FOCUS GROUP TYPE DATA COLLECTION

Cardiff Metropolitan University Ethics Committee

PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM

Cardiff Metropolitan University Ethics Reference Number:

Participant name or Study ID Number: ST20039682

Title of Project: An investigation into the challenges that face HCI in interface designs for mobile applications. With consideration between gender and age groups.

Name of Researcher: Fiona Li ______

Participant to complete this section: Please initial each box.

1. I confirm that I have read and understand the information sheet for the above study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily.

2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am

free to withdraw at any time, without giving any reason.

3. I agree to take part in the above study.

4. I agree to the interview workshop being audio recorded

5. I agree to the use of anonymised quotes in publications

______Signature of Participant Date

______Name of person taking consent Date

______Signature of person taking consent Date

* When completed, 1 copy for participant & 1 copy for researcher site file

All data obtained will be held in accordance with The Data Protection Act 1998.

61 C.3 Workshop Interview Questions

62 Appendix D

D.1 Qualtrics Results

D.2 Qualtrics Singular Responses

63 Appendix E

E.1 Questionnaire Graphs and Statistics Tables

E.1.1 Gender

Q1) Gender:

Gender Statistics Table

Answer Bar Response %

Female 40 51.28%

Male 38 48.72%

Total 78 100.00%

64 E.1.2 Age

Q2) Age:

Age Statistics Table

Answer Bar Response %

18 up to 40 years 59 75.64%

40 up to 60 years 17 21.79%

60 years or over 2 2.56%

Total 78 100.00%

65 E.1.3 Occupational Area

Q3) What is your occupational area?

66 Occupational Area Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Business 17.91%

Finance 11.94%

Health care 1.49%

Education 11.94%

Law 2.99%

Politics 0.00%

Retail 5.97%

Sales 0.00%

Entertainment 1.49%

Art 2.99%

Military 0.00%

Science 2.99%

Sports 1.49%

Mechanics 1.49%

Technology 5.97%

Student 29.85%

Unemployed 0.00%

Retired 1.49%

Q3.a) If none of the above, please specify:

Text Entry .

COMMUNICATIONS Communications = 5 communications Firefighter = 1 Telecomunications Medical Insurance = 1 COMMUNICATIONS Civil Engineer = 1 Firefighter medical insurance Fast Food = 1

tele communications Null = 1 Communications Civil Engineer Fast food

67 E.1.4 Educational Qualifications

Q4) Which of the following qualifications have you achieved? Please tick all that apply.

68

Qualifications Statistics Table

Question GCSE A Level Bachelors Degree Masters PHD Question GCSE A Level Bachelors Degree Masters PHD

English 69 21 3 2 1 English 97.18% 29.58% 4.23% 2.82% 1.41%

Mathematics 60 18 1 1 2 Mathematics 86.96% 26.09% 1.45% 1.45% 2.90%

Science 59 16 2 2 1 Science 95.16% 25.81% 3.23% 3.23% 1.61%

History 45 12 - - - History 95.74% 25.53% - - -

Geography 38 9 - - - Geography 97.44% 23.08% - - -

ICT 39 17 5 2 4 ICT 82.98% 36.17% 10.64% 4.26% 8.51%

Business 20 18 11 - - Business 57.14% 51.43% 31.43% - -

Law 4 4 1 - - Law 50.00% 50.00% 12.50% - -

Art and Design 18 9 1 1 - Art and Design 81.82% 40.91% 4.55% 4.55% -

Music 19 4 - 1 - Music 90.48% 19.05% - 4.76% -

Sports 24 5 1 1 1 Sports 88.89% 18.52% 3.70% 3.70% 3.70%

Politics 2 1 - - - Politics 66.67% 33.33% - - -

Catering 6 1 - - - Catering 100.00% 16.67% - - -

Psychology 5 10 1 1 - Psychology 33.33% 66.67% 6.67% 6.67% -

Foreign Language 26 11 - 1 - Foreign Language 89.66% 37.93% - 3.45% -

Religious Education 32 5 - - - Religious Education 94.12% 14.71% - - -

69

Q4.a) If your qualification is not stated above, please specify:

Subject Name: Educational Level:

Health and social care Level 3 nvq

Computing A-Level

Computing Bachelor Degree

manufacturing engineering national diploma

Business and Finance BTEC

Media studies A-level

Production engineering HNC

Music Technology Computing alevel

DRAMA GCSE

Accountancy ACA qualified

Media BTEC

Travel and tourism Btec level 3

NA NA

Textiles A level

Design and technology GCSE

Welsh G.C.S.E

Media Studies A level

GCSE Office Practice GCSE Commercial Studies HNC in Business and Management Studies

Civil Engineering Masters Degree

Sociology Product and Design A Level

CSE's

70 E.1.5 Subject Area

Q5) Which of the following subjects have you studied? Please tick all that apply.

Subject Area Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Web Design 30.67%

Computing 46.67%

Art and Design 25.33%

Computer Science 29.33%

Mathematics 58.67%

Multimedia 21.33%

Graphics 18.67%

None of the Above 25.33%

71 E.1.6 Current Mobile Phone Owned

Q6) What phone do you currently own?

Please specify:

Text Entry Text Entry Text Entry

Iphone 5s iPhone 6s

IPhone 5c nokia Iphone 6s

Samsung Galaxy S5 Iphone 6c

I phone 5c samsung s6 edge iPhone 6s

Iphone 6 Iphone Samsung

samsung Samsung s4 iPhone 6s

iphone5c Android Cheap High Quality Chinese Android Blackberry IPhone 5s I phone iphone Samsung nokia iPhone Samsung 6 edge i phone Iphone Sony and Apple iphone5 nokia engage iPhone 5 iPhone iPhone 6+ Sony Z1 Compact iPhone

Galaxy Note 3 Nokia 3300 iPhone 5s

I PHONE 6S Galaxy S5 samsung s5

HTC One M8 Nokia 3110 Classic samsung

iPhone 6 iPhone

Samsung Mobile phone iPhone 6 iPhone 6s+

Apple I Phone Samsung S6 iPhone 6

Iphone 6 Iphone I PHONE

Samsung Galaxy s5 Iphone 6 IPhone

Samsung Galaxy note 2 iPhone Nokia Lumina 830

I phone iPhone microsoft lumia

HTC one m8 Xperia Z5 Iphone 6

View More View More Samsung a3

72

73 E.1.7 Mobile Features

Q7) Rate the following features of a mobile phone on a scale of importance, with 1 being the least and 6 being the most important. Please note: (Each feature should have a different rating)

74

Mobile Features Statistics Tables

Answer 1 2 3 4 5 6

Colours and Layout 26 11 6 13 6 2

Battery Life 6 3 14 8 16 17

Power and Speed 1 9 9 13 15 17

Weight and Size 15 18 12 10 6 3

Internet Connection 2 7 11 9 14 21

Applications 14 16 12 11 7 4

Colours and Battery Power and Weight and Internet Statistic Applications Layout Life Speed Size Connection

Mean 2.5 4.19 4.3 2.73 4.39 2.89

Variance 2.44 2.57 2.09 2.13 2.31 2.32

Standard 1.56 1.6 1.44 1.46 1.52 1.52 Deviation

75 Q7a) If any, please specify other parts of a mobile phone you find important in the box provided below:

Text Entry

Camera

Security - how to unlock it e.g fingerprint, 4 digit pin

Applications are good, however you do not have the freedom that Android user's have.

camera

Camera

Camera-pixcels

buttons- too many phone are touch screen and these all have problems

Web access and the camera.

Stylus

User friendly features and personalisation

camera

camera

camera

Being able to make calls. Phones seem to be less capable of dealing with simple calls than ever

graphics

compatibility with computer, car etc

The accessories that are available.

Design

Functionality and ease of use.

camera

Everything above

charger earphones

CAMERA !!!!

Cameras

76 E.1.8 Frequent Activities

Q8) Which of the following activities do you perform the most on your mobile phone? Please tick one box or specify in the space provided.

Frequent Activities Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

E-mails 9.38%

Leisure Browsing 4.69%

Gaming 3.13%

Social Media 32.81%

Photos and Videos 1.56%

Music 6.25%

Text Messages and Calls 42.19%

None of the Above 0.00%

77 E.1.9 Interface Features

Q9) Rate the following features of a mobile phone on a scale of importance, with 1 being the least and 6 being the most important. Please note: (Each feature should have a different rating)

78

Interfacae Features Statistics Table

Answer 1 2 3 4 5 6

Screen Size 3 10 9 7 17 18

Buttons 18 16 14 9 1 6

Colours 13 15 16 11 8 1

Weight 14 12 12 15 6 5

Keypad 10 7 11 16 16 4

Touch Screen 6 4 2 6 16 30

Statistic Screen Size Buttons Colours Weight Keypad Touch Screen

Mean 4.23 2.64 2.83 3.03 3.52 4.75

Variance 2.56 2.33 1.86 2.41 2.32 2.73

Standard Deviation 1.6 1.53 1.36 1.55 1.52 1.65

79 E.1.10 Improvements

Q10) Which feature would you improve on your mobile phone? Please tick one box or specify in the space provided.

80

Improvements Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Camera 37.50%

Functionality 10.94%

Graphics 3.13%

Social Media Facilities 4.69%

None of the Above 25.00%

Screen Design 3.13%

E-mailing Services 7.81%

Games 1.56%

Applications 6.25%

None of the Above

Battery life

Battery life Battery Life = 5

Battery life Calls = 1

My phone is decent Storage = 1

Null = 1 Battery life

Battery life

Not dropping calls

Storage

81 E.1.11 Button Design

Q11) If you could design buttons for a mobile phone, which of the following elements would you choose? Please tick all that apply.

Button Design Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Icons and Symbols 59.38%

Words 18.75%

Pictures 6.25%

All 23.44%

82 E.1.12 Main Menu Design

Q12) For the main menu on your mobile phone, which do you prefer? Please tick one box.

Main Menu Design Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

List View 7.81%

Grid View 73.44%

No Preference 18.75%

83 E.1.13 Hardware and Interface Design

Q13) How important is the hardware and interface design or style of a mobile phone to you?

Hardware and Interface Design Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Extremely important 28.13%

Very important 23.44%

Moderately important 39.06%

Slightly important 4.69%

Not at all important 4.69%

84 E.1.14 Purchasing Factors

Q14) Rate the following features of a mobile phone on a scale of importance, with 1 being the least and 6 being the most important. Please note: (Each feature should have a different rating)

85 Purchasing Factors Statistics Table

Answer 1 2 3 4 5 6

Name of the Brand 30 12 6 7 2 7

Appearance and Feel 3 9 17 14 14 7

Applications Available 11 12 11 14 12 4

Functionality 4 3 8 11 19 19

Price 7 9 10 9 8 21

Screen Design and Style 9 19 12 9 9 6

Name of the Appearance and Applications Screen Design Statistic Functionality Price Brand Feel Available and Style

Mean 2.38 3.75 3.25 4.48 4.02 3.13

Variance 2.94 1.87 2.38 2.16 3.19 2.43

Standard 1.71 1.37 1.54 1.47 1.79 1.56 Deviation

86 Q14a) If any, please specify other features of a mobile phone you find important in the box provided below:

Text Entry

The strength of security on the phone.

Durability

Weight

alarm clock

reliability

Hard-disk memory - phones are getting increasingly data hungry and mine (16GB) fills quickly with apps and pics ect

camera

Dual SIM, CAMERA, RAM, SD Card

camera

camera

Not dropping calls.

87 E.1.15 Additional Technology

Q15) Do you use any other technical devices in conjunction with your mobile phone? Please tick all that apply.

Additional Technology Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Watch 12.50%

Fitness Band 12.50%

Tablet 40.63%

Printer 21.88%

Laptop 56.25%

None 17.19%

Other, please specify 4.69%

Other, please specify

Another phone

playstation 4

heart monitor

88 Q15a) If you use an additional technical device, did this affect your choice when purchasing your mobile phone?

Additional Technology 2 Statistics Table

Answer Bar %

Yes 22.64%

No 77.36%

89 E.2 Cross Tabulations

E.2.1 Gender and age vs. Improvements

90 E.2.2 Gender and age vs. Interface Design

91 E.2.3 Occupational Area vs. Interface Design

92

93 E.2.4 Educational Level vs. Main Menu Design

94 E.2.5 Subject Areal vs. Interface Design

95

96 E.2.6 Activities vs. Interface Design

97 Appendix F

F.1 Workshop Interview Participant Forms and Answers

F.1.1 Female (18 to 40 Years Old)

98

99 F.1.2 Male (18 to 40 Years Old)

100

101 F.1.3 Female (40 to 60 Years Old)

102

103 F.1.4 Male (40 to 60 years)

104

105 F.1.5 Female (60 or Over Years)

106

107 F.1.6 Male (60 or Over Years)

108

109 F.2 Workshop Interview Observation Notes

F.2.1 Female (18 to 40 Years Old)

F.2.2 Male (18 to 40 Years Old)

F.2.3 Female (40 to 60 Years Old)

110 F.2.4 Male (40 to 60 years)

F.2.5 Female (60 or Over Years)

F.2.6 Male (60 or Over Years)

111 Appendix G

G.1 Workshop Interview Graphs

G.1.1 Smartphone Preferred

112 Appendix H

H.1 Equations

H.1.1 Mean Mean = Total/# of responses

H.1.2 Variance Variance = ((# of responses * Sum of Squares) – (Total * Total)) / (# of responses * (# of responses – 1))

H.1.3 Standard Deviation Standard Deviation = Square root of the variance

113 Appendix I

I.1 Ethics Form Approval – 2015D0395

CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL When undertaking a research or enterprise project, Cardiff Met staff and students are obliged to complete this form in order that the ethics implications of that project may be considered.

If the project requires ethics approval from an external agency (e.g., NHS), you will not need to seek additional ethics approval from Cardiff Met. You should however complete Part One of this form and attach a copy of your ethics letter(s) of approval in order that your School has a record of the project.

The document Ethics application guidance notes will help you complete this form. It is available from the Cardiff Met website. The School or Unit in which you are based may also have produced some guidance documents, please consult your supervisor or School Ethics Coordinator.

Once you have completed the form, sign the declaration and forward to the appropriate person(s) in your School or Unit.

PLEASE NOTE: Participant recruitment or data collection MUST NOT commence until ethics approval has been obtained.

Ethics Number: 2015D0395

PART ONE

Name of applicant: Fiona Li Supervisor (if student project): Dr Ana Calderon School / Unit: CSM Student number (if applicable): ST20039682 Programme enrolled on (if applicable): BSc (Hons) Computing Project Title: An investigation into the challenges that face HCI in interface designs for mobile applications. With consideration between gender and age groups. Expected start date of data collection: F ebruary 2016 Approximate duration of data collection: 2 Months Funding Body (if applicable): N/A Other researcher(s) working on the project: N/A

Will the study involve NHS patients or staff? No

Will the study involve taking samples of No human origin from participants?

Does your project fall entirely within one of the following categories: Paper based, involving only documents in No the public domain Laboratory based, not involving human No

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 1

114 CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL participants or human tissue samples Practice based not involving human No participants (e.g. curatorial, practice audit) Compulsory projects in professional practice No (e.g. Initial Teacher Education) A project for which external approval has No been obtained (e.g., NHS) If you have answered YES to any of these questions, expand on your answer in the non-technical summary. No further information regarding your project is required. If you have answered NO to all of these questions, you must complete Part 2 of this form

In no more than 150 words, give a non-technical summary of the project The research includes investigating into HCI with mobile phones and the different challenges that this area faces today. Focusing on the mobile interface designs and the clear contrasts between gender and age groups will allow more accurate data to be collected and analysed. Secondary information for several mobile platform companies will need to be collected to define the different design elements used for the interface and the reasoning for the specific techniques utilised. A survey consisting of various different questions will be distributed to the public; this will be carried out to gather personal opinions related to the smartphones and accompanying technology currently available, but also to examine which platforms are the most popular to date and what the majority of the public prefer in terms of interface. Finally a practical test will be executed to evaluate the difficulties and ease individuals face when utilising a range of smartphones that consist of a variety of diverse interfaces.

DECLARATION: I confirm that this project conforms with the Cardiff Met Research Governance Framework

I confirm that I will abide by the Cardiff Met requirements regarding confidentiality and anonymity when conducting this project.

STUDENTS: I confirm that I will not disseminate any material produced as a result of this project without the prior approval of my supervisor. Signature of the applicant: Date:

31/01/16

FOR STUDENT PROJECTS ONLY Name of supervisor: Date:

Signature of supervisor:

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 2

115 CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL Research Ethics Committee use only

Decision reached: Project approved Project approved in principle Decision deferred Project not approved Project rejected Project reference number: Click here to enter text. Name: Click here to enter text. Date: Click here to enter a date. Signature:

Details of any conditions upon which approval is dependant: Click here to enter text.

PART TWO

A RESEARCH DESIGN A1 Will you be using an approved protocol in your project? No A2 If yes, please state the name and code of the approved protocol to be used1 N/A A3 Describe the research design to be used in your project This dissertation will use both qualitative and quantitative data for the investigation with an inductive research strategy to test whether there is a separation between gender and age groups with HCI in terms of mobile interface design, but also to discover whether design elements really impact the user. By utilising both types of data will increase the quality and accuracy of the information, in order to outline the changes and challenges in HCI and to form more precise results and findings.

The research includes investigating into HCI with mobile phones and the different issues that this area faces in the modern day. Focusing on the mobile interface design specifically and the clear contrasts between gender and age groups will allow more accurate and specified data to be collected and analysed. The sampling technique will be convenience due to the type of participants that are available.

For primary research:

• A questionnaire consisting of various different questions will be distributed to members of the public who own a smartphone; this will be carried out to gather personal opinions related to the smartphones currently available, but also to examine which platforms are the most popular to date and what the majority of the public prefer in terms of interface. Gender and age will also be specified to enable comparisons to be made.

1 An Approved Protocol is one which has been approved by Cardiff Met to be used under supervision of designated members of staff; a list of approved protocols can be found on the Cardiff Met website here

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 3

116 CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL

• Finally a practical test will be executed to evaluate the difficulties and ease individuals face when utilising a range of smartphones. This practical test will be carried out similar to a workshop interview with 2 individuals from each different age groups consisting of both males and females. The age groups will be between 18-40, 40-60 and 60 and over and consent for participation and audio recording will be requested before beginning any data collection. The workshop will be executed as a one on one basis to defer others from affecting another individual’s opinion and answers.

To support the primary research gathered, secondary research will be obtained with the use of the internet, journals and books for additional content. In addition the data analysis technique will be thematic and all data will remain confidential and will be stored securely in a password protected environment. Furthermore, participants will remain anonymous throughout the investigation; any data provided will not be traceable to any of the specified individuals who partake.

Once all required data and information is collected or researched, the results will be analysed using both the Qualtrics Survey Software and Microsoft excel. By doing this the results can be clearly assessed and appropriate comparisons can be made, the differences between the affects smartphones can have on gender and age specific groups will also be displayed. Using Microsoft Excel and Qualtrics, the findings can be demonstrated into suitable graphs and charts, along with any appropriate calculations.

All data will be stored and processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and no individuals under the age of 18 will be used or asked to take part in this investigation. This will be clearly stated in all documents when gathering information. A4 Will the project involve deceptive or covert research? No A5 If yes, give a rationale for the use of deceptive or covert research N/A A6 Will the project have security sensitive implications? No A7 If yes, please explain what they are and the measures that are proposed to address them N/A

B PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE B1 What previous experience of research involving human participants relevant to this project do you have? None B2 Student project only What previous experience of research involving human participants relevant to this project does your supervisor have? Over 1 year of student dissertation and research at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 4

117 CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL C POTENTIAL RISKS C1 What potential risks do you foresee?

1. The risk of not meeting research deadlines can cause halts to the project which would then delay other tasks that need to be completed. A research project like this requires time to be able to collect data but also enough time to analyse the information gathered.

2. Personal information or data that may be obtained throughout the project for research purposes must be kept secure and stored in a private area to eliminate the risk of any of this information being passed onto anyone else.

3. A risk to any participants in this research project would be the confidentiality of the information they provide. Trust is put into the project leader to not allow this data to fall into the wrong hands and to not take these actions themselves.

4. Participants who take part in questionnaires and surveys may find questions to be offensive or very inappropriate; this can cause conflict and affect the results of the research.

5. When arranging interviews, ensure to organise appropriate dates and times and not to expect interviewees to inconvenience their working day.

6. Interviewees may not give adequate information or data if not clear what it will be used for.

7. Data and information from company interviews cannot always be relied on as a good source of research. The information given may possibly be from an employee who does not have sufficient access to valuable data needed for the research project.

C2 How will you deal with the potential risks?

1. Good time management and organisation will be necessary to avoid overrunning tasks. Every effort will be made to complete the research phases in accordance with the anticipated research deadlines.

2. Before any questionnaires or surveys are carried out, the consent of the participant will be attained and the process will be thoroughly explained before beginning. Completion of the questionnaire is taken as consent. The questionnaire and interviews will not contain any questions that reveal the identity of the contributor and will insure contributor’s anonymity throughout. This will be stated in the participant consent form for the interviews and the beginning of the questionnaires. If participants feel uncomfortable during any part of the research gathering process withdrawal from the process can be immediate. Audio recordings of the interviews will be transcribed and the participant will be referred to as a pseudonym.

3. All data will be held on a secure password protected external hard drive and paper copies will be kept in a locked cupboard. Access to the data will be restricted to the contributor and supervisor. Questionnaires will have no trace back to the contributor. The customer questionnaires will state terms of participation and insure confidentiality at the top of the form.

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 5

118 CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL 4. When creating questionnaires or surveys, personal or offensive questions should be avoided and only appropriate questions should be included.

5. If any interviews are being organised, an appropriate date, time and place will be chosen to avoid causing any inconveniences for the interviewee.

6. Interviews will only be conducted after clear consent and signed evidence from the participant has been obtained, to diminish the worries with what the data will be used for.

7. To ensure good quality and useful information is collected for the research project, other methods will be carried out such as a questionnaire or survey and a workshop.

Application for ethics approval v4 March 2015 6

119