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UNIVERSITY OF TEESSIDE
RESEARCH DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS
The University of Teesside is offering 12 full-time Research Doctoral
Scholarships across a broad range of subject areas including: computing,
social science, health sciences, engineering and history. The scholarships are aligned to key areas of research strength within the Institute of Digital Innovation, the Institute for Health Sciences and Social Care, the Social Futures Institute, the Institute for Innovation & Development in Engineering and Applied Science and the Centre for Regional and Local Historical Research.
The awards will be for a period of three years and include fees (home/EU or
international rate) and an annual stipend of £12,600. Successful applicants
should be in a position to take up the scholarships in July 2008 or shortly
thereafter.
Research Theme: Digital Innovation
Developing a psychological model of users' experience of human-computer
interaction in web-based systems. Interaction experience of Web 2.0 sites.
Based on existing work and empirical studies, this project builds and tests a psychological model of users' experience in an exciting application domain.
Previous experience in doing psychological experiments is important for doing and completing the project successfully. Therefore, in particular - but not only - applications from graduates of BPS-accredited psychology programmes are welcome.
The newspaper industry has had a 'web presence' in recent years.
Nevertheless, the research team is aware - from existing research literature
and through contacts with industry - that there is a lack of knowledge on how users respond to online news media and how these media can be designed to promote a positive interaction experience in users. In addition, in January 2008 the BBC, in competition with existing local newspapers, announced its plans to provide local news online. It is therefore anticipated that this studentship will focus on online new media and whoever publishes online news media will benefit from the guidelines produced by this research scholarship. The team has well established contacts with the media sector (through Price and the IDI) that will enhance the credibility of the research. Recent work has been critical of Web 2.0 sites in terms of their support for a positive interaction experience (Nielsen, 2007) and has suggested that public-sector sites may underperform in terms of their interaction experience, compared to commercial sites (Nielsen, 2005).
Research questions and methods
1 What are the main components of interaction experience? Interaction
experience (see Sun & Zhang, 2006, for a discussion of its affective
components) will be studied in relation to users' individual differences
(e.g. 'need for cognition' - the tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful
cognitive endeavours, Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), their goals and tasks, and
how these are supported by both software and hardware.
Methods. Components of interaction experience will be identified from a
review of existing literature. To complement this work, the actual use of web sites will be studied where users will think aloud during their use (Nielsen, 1993).
2 How should the main components be measured?
Methods. Psychometric tests will be used, measuring the quality of
interaction experience (e.g. disorientation - Ahuja & Webster, 2001) and
individual differences in users (e.g. need for cognition - Amichai-Hamburger et al., 2006). In addition, user tests with concurrent and retrospective think-aloud (van den Haak et al., 2003, 2004) will be used to measure the quality of interaction.
3 How are the main components related in a model of interaction experience?
Methods. Models of interaction experience will be identified from a review of existing literature and combined into a new model. Experiments will be
conducted to study the effect of web design and types of task (e.g. focused
on achieving goals or focused on interacting with a site) on interaction
experience and to test the model (see Venkatesh et al., 2003, for a socio-
cognitive model).
4 How should interactive systems be designed to promote a high-quality
experience?
Methods. From the results of the experiments design guidelines will be derived and presented as design patterns that facilitate the application of design knowledge (Zajicek, 2004; van Schaik et al., 2005).
Informal enquiries to Professor Paul van Schaik, email: p.van-
[log in to unmask]
Research Doctoral Scholarships applicants should have at least an upper
second class honours degree or equivalent qualification and ideally a
postgraduate qualification. The minimum English language entry level is IELTS
6.5 with no grade below 6.0 or equivalent.
To apply for a scholarship you must contact the Graduate Research School for
an application form:
University of Teesside Research Doctoral Scholarships
Graduate Research School
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough
Tees Valley
TS1 3BA
UK
E-mail: [log in to unmask] or tel: +44(0)1642 738033
Closing date: 15 September 2008
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