Purpose This paper aims to investigate the use of smartphones for academic purposes by students at Dhaka University, the top-ranked university in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach Students currently using smartphones answered a questionnaire survey, which focused on whether or not students used smartphones for academic works and, if so, for what purposes they used them and their opinion on the advantages of using smartphones for academic purposes. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic and academic characteristics of the students in relation to their smartphone usage. Non-parametric analyses were performed using Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests to compare between students’ demographic and academic variables and their opinion on the advantages of academic use of smartphones. Findings The findings indicate that a vast majority of university students used smartphones for academic purposes. They, on average and across the board, had a positive perception toward academic use of smartphones. Although there were some differences in terms of gender, age, place of origin and duration of smartphone use, these differences were largely due to fact that a smartphone is a relatively new addition to the life of most students who participated in this study. Originality/value Research investigating the academic use of smartphones in the perspective of developing countries is virtually non-existent. This is the first time an effort has been made to examine the use of smartphones by a large sample of university students in Bangladesh.

This paper presents a user-centred design and evaluation methodology for ensuring the usability of IR interfaces. The methodology is based on sequentially performing: a competitive analysis, user task analysis, heuristic evaluation, formative evaluation and a summative comparative evaluation. These techniques are described, and their application to iteratively design a prototype IR interface, which was then evaluated, is described. After each round of testing, the prototype was modified as needed. The usercentred methodology had a major impact in improving the interface. Results from the summative comparative evaluation suggest that users' performance improved significantly in our prototype interface compared with a similar competitive system. They were also more satisfied with the prototype design. This methodology provides a starting point for techniques that let IR researchers and practitioners design better IR interfaces that are both easy to learn to use and remember. The paper concludes with some principles of interface design for IR systems.

Reports the results of perceptions of academic use of social networking sites (SNSs) by students of the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed to gather data for this study. The results indicate a positive attitude towards academic use of SNSs by the students. Although there are some differences in terms of students’ opinions on academic applications of SNSs, these differences are largely due to the fact that the use of these sites in academic contexts is not well-defined. The higher academic institutions need to devise appropriate policies and strategies on how they can utilize social networking sites to support education and learning beyond the classroom.

This paper reports on an empirical study of users' performance and satisfaction with the Web of Science interface. Two different search groups (novice and experienced) participated in the study. They carried out seven search tasks and their performance was recorded through transaction logging and computer screen recording. Data were captured on the time taken, search terms used, success score and error rates. After completion of search tasks, they completed a questionnaire on their satisfaction with the interface. The performance data showed that overall experienced users performed better than the novice group. Differences were significant in success score and error rates between the groups. Performance differences also existed on factors such as gender and previous online search training. Experienced female searchers performed best in terms of success score and error rates whereas the novice male group performed worst. Untrained users were more successful and made fewer errors than the trained group. Participants held neither highly positive nor highly negative perceptions about the Web of Science interface. Novice searchers were significantly more satisfied with the interface than the experienced group. Participants also noted both positive and negative features in the interface. This information could be used to redesign the present Web of Science interface.

No abstract