No abstract

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between a product’s degree of usability and its degree of beauty. Both directions of causality have been demonstrated leading to “what is beautiful is usable” and “what is usable is beautiful hypothesis. Additionally, aesthetic research has demonstrated several principles that elicit a consistent pattern of responses. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between aesthetics and usability by means of a functional prime. Forty participants rated sixteen stimuli manipulated on four aesthetic principles; prototypicality, symmetry, composition, and shape. Mixed results indicate that certain aesthetic principles interact with one another in a functional usage.

Résumés sometimes contain graphical elements, and the use of such “graphical résumés” may be increasing. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of including different types of graphical elements in a résumé on the most important outcome measure from the perspective of the applicant – the probability of a positive selection decision by the evaluator. There was a reliable preference for a textual résumé when participants asked which design they thought would be most effective. However, there was no reliable effect of résumé design on evaluator’s decisions about the applicant whose qualifications were represented.

With the current trend toward semi-autonomous welding systems, the typical duties of a skilled welder are likely to transition from that of manual operator to a more supervisory role. The shifting demands on welders necessitates novel welding displays to support an increased variety of tasks. The current work utilizes applied cognitive task analysis to identify the needs of expert welders, specifically in regards to the identification of important sensory cues useful when monitoring the welding process in real-time. Results are presented in a cognitive demands table in a manner intended to be useful to multidisciplinary teams engaged in the development of future welding platforms.

This paper discusses the utilization of a relatively inexpensive wideband radio receiver in combination with a digital downconverter (DDC) based data recorder to capture and record real world radio signals. The resulting in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) data les are then imported into MATLAB for processing. This batch processing of real world radio signals allows for a tremendous amount of classroom exibility in the discussion of software de ned radio topics.