Maria del Carmen Suarez-Torrente, Patricia Conde-Clemente, Ana Belén Martínez and Aquilino A. Juan
The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve and facilitate the work of developers and usability evaluators by providing an adaptable and effective support. A well-defined set of criteria and a range of evaluation values for each criterion as well as a complete websites classification, will guide evaluators. A usability percentage and a list of prioritized criteria, adapted to the type of website by a new usability metric, will help developers to improve the website. This improvement will increase the degree of web user satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Having established and validated a new usability evaluation framework, several usability tools have been analyzed. None of them totally fulfills the requirements of the evaluation framework. As a result of being unable to customize any of them, a new one has been developed. A study of 42 enterprise websites in an economically depressed region of Europe was performed using the new tool. This study involved 42 evaluators and 118 web users. Users have evaluated the websites before and after the redesign. A end-user computing satisfaction model-based questionary was used to collect data about end-user satisfaction. The results validate the proposal.
Findings
The study confirms that the proposed tool provides valuable information during the process of web development, evaluation and redesign. In adittion, it reveals that improving websites usability by ensuring criteria compliance has a positive effect on web users satisfaction.
Originality/value
Unlike previous purposes, the proposed tool allows to evaluate any type of website with a well-defined set of evaluation criteria and specific criteria values. As outcomes, the tool provides the website usability degree and a list of criteria ordered by priority repair. These results are adapted to the specific type of website. This makes easier and more effective the redesign of the evaluated website.
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This paper aims to examine how an innovative concept was introduced to a new market segment through varied marketing techniques.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how an innovative concept was introduced to a new market segment through varied marketing techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
Newspapers from 1958 were reviewed to assess the impact of a chocolate company advertising campaign targeting children. The paper examines the interpretation of the campaign message and the information contained in an album of collectable cards.
Findings
Parents leave the teaching role in the hands of companies when they do not clearly understand new technologies such as nuclear energy. Companies can take advantage of what governments introduce into the market to increase their sales.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper lies in the examination of collectable cards as a means of researching marketing history and contributes to the study of market segmentation, particularly in the case of children, focussing on nuclear energy.
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Huang-Jan Hsu, Shyh-Yuan Lee, Cho-Pei Jiang and Richard Lin
This study aims to compare the marginal fit, flexural strength and hardness for a ceramic premolar that is constructed using dental computer aided machining (CAM) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to compare the marginal fit, flexural strength and hardness for a ceramic premolar that is constructed using dental computer aided machining (CAM) and three-dimensional slurry printing (3DSP).
Design/methodology/approach
Dental CAM and 3DSP are used to fabricate a premolar model. To reduce the fabrication time for 3DSP, a new composition of solvent-free slurry is proposed. Before it is fabricated, the dimensions of the green body for the premolar model are enlarged to account for the shrinkage ratio. A two-stage sintering process ensures accurate final dimensions for the premolar model. The surface morphology of the green body and the sintered premolars that are produced using the two methods is then determined using scanning electronic microscopy. The sintered premolars are seated on a stone model to determine the marginal gap using an optical microscope. The hardness and the flexural strength are also measured for the purpose of comparison.
Findings
The developed solvent-free slurry for 3DSP can be used to produce a premolar green body without micro-cracks or delamination. The maximal marginal gap for the sintered premolar parts that are constructed using the green bodies from dental CAM is 98.9 µm and that from 3DSP is 72 µm. Both methods produce a highly dense zirconia premolar using the same sintering conditions. The hardness value for the dental CAM group is 1238.8 HV, which is slightly higher than that for the 3DSP group (1189.4 HV) because there is a difference in the pre-processing of the initial ceramic materials. However, the flexural strength for 3DSP is 716.76 MPa, which is less than the requirement for clinical use.
Originality/value
This study verifies that 3DSP can be used to fabricate a zirconia dental restoration device that is as good as the one that is produced using the dental CAM system and which has a marginal gap that is smaller than the threshold value. The resulting premolar restoration devices that are produced by sintering the green bodies that are produced using 3DSP and dental CAM under the same conditions have a similar hardness value, which is four times greater than that of enamel. The flexural strength of 3DSP does not meet the requirement for clinical use.