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As on previous occasions, the editors of the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship have sought to interview local small businessowners as well as entrepreneurs who have national reputations. One such small business operator is Allan Lichter, coowner of Millennium Graphics in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mr. Lichterʼs story is certainly unique to him and to his partner, but readers may resonate with portions of this story as to how challenging it can be to surmount the ups and downs of the business cycle.

Customization by segmenting within human–computer interaction is an emerging phenomenon. Appealing graphical elements that cater to user needs are considered progressively important, as the way a graphic is visually represented can greatly contribute to the interaction. However, aesthetic perceptions are subjective and may differ by target group. Understanding variations in user perceptions may aid in design processes; therefore, we set out to investigate the effects of demographic differences relating to perceptions of graphical user interface (GUI) element (i.e. game app icon) aesthetics.

The authors employed a vignette experiment with random participant (n = 513) assignment to evaluate 4 icons from a total of 68 pre-selected mobile game icons using semantic differential scales. This resulted in a total of 2052 individual icon evaluations. Regression analyses were performed with the effects of age, gender and time using graphical user interfaces (i.e. app stores) and the interactions of these variables relating to perceptions of GUI element aesthetics.

The results indicate that, overall, demographic factors have relatively little effect on how icons are perceived. Significant relations suggest that experienced users, younger audiences and women are more critical in their perception of aesthetic excellence, and that perceptions change for younger women. The implications of the findings are discussed via adaptive decision-making theory.

In the context of graphical user interface element aesthetics, demographic differences have received minimal attention as moderating variables regardless of their relevance in design and development. Hence, it merits further research.

Current Army doctrine stresses a need for military leaders to have the capability to make flexible and adaptive decisions based on a future unknown environment, location and enemy. To assess a military decision maker’s ability in this context, this paper aims to modify the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test which assesses cognitive flexibility, into a military relevant map task. Thirty-four military officers from all service branches completed the map task.

The purpose of this study was to modify a current psychological task that measures cognitive flexibility into a military relevant task that includes the challenge of overcoming experiential bias, and understand underlying causes of individual variability in the decision-making and cognitive flexibility behavior of active duty military officers on this task.

Results indicated that non-perseverative errors were a strong predictor of cognitive flexibility performance on the map task. Decomposition of non-perseverative error into efficient errors and random errors revealed that participants who did not complete the map task changed their sorting strategy too soon within a series, resulting in a high quantity of random errors.

This study serves as the first step in customizing cognitive psychological tests for a military purpose and understanding why some military participants show poor cognitive flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to provide some references for teachers who use KidsProgram or other graphic programming tools platform for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education at distance by game-based teaching. From the design of the STEAM class, teachers can know how to stimulate students’ interest in programming and cultivating their ability to innovate and solve practical problems more clearly with KidsProgram.

This paper will explain the teaching design from ten aspects and implement it in real class to see the result. The ten aspects are situations creation, knowledge popularization, raising problems, analyzing problems, concepts introduction, interface design, logic design, self-evaluation and mutual evaluation, teacher comments and extension and innovation. With the KidsProgram platform, this paper takes “The Missile Convey,” a sub-course of “Discovery Universe” as an example. Through the situation created by the teacher, students brainstorm the dangers that the earth may encounter in the universe and then learn relevant scientific knowledge. Next, students raise and analyze problems according to the situation under the guidance of the teacher. Through the interaction with teachers, students review the programming concepts and the usage of corresponding coding blocks needed for the project, like “random number.” They need to carry out interface design and logic design for the project, and complete the project. After that, the students use the self-evaluation form and the mutual evaluation form to modify and then show and share the projects to the in front of the class. After self-evaluation and peer evaluation, the teacher will make a final summary evaluation and make some suggestions for improvement. From the students’ programming productions and the interviews with them, the teaching result can be known.

With elaborate teaching design and appropriate teaching strategies, students can flexibly use multi-disciplinary knowledge of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics to solve problems in the process of creation, which is conducive to the cultivation and improvement of students’ comprehensive quality on KidsProgram classroom, under the guidance of STEAM education. In other words, in this class, students need to use engineering thinking to plan the whole project based on the understanding of scientific principles, design interfaces with artistic ideas, use mathematical knowledge for logical operations, and gradually solve technical problems with the above knowledge or methods in a comprehensive way.

The KidsProgram is a leading graphical programming tool platform in China in recent years. It deeply reconstructs the concept of Scratch designed by MIT. Graphic programming, a method of programming by dragging and dropping blocks containing natural languages, is different from traditional code programming. In this paper, the visualized cases in the class will be demonstrated in the “interface design” and “logic design.” This paper designs a course in STEAM education at distance via KidsProgram, hoping to provide some reference for other research on teaching of graphical programming tools.

With the recent development of science and technology, research on information diffusion has become increasingly important.

To analyze the process of information diffusion, researchers have proposed a framework with graphical evolutionary game theory (EGT) according to the theory of biological evolution.

Through this method, one can study and even predict information diffusion.

This paper summarizes three existing works using graphical EGT to discuss how to obtain the static state and the dynamics of information diffusion in social network.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of users’ simulated experience in a virtual store and to show the subsequent impact of that experience on engagement. The outcome of that engagement is examined in relation to enjoyment, satisfaction and purchase intentions.

The method comprised an experiment comparing users’ perceptions of a standard 2D online clothing store with an enhanced, immersive one that aimed to provide shopping value approaching that of a traditional store by using a 3D experience where participants wore special glasses and a data glove.

Results demonstrate the major role of telepresence components in simulated experience and the critical role of that experience, along with hedonic and utilitarian values, in engagement. Purchase intention is influenced by satisfaction, which is in turn influenced by enjoyment and engagement. Engagement in turn is influenced by utilitarian and hedonic value and the experience of product simulation or telepresence, which is composed of control, colour and graphics vividness, and 3D authenticity. In the immersive, 3D environment, experience is more associated with engagement and enjoyment, leading to greater purchase intention. The immersive, 3D environment, thus, has the potential to rival traditional shopping in terms of experience, resulting in higher sales for retailers and satisfaction for consumers.

This work has evaluated a robust model of purchase intention and demonstrated it to hold not only in a 3D environment on a conventional computer platform, but also in an immersive one, where participants wear special glasses and a data glove.