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This chapter draws on analysis of the spatial and material configuration as well as analysis of use to establish whether and how open spaces contribute to an increased spatial justice in Comuna 13. Location, and visual and physical accessibility have been found to be limiting factors for the spaces’ usability by diverse user groups. Regulations and management issues have also been found to be highly influential on the sites’ usability, the diversity of its users or the regulation of behaviour deemed ‘inappropriate’, such as informal trade. On the other hand, design and spatial organisation into subspaces increased the spaces’ usability and accessibility for a diversity of user groups, thus increasing spatial justice. Analysis of use underlines the multifunctionality of people’s everyday spaces for pedestrian traffic, recreation and socialising as well as informal trade. It also shows that not all new spaces are accepted equally, and that new spaces fall into disuse especially if they fail to provide a design and functionality that relate to people’s everyday activities.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process and work undertaken by the library anthropologist and the Usability Task Force (UTF) for reconfiguring the library's physical and virtual spaces to meet the educational needs and expectations of users, including students, faculty, and community patrons.

Through formal usability studies and ethnographic research, the paper describes the process and work undertaken by the library anthropologist and the UTF.

Through surveys, focus groups observation data were obtained about the current study and web habits of undergraduates and faculty.

This paper presents an ethnographic approach to policy development and implementation to re‐orient the physical and virtual library environments at a large research library. Libraries and library administrators will find value in the policies established and processes outlined for the development of user‐centered learning spaces.

This is an analysis of modern office buildings with high energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how such buildings affects usability for the organizations occupying the buildings.

The analysis combine results from studies of two case projects with a literature review. Case studies include qualitative interviews with key informants, internal post-occupancy evaluations and annual reports from the user organizations. The two buildings are Norwegian pioneers regarding energy efficiency.

The new buildings provide a high degree of usability for the user organizations, including user satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness. The case projects illustrate the potential in combining improvements for energy efficiency and the usability of buildings. There are synergistic effects in a mutual process of development for the buildings and organizations based upon strategic business goals. Management of the process is crucial in order to succeed.

The study applies the approach of usability to an analysis of energy efficient buildings. Two case projects exemplify potentials and challenges.

Office buildings can be developed to a high degree of energy efficiency by considering the many aspects of usability for the user organizations. Integrating constructing projects into organizational development processes is crucial for the result.

This study contributes to the emerging field, analyzing effects on usability for the organizations occupying energy efficient office buildings. The study also adds to the young field of analyzing the integration of the development of buildings into processes of organizational development by enlightening the potential regarding buildings with high energy ambitions.

Usability testing using think aloud protocols was conducted on the MetaLib interface, a new federated search product soon to be offered by the university libraries. The object of the testing was to find problems users might experience with the MetaLib interface in order to improve site usability.

Based on responses to a demographic questionnaire, a representative sample of eight volunteers, diverse with respect to affiliation, discipline, gender, language, and computer expertise was selected. Using the MetaLib interface and guided by a moderator, participants completed real‐world tasks while verbalizing their thoughts. Participants also completed a questionnaire and answered three open‐ended items. Transcripts provided the data for the study, which were used to determine problems and difficulties with the interface.

The usability testing revealed one critical issue, that is, problems with the login. Other issues included problems with primary and secondary navigation, confusing terminology, and inconsistency with the site design and user expectations.

This was a qualitative study and results should not be used to generalize to a larger population, but rather to identify issues with usability.

The issues identified will provide feedback that will be used to address the usability of the software and the design of training, tutorials, and quick guides.

Results of this study will add to the body of information about the usability of a federated search product and can help others to select and/or design a usable product. This study can also be used for the future improvement of the MetaLib product.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the technical features, underlying concepts and implementation details of a novel Building Information Modeling (BIM)-integrated, graph-based platform developed to support BIM for facilities management through a usability driven visual representation of the construction operations building information exchange (COBie) spreadsheet data.

This paper is based on the iterative steps of design thinking and agile software development methodology. The conceptual development of the VisualCOBie platform is based on Gestalt’s principles of visual perception to facilitate usability and comprehension of the COBie data.

The paper demonstrates that Gestalt’s principles of visual perception provide a suitable conceptual as well as implementable basis for improving the usability and comprehension of COBie spreadsheets. The implemented BIM-integrated, graph-based VisualCOBie platform supports visual navigation and dynamic search, reducing the cognitive load of large spreadsheets that are common in facilities management software.

The usability, visual search and dependencies-based search of VisualCOBie can potentially transform how we implement and use facilities and information management systems in construction, where large spreadsheets are frequently used in conjunction with BIM and other tools. VisualCOBie also provides usability-based step towards BIM for facilities management.

The VisualCOBie approach provides a novel user interface and information management platform. This paper may also foster a potential paradigm shift in our approach to the representation and use of information exchange standards such as COBie, which are required to facilitate the research and practice on BIM for facilities management.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the core dimensions of user experiences in a physical and technologically embedded learning environment (LE) designed to support active student-led inquiry-based studies and collaborative knowledge creation in higher education.

The paper integrated the USEframe of usability of built environments and the inquiry-based engaging learning environment (ELE) to test and develop the usability and pedagogy of future LEs. A group of ten teacher students was studied and interviewed semi-structurally after a seven-week inquiry-based course unit. The findings were considered in light of the two frameworks.

The physical and embedded LEs provided the students with socio-digital affordances that promoted experienced study engagement, knowledge co-creation and sharing and a sense of safety and belonging in the scientific community. The application of the ELE model and the agile physical setting complemented and supported each other and promoted learning.

The results shed light on how to integrate understanding the user process, user experience and use of embedded LEs to develop usability of new LEs.

The living lab provides different stakeholders with tangible information about usability and helps the designers in concrete streamlining of pedagogy and physical LEs.

The purpose of this paper is to define standard guidelines for the development of a wiki collaboration space for e-Learning, in order to provide collaborative activities among students, and between instructors and students.

The general requirements and extended features of wiki collaboration space were determined by conducting a requirement study and discussion with major stakeholders, i.e. students and tutors. Then, the wiki collaboration space was developed based on an open source wiki system. Finally, a wiki collaboration space was evaluated in terms of usability and collaboration effectiveness.

A comparison was performed between the wiki collaboration space and the original wiki in students’ works in an online course. The results showed that the effectiveness of collaboration and usefulness of wiki collaboration space were higher than original wiki in collaborative assignment.

As for practical implications, e-Learning developers/managers can use the outcome of this study as a guideline to integrate wiki and/or other social software to supplement e-Learning systems for better collaboration.

There is a need to define standard guidelines that provide the necessary features for wiki in e-Learning. In this study, extended features of wiki as collaborative learning tool were identified and evaluated to meet the needs of students in e-Learning environment.

To address the key problem of lack of use in the advancement of open government data (OGD) portals from the aspect of good usability, which is an essential prerequisite to the acceptance and usage of a portal, this paper aims to develop a usability framework including design principles and criteria for OGD portals and to discover problems in the present usability design.

This study builds the usability framework by extending usability principles for general websites to address the specific needs of OGD portals. Criteria for each principle are developed accordingly based on the literature. A comparative heuristic evaluation involving five expert evaluators and 13 Chinese province-level OGD portals has been carried out to test the capability of the usability framework.

A usability framework with 24 principles and 63 criteria has been built. The heuristic evaluation shows OGD portals performed better in meeting general principles than the OGD portals specific ones. Insufficient help functions weakened OGD portals' usability. Similarities and differences were found of Chinese OGD portals compared with similar studies in the United States.

This paper proposed a usability framework for OGD portals and proved its capability in recognizing usability problems and its causes by carrying out a comparative heuristic evaluation in China. By comparing the evaluation results with other studies in the United States, the findings and lessons learnt in this study can thus be shared across international borders.

This chapter examines the notion of spatial justice and its applicability in the context of informality. In the first part it examines the concept of informal urbanism in the context of informal settlements and experiences with upgrading programmes. Drawing on critical evaluations of some of the most well-known upgrading programmes, the chapter in the second part then theorises the notion of spatial justice. I argue for a multidimensional, fragmentary, context- and culture-specific concept, which encompasses equity, empowerment and recognition. As an operationalisation of the notion of spatial justice developed in this chapter and a conclusion to it, a framework is proposed to underpin the assessment of spatial justice in public space based upgrading programmes in informal settlements. It contains aspects regarding the quality of the material space, the integrity of its production process, issues of management and regulation as well as the use of space.

As hospital operations are undergoing major changes, comprehensive methods are needed for evaluating the indoor environment quality (IEQ) and usability of workspaces in hospital buildings. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework of the characteristics that have an impact on the usability of work environments for hospital renovations, and to use this framework to illustrate the usability evaluation process in the real environment.

The usability of workspaces in hospital environments was evaluated in two hospitals, as an extension of the IEQ survey. The evaluation method was usability walk-through. The main aim was to determine the usability characteristics of hospital facility workspaces that support health, safety, good indoor air quality, and work flow.

The facilities and workspaces were evaluated by means of four main themes: orientation, layout solution, working conditions, and spaces for patients. The most significant usability flaws were cramped spaces, noise/acoustic problems, faulty ergonomics, and insufficient ventilation. Due to rooms being cramped, all furnishing directly caused functionality and safety problems in these spaces.

The paper proposes a framework that links different design characteristics to the usability of hospital workspaces that need renovation.