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Search Publications by: Sharon J. Laskowski (Assoc)

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Displaying 1 - 25 of 36

Designing Usable Audio for Voting Systems: Best Practices and a Test Approach

January 31, 2025
Author(s)
Lynn Baumeister, Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon J. Laskowski
Voting systems must support multiple interaction modes: presenting information both visually and auditorily, accepting navigation and selections from both screen touches and key presses on a tactile controller. The best practices outlined in this document

Usability for Poll Workers: A Voting System Usability Test Protocol

May 8, 2024
Author(s)
Dana Chisnell, Sharon J. Laskowski, Karen Bachmann, Svetlana Z. Lowry
In this paper, we discuss our efforts to develop a repeatable test protocol for assessing usability for poll workers – temporary election officials who ensure secure and private voting in voting places. The research described in this paper is part of a

Administering Accessible Vote by Mail Systems

January 25, 2023
Author(s)
Lynn Baumeister, Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon J. Laskowski
Accessible vote by mail (AVBM) provides options for voters with disabilities to complete their absentee or vote by mail ballots independently and privately. AVBM is especially important for voters with print disabilities that make it difficult to read or

Handbook for VVSG 2.0 Usability and Accessibility Test Strategies

January 25, 2023
Author(s)
Whitney Quesenbery, Sharon J. Laskowski
This document provides guidance and resources for how to test voting systems against the usability and accessibility requirements in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0. The requirements include Principles 2.2 and 5 through 8. The goal of

Cloud-based Accessibility for Voting Applications

December 22, 2015
Author(s)
Shanee T. Dawkins, Sharon J. Laskowski
Since its creation, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has supported the development of new technologies for enhancing access for people with disabilities. Current research and

Personalized Voting: The Intersection of Cloud and Mobility

July 21, 2015
Author(s)
Shanee T. Dawkins, Sharon J. Laskowski
Current research and development being conducted by the international Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure Consortium (GPII) is to create technology for cloud-based accessibility. Using this new technology, users of computer systems can create personal

Report of Findings: Use of Language in Ballot Instructions

May 6, 2009
Author(s)
Janice G. Redish, Dana Chisnell, Ethan Newby, Sharon J. Laskowski, Svetlana Z. Lowry
In this study, we compared two ballots that differed only in wording and presentation of the language on the ballots. For Ballot A, we used conventional wording and presentation, taken from typical ballots. For Ballot B, we used plain language wording and

Guidelines for Using Color in Voting Systems

October 23, 2008
Author(s)
Maureen Stone, Sharon J. Laskowski, Svetlana Z. Lowry
This document is a digital color design guide for the electronic displays of voting systems. It encodes best practice for usability in general, and specifically to accommodate a wide range of color vision deficiencies. Systems that follow these guidelines

VAST 2008 Challenge: Introducing Mini-Challenges

August 29, 2008
Author(s)
Georges Grinstein, Catherine Plaisant, Sharon J. Laskowski, Theresa O'Connell, Jean Scholtz, Mark Whiting
Visual analytics experts realize that one effective way to push the field forward and to develop metrics for measuring the performance of various visual analytics components is to hold an annual competition. In its third year, we restructured the contest

Style Guide for Voting System Documentation

August 25, 2008
Author(s)
Dana E. Chisnell, Susan C. Becker, Sharon J. Laskowski, Svetlana Z. Lowry
The goal of this style guide is to provide specific guidance to improve the usability of documentation used by poll workers and election support staff. The Voting System Documentation Style Guide incorporates best practices for writing documentation as it

Evaluating Visual Analytics: The 2007 Visual Analytics Science and Technology Symposium Contest

January 14, 2008
Author(s)
Catherine Plaisant, Georges Grinstein, Jean Scholtz, Mark Whiting, Theresa O'Connell, Sharon J. Laskowski, T Chien, A Tat, W Wright, C Gorg, Z Liu, N Parekh, K Singhal, John Stasko
The second Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) contest?s data consisted of a heterogeneous synthetic collection of news articles with additional supporting files and contained a scenario with embedded threats that provided ground truth. Using

VAST 2007 Contest - Blue Iguanadon

October 30, 2007
Author(s)
Georges Grinstein, Catherine Plaisant, Theresa O'Connell, Sharon J. Laskowski, Jean Scholtz, Mark Whiting
Visual analytics experts realize that one effective way to push the field forward and to develop metrics for measuring the performance of various visual analytics components is to hold an annual competition. The second Visual Analytics Science and

VAST 2006 Contest - A tale of Alderwood

November 2, 2006
Author(s)
Georges Grinstein, Theresa O'Connell, Sharon J. Laskowski, Catherine Plaisant, Jean Scholtz, Mark Whiting
Visual analytics experts realize that one effective way to push the field forward and to develop metrics for measuring the performance of various visual analytics components is to hold an annual competition. The first Visual Analytics Science and

Industry USability Reporting

October 1, 2005
Author(s)
Sharon J. Laskowski
This paper demonstrates that, for large-scale tests, the match and non-match similarity scores have no specific underlying distribution function. The forms of these distribution functions require a nonparametric approach for the analysis of the fingerprint

Improving the Usability and Accessibility of Voting Systems and Products

May 7, 2004
Author(s)
Sharon J. Laskowski, James H. Yen, Marguerite W. Autry, J Cuginin, William H. Killam
The goal of this report is to describe how research and best practices from the human factors, human-machine and human-computer interaction, and usability engineering disciplines can be brought to bear to improve the usability and accessibility of voting

Improving the Usability and Accessibility of Voting Systems and Products

April 1, 2004
Author(s)
Sharon J. Laskowski, James H. Yen, M Autry, John V. Cugini, W Killam
In the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, Public Law 107-252, the Election Assistance Commission, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is mandated to submit a report on human factors, usability, and accessibility to

The Common Industry Format: A Way for Vendors and Customers to Talk About Software Usability

June 1, 2003
Author(s)
Jean C. Scholtz, Emile L. Morse, Sharon J. Laskowski, A Wichansky, K Butler, K Sullivan
One way to encourage software developers to integrate usability engineering into their development process is for purchasers to require evidence of product usability. Until recently this presented a difficulty because usability and ¿user friendly software¿

Automatic Capture, Representation, and Analysis of User Behavior

November 1, 2002
Author(s)
Sharon J. Laskowski, J A. Landay, M Lister
With the advent of the Web and the refinement of instrumentation and monitoring tools, software user interactions are being captured on a much larger scale than ever before. Automated support for the capture, representation, and empirical analysis of user

Quantifying Usability: The Industry Usability Reporting Project

July 1, 2002
Author(s)
Jean C. Scholtz, Emile L. Morse, Sharon J. Laskowski, A Wishansky, K Butler
The paper describes the Common Industry format (CIF) developed in the Industry Usability Reporting Project (IUSR), which is now an ANSI standard. Four pilot studies conducted to verify the usefulness of the CIF are also described.

The Common Industry Format (CIF) is Now an ANSI/INCITS Standard

July 1, 2002
Author(s)
Sharon J. Laskowski, Emile L. Morse
The IUSR (Industry USability Reporting) project, led by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), is developing approaches for increasing the visibility of software usability. Participants are from prominent software supplier and customer
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