Long Distance Wireless Networking for Site - Office Data Communications

Effective data communications between the project site and decision making office can be critical for the success of a construction project. It allows convenient access to centrally stored information and allows centrally located decision makers to remotely monitor the site and collect data in real-time. However, high bandwidth, flexible data communication networks, such as wired local area networks, can often be time-consuming and costly to deploy for such purposes especially when project sites (dams, highways, etc.) are located in rural, undeveloped areas where networking infrastructure is not available. In such construction sites, wireless networking could reliably link the construction site and the decision-making office. This paper presents a case study on long-distance, site – office wireless data communications. The purpose was to investigate the capability of wireless technology in exchanging construction data in a fast and efficient manner and in allowing site personnel to interact and share knowledge and data with the office staff. This study took place at the University of Michigan’s campus where performance, reliability, and cost/benefit tests were performed. The indoor and outdoor tests performed demonstrated the suitability of this technology for office-site data communications and exposed the need for more research to further improve the reliability and data handling of this technology.

Evaluation of Setup Procedures on Mobile Devices Based on Users’ Initial Experience

Users’ initial perceptions of their competence are key motivational factors for further use. However, initial tasks on a mobile operating system (OS) require setup procedures, which are currently largely inconsistent, do not provide users with clear, visible and immediate feedback on their actions, and require significant adjustment time for first-time users. This paper reports on a study with ten users, carried out to better understand how both prior experience and initial interaction with two touchscreen mobile interfaces (Apple iOS and Google Android) affected setup task performance and motivation. The results show that the reactions to setup on mobile interfaces appear to be partially dependent on which device was experienced first. Initial experience with lower-complexity devices improves performance on higher-complexity devices, but not vice versa. Based on these results, the paper proposes six guidelines for designers to design more intuitive and motivating user interfaces (UI) for setup procedures. The preliminary results indicate that these guidelines can contribute to the design of more inclusive mobile platforms and further work to validate these findings is proposed.