The world moves toward the era of a smart society that is human-centered, sustainable, and inclusive. Countries employed new information and communication technologies to deliver services and engage citizens in the decision-making process. These services are evolving and in the near future, we can expect a plethora of new services related to Smart Society 5.0 and Industry 4.0, in addition to more traditional services. The possibility of these new technologies to foster sustainable development can only be obtained when all target users have fair access to the offered services. In the e-government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience with the offered services and investigate the factors that significantly influence their adoption behavior. However, numerous research efforts investigated the user experience of e-government from the lens of specific government services in an individual or specific range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach for enhancing user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. The research approach was conducted through two main phases. The first phase aims to design the proposed conceptual framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Hence, we have conducted a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services and cover all different aspects to better understand target users and enhance their overall experience. This systematic review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating factors that significantly affect users' adoption of e-government services globally. The proposed framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. This framework is global, it is used to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government in any country to ensure that citizens have a good experience with e-government services in that country. The framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government that represent the necessary steps to enhance citizen experience and boost their adoption behavior. The second phase implies the utilization of the proposed framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government by developing a reference implementation of e-government adoption based on the proposed framework. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior. The questionnaire contains a set of measurement items pertaining to each factor that existed in the proposed framework to investigate their potential relationships. The questionnaire underwent an iterative process of testing and validation to ensure the reliability and credibility of the measurement items. Then, the multivariate statistics, including the structural equation modeling, have been adopted to analyze and examine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating user experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Then, the proposed framework alongside the reference implementation were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. The contributions of this thesis can be summarized by conducting a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services to inform the design of the proposed framework. Then, developing a global conceptual framework for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government. Overall, this thesis provides valuable insights into enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services, which supports government agencies, practitioners, and policymakers. / Doctor of Philosophy / Governments employed new technologies that are dynamic and smart to deliver services to citizens and ensure they are engaged while using these services. Nowadays, the phenomenon of 'smart society' refers to systems that are human-centered, sustainable, and accessed by all target users. Universal access to government services is the pillar to achieving sustainable development goals as expressions of a smart society. In the electronic government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience and investigate the factors that influence their adoption behavior. In the literature, there has been a lack of a comprehensive review of user experience towards e-government services globally. In addition, many research efforts focused on developing e-government adoption frameworks based on government services in a specific country or a limited range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach to enhance the user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. This comprehensive review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government services globally. Hence, the proposed framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government imported from the comprehensive review's results. This framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. It is used to evaluate the e-government adoption behaviors in any country to ensure the efficiency of e-government services and enhance the citizen experience in that country. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior based on the proposed framework. The questionnaire was tested and validated to ensure the reliability and credibility of the questionnaire items. After that, specific statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling, were used to examine and refine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating users' experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Hence, the proposed framework alongside the developed questionnaire and implemented analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. This thesis supports the e-government by providing valuable insights to government practitioners and policymakers on enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services.

Reading news on mobile devices has during the past decade transcended into an every- day activity, which induce greater demands on design and presentation of news. Several researchers have examined essential components in the area of digital newspapers, despite this, there are few newspapers that have switched to a reader-friendly format. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate how the reading experience in digital newspa- pers can be improved by abandoning the traditional structure of today’s printed newspapers. Based on numerous tests and studies, as well as support from literature, a set of guidelines has been produced as a result of this thesis. The design guidelines contain recommendations for optimal line size, typeface, point size, appearance, functionality, placement, recognition factor and packaging. To ensure quality, all guidelines were validated in order to prove that the reading experience had increased. An evaluation was performed that attempted to determine that. The statistic result of this thesis showed a significant difference in both reading speed and the subjective experience. However no significant difference could be seen regarding the reading comprehension. The conclusions made was that structure and design of content can influence both reading speed and reading experience. All design guidelines can be used as guidance when developing templates for digital newspapers.

Achieving the feeling of a personal connection over the internet is difficult but at the same time more relevant than ever with the world moving more and more towards digital meetings and online events. This study investigates how an exhibition area at an online conference could be created to provide a good user experience as well as provide value for the exhibitors at the conference. The study was performed through interviews, three stages of prototyping as well as usability testing of these prototypes to gather data and feedback on what could be done to achieve this goal. Through the principles of social presence, human centered, and user centered design, a prototype of how such a solution could look was developed. As a result, the test users felt that they would feel welcome in the digital booth and that they felt a greater incentive to join conversations with the exhibitors. On the other end, the exhibitors also felt like this solution would provide value in the form of monitorable gathered data that could be followed up on to investigate the value that the conference has given them. This concludes that engaging and valuable online exhibitions can be created as long as careful thought is put into designing them with the user and human in mind.

The administration software is a crucial component of any successful company. It is often overlooked, but it plays an essential role in ensuring the smooth operation of the business. It is the backbone of the company's operations, and it must be able to meet the evolving needs of its users. Although many people may not notice the admin systems, their impact on the overall performance of the company should not be underestimated. The system's ability to reduce the cognitive load on users helps them to work more efficiently and effectively. A well-designed user interface (UI) can also shorten the learning curve and reduce errors, resulting in cost and time savings for the company. This project delves into the design of Once Upon's administration system, aiming to enhance efficiency for expert users, those intimately familiar with the system. The study includes an analysis of the current software, identification of areas for improvement, and proposals for design modifications. The overarching goal is to reduce the workload and improve efficiency for the customer care team. The study employs the human-centred design thinking process, encompassing phases such as empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping, testing, and implementing. Methods include literature studies, heuristic evaluations, semi-structured interviews, affinity diagramming, brainstorming, and prototyping.  Key issues found in the study included intricate workflows, necessitating excessive steps for routine tasks, resulting in heightened cognitive load and slower task execution. The non-intuitive information architecture posed difficulties for users in navigating and locating essential data. Inconsistencies in language and icon usage introduced confusion, impacting the overall coherence of the system. Moreover, the absence of a clear visual hierarchy hindered users' ability to identify and retrieve crucial information swiftly. Addressing these issues was imperative for enhancing the overall usability and effectiveness of the administration software at Once Upon. The new design, addressing identified challenges, received positive feedback, showcasing improved clarity and aesthetics. Using the System Usability Scale, the current interface scored 68, while the prototype scored 94, indicating a substantial improvement in usability. Despite the promising results, the study acknowledges limitations, including a small sample size. Further testing and refinement of the proposed design changes are essential. The broader field requires additional research on defining efficiency in user systems, ensuring optimal design for work tools used predominantly by expert users.

This thesis evaluates the usability and user experience (UX) of the Nordnet mobile application, with a focus on the challenges or barriers faced by novice users. Nordnet is one of the leading digital platforms and banks for savings, investments, loans, and pensions, in the Nordic. As financial technologies continue to advance, good usability and user experience of mobile financial applications become important, especially for users with no or limited experience using financial applications such as Nordnet. Through a combination of usability testing with interviews and the use of the System Usability Scale (SUS), this study aims to uncover the primary barriers novice users encounter, and from those recommend design improvements to enhance the usability and overall user experience.The methodology used consists of a task-based evaluation with a total of five first-time users performing a predefined set of tasks to assess different usability aspects such as learnability, efficiency, cognitive load, and the overall user experience. The findings indicate significant challenges in navigation, feature discoverability, and complex interface, affecting the overall usability and user experience negatively. The overall usability rating calculated through the SUS questionnaire was rated as below average, with only one test participant rating it as above average. Despite these challenges, certain features were appreciated for their functionality and ease of use. Suggested improvements include simplifying the interface to reduce cognitive load and enhancing the clarity of icons with the help of text labels.This research contributes to the field by highlighting the critical areas where mobile financial applications such as Nordnet can improve to better serve its novice users.

This thesis sets out to answer the question “How does Persuasive Technology influence the User Experience in a Learning Management System?”. The aim was to further the understanding of Persuasive Technologies (PT) within Education and better the insights in how PT affects the User Experience (UX) due to the increasing number of online students in Sweden. By using a mix-method approach the thesis focuses on understanding how the Dashboard within Linnaeus University’s Moodle environment interacts with Persuasive Technology. By combining both quantitative and qualitative methods such as the System Usability Scale (SUS), Usability Testing with Concurrent Thinking Aloud as well as Retrospective Probing Questions the aim is to better understand the effect. The study indicated that PT has the possibility to affect the User Experience both positively and negatively. The results suggest that if the adaptation of persuasive elements have not been thoroughly thought through the LMS runs a risk of being seen as unlikable and untrustworthy. This thesis’s result shows that the Persuasive Design Principles Liking and Trustworthiness are key Principles when it comes to affecting the user’s experience.

How do users respond to shopping websites designed using static site generators, techniques to reduce the size of the website, or intermittent offline periods due to characteristics of solar power? Websites today are often dynamic, meaning that they are generated in real time by client-side applications. However, it is possible to use static site generators to generate the website once on the server and then distribute it from there. Meaning that the website does not need to be regenerated at every client request. Another aspect to take into consideration is the energy generation of solar power, which changes depending on the time and weather. It is therefore interesting to design a website that is not always online. The website could be online during specific hours or only be guaranteed to be online during a set of hours. This goes against the typical website which strives to be available all the time. The question that arises is how a user will react to this website that sometimes is offline. The goal of this project is to explore how shopping websites could be designed using techniques that reduces computations and sizes of the websites. Techniques used in solar powered websites and in order to reduce the energy usage of the website. Additionally, observing how users react to these design changes. The project will be evaluated with user testing of the prototype website and qualitative research methods in interviews with users. Allowing the observation of the effects these changes have on users, consumers and customers. The results show that participants react negatively to the altering of images through dithering in the context of online shopping. However, at the same time, utilizing the combination of images to reduce the image size showed no effect on the participants' experience. Lastly, this thesis acknowledges that it is not possible to create a fully static shopping website. Instead, it discusses what features would be noticed if not included due to most of the website being static. However, there might be features that being dynamic is required for a purchase to be possible. Additionally, the study shows that the prototype can pass as a shopping website.

This study examines the technology and appointment scheduling habits of older adults over the age of 55 through an exploratory sequential three phase mixed methods study. Phase One of this study examined features of ten existing mHealth applications through a qualitative content analysis, then a mHealth wireframe was developed from the app to replicate in addition to a redesigned version. Phase Two of the study was a thirty-four questions survey with 40 participants that inquired about their background with appointment scheduling, prior experience with technology, and demographics. After that, the mHealth applications were revised into two mHealth application prototypes. Lastly, Phase Three conducted a user test with the two mHealth prototypes through A/B testing with 15 participants. Findings from the survey showed the preferred method of scheduling an appointment among participants was primarily in-person or by phone. The user test revealed that some participants were willing to use a mHealth application to schedule an appointment if it was deemed easy to use. Recommendations for future research suggests that the iterative design process of a prototype with an underserved population would garner feedback inclusive of those older adults who are less tech savvy. The major contribution of this research was the development of the mHapps Framework which will be tested in a future study.

This study presents a case study that addresses a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system as a key component in managing customer relations for companies. Due to these systems being very complex and needing a complete understanding of the user requirements to support their actions, this user experience can potentially be hindered. This study aims to highlight these challenges by identifying key usability challenges faced by users and suggesting targeted design improvements from a developer perspective.   This qualitative study explored usability challenges within an existing CRM system through a user-centered approach, gathering data from the users of the CRM-system. Empirical data was collected using interviews in a semi-structured form to delve into the user experience and what issues the users was facing. This methodology has facilitated a great understanding of areas that would need further development of the CRM-system. Applying Nielsen’s usability heuristics as an analytical framework, multiple critical enhancements were identified. These recommendations for enhancements are aimed with the goal of simplifying the user interface and the work conducted in it. The active involvement of the users in this study addressed multiple critical factors of improvements in the CRM-system, with the likes of the importance of integrating direct communication tools within the CRM-system to facilitate direct customer interaction. Additionally, there emerged a need for further development of the system’s performance and responsiveness, as well as enhancing its personal flexibility to adapt the CRM-system to each user's individual work process. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on enhancing CRM-system effectiveness and user satisfaction through strategic design enhancements.

Yes / Galaxy (https://galaxyproject.org) is deployed globally, predominantly through free-to-use services, supporting user-driven research that broadens in scope each year. Users are attracted to public Galaxy services by platform stability, tool and reference dataset diversity, training, support and integration, which enables complex, reproducible, shareable data analysis. Applying the principles of user experience design (UXD), has driven improvements in accessibility, tool discoverability through Galaxy Labs/subdomains, and a redesigned Galaxy ToolShed. Galaxy tool capabilities are progressing in two strategic directions: integrating general purpose graphical processing units (GPGPU) access for cutting-edge methods, and licensed tool support. Engagement with global research consortia is being increased by developing more workflows in Galaxy and by resourcing the public Galaxy services to run them. The Galaxy Training Network (GTN) portfolio has grown in both size, and accessibility, through learning paths and direct integration with Galaxy tools that feature in training courses. Code development continues in line with the Galaxy Project roadmap, with improvements to job scheduling and the user interface. Environmental impact assessment is also helping engage users and developers, reminding them of their role in sustainability, by displaying estimated CO2 emissions generated by each Galaxy job. / NIH [U41 HG006620, U24 HG010263, U24 CA231877, U01 CA253481]; US National Science Foundation [1661497, 1758800, 2216612]; computational resources are provided by the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem (ACCESS-CI), Texas Advanced Computing Center, and the JetStream2 scientific cloud. Funding for open access charge: NIH. ELIXIR IS and Travel grants; EU Horizon Europe [HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01-04, 101057388]; EU Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment program (REA.B.3, BGE 101059492); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF [031 A538A de.NBI-RBC]; Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg (MWK) within the framework of LIBIS/de.NBI Freiburg. Galaxy Australia is supported by the Australian BioCommons which is funded through Australian Government NCRIS investments from Bioplatforms Australia and the Australian Research Data Commons, as well as investment from the Queensland Government RICF program.