Personas (typanvändare) är ett populärt verktyg för interaktionsdesigners och gör det möjligt att, bland annat, uppfatta skillnader mellan en ofta stor mängd potentiella användare och därefter anpassa en design efter detta. Men hur användbart är detta verktyg om användarantalet är litet och deras mål i huvudsak styrs av deras identiska arbetsuppgifter? Interaktionsdesigners som vill försäkra sig om att de skapar användarvänliga applikationer bedriver ofta någon from av datainsamling och testning, från och med användare. Det finns flera kända metoder för analys av data som samlats in från kvalitativa studier. Det finns dock färre konkreta riktlinjer för vilka frågor man bör söka svar på under själva datainsamlingen. Detta varierar så klart kraftigt beroende på vilken kontext man befinner sig och någon universell lista med frågeställningar som alltid täcker in det man behöver kommer sannolikt aldrig att existera. Bardram (2000) och hans kollegor har dock sammanställt en checklista med frågeställningar de utvecklat under utvecklingen av ett nytt informationssystem för Danska sjukhus. Ett sådant system är väldigt komplext så det finns anledning att undersöka hur väl deras checklista fungerar för enklare system. I denna studie utvärderades nyttan av personas och Bardrams (2000) checklista som verktyg under ett designprojekt i en miljö med ett fåtal användare, vars uppgifter i huvudsak styrs av deras identiska arbetsuppgifter och komplexiteten i systemet är liten. Resultatet visade att personas är ett lämpligt verktyg trots likheten mellan användarna. Arbetet med att utveckla det som slutligen endast blev en persona gav författaren (tillika studiens interaktionsdesigner) ett sätt att fastställa att deras mål faktiskt var väldigt lika. Personan var grunden i utvecklingsarbetet som slutade med en lyckad design. Även Bardrams (2000) checklista visade sig vara ett bra stöd under studiens gång. Författaren ger dock förslag på två punkter att lägga till i denna checklista.

People are used to working routines that are taught and transferred from one to another, routines such as how to interact with an information system and how to use it in a specific context. While user experience and usability have been two issues of interest within the field of HCI, there is a lack of research exploring usage and behavior while interacting with complex error-sensitive systems, in so much as an action that couldn’t be undone once performed. This thesis explores the error-sensitive aspects of complexity within interactions of the administering of medical prescription activities at an intensive healthcare unit. The aim is to investigate the interactions of computer-supported cooperative work environments used for information transformation activities for medical prescriptions. The results reveal a number of HCI-related issues in which clinicians socially bypass system interactions by making incomplete data inputs while assuming a given level of understanding of other employees.

Abstract This thesis contributes to the field of collaborative information systems and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). It extends the notion of technological support for design activities "in use" beyond providing the flexibility to tailor collaborative software, to provide means to support the appropriation process of these tools in their application fields. Two long-term studies on the evolution of usages of collaborative software in a German authority and in a network of freelancers in the field of consulting form the foundation of this work. Based on the experience there, it was possible to identify user activities that drive the appropriation process and to establish a perspective on the appropriation of a Groupware as a social process. Appropriation can be described as a collaborative effort of end users, who perform "appropriation activities" to make sense of the software in their work context. Besides activities to configure the software to fit into the technological, organisational and individual work context of the users ('Tailoring'), there is a larger area of technology-related communication, demonstration and negotiation activities aimed at establishing a shared understanding of how a software artefact works and what it can contribute to the shared work context. The mutual shaping of the technology and organisational contexts resemble an ongoing design process that end users perform largely without any involvement of professional developers. This perspective is the guiding line for developing means for "Appropriation Support", i.e., means to support the appropriation activities that end users perform. To inform the design of appropriation support measures and functions, current approaches that capture the collaborative dimensions of tailoring, and the necessities of 'discourse ergonomics' for technology-related online communication are explored. The trend to work with a tool 'infrastructure' instead of monolithic Groupware tools is a complicating yet important secondary consideration here, since it demonstrates the necessity to offer support 'beyond one tool' to support a use-oriented perspective on appropriation. The resulting idea of 'Use Discourse Environments' as a main concept for appropriation support which captures the activities of communication, demonstration and negotiation as well as the activity of tailoring (where possible) was implemented and evaluated in two prototypes that refer to the application fields of the initial studies. The idea of integrating online discourse, tool representations and tailoring facilities served as a guideline for the use discourse both in an event notification service as well as in the 'Online Future Workshop' that addressed a shared inter-organisational software development infrastructure. Based on the evaluations, design recommendations for appropriation support are made, and the problematic nature of appropriation activities as 'infrastructural work' versus the 'productive work' that end users consider their main area of work is addressed. The thesis concludes with a vision of collaborative software tools that do not only provide their original services, but also address end users as a 'virtual community of technology practice'.

Since the early eighties researchers have been studying the use of technology that supports collaboration amongst co-workers and group members. This field of computer science became known as Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). With the advent of wireless and mobile Internet communication technologies research in the CSCW field has been focused on providing “access, anytime and anywhere”. The main contribution of this study is to introduce and analyze the technology required to support casually connected collaboration. Firstly, we define casually connected collaboration as having “access, anytime and anywhere” to collaborators and resources without having explicit control or knowledge over the environment and its technical abilities. In order to distinguish between connected, mobile, and casually connected collaboration we introduce a conceptual model of collaboration that extrapolates the term “access, anytime and anywhere”. We then aim to prove the soundness of our model by using it to classify some well known collaboration scenarios. Furthermore, by evaluating the functional and non-functional requirements for a casually connected collaboration solution, we argue that current commercial and CSCW research implementations do not sufficiently meet these demands. We then present Nomad: a Peer-to-Peer framework specifically designed to overcome the challenges encountered in casually connected collaboration. We study the technology requirements and highlight the implementation details that enabled us to successfully conform to the requirements set by casually connected collaboration. Finally, we pave the road for future work by investigating new features introduced into the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0, Visual Studio 2010 and language enhancements made to C# version 4.0. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is the study of how people use technology, with relation to hardware and software, to work together in shared time and space. Mobile office environments are becoming commonplace. Workers form virtual online communities on a global scale and use groupware to collaborate and complete a common goal. We tend to be mobile, yet need to be available to collaborate. This thesis investigates a protocol for our decentralized artifact control system, Nomad. Nomad enables globally dispersed members of small casually connected communities to share artifacts which are gathered on a best effort approach. The Nomad protocol takes into consideration the work habits of users and their variety of devices. The major contribution of this thesis is a simulator of the Nomad protocol, which serves as a proof-of-concept for its design. Specifically, we look at how such a protocol handles casually connected small communities. We consider high level aspects such as setting up the community, the overhead of nodes, availability, scalability and connectivity. We demonstrate scenarios that the protocol will need to handle. Furthermore, we take a broad look at CSCW, push and pull technologies, peer-to-peer technologies, and enabling technologies such as Microsoft .Net. These form the basis of the Nomad design. In addition, we suggest the integration of mobile agents, which we consider a future addition to Nomad. It was found that the protocol had to compensate for two nodes that were never online at the same time. In the case that a best effort approach is not feasible, we propose alternate approaches at the cost of overhead on a propagation node. The developed concept provided valuable insight into the problem domain, outlined the boundaries of the protocol and provided a possible solution for Nomad. The simulator proved to be a useful tool for determining outcomes from possible scenarios. The results from the simulator will feed directly into the development of Nomad. / Dissertation (MSc (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Computer Science / unrestricted

This research investigated a neglected problem - interruption of groups by agent advisory systems. The question was whether interruption by the agent advisory system was beneficial. A survey of literature in four areas is included in this dissertation. The areas surveyed were Agents, Online Help, Computer Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW) and Awareness in CSCW. Based on the review, a human subject experiment was conducted. The study investigated whether the style of agent advisory interface improved the performance of group members. There were three sets of groups, a control set that did not have advisory agents, a set that had system provided advisory agents and a set that had group customized advisory agents. The groups worked together using a CSCW application developed with GroupKit, a CSCW toolkit. The groups with group customized advisory agents used an Agent Manager application to define advisory agents that would give them advice as they worked in the CSCW application. The findings showed that the type of advisory agents did not significantly influence the performance of the groups. The groups with customized agents performed slightly better than the other groups but the difference was not statistically significant. When notified that advice was issued, groups with customized agents and groups with provided agents seldom accessed the agent's advice. General design guidelines for agent interruption have not been solved. Future work is needed to finish the job. The definitive solution may be some mixture of the three known individual design solutions.

This thesis explores the digital opportunities at a mobile workplace in elderly home care by analyzing the existing information and communication flow that happens between and during shifts in everyday practice using a user-centric approach. The fieldwork analysis reveals that a combination of media, both verbal, digital and paper-based is used throughout the shift to pick up and pass on information. With an ageing population that requires care from home, to sustain and improve the quality of care, my research indicates an evident need of supporting home care workers whilst being out of office.The research question is: “How might we decrease the amount of information lost between and during night shifts through implementing a digital alarm register?” which evolved from one out of four design opportunities.The main participants and focus throughout this study are the end-users, night shift home care workers at two different locations in the Malmö municipality. By involving the users early in the process, having a rich fieldwork process and putting emphasis on “support” rather than “replacement” resulted in a mobile application tool presenting relevant patient information, current alarms and alarm history.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第21398号 / 情博第684号 / 新制||情||118(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)准教授 松原 繁夫, 教授 吉川 正俊, 教授 西田 豊明 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

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