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Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming social activities and interactions which are naturally varied and dynamic. In this process, ‘gaps’ develop between the technologies and emerging social requirements. Given that the main challenge for Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is to identify and ameliorate these socio-technical gaps, it is essential to understand how individuals work and collaborate in groups, societies, and communities. The main question addressed in this study regards the identification of these gaps in the social activities of Online Collaborative Consumption (OCC). The intention is to improve user experience and design requirements to support OCC at the socio-technical design level. OCC facilitates sharing, swapping, trading, or renting products, services, and resources, via the computer-mediated interactions. Etsy, an online marketplace and community for handmade and craft goods, is the focus of this study as a community in which OCC takes place. The evaluation of online communities by using an ethnographic approach is an equally important question which this study investigates. Due to a lack of standard methods, a new combined methodological approach is proposed in this research (Predictive ethnography) and it was used in evaluation of collaborative communities to investigate the socio-technical gaps. In this approach, online ethnography complemented predictive evaluation with the aid of heuristics including sociability, usability, and user experience (UX) items. These heuristics were drawn from previous literature as the success factors for the online communities. The textual interactions from discussions of the forum and teams on Etsy that were related to these heuristics were collected and coded. Over 1000 posts from 178 threads were collected. Their frequencies were measured to demonstrate their importance, and further ethnography helped the researcher in qualitative analysis and meaning making of the textual interactions. The subsidiary question this research aims to answer is how social capital is developed in the OCC communities. Social capital is utilised as a tool to enhance the understanding of the socio-technical requirements of OCC communities and to improve the process of social capital generation. The same above-mentioned methodological approach (Predictive ethnography) was applied with the heuristics replaced by social capital measures. Over 9500 posts collected from 97 threads from the textual discussions of different Etsy teams. This study investigates the social capital formation in different types of teams such as topic-based ones that are created based on the common interest topics, and location-based ones that are created based on the shared locations of the members. In the topic-based teams, a significant amount of knowledge sharing and intellectual capital was observed. In location-based teams, most interactions were within social interactions and relational capital. The new method proposed in this research has shown its effectiveness in gaining insight from the natural discussions of the members. In total, 33 socio-technical gaps were identified and presented with possible recommendations. The most significant gaps concerned: Trust creation features; relevant rules of behaviour; clear displayed policies; and social presence tools.

Submitted by Daniella Santos (daniella.santos@ufma.br) on 2017-06-22T15:15:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniella Carvalho.pdf: 4817997 bytes, checksum: cad6c2f2a8d190f5c8748e2eb93d4393 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-22T15:15:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniella Carvalho.pdf: 4817997 bytes, checksum: cad6c2f2a8d190f5c8748e2eb93d4393 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-04 / Research on the dynamic media of book apps and their effects on the children's user experience. The aim of this study was to analyze how the effects of the dynamic media of book apps affect the user experience during reading practice, based on the narrative immersion. The research was predominantly qualitative, characterizing itself as an exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research; to that end, rescued the state of the art in the subject in question in order to employ scientific support on the results obtained. Children of the 3rd year of elementary school in a public school in São Luís (MA) composed the universe of this research, which presents a non-probabilistic sampling, categorized as intentional or sampled by judgment, defined by saturation of information. They were used as instruments of data collection: interview, direct observation, video recording to record the information collected during the interaction test and the use of the loudspeaker technique, as well as application of the Likert scale satisfaction questionnaire. The research presents the results based on an interpretative analysis of the data, supported by the theoretical contribution referring to the aspects coming from the field of Design, especially the Design of Interaction. The analysis allowed us to infer that dynamic media affect the user experience during reading in a positive way, without harming the occurrence of narrative and playful immersion, complementing the sense of the narrative text in a digital environment. / Pesquisa acerca das mídias dinâmicas de book apps e seus efeitos sobre a experiência do usuário infantil. O estudo objetivou analisar como os efeitos das mídias dinâmicas de book apps afetam a experiência do usuário infantil durante a prática de leitura, tendo por base a imersão narrativa. A investigação teve caráter predominantemente qualitativo, caracterizando-se como uma pesquisa exploratória, descritiva e explicativa; para tanto, resgatou o estado da arte da temática em questão a fim de empregar respaldo científico sobre os resultados obtidos. Crianças do 3º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola da rede pública municipal de ensino de São Luís (MA) compuseram o universo desta pesquisa, que apresenta uma amostragem não probabilística, categorizada como intencional ou amostragem por julgamento, definida por meio de saturação das informações. Foram adotados como instrumentos de coleta de dados: entrevista, observação direta, gravação em vídeo para registrar as informações levantadas durante o ensaio de interação e o uso da técnica do pensamento em voz alta, bem como aplicação do questionário de satisfação mediante escala Likert. A pesquisa apresenta os resultados com base em uma análise interpretativa dos dados, sustentada pelo aporte teórico referente aos aspectos provenientes do campo do Design, especialmente do Design de Interação. A análise permitiu inferir que as mídias dinâmicas afetam a experiência do usuário durante a leitura de forma positiva, sem prejudicar a ocorrência da imersão narrativa e lúdica, complementando o sentido do texto narrativo em ambiente digital.

<p>The purpose of this study has been to research how to implement a graphical interface for presenting information security information to management. The major conclusion of the study is that management use this kind of information mainly for financial and strategic matters. Hence the information must be presented in a way that enhances this use of the information.</p><p>The study also concludes that people act insecure mainly due to:</p><p>a) Insufficient knowledge of how/why to act secure.</p><p>b) The users do not want to act secure due to social and organisational factors.</p><p>To fight the first factor, the management need a tool that helps them to see where to spend their resources. To fight the second factor, the organisation needs to be well educated and the company culture should allow the users to act secure.</p><p>Three heuristics for the design of information security solutions for management and a design solution for the interface are also presented in the study. The three heuristics are:</p><p>1. Provide overview information very early in the program. The ordinary manager does not have the time or the knowledge to make this overview by himself/herself.</p><p>2. Do not overwhelm the user. The ordinary management man/woman is not interested in the details of the information security and/or do not have time to read this sort of information. If he or she wants to access the details, he or she is likely to find them (if they are placed in a logical place).</p><p>3. Provide information in a way that is common to the manager. Use wordings that the user understands. Provide contextual help for expressions that must be presented in a technical way.</p>

The purpose of this study has been to research how to implement a graphical interface for presenting information security information to management. The major conclusion of the study is that management use this kind of information mainly for financial and strategic matters. Hence the information must be presented in a way that enhances this use of the information. The study also concludes that people act insecure mainly due to: a) Insufficient knowledge of how/why to act secure. b) The users do not want to act secure due to social and organisational factors. To fight the first factor, the management need a tool that helps them to see where to spend their resources. To fight the second factor, the organisation needs to be well educated and the company culture should allow the users to act secure. Three heuristics for the design of information security solutions for management and a design solution for the interface are also presented in the study. The three heuristics are: 1. Provide overview information very early in the program. The ordinary manager does not have the time or the knowledge to make this overview by himself/herself. 2. Do not overwhelm the user. The ordinary management man/woman is not interested in the details of the information security and/or do not have time to read this sort of information. If he or she wants to access the details, he or she is likely to find them (if they are placed in a logical place). 3. Provide information in a way that is common to the manager. Use wordings that the user understands. Provide contextual help for expressions that must be presented in a technical way.

El camp d'Experiència d'Usuari consta d'una àmplia gamma d'aspectes diferents sobre la interacció amb productes o serveis. L'experiència d'usuari difereix del paradigma objectiu basat en el rendiment, centrant-se en un punt de vista més ampli on les necessitats d'usuaris, els desitjos i les fantasies tenen un paper important en el procés de presa de decisions dels usuaris. L'enfocament d' hipòtesi i validació utilitzant anàlisi quantitatiu té dificultats per tractar, d'una manera estructurada, altres tipus d'informació que aspectes estrictament relacionats amb l'ús dels productes (per exemple les emocions) on els resultats obtinguts són efímers i complexos.Els aspectes d'experiència d'usuari que impliquen sentiments relacionats amb necessitats inherents, desitjos i fantasies s'anomenen informació subjectiva sobre l'experiència. Per obtenir aquesta classe d'informació, l'experiència d'usuari s'analitza segons la relació psicològica entre usuaris i productes o serveis. Aquesta tesi descriu el canvi de paradigme que proposa la psicologia constructivista i la seva pertinència per a l'aplicació en l'obtenenció d'informació subjective sobre l'experiència d'usuari en les primeres fases del disseny de producte. Primerament, una visió de conjunt general del punt de vista proposat presenta les bases de la psicologia constructivista aplicables al camp de l'experiència d'usuari. Després, differents estudis exploratoris il·lustren, amb exemples, com s'haurien d'utilitzar aquestes tècniques com eines d'obtenció d'informació subjectiva:- La tècnica dels paisatges experiencials utilitza la graella cognitive, una aproximació alternativista al constructivisme, per obtenir informació sobre la resposta dels consumidors a un cert grup de productes i els requeriments d'ús.- El procediments de restricció utilitzen tècniques d'escalament (aproximació discursiva al constructivisme) per aconseguir informació nuclear sobre valors que una persona té. Aplicat a disseny de producte serveix per augmentar el nivell de precisió, obtenint informació que relaciona atributs emocionals, funcionals i físics del producte. - El mètode de generació de metàfores sensorials es pot considerar una aproximació retòrica al constructivisme i utilitza productes, objectes i contextos com vehicles per transmetre coneixement tàcit.- La visualització de necessitats i desitjos latents és una aproximació narrativa al constructivisme. Utilitza presentacions de vídeo per desvelar comportaments d'interaccions futures que compleixen els desitjos i les aspiracions dels usuaris.Les tècniques per a l'obteció d'informació subjectiva sobre l'experiencia d'usuari proposades en aquesta tesi doctoral (SEGIT) emergeixen de l'anàlisi de les avantatges i febleses dels estudis exploratoris anteriors. Es poden considerar com un conjunt de tècniques (exploratives i projectives) per ser utilitzades durant el procés de disseny com a eina inspiradora per guiar el procés creatiu (una tècnica de generació d'idees d'experiència per desenvolupar nous conceptes d'interacció) i un model per a la validació de resposta futura dels consumidors. La informació obtinguda amb el mètode de SEGIT s'analitza per a propòsits inspiradors i informatius:- Des d'un punt de vista inspirador, el conjunt de tècniques proporcionen aspectes clau per al procés d'inspiració. Les tècniques exploratòries permeten obtenir idees detallades i justificades i les tècniques projectives conceptes amb un nivell alt d'abstracció i coherència al mateix temps. - Des d'un punt de vista informatiu, aquest conjunt de tècniques es poden utilitzar per obtenir informació sobre la preferència de compra dels consumidors. Alhora que analitza diferents variables que afecten la fiabilitat dels resultats obtinguts.En conclusió, la visió sobre el disseny de la interacció presentat en aquesta tesi doctoral i les tècniques proposades mostren un camí optimista per explorar amb el propòsit de millorar l'acceptació de noves tecnologies en la vida quotidiana. / The field of User Experience (UX) consists of a wide range of different aspects about the interaction with products or services. User experience differs from the performance-based objective paradigm, focusing on a wider point of view where users needs, desires and fantasies have a role in the users decision-making process. Quantitative analysis and hypothesis and validation approaches have difficulties to deal, in a structured way, with information other than that, which is strictly related to aspects regarding product usage (i.e. emotions and affect, social interaction) and the results obtained are ephemeral and complex to measure. The aspects of user experience that involve feelings related to inherent needs, desires and fantasies are called subjective experience information. To obtain this kind of information, user experience analyzes the psychological relationship between users and products or services. This thesis describes constructivist psychology and its relevance for user experience research in early stages of product development. First, a general overview of the proposed point of view introduces constructivist psychology to user experience practitioners. Then several exploratory studies illustrate, with examples, how these techniques should be used as subjective user experience information gathering tools:- The experience landscapes technique use the repertory grid as an alternativist approach to constructivism for gathering information about consumers' response to a certain group of products and extract users' experience requirements. - The tightening procedure uses laddering techniques (discursive approach to constructivism) to get core information, the values a person holds. In order to increase the level of accuracy, obtaining design relevant information that relates emotional, functional and physical product attributes.- The sensory metaphor generation method can be considered a rhetorical approach to constructivism and uses products, objects and contexts as carriers of meaning of subjective experiences.- The visualization of inner needs and desires technique is a narrative approach to constructivism. It uses video presentations to unveil future interactions behaviours that fulfil users' desires and aspirations. The Subjective Experience Gathering and Inspiring Techniques proposed in this PhD thesis (SEGIT) emerges from the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of those exploratory studies. It can be considered a set of techniques (explorative and projective techniques) to be used throughout the design process as an inspirational tool to guide the creative process, a generation technique of experience ideas to develop interaction concepts and a model for consumers' future response validation. The information obtained with the SEGIT method is analyzed for inspirational and informational purposes:- From an inspirational point of view, the set of techniques provide key aspects of the inspiration process in relation to exploratory (detailed and complete ideas) and projective techniques (concepts with high level of abstraction and coherence at the same time). In addition, results show that different aspects like the participants' linguistic abilities and practitioners' guiding skills affect consistency.- From an informational point of view this set of techniques can be used to obtain subjective experience construing profiles about consumers' product preference. At the same time the results show how variables like participants' cognitive complexity of consumers' response and the cognitive structure of the valuation process affect its reliability.In conclusion, the approach to interaction design presented by this research and the proposed techniques for inspirational and informational purposes show an optimistic path to explore with the aim to help designers to bring peoples' sensorial experience and technology closer together.

The North House is a proof-of-concept prefabricated solar-powered home designed for northern climates, and intended for the research and promotion of high-performance sustainable architecture. Led by faculty at the University of Waterloo, the project was undertaken by Team North a broad collaboration between faculty and students at the Universities of Waterloo, Ryerson and Simon Fraser. In October 2009, the North House prototype competed in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, where it placed fourth overall. The North House addresses the urgent environmental imperative to dramatically reduce energy consumed by the built environment. It does so, in part by employing two primary technological systems which make use of feedback and response mechanisms; the Distributed Responsive System of Skins (DReSS) reconfigures the envelope in response to changing weather conditions, while the Adaptive Living Interface System (ALIS) provides detailed performance feedback to the inhabitant, equipping them with informed control of their home. This thesis recognizes energy consumption as a socio-technical problem that implicates building inhabitants as much as buildings themselves. It also recognizes the particular potency of the ‘house’ as a building type that touches a broad population in a profoundly personal way; and is thus an apt testing ground for technologies that conserve energy, and those that teach occupants to do the same. With these ideas in mind, the thesis looks to Interactive Architecture - a practice that considers buildings and their inhabitants as an integrated system - as a promising conceptual framework for synthesizing the social and technical aspects of energy conservation in the home.

Some agent-based systems depend on eliciting ratings from the user. However, the user’s willingness to provide ratings is limited due to requisite demands of attention and effort. From a human-centered view, we redefine providing ratings as expressing interest. We develop a new interface component for parameter setting, the In-Context Slider, which reduces physical effort and demand on attention by using fluid mouse gestures and in-context interaction. We hypothesize that such an interface should make interest expression easier for the user. We evaluated the In-Context Slider as an interest expression component compared with a more typical interface. Participants performed faster with the In-Context Slider. They found it easier to use and more natural for expressing interest. We then integrated the In-Context Slider in the agent-based system, combinFormation. We compared the In-Context Slider with combinFormation’s previous interest expression interface. Of the participants that effectively used both interfaces, most expressed more interest with the In-Context Slider. Participants’ experience reports described the In-Context Slider as easier to use while developing collections to answer open-ended information discovery questions. This research is relevant for many applications in which users provide ratings, such as recommender systems, as well as for others in which values need to be adjusted on many objects that are concurrently displayed.

This inductive study investigates interactions within groups of visitors during a science center visit. Using simplified interaction analysis of recorded videos; I explore the group dynamics in terms of what determines who takes the lead while multigenerational groups interact with different types of experiments. From the observations, I suggest that the age of different group members and specific design aspects of the experiments play the most important roles in the emergence of leadership. Teenagers in a group tend to take the leadership and dominate during a group interaction, while young children like to explore freely leading the group from one experiment to the next without focusing on finishing them properly. As for the design aspects, if an experiment requires cognitive skills then adults and teenagers take the lead but if an experiment requires physical skills and provides immediate feedback then young children take the lead. I also suggest, instead of guiding the young children in the group, adults tend to become observers during engagements. This study will be useful for researchers and interaction designers who are focusing their work on the behavior of multigenerational groups in science center or museum settings.

The Agile software development model is driven by "learning by doing" and rejects Big Design Up Front (BDUF) for that reason. User-Centered Design (UCD) on the other hand requires a more holistic view to be able to create a usable user interface and in the end create a good user experience. Finding a balance between the incremental development and the need for a more comprehensive view of the user interface is therefore the key to usability in Agile software development. The objective of this master thesis was to construct a framework on how to combine UCD and Agile development in general, and specifically for the web based tool, called Alo, at the IS/IT department of Com Hem AB, Sweden. The results of this thesis was that the process of integrating User-Centered Design in Agile software development first of all needs a familiar starting point for both usability experts and developers. This can be achieved with what Desirée Sy describes as “Cycle Zero”, to let usability experts perform initial research ahead of implementation. Designing one sprint ahead should later converge to a more synchronized process where requirements and sketches of the interface are put together, with the help of developers, just in time for the implementation. This does not only prevents waste in the form of documentation and miscommunication associated with hand-offs, but also makes the implementation more purposeful and fun for developers.Secondly, build prototypes early in the process to create a holistic vision of the finished product and to test concepts in usability tests early. Thirdly, create shared understanding (within the development team as well as with outside stakeholders) of user needs by involving the entire team in usability testing. Critical to the success of all the above is that all outside stakeholders understands the Agile process and respects that the team is a self-organizing unit that solves problems within a set of given boundaries, rather than a code factory that feeds on specification documents.