This project is a master’s thesis in Industrial Design that has been conducted in the spring of 2022 at Luleå University of Technology. The project is a cooperation with the company Neava and is about improving their online tool Design Studio. The goal of the project is to improve the online tool from an environmentally friendly perspective, i.e., how information is presented regarding material’s impact on the environment and how energy efficient the house will be when all the choices have been made.  Today, there are two different interfaces of Design Studio. One that is based on specific requirements from a customer, and another that is designed for sellers. None of these interfaces provides the user with information about how the materials are affecting the environment. Today it is important to think about the materials and energy efficiency when new houses are being built to create a sustainable future.  The work has been conducted by the process Design Thinking, which is an iterative process that is performed in five different phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. In the first phase, an understanding of the user was created, this was conducted through interviews and a survey. In the second phase, the user was identified, and user needs were established. In the third phase, different ideas and concepts were generated and then evaluated by users. In the fourth phase, a clickable prototype was created in the program Adobe XD. In the fifth phase, the prototype was tested on users and later improved based on the results.  The final result is a clickable prototype that informs the user about the available materials and how they are affecting the environment. The materials are categorized into three different groups: red, yellow, and green. If a material is in the red category, it indicates that the material is the worst for the environment. If a material is in the yellow category, it indicates that the material is okay for the environment. If a material is in the green category, it indicates that the material is the best for the environment. These three colors are connected to the environmental meter, the indicator shows the user how environmentally friendly materials the user has selected and how energy efficient the house will be.

Purpose – As screen time per individual increases, more users of digital devices experience ocular related diseases. The purpose of this study is to gather reasons for the vast popularity Dark Mode gained in contemporary society, by investigating previous design eras. As a general lack of trend analysis within user interface design has been identified, the goal of the study is to lay the foundation for further research in the field of user interface design. Method – The study relies on a qualitative literature review. Publications related to Dark Mode, light-on-dark color schemes and digital trends were analyzed for topic-specific content that was then elaborated to give a critically viewed framework of the emerging trend. Findings – The results of our study indicate that various factors led to creation of the hyped trend, known as Dark Mode. It was first and foremost practicality of the light-on-dark color scheme that paved the way for Dark Mode. All operating systems, many apps, platforms and even websites incorporated it in their design. Being an optional feature, Dark Mode makes it more comfortable for users to use their devices outside the light hours or in environments with bad lighting conditions. With Dark Mode users get a far-reaching personalization tool, that visually changes essentially the whole OS or app. From a psychological point of view this improves user satisfaction, as humans naturally are seeking way to be in control. Being in control of own devices is undoubtedly an important aspect of it. Besides that, Dark Mode houses potential to lower energy consumption of devices and provides users with longer battery times. This, however, only applies to devices with display technology like OLED, where backlighting is at least divided into zones, that can be turned off when not in use. Devices with conventional LED displays cannot benefit from lower energy consumption. Implications – The study indicates that individuals use Dark Mode for a more satisfying user experience as they feel e.g. less eye strain with a dark themed user interface. Editing and coding software is mostly designed in a light-on-dark color scheme, as users often work for long continuous hours on screen, surrounded by dark environment. As screen time per individual increases, more users are experiencing ocular diseases. In counteraction, society demanded dark themed interfaces for operating systems, websites, and apps. As individuals were already using unofficial dark themes on different interfaces, tech companies started releasing system updates to make Dark Mode a choice. As Apple released their user interface update just in 2019, Dark Mode is still a relevant trend discussed in the industry and society. Experts indicate that Dark Mode is here to stay, as it satisfies preferences of many users and makes current OLED screens and future digital devices with appropriate display technology more sustainable. Limitations – The time frame of the study, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic greatly limited the possibilities of conducting the study. Due to the novelty of the trend, there is lack of previous research, which limited the view on the subject to only work available. Keywords – Dark Mode, dark-on-light color scheme, retro trends, user interface design, user experience, digital trends, display, screen, screen time, eye strain

In today’s competitive landscape, shaping positive digital experiences with the brand is crucial for the company’s market success. The study aimed to investigate the interconnected relationship between User Experience (UX) and Brand Experience (BX) by exploring the potential for enhancing BX through the implementation of User Interface (UI) elements aligned with brand values within an e-commerce website. In this study, a two-phase quantitative experiment was employed, and four high-fidelity e-commerce web page prototypes were developed based on the Swedish multinational furniture retailer IKEA’s e-commerce website. In conclusion, this study establishes that the implementation of UI elements in line with brand values has the potential to enhance BX within the context of an e-commerce website. Through one of the prototypes, all dimensions of BX could be positively influenced. By emphasizing the interconnectedness between UX and BX, these findings contribute to our understanding of the critical role of UX design in shaping positive brand experiences online.

The increasing use of 3D user interface elements, particularly 3D menus, demonstrates the need to expand research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it pertains to 3D user interfaces. The results of this thesis contribute to the understanding of the cognitive impacts of using 3D menus. Multiple application areas for 3D menus have been identified where memory retention is a critical success factor, but little research has been done in the area of memory retention for 3D menus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the use of 3D carousel menus increases retention of information over 2D menus and if is there a gender effect with these results. A three factor split-plot (one-between subject factor and two-within subject factors) experiment was designed to test if menu dimension, content type, and gender are significant factors in memory retention and to determine if there are any interactions between these factors. The results of the experiment revealed that dimension and gender are not significant factors in the retention of information and none of the interactions of dimension (2D vs. 3D), gender, and content were significant. Several subjects’ questionnaire responses demonstrated that the menu dimension they perceived to better aid retention was 3D; however these results were not statistically significant. While these results showed that within the boundaries chosen the use of a 3D menu neither promotes nor degrades memory retention, there are still a number of questions that need to be answered regarding the use of 3D menus and their effect on other cognitive processes.

The game development processes behind entertainment games are not well understood. While there are studies that report on user interface evaluation in game production, there are very few studies that report on user interface design. The purpose of study is to explore and learn more about the game industry perspective and their processes behind user interface design. A systematic literature review was performed on the Game developers Conference database, GDC Vault. The review uncovered 105 presentations that relate to UI Design. A thematic analysis was performed to explore the eight most relevant presentations to the research question. The analysis resulted in two themes. The first theme describes UI designers’ experience of interdisciplinary collaboration. The second theme describe two seemingly conflicting goals in the UI design process: aesthetics and usability. The study contributes to the field of game development research with some knowledge about how the game industry create UI design.

Video editing is a process where multiple roles are required to collaborate. Despite this, the design of video editing software does not easily support collaboration. Hence, this study investigates how the video editing workflow can be improved by designing a user interface that supports collaboration. This is achieved with focus on simultaneous work performed in a remote workspace. Firstly, a design workshop was conducted with professional video editors. Secondly, user interface mockups were created. Lastly, the mockups were evaluated in a mockup test and subsequently updated based on the feedback. The study proposes five design concepts that collectively aim to support collaboration through workspace awareness by focusing on enhancing communication to make the workflow more time efficient. The evaluation of the design concepts indicates their potential to facilitate the collaborators collective work and communication. Therefore, the results suggest that the workflow has the possibility to be improved by including collaborative features in video editing software. / Videoredigering är en process där flera roller behöver samarbeta. Trots detta stöder designen av videoredigeringsprogram inte samarbete. Därför undersöker denna studie hur arbetsflödet för videoredigering kan förbättras genom att utforma ett användargränssnitt som stöder samarbete. Detta uppnås med fokus på arbete som utförs samtidigt på distans. Först genomfördes en designworkshop med professionella videoredigerare. Sedan skapades mockups för användargränssnittet. Slutligen utvärderades mockuperna i en mockup-testning och uppdaterades därefter baserat på feedbacken. Studien föreslår fem designkoncept som tillsammans syftar till att stödja samarbete genom arbetsplatsmedvetenhet genom att fokusera på att förbättra kommunikationen för att göra arbetsflödet mer tidseffektivt. Utvärderingen av designkoncepten indikerar deras potential att underlätta medarbetarnas kollektiva arbete och kommunikation. Därför tyder resultaten på att arbetsflödet har möjlighet att förbättras genom att inkludera samarbetsfunktioner i videoredigeringsprogram.

With today’s exploding amount of websites and applications, a design has to meet the requirements of its users and be easy to use in order for a software product to stand out. User Experience design is a method, which has been developed to design products with a focus on the user. This thesis examines how User Experience design can be applied to the creation of a wiki in order to ease the acquisition of information. The research was done through a literature study and a case study, where a wiki about courses at KTH was designed and tested. Two versions of a prototype were created, based on feedback which was collected from potential users. A thematic analysis was done on the data and the selected themes were used to improve the product. The result was an overall positive response towards the prototype in the case study, which led to a conclusion that User Experience design can lead to an improvement of how wikis are created. The work can be continued by implementing the prototype or creating more wikis for a broader support of the conclusion. / Med dagens exploderande mängd websidor och applikationer krävs en design som möter användarnas krav och är lättanvänd för att en mjukvaruprodukt ska stå ut. Användarupplevelse design är en metod som tagits fram för att designa produkter med användaren i fokus. Detta arbete undersöker hur användarupplevelse design kan appliceras på skapandet av en wiki för att förenkla inhämtningen av information. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av en litteraturstudie och en fallstudie där en wiki kring kurser som ges på KTH designades och testades. Två versioner av en prototyp skapades utifrån feedback som samlats från potentiella användare. En tematisk analys utfördes på datan och de uttagna temana användes för att förbättra produkten. Resultatet var ett generellt positivt bemötande mot prototypen i fallstudien, vilket ledde till en slutsats att användarupplevelse design kan leda till en förbättring av hur wikis byggs. Arbetet kan fortsättas genom att implementera prototypen eller skapa fler wikis för ett bredare underlag.

Lack of trust is argued to be one of the key reasons behind buyers’ reluctance to purchase online. In mobile commerce (m-commerce), gaining initial trust upon the first visit from prospective consumers highly depends on the design of the website. However, the number of qualitative empirical studies investigating what and how website characteristics affect initial trust in an unfamiliar m-commerce website remains limited. The aim of this thesis was thus to gain a deeper understanding of the influence of website characteristics on initial consumer trust in a m-commerce website, to provide insights for designers. An exploratory case study of the mobile version of an e-vendor’s website was conducted and qualitatively examined through Think-Aloud sessions and semi-structured interviews. By thematically analyzing the data, the following website characteristics were identified as influencing initial trust in an unknown m-commerce website: purposeful and clear visual design, internal design consistency, mobile adaptation and reading experience, content quality, similarity and expectations, social proof and external validation. Based on the insights, the study further provides recommendations to practitioners on how to design trustworthy m-commerce websites, both as support in the design pro-cess and for evaluation purposes. / Brist på förtroende anses vara en av de viktigaste orsakerna till att köpare tvekar att handla online. Att få initialt förtroende vid potentiella konsumenters första besök inom mobil handel (m-commerce) beror mycket på webbplatsens design. Antalet kvalitativa empiriska studier som undersöker vad och hur webbplatsens egenskaper påverkar initialt förtroende för en okänd m-handelswebbplats är dock fortfarande begränsat. Syftet med denna avhandling var således att få en djupare förståelse för hur webbplatsens egenskaper påverkar konsumenternas initiala för-troende för en mobil handelswebbplats, för att ge insikter till designers. En undersökande fall-studie av mobilversionen av en e-handlares webbplats genomfördes och undersöktes kvalitativt genom Think-Aloud-sessioner och halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Genom att tematiskt analysera den insamlade datan identifierades följande webbplatsegenskaper att påverka initialt förtroende för en okänd mobil handelswebbplats: målmedveten och tydlig visuell design, internt konsekvent design, mobilanpassning och läsupplevelse, innehållskvalitet, likhet och förväntningar, socialt bevis och extern validering. Baserat på insikterna ger studien rekommendationer till designers om hur man kan utforma pålitliga m-handelswebbplatser, både som stöd i designprocessen och för utvärdering.

Many different autonomously driving mobile robots are used for industrial transports of materials or  oods in the context of internal logistic processes because of different use cases. The problem for the users that need to monitor the robots is that each manufacturer provides its own graphical user interface (GUI) wi th different operating modes and visual designs, which requires different trainings and constant swi tching between software. Therefore, this paper shows the design and development process of a graphical user interface in the form of a web application for the monitoring process of a fleet of automated guided vehicles from different manufacturers and answers the following question: "What are the main criteria when designing a graphical user interface with high usability for the monitoring process of manufacturer-independent automa ted guided vehicle f leets?” To answer the question, existing graphical user interfaces from different manufacturers were analyzed and interviews with developers and end-users of the GUIs were conducted. Requirements were then derived, on whose basis sketching, wireframing and high-fidelity prototyping have been performed. Usability testing and a heuristic evaluation were chosen to improve the application and its usability continually. As a result, the following six main criteria could be derived that summarize the most essential points to consider when designing such a GUI: administrabi lity, adaptiveness, observability, analyzability, robot and job awareness, and intervention. / Många olika autonomt körande mobila robotar används för industriell transport av material eller varor i samband med interna logistiska processer till följd av olika användningsfall. Problemet för de användare som behöver övervaka robotarna är att varje tillverkare tillhandahåller sitt eget grafiska användargränssnitt (GUI) med olika driftsätt och visuella utformningar, vilket kräver olika  utbildningar och ständig växling mellan mjukvara. Denna uppsats visar därför design- och utvecklingsprocessen för ett grafiskt användargränssnitt i form av en webbapplikation för övervakningsprocessen för en samling av automatiserade guidade fordon från olika tillverkare, och svarar på följande fråga: "Vilka är de viktigaste kriterierna vid utformningen av ett grafiskt användargränssnitt med hög användbarhet för övervakningsprocessen av automatiserade guidade  fordonsamlingar, oboeroande av tillverkare?” För att svara på frågan analyserades befintliga grafiska användargränssnitt från olika tillverkare, samt intervjuer med utvecklare och slutanvändare av GUI:erna utfördes. Krav härleddes sedan, baserat på vilka skisser, wireframing och hifi -prototyper som har utförts. Användbarhetstest och en heuristisk utvärdering valdes för att kontinuerligt förbättra applikationen och dess användbarhet. Som ett resultat kan följande sex huvudkriterier härledas, de sammanfattar de viktigaste punkterna att tänka på när man utformar ett sådant GUI: förmåga att administrera, anpassningsförmåga, observerbarhet, analyserbarhet, robot- och jobbmedvetenhet och intervention.

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