Horizontal displays, such as tabletop systems, are emerging as the de facto platform for engaging participants in collaborative tasks. Despite significant efforts in improving the interactivity of information on such systems, very little research has been invested in understanding how groups of people view data visualizations in such environments. Numerous studies introduced different techniques to support viewing visualization for groups of people, such as duplicating or reorienting the visual displays. However, when visualizations compete for pixels on the display, prior solutions do not work effectively. In this thesis, I explore whether orientation on horizontal displays impacts the legibility of simple visualizations such as graphs. I have found that users are best at reading a graph when it is right side up, and takes them 20% less time than when it is read upside down. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate whether the readability and understandability of simple graphs can be improved. I have introduced the Orientation Agnostic Graph (OA-Graph) which is legible regardless of orientation. The OA-Graph uses a radial layout which has several interesting properties such as implicit orientation, points equidistant to center, and flexible rearrangement. OA-Graphs perform better than graphs that are presented upside down. I have converted several popular types of graphs into their OA counterpart for improved legibility on tabletop systems. Guidelines are presented that describe how other visualizations can be converted to being orientation agnostic.

The copy-and-paste paradigm is a fundamental operation in graphical user interfaces. However, existing copy-and-paste techniques have limitations, in particular in terms of efficiency and robustness against interruptions. This thesis is focusing on improving the user interface used to copy-and-paste objects across different contexts, such as a series folders. To improve this fundamental operation, a new copy-and-paste technique, called Bag-and-Dump, is proposed, implemented and evaluated. Bag-and-Dump aims to substantially reduce mouse movement by allowing the user to gather up (‘bag’) source data across different folders before ‘dumping’ the whole load at the destination. Additionally, Bag-and-Dump provides constant visual feedback in the form of a bag-like semantic cursor to increase robustness against interruptions. Bag-and-Dump was eval- uated against two standard copy-and-paste techniques (Keyboard Shortcuts and Drag-and-Drop) under a different number of contexts (folders) and with and without inter- ruptions. Results from the experiment not only showed that Bag-and-Dump indeed significantly reduces mouse movement, it also confirmed that Bag-and-Dump was 9% faster than Keyboard Shortcuts, one of the most popular copy-paste techniques among “expert users”.

Software engineering is a fundamentally collaborative activity, yet most tools that support software engineers are designed only for single users. There are many foreseen benefits in using tools that support real time collaboration between software engineers, such as avoiding conflicting concurrent changes to source files and determining the impact of program changes immediately. Unfortunately, it is difficult to develop non-trivial tools that support real time Collaborative Software Engineering (CSE). Accordingly, the few CSE tools that do exist have restricted capabilities. Given the availability of powerful desktop workstations and recent advances in distributed computing technology, it is now possible to approach the challenges of CSE from a new perspective. The research goal in this thesis is to investigate mechanisms for supporting real time CSE, and to determine the potential gains for developers from the use of CSE tools. An infrastructure, CAISE, is presented which supports the rapid development of real time CSE tools that were previously unobtainable, based on patterns of collaboration evident within software engineering. In this thesis, I discuss important design aspects of CSE tools, including the identification of candidate patterns of collaboration. I describe the CAISE approach to supporting small teams of collaborating software engineers. This is by way of a shared semantic model of software, protocol for tool communication, and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) facilities. I then introduce new types of synchronous semantic model-based tools that support various patterns of CSE. Finally, I present empirical and heuristic evaluations of typical development scenarios. Given the CAISE infrastructure, it is envisaged that new aspects of collaborative work within software engineering can be explored, allowing the perceived benefits of CSE to be fully realised.

The area of the research comprises the field of virtualization as specified to the field of three-dimensional user interfaces (3D UIs). It is an approach of applying the field of motion-sensing technology to potential areas of apparel value chains focusing on design. The background of this thesis is the industry’s established 3D design and development process and new digital tools that enable embodied interaction. So far companies are still working with a limited 3D design approach, which requires several non-value-adding activities, e.g. technical sketching and pattern creation, before a product can be virtually simulated and evaluated. As the current fashion industry’s human-computer interaction (HCI) applications have non-embodied interaction technologies, which deny natural hand movements, it was evaluated, if motion-sensing technology can enable the feeling of natural handcrafting. The purpose of the project was to investigate the designer’s attitude towards motion-sensing technology as a design tool and the potential of embodied HCI in design and development processes of apparel value chains. Enabling the designer the feeling of handcrafting in a 3D world opens a new area of research within the use of 3D fashion design tools. Moreover the thesis expected to prove the desire towards embodied interaction during the apparel design and development processes and the designer’s openness to try out new things. To fulfill the purpose, the motion-sensing technology tool Leap Motion was used as a practical device, which enables embodied interaction in design applications. A team of various designers was used to conduct a practical experiment, combined with interviews and observations. The experiment has been analysed on the designer’s attitude towards the use of a motion-sensing technology tool within the design field and possible implications on the design and development phases of apparel value chains. The results show, that the designers supported embodied interaction and experienced the use of motion-sensing technology as an enhancing and powerful tool. However, it has become clear that the designers experienced the usage of free-handed motion-sensing technology as not natural or intuitive and rather prefer tangible tools. Presupposing a crucial improvement of the technology, different ways of substituting current design activities like enabling the draping process on a virtual basis could enhance the value chain regarding speed, flexibility and waste. This would enable earlier entry into the evaluation stage of virtual simulated prototypes while directly starting the design and development process in 3D and reducing several iterations of non-value adding activities.

Problem: Designing the user experience is a growing trend in product design; however this trend has not greatly benefited people with impairments and disabilities. There are no practical tools to broadly assist with this issue. There is a need for standardized measures to quantify impairment, a model to predict how designs may perform and a need for data regarding how people with impairments interact with consumer technology. Purpose: To conduct a usability analysis with an industry partner on their powered wheelchair controller using participants with varying impairments. The industry partner was seeking better insight into the benefits of formal user testing. Method: Forty consenting adults were given a score representing their level of impairment using six measures from the International Classification of Functioning (ICF). These measures were identified by the researcher to affect interaction with a device. Performance was measured by time taken to complete tasks, errors made, reported task difficulty and reported controller usability. Results: Performance was reduced in participants with a higher ICF score and age. An ICF score less than or equal to 2 was 117 times more likely to not complete the tasks, greater than or equal to 3 was not able to complete the experiment. Age >50 years took an average 79 seconds longer than <35 years to complete a task and reported greater difficulty, more errors and a lower usability for the controller. Implications: Low to moderate levels of impairment has a significantly negative effect on the usability of common devices. Difficulties were mostly cognitive with participants unable to create an accurate mental model of the system. Participants with lower performance tended to be overly optimistic about their abilities. Mistakes were the greatest source of error followed by lapses and almost no reported or observed slip errors. Original Contribution: The ICF has never been used as a metric for usability testing. This study successfully applied the ICF alongside other measures to prove its validity. Based on the results and current literature the Task Process Model was created to provide a simple and practical way to describe the interaction of people completing a task of basic to moderate complexity.

Many countries have formulated their eHealth visions and billions of dollars have been spent on supporting the eHealth development throughout the world. An important part of the development is the electronic patient record (EPR). To enable sharing and increase cooperation between care providers, most Swedish county councils have decided to use a region-wide EPR. The health professionals often experience numerous problems and consider the region-wide EPR to be too generic and require them to tailor their practices instead of the system evolving towards supporting their needs. The aim of the PhD research is to gain knowledge of adoption when deploying and using region-wide health IT systems. This is accomplished by studying, analysing and reflecting upon what region-wide health IT systems are and how professionals use them in their practice. In the research a grounded theory method has been used, which means that the empirical data, not theories and hypotheses, have driven the research process. The data-gathering methods have been interviews, observations, participating in meetings, questionnaires, seminars and conducting literature reviews. In order to be able to improve the adoption, a set of four key principles has been identified: (1) Evolving systems-Engaged users, (2) Treat IT deployment and usage as part of organisational development, (3) Identify, respect and support differences, and (4) Identify what must be customised and what can be centralised. These four principles challenge the traditional way of developing enterprise-wide IT and emphasise the importance that users must engage in the development, procurement and deployment process to identify their similar and unique needs and procedures. It is crucial that both the similarities and uniqueness are respected and supported. The similarities can be supported by a centralised, standardised solution, while uniqueness requires a customised solution. In order to accomplish that, the IT deployment and usage needs to be treated as an important part of the on-going organisational development, and the IT systems must evolve, i.e., be continuously developed in order to engage the users to participate.

This thesis investigates an Intranet based leadership strategy. The aims are to follow, describe and analyse an Intranet based leadership strategy through a broad, dynamic and cultural perspective, and to carry out an ethnography-based research process and thereby explore the potential uses of ethnography within human-computer interaction (HCI). The empirical material is gathered from three qualitative investigations in the municipality of Stockholm. The material is interpreted and analysed through the concepts of culture, lifeworld, sensemaking, sense unmaking and trust. Some aspects of leadership are studied as well. The theoretical toolbox is framed by phenomenology and a hermeneutic writing process paired with methods of semi-structured interviews, participative observations, open unstructured questionnaires and the snapshot method. Cultural analysis of empirical results from an ethnographic fieldwork has shown that the time spent in the field can be shortened when ethnography is utilised within HCI. Furthermore, other contributions from ethnography to technology development are the possibility to point out explicit versus implicit symbolic communications and cultural pitfalls for technology developers as well as to support the transformations of cultural values and the content of steering documents into technology development. Ethnographers within HCI can promote designing for trust by exploring how intended users think about this issue. Some recommendations for organisations that aim to use the Intranet as a leadership strategy are also presented as an additional outcome of the results in the study. It is argued that it is of importance to discuss usability versus diversity; that developers of the Intranet tools investigate influential circumstances at local workplaces and that they study the impact of work routines on cultural identification in order to avoid ‘we’ and ‘they’ thinking within the organisation. Moreover, it is important to put a wider effort into the discussion of what happens when the content of a steering document meets practice. It is also questioned whether a vision is the right way to go forward, and it is suggested that it should be clarified what quality development actually means.

Users are increasingly expected to manage complex privacy settings in their normal online interactions. From shopping to social networks, users make decisions about sharing their personal information with corporations and contacts, frequently with little assistance. Current solutions require customers to read long documents or go out of their way to manage complex settings buried deep in the management interfaces, all of which lead to little or no actual control. The goal of this work is to help people cope with the shifting privacy landscape. While our work looks at many aspects of how users make decisions regarding their privacy, this dissertation focuses on two specific areas: the current state of web privacy policies and mobile phone application permissions. We explored consumers' current understanding of privacy in these domains, and then used that knowledge to iteratively design and test more comprehensible information displays. These prototyped information displays should not be seen as final commercially-ready solutions, but as examples of privacy notices that can help users think about, cope with, and make decisions regarding their data privacy. We conclude with a series of design suggestions motivated by our findings.

Horizontal displays, such as tabletop systems, are emerging as the de facto platform for engaging participants in collaborative tasks. Despite significant efforts in improving the interactivity of information on such systems, very little research has been invested in understanding how groups of people view data visualizations in such environments. Numerous studies introduced different techniques to support viewing visualization for groups of people, such as duplicating or reorienting the visual displays. However, when visualizations compete for pixels on the display, prior solutions do not work effectively. In this thesis, I explore whether orientation on horizontal displays impacts the legibility of simple visualizations such as graphs. I have found that users are best at reading a graph when it is right side up, and takes them 20% less time than when it is read upside down. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate whether the readability and understandability of simple graphs can be improved. I have introduced the Orientation Agnostic Graph (OA-Graph) which is legible regardless of orientation. The OA-Graph uses a radial layout which has several interesting properties such as implicit orientation, points equidistant to center, and flexible rearrangement. OA-Graphs perform better than graphs that are presented upside down. I have converted several popular types of graphs into their OA counterpart for improved legibility on tabletop systems. Guidelines are presented that describe how other visualizations can be converted to being orientation agnostic.

The amount of data that is available to us is ever increasing, and thus is the potential to extract information from it. Information visualization, which leverages our perceptual system to enable us to perceive patterns, outliers, trends and anomalies in large amounts of data, is an important technique for exploratory data analysis. As part of a flexible visual data analysis process, the user needs to construct and parametrize visualizations, which is challenging for novice users. In this thesis, I explore how information visualization novices can be supported in visualization construction. First, I identify existing visualization construction approaches in a systematic literature survey and examine their use cases. Second, I conduct a laboratory study to learn about the process and the characteristics of how information visualization novices construct visualization during data analysis. Third, I identify natural language visualization queries as a promising alternative specification approach that I study by analyzing the queries from the laboratory experiment and by conducting an online survey study. Based on my findings, I propose a descriptive model of natural language visualization queries. Fourth, I derive guidelines for visualization construction tools from my studies and from related work. Finally, I show how these guidelines can be applied to existing visualization tools using the example of the Choosel visualization framework. / Graduate