Evaluating User Experiences early in a development process can save both time and money by pro-actively mapping out user needs and behavior patterns. However, since most well-known UX-evaluation methods applies during or after user interaction, due to the “second-order” design problem of experiences being a byproduct of interaction, there is a desire within HCI for more early-stage UX-evaluation methods that could be applied to concept stages as well. This paper investigates the experiential evaluation of a storyboard and narrative through the Anticipated eXperience Method (AxE) and discusses how it compares to a re-iterated high-fidelity prototype created in Figma. The process of this study is described out of the context it has been executed in, which is together with the company Scania AB at their cabin production facility in Oskarshamn, Sweden. The study explores what insights can be found from evaluating anticipated user experiences in early concept development and how these insights can apply towards further development of a touchpad user Interface. The underlying foundation of this study has followed the approach of a design-inclusive UX-research project, which heavily incorporates design activities into the process of conducting research. Thus, the storyboard, narrative and interactive Figma prototype have been created along the process and takes center stage in the investigation of experiential evaluation at early stages of interactive product development.

WebIDE is a web-based online learning environment. WebIDE has been used successfully to teach CS0 and CS1 students Java and C concepts and software engineering best practices, specically Test Driven Development. Previous Web- IDE development has concentrated on developing functionality. The main goal of this eort is to improve two non-functional aspects of WebIDE. The rst is to design a more delightful user interface. The second is to add a scoring mecha- nism that encourages students to develop best practices. The scoring mechanism rewards students who answer the question correctly on the rst attempt, dis- couraging them from spamming the answer button. Our objective is to motivate the students to think before answering. The innovations are evaluated through a semi-controlled experiment that was conducted during the Fall quarter of 2012 at Cal Poly.

Music and its effects on the brain has been discussed from many different angels. Everything from “The Mozart effect” that shows that listening to music can improve your brain’s performance, to several studies showing that playing an instrument creates plastic changes to the brain. When we listen to music, areas related to motor control and language are activated, and humans are using sound and music from a very early age to communicate wants and needs to their surroundings. Since music seems to have a positive effect on the human brain and a connection to human communication skills, would it then be possible to use music playing to enhance togetherness and communication among pre-verbal individuals? As a first step towards examining this, this paper will investigate how playing music together with others affect pre-verbal individuals’ initiatives to communication. A set of musical instruments were developed that assists the players by sounding good together no matter how you play them, by keeping the same tempo and staying in the same part of the song composition. This was to take away focus from the challenges of playing an instrument, and instead being able to enjoy the feeling of playing music together and also have room for connecting with the other persons in the group. The results showed that playing the instruments created several opportunities for social interaction, but that the interaction in most cases happened between the participant and one of the assistants rather than between the participants. Focusing on playing the instrument and at the same time notice your peers and their playing, takes some practice. By optimizing the setup of the playing sessions, and taking time to get comfortable with the instrument and the situation, the chance of this communicative connection happening is likely. / Musik och dess effekter på hjärnan har diskuterats utifrån många olika vinklar. Allt från "Mozarteffekten" som visar att musiklyssnande kan förbättra hjärnans funktioner, till studier som visar att instrumentspelande skapar plastiska förändringar i hjärnan. När vi lyssnar på musik aktiveras områden relaterade till både motorik och språk, och människan använder sig av ljud och musik från en mycket tidig ålder för att kommunicera önskemål och behov till sin omgivning. Eftersom musik verkar ha både en positiv effekt på den mänskliga hjärnan och vara kopplat till kommunikation, skulle det då vara möjligt att använda musikspelande för att öka känslor av grupptillhörighet och underlätta kommunikation mellan preverbala individer? Som ett första steg mot att undersöka detta, kommer denna artikel att undersöka hur musikspelande tillsammans med andra påverkar preverbala individers initiativ till kommunikation. Till studien utvecklades en uppsättning musikinstrument som hjälper användarna att hålla sig till en gemensam takt, tempo och till samma del av låtkompositionen, vilket gör att instrumenten alltid låter bra tillsammans oavsett hur deltagarna spelar på dem. Detta var för att ta bort fokus från de kognitivt mest utmanande delarna med att spela ett instrument, och i stället kunna njuta av känslan av att spela musik tillsammans och öka möjligheten att även kunna ta in musiken från de andra personerna i gruppen. Resultaten visade att spelandet skapade flera möjligheter till social interaktion, men att interaktionen i de flesta fall skedde mellan deltagare och assistent snarare än mellan deltagarna. Att både fokusera på att spela sitt instrument och samtidigt ta in kamraterna och deras spelande, kräver längre tid av övning. Genom att optimera uppbyggnaden och strukturen av sessionerna och ge deltagarna längre tid för att bli bekväma med både instrumentspelandet och situationen som helhet, finns det goda chanser att social interaktion och kommunikation mellan deltagarna ökar.

One major issue that office workers face in their daily lives is a large amount of sedentary behavior. To help alleviate this, researchers at Linköping University are developing a collection of motion games to create natural and motivating active breaks named Liopep. This thesis presents the development and evaluation of one new game being added to Liopep called BoatSim. In BoatSim, the player makes real rowing motions in front of a web-camera to row a virtual boat between various islands, where they can grow crops, raise cows, etc. BoatSim was created in the game engine Godot, with a motion controller powered by Mediapipe Pose. The game was evaluated by repeated playtesting where data was gathered to determine how much movement was achieved by a player interacting with the various different parts of the game, and comparing these to each other.

No / The rise of mainstream virtual learning environments has facilitated the operation of information spaces to support display, simulation, and interactive modelling. As well as disseminating information and knowledge, they can also be used to accumulate learning as each user is also a potential contributor. This paper examines the use of information environments to support mobile learning and dynamic decision making and the extent to which physical or social space can support the application. Such applications are not limited to the traditional data analysis and modelling functions but can be extended to include storytelling, theatre, and other aspects of the arts and the entertainment industry.

Over the last few years, text messaging has taken the domination among young adults. Messaging via phones has a wide range of both, human and social factors. These Instant Messaging [IM] applications also offer features other than just texting and for example, sending documents, photos, videos, links and more. All these features and attributes are making people pull towards these IM applications more and more. Despite having these features, people expect more from these IM applications, which leads these IM applications to compete with each other by providing more features or modifying the existing features. This competition to be the better application amongst the IM applications has led us to do a research study on which applications have better user experience through a survey evaluation. Background: Messaging through phones got a lot easier when platforms like iMessage, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc., were introduced to people. WhatsApp and Telegram gained popularity over iMessages as iMessages was limited only to IOS. So, technically people preferred WhatsApp and Telegram over iMessages. In order, to deduct which application is preferred among WhatsApp and Telegram, a survey evaluation is done based on Usability Heuristics. Thus, the title of the thesis is “Comparative research of WhatsApp and Telegram by using heuristic principles.” Objectives: The prime objective of the thesis is to compare both the applications, WhatsApp, and Telegram and to find which application has followed the principles of Usability most. The comparison between these two applications is done via a survey evaluation and the results will be noted. Methods: The method that has been chosen and used for comparison is survey evaluation. The survey will be done via google forms, and the questions of the study are based on HCI principles. The survey will have a total of 10 questions. Approximately of 45 users will be given the questionnaire google form to fill out. Results: The results from the survey will be collected and noted. The results are examined and the application that has the better user experience will be found. Conclusion: From the study and the survey, it is concluded that WhatsApp has a better user experience than Telegram.

The main aim of this thesis project is to select and redesign a website which was originally designed without using the HCI design principles. The website “Atari best electronics” (https://www.best-electronics-ca.com/) was chosen and evaluated using usability heuristics. After finding the flaws in the website, it is redesigned using the HCI design principles using Google sites. The redesigned website is then surveyed using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The results of the survey are presented in the report. Background: The UI/UX of any website increases drastically if the website is designed with the HCI principles in mind. Most of the websites do not follow the design principles. This affects the reach and usage of the website. The users using these websites are very quick to quit. The websites can be designed/redesigned using the HCI designed principles and increase the user experience.  Objectives: The objective of this project is to evaluate the chosen website and redesign it by using HCI design principles and conduct survey to understand the user’s perspective on the redesigned website. Methods: This project uses two methods in order to get results and solution of the proposed research questions. The heuristic evaluation method helps us find the flaws in the website and lets us redesign the website using HCI design principles. The survey evaluation method helps us understand the user’s perspective on the redesigned website. Results: The website is redesigned using the HCI design principles and a survey questionnaire is shared, and the responses are collected, and the results are represented in the form of bar graphs. Based on the results of the survey, we find out whether or not the users liked using the redesigned website. Conclusion: Using HCI principles in designing/redesigning a website increases the usability of the website. After analyzing the survey, we understand that the user experience is greatly affected when a website is designed using HCI design principles.

Due to the continuous use and rise of social media sites among teens and worries about their safety while using these sites, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers have been working together with teenagers using methods such as participatory design/co-design to study their social media usage, along with the risks they encounter and their behavior online. However, this comes with several constraints such as power imbalances, conflicting schedules of teenagers, and lack of attendance. To work towards engaging teens in online safety research without being bound by these constraints, we recruited 7 teens between the ages of 15-17 years old to be a part of a year-long Youth Advisory Board (YAB) for the Socio-Technical Interaction Research (STIR) Lab. We conducted online activities with the teen participants in our YAB within an Asynchronous Remote Community (ARC), which is an online group where communication and activity participation occur asynchronously between researchers and participants. To collect our data, we first organized a synchronous Zoom meeting with the teens about the ARC research method, discussed how the method relates to them, and talked about the topics and activities that they would like to partake in within an ARC. Then, we conducted activities with the teens to discuss their social media usage and their perceptions of algorithms used to provide content on social media. Our participants were interested in discussing topics that were related to safety on social media platforms and doing research activities that could best be implemented through the ARC research method such as giving feedback on research design, suggesting solutions to online safety prompts, and designing apps based on an online safety prompt. We also found that our participants' social media platform usage heavily depended on their goals as users, and they were weighing the privacy affordances and risks that came with using the platforms to decide which platform is best for their goals. Finally, our teen participants were aware of the positive and negative impacts that algorithms on social media platforms have on their online safety. They were skeptical of social platform algorithms due to their safety and privacy concerns, though they understood the benefits and wanted to learn more about how these algorithms operate. Overall, our participants appreciated the ARC methodology for exploring online safety perspectives, as it does allow them enough time to take part in activities and collaborate in discussions with each other. Our findings suggest that ARC can be an effective method for co-designing research studies to understand teens' social media usage, the risks they encounter online, and ways to mitigate such risks on social media.

This project explores how assistive technology can be useful for users with ADHD when it comes to their usage of smartphones. The design explores the importance of role and interaction aesthetic in regards to designing assistive technology. Additionally, this paper highlights the importance of including users with disabilities in the design and research process. The study focuses on the lived experience of an individual with ADHD rather than looking at symptoms in order to get closer to the needs and issues of the end user. The results show that focusing on the daily life of the user rather than their symptoms brings the research closer to the actual needs. The design solution offers an interactive social media post that takes the users in-situ needs into consideration by proposing multiple cues to take a break from social media. By creating actionable insights it gives the user agency and better support in comparison to other screen time-management tools.

This thesis book represents an exploration of the relationship between architecture and robotics, tailored to meet the requirements of both architecture students and professionals and any other creative user. The investigation encompasses three distinct robotic arm applications for architecture students, introduces and evaluates an innovative 3D printing application with robotic arms, and presents projects focused on the design of human-robot interaction techniques and their system development. Furthermore, the thesis showcases the development of a more intuitive human-robot interaction system and explores various user interaction methods with robotic arms for rapid prototyping and fabrication. Each experiment describes the process, level of interaction, and key takeaways. The narrative of the thesis unfolds as a journey through different applications of robotic fabrication, emphasizing the creative human as the focal point of these systems. This thesis underscores the significance of user experience research and anticipates future innovations in the evolving landscape of the creative field. The discoveries made in this exploration lay a foundation for the study and design of interfaces and interaction techniques, fostering seamless collaboration between designers and robotic systems. Keywords: Robotic Fabrication - Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) - Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) - User Experience Research - Human-Centered Design - Architecture - Art - Creative Application / Master of Architecture