<p>Human Computer Interaction (HCI) handlar om att utveckla produkter med god användbarhet. Med användbarhet menas att system ska vara lätta att använda och lära. Jakob Nielsen är en av förgrundsfigurerna när det gäller riktlinjer för hur detta ska uppnås. Han har utvecklat tio kriterier som kan användas för att ett så bra system som möjligt ska kunna utvecklas.</p><p>På senare år har forskare börjat se till, inte bara tekniska aspekter utan även till de känslor som användaren kan tänkas uppleva under det att denna interagerar med en webbsida. Ett flertal forskare har utvecklat teorier kring begreppet Flow. Detta handlar om de känslor som uppstår när en användare till exempel sitter vid datorn. Dessa känslor kan vara tidlöshet, kontroll och fridfullhet som resulterar i att en användare stannar kvar på webbsidan en längre tid. Tiden som en användare spenderar på en webbsida är en viktig aspekt för ett företag som säljer produkter eller tjänster och att designa för Flow kan därför vara en fördel gentemot de företag som inte gör det.</p><p>Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi är forskare inom psykologi och var den som grundade begreppet Flow. Det var för ca 15 år sedan han först presenterade sin teori och denna hade han kommit fram till efter att studerat personer som spenderade mycket tid och energi på en aktivitet som inte gav dem någon finansiell vinning utan endast stor tillfredsställelse. Csikszentmihalyi är idag förgrundsfigur inom Flow-begreppet och vi har i detta arbete använt mycket av hans teorier eller andra forskares teorier som grundats på hans forskning.</p><p>Vår frågeställning i detta arbete handlar om att utvärdera Nielsens tio kriterier för god användbarhet. Tanken är att med arbetet var att dessa ska utvärderas och eventuellt utvecklas. Vi utvärderade Aftonbladets webbsida med hjälp av Nielsens tio kriterier. Därefter fick en grupp respondenter svara på en enkät där frågorna var utformade efter Flow-teorin.</p><p>Vi kom fram till att vissa av Nielsens kriterier inte behövde omformuleras men ett av dem kompletterades för att passa för Flow. Vi har även identifierat en brist i HCI-kriterierna och därför tillfört ytterligare ett kriterie som vi anser behövs för att underlätta för Flow.</p> / <p>Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is about developing products with good usability. Usability means that systems should be easy to use and learn. Jakob Nielsen is a well renowned scientist when it comes to guidelines and how these should be reached. He has developed ten guidelines for designers to accomplish good usability.</p><p>In recent years scientists have started to look at, not only the technical aspects, but also the emotions that the user can have during the interaction with a website. Several scientists have developed theories regarding the concept of Flow. This is about the emotions that occur when someone is using a computer. Such emotions can be a lost sense of time, control and peacefulness which results in the user remaining on the webpage during a long period of time. The time a customer remains on a webpage is crucial to a company that is selling products or services and therefore designing with Flow in mind can be an advantage towards companies that has not done this.</p><p>Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi is a scientist in psychology and was the one that first came up with the theory about Flow. He first presented it fifteen years ago and the research he made to come up with the theory was to study people that spent a lot of time and energy on activities that did not give them any financial gain but only great satisfaction. Csikszentmihalyi is today a prominent figure in Flow-theory and we have in this essay used a lot of his theories or other scientist’s theories based on his research.</p><p>Our research questions in this thesis are about evaluating Nielsen’s ten guidelines for good usability. Our purpose is to evaluate and possibly develop these guidelines.</p><p>We evaluated Aftonbladet´s website using the ten guidelines. Thereafter a group of respondents were asked to answer our survey where the questions were based on the Flow theory.</p><p>Our conclusion was that several of Nielsen’s guidelines did not need to be reformulated, but one of them however was further developed to also include Flow. We have also identified a gap in the HCI guidelines and therefore added another guideline ourselves that we feel is needed to ease the ability of Flow.</p>

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The size of a mobile device is primarily determined by the size of the touchscreen. As such, researchers have found that the way to achieve ultimate mobility is to abandon the screen altogether. These wearable devices are operated using hand gestures, voice commands or a small number of physical buttons. By abandoning the screen these devices also abandon the currently dominant spatial interaction style (such as tapping on buttons), because, seemingly, there is nothing to tap on. Unfortunately this design prevents users from transferring their learned interaction knowledge gained from traditional touchscreen-based devices. In this dissertation, I present Imaginary Interfaces, which return spatial interaction to screenless mobile devices. With these interfaces, users point and draw in the empty space in front of them or on the palm of their hands. While they cannot see the results of their interaction, they obtain some visual and tactile feedback by watching and feeling their hands interact. After introducing the concept of Imaginary Interfaces, I present two hardware prototypes that showcase two different forms of interaction with an imaginary interface, each with its own advantages: mid-air imaginary interfaces can be large and expressive, while palm-based imaginary interfaces offer an abundance of tactile features that encourage learning. Given that imaginary interfaces offer no visual output, one of the key challenges is to enable users to discover the interface's layout. This dissertation offers three main solutions: offline learning with coordinates, browsing with audio feedback and learning by transfer. The latter I demonstrate with the Imaginary Phone, a palm-based imaginary interface that mimics the layout of a physical mobile phone that users are already familiar with. Although these designs enable interaction with Imaginary Interfaces, they tell us little about why this interaction is possible. In the final part of this dissertation, I present an exploration into which human perceptual abilities are used when interacting with a palm-based imaginary interface and how much each accounts for performance with the interface. These findings deepen our understanding of Imaginary Interfaces and suggest that palm-based Imaginary Interfaces can enable stand-alone eyes-free use for many applications, including interfaces for visually impaired users. / Die Größe mobiler Geräte ist vornehmlich bestimmt durch die Größe des Berührungsbildschirms. Forscher haben daher erkannt, dass der Weg zur äußersten Mobilität in der kompletten Aufgabe des Bildschirms liegt. Solche tragbaren Geräte werden durch Handgesten, Sprachbefehle oder eine kleine Anzahl physikalischer Tasten gesteuert. Mit der Aufgabe des Bildschirms geben diese Geräte allerdings auch den momentan weitverbreiteten Stil räumlicher Interaktion auf (zum Beispiel das Betätigen von Tasten), da scheinbar nichts existiert, das man betätigen kann. Leider verhindert diese Entwicklung, dass Benutzer Interaktionswissen, welches sie sich auf herkömmlichen berührungsempflindlichen Geräten angeeignet haben, anwenden können. In dieser Doktorarbeit stelle ich Imaginary Interfaces vor, imaginäre Benutzerschnittstellen, die räumliche Interaktionen auf bildschirmlosen mobilen Geräten ermöglichen. Diese Schnittstellen erlauben Benutzern, im leeren Raum vor ihnen oder auf ihren Handfläche zu zeigen und zu zeichnen. Zwar können Benutzer die Ergebnisse ihrer Interaktion nicht sehen, sie erhalten jedoch visuelle und taktile Rückmeldung dadurch, dass sie ihre Hände während der Interaktion beobachten und fühlen. Nach der Einführung des Imaginary Interfaces Konzepts stelle ich zwei Hardware-Prototypen vor, die zwei verschiedene Arten von Interaktionen mit Imaginary Interfaces demonstrieren, jeweils mit ihren eigenen Vorteilen: Imaginary Interfaces in der Luft können groß und ausdrucksstark sein, während Imaginary Interfaces basierend auf Handflächen eine Fülle von taktilen Merkmalen aufweisen, die das Erlernen unterstützen. Die fehlende visuelle Ausgabe führt zu einer der Hauptherausforderungen von Imaginary Interfaces, nämlich Benutzern zu ermöglichen, die Anordnung der Benutzerschnittstellen herauszufinden. Diese Doktorarbeit stellt drei Lösungen vor: vorheriges Lernen mit Koordinaten, Durchsuchen mit Tonrückmeldung und Lernen durch Transfer. Letztere demonstriere ich mit Imaginary Phone, einem Imaginary Interface basierend auf Handflächen, das die den Benutzern schon vertraute Anordnung eines physikalischen Mobiltelefons imitiert. Obwohl diese Lösungen die Interaktion mit Imaginary Interfaces ermöglichen, können sie keine Aussage darüber treffen, warum eine solche Interaktion möglich ist. Im letzten Teil dieser Doktorarbeit untersuche ich, welche menschlichen Wahrnehmungsfähigkeiten während der Interaktion mit Imaginary Interface basierend auf Handflächen genutzt werden und zu welchem Ausmaß jede dieser Wahrnehmungsfähigkeiten zur Effizienz bei der Benutzung beiträgt. Diese Ergebnisse vertiefen unser Verständnis von Imaginary Interfaces und legen nahe, dass Imaginary Interfaces basierend auf Handflächen die eigenständige und blickfreie Benutzung von vielen Anwendungen ermöglichen können, eingeschlossen Benutzerschnittstellen für sehbehinderte Benutzer.

In recent years, learning technology has become a very important addition to the toolkit of instructors at any level of education and training. Not only offered as a substitute in distance education, but often complementing traditional delivery methods, e-learning is considered an important component of modern pedagogy. Particularly in the last decade, learning technology has seen a very rapid growth following the large-scale development and deployment of e-learning financed by both Governments and commercial enterprises. These turned e-learning into one of the most profitable sectors of the new century, especially in recession times when education and retraining have become even more important and a need to maximise resources is forced by the need for savings. Interestingly, however, evaluation of e-learning has been primarily based on the consideration of users’ satisfaction and usability metrics (i.e. system engineering perspective) or on the outcomes of learning (i.e. gains in grades/task performance). Both of these are too narrow to provide a reliable effect of the real impact of learning technology on the learning processes and lead to inconsistent findings. The key purpose of this thesis is to propose a novel, data-driven framework and methodology to understand the effect of e-learning by evaluating the utility and effectiveness of e-learning systems in the context of higher education, and specifically, in the teaching of psychology courses. The concept of learning is limited to its relevance for students’ learning in courses taught using a mixture of traditional methods and online tools tailored to enhance teaching. The scope of elearning is intended in a blended method of delivery of teaching. A large sample of over 2000 students taking psychology courses in year 1 and year 2 was considered over a span of 5 five years, also providing the scope for the analysis of some longitudinal sub-samples. The analysis is accomplished using a psychologically grounded approach to evaluation, partially informed by a cognitive/ behavioural perspective (online usage) and a differential perspective (measures of cognitive and learning styles). Relations between behaviours, styles and academic performance are also considered, giving an insight and a direct comparison with existing literature. The methodology adopted draws heavily from data mining techniques to provide a rich characterisation of students/users in this particular context from the combination of three types of metrics: cognitive and learning styles, online usage and academic performance. Four different instruments are used to characterise styles: ASSIST (Approaches to learning, Entwistle), CSI (Cognitive Styles Inventory, Allinson & Hayes), TSI (Thinking Styles Inventory and the mental self-government theory, Sternberg) and VICS-WA (Verbal/Imager and Wholistc/Analytic Cognitive style, Riding, Peterson) which were intentionally selected to provide a varied set of tools. Online usage, spanning over the entire academic year for each student, is analysed applying web usage mining (WUM) techniques and is observed through different layers of interpretation accounting for behaviours from the single clicks to a student’s intentions in a single session. Academic performance was collated from the students’ records giving an insight in the end-of-year grades, but also into specific coursework submissions during the whole academic year allowing for a temporal matching of online use and assessment. The varied metrics used and data mining techniques applied provide a novel evaluation framework based on a rich profile of the learner, which in turn offers a valuable alternative to regression methods as a mean to interpret relations between metrics. Patterns emerging from styles and the way online material is used over time, proved to be valuable in discriminating differences in academic performance and useful in this context to identify significant group differences in both usage and academic performance. As a result, the understanding of the relations between e-learning usage, styles and academic performance has important practical implications to enhance students’ learning experience, in the automation of learning systems and to inform policymakers of the effects of learning technology has from a user and learner-centred approach to learning and studying. The success of the application of data mining methods offers an excellent starting point to explore further a data-driven approach to evaluation, support informed design processes of e-learning and to deliver suitable interventions to ensure better learning outcomes and provide an efficient system for institutions and organization to maximise the impact of learning technology for teaching and training.

In light of the massive growth of creation and consumption of video, in this thesis I explore the concept of user-enhanced video browsing and evaluate the quantitative and qualitative effects of this approach. For this purpose, I create a unique prototype based on the VLC media player. The player interprets user-generated video tagging and annotations in my designed format, and allows the viewing of multiple event layers to create a personalized video playback. I perform evaluations in two user studies for this work. Among my observations I find benefits in navigation, personalization, consumption, and comprehension. I then look at the way viewers behave when contributing data of annotations and tagging. I find their preferred tasks, their perceived quality of other contributions, as well as their opinions on this system. I conclude with a discussion of the results and list possible use-cases for this concept.

Technology evolves quickly, with innovative ideas growing everywhere. Still, no technology is anywhere near challenging the mouse and keyboard for navigation of your standard computer. This study focuses on comparing the traditional technologies of mouse and keyboard with the new technology of gestures - in this case Leap Motion - in purpose of finding how the usage differs and what the potential users want from the competing technology. The experiment was executed in a controlled environment, with as few external factors as possible. We found that although the test subjects found Leap Motion fun, the test subjects do not want to surf the web with gestures. Comparing the efficiency of use, mouse and keyboard took much less time, although this was expected due to experience with the traditional technology. The test subjects proposed Leap Motion to be used for playing games, 3D-modelling and for people with disabilities. Our conclusion, however, was that this technology could be successfully used in everything from hospitals to the industry, or in public places where it is important not to spread infections. We also discuss the pros and cons of Leap Motion in comparison with other gestural technologies.

With the rise of mobile computing and an ever-growing variety of ubiquitous sensors, computers are becoming increasingly context-aware. A revolutionary step in this process that has seen much progress will be user-awareness: the ability of a computing device to infer its user's emotions. This research project attempts to study the effectiveness of enabling a computer to adapt its visual interface to counter user frustration. A two-group experiment was designed to engage participants in a goal-oriented task disguised as a simple usability study with a performance incentive. Five frustrating stimuli were triggered throughout a single 15-minute task in the form of complete system unresponsiveness or delay. An algorithm was implemented to attempt to detect sudden rises in user arousal measured via a skin conductance sensor. Following a successful detection, or otherwise a maximum of a 10-second delay, the application resumed responsiveness. In the control condition, participants were exposed to a “please wait” pop-up near the end of the delay whereas those in the adaption condition were exposed to an additional visual transition to a user interface with calming colours and larger touch targets. This proposed adaptive condition was hypothesized to reduce the recovery time associated with the frustration response. The experiment was successfully able to induce frustration (via measurable skin conductance responses) in the majority of trials. The mean recovery half-time of participants in the first trial adaptive condition was significantly longer than that of the control. This was attributed to a possibility of a large chromatic difference between the adaptive and control colour schemes, habituation and prediction, causal association of adaptation to the frustrating stimulus, as well as insufficient subtlety in the transition and visual look of the adaptive interface. The study produced findings and guidelines that will be crucial in the future design of adaptive affective user interfaces.

With the emergence of flexible display technologies, graphical user interfaces will no longer be limited to flat surfaces. As such, it will become necessary for interface designers to move beyond flat display designs, contextualizing interaction in an object’s physical shape. Grounded in early explorations of Organic User Interfaces (OUIs), this thesis examines the evolving relationship between industrial and interaction design and argues that not only what, but how we design is changing. To understand how to better design OUIs, we report on an empirical study of pointing behavior that shows how Fitts’ law can model movement time on an extremely convex surface. We also show that touch sensing technology can be repurposed for the OUI design process by making it possible to tape, draw, or paint touch sensing directly on a physical prototype. We then discuss how supporting sketching, a fundamental activity of many design fields, is increasingly critical for the interactive three-dimensional forms in OUI and that a ‘hypercontextualized’ approach to their design can reduce the drawbacks met when everyday objects become interactive. Finally, we discuss that when interactive hardware is seamlessly melded into an object’s shape, the ‘computer’ disappears. When designing OUIs, it is better seen as a basic material, like the clay, foam core, or plastics used by an industrial designer, and one that happens to have interactive potential. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-23 12:00:08.953

L'envelliment de la població i la importància de les TIC a la societat actual han motivat la necessitat d'integrar més a les persones grans en la interacció persona-ordinador. La investigació actual es centra en factors individuals de l'envelliment i l'aproximació més generalitzada és dissenyar interfícies considerant les persones grans com a conjunt de factors. Aquesta tesi doctoral planteja un paradigma diferent: de factors a persones grans com a actors. En aquest paradigma, prestar atenció als canvis en capacitats funcionals no és l'únic que importa, cal que interacció i ús real estiguin més fortament relacionats. En aquest marc, aquesta tesi presenta els resultats d'un treball etnogràfic extens sobre el correu electrònic i la web. Mètodes quantitatius i mixtes s'han utilitzat en altres aspectes, que recolzen aquest estudi de camp. Altres capítols presenten contribucions metodològiques en avaluació en entorns reals. La tesi acaba proposant estratègies per a investigar amb persones grans com a actors socials, insistint en considerar l'experiència de vida de la gent gran i estudiar més l'ús i les interaccions en entorns reals combinant etnografia i treball més experimental. / El envejecimiento de la población y la importancia de las TIC en la sociedad actual han motivado la necesidad de integrar más a las personas mayores en la interacción persona-ordenador. La investigación actual se centra en factores individuales del envejecimiento y la aproximación más generalizada es diseñar interfaces considerando a las personas mayores como un conjunto de factores. Esta tesis doctoral plantea un paradigma diferente: de factores a personas mayores como actores. En este paradigma, prestar atención a los cambios en capacidades funcionales no es lo único que importa, sino que interacción y uso real deberían estar más fuertemente relacionados. En este marco, esta tesis presenta los resultados de un trabajo etnográfico extenso sobre el correo electrónico y la web. Métodos cuantitativos y mixtos se han utilizado en otros aspectos, que apoyan este estudio de campo. Otros capítulos presentan contribuciones metodológicas en evaluación en entornos reales. La tesis acaba proponiendo estrategias para investigar con personas mayores como actores sociales, insistiendo en considerar la experiencia de vida de la gente mayor y estudiar más el uso y las interacciones en entornos reales combinando etnografía y trabajo más experimental. / Population ageing and the role of computers in current society have created a need to strengthen HCI with older people. The current paradigm considers them as a set of factors and central to it is compensation for age-related changes in functional abilities. This dissertation proposes a different paradigm: from factors towards interaction based on older people as social actors. Within this paradigm, compensating for diminishing abilities is not the cornerstone of research. Instead, interaction and real-life use should be closely intertwined. Against this framework, the thesis presents the results of an extensive ethnographic work on e-mail and web use. Quantitative and mixed methods are employed in other aspects related to use and interaction which complement this major study. Other chapters include methodological contributions to real-life evaluation. The dissertation discusses strategies for approaching HCI with older people. Central to them is the concept of life experience and the need to turn to everyday interactions by combining classical ethnography with experimentations.

abstract: Strong communities are important for society. One of the most important community builders, making friends, is poorly supported online. Dating sites support it but in romantic contexts. Other major social networks seem not to encourage it because either their purpose isn't compatible with introducing strangers or the prevalent methods of introduction aren't effective enough to merit use over real word alternatives. This paper presents a novel digital social network emphasizing creating friendships. Research has shown video chat communication can reach in-person levels of trust; coupled with a game environment to ease the discomfort people often have interacting with strangers and a recommendation engine, Zazzer, the presented system, allows people to meet and get to know each other in a manner much more true to real life than traditional methods. Its network also allows players to continue to communicate afterwards. The evaluation looks at real world use, measuring the frequency with which players choose the video chat game versus alternative, more traditional methods of online introduction. It also looks at interactions after the initial meeting to discover how effective video chat games are in creating sticky social connections. After initial use it became apparent a critical mass of users would be necessary to draw strong conclusions, however the collected data seemed to give preliminary support to the idea that video chat games are more effective than traditional ways of meeting online in creating new relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2011