The Cognitive Dimensions of Notations (CDs) is an evaluation framework consisting of a set of heuristics meant to be used as discussion tools for usability evaluation of notational systems. Programming languages and frameworks are examples of notational systems, and the development of new such languages and frameworks could improve by analysing the properties with CDs. However, the CDs framework has been criticized for not truly being a scientific method as well as being unfit to be used in certain specific research fields, even though the general nature of the framework allows for it. In this paper, the CDs are applied to evaluate SwiftUI, a declarative user interface framework for iOS. The possibilities and limitations of CD is discussed in relation to this CD example, as well as previous criticism and other evaluation frameworks. The paper concludes with visions for the future of the CDs framework. / Cognitive Dimensions of Notations (CDs) är ett utvärderingsramverk bestående av ett flertal heuristiker vars syfte är att användas som diskussionsverktyg vid användarbarhetsutvärderingar av notationssystem. Utvecklingen av nya notationssystem, exemplevis nya programmeringsspråk och ramverk, kan förbättras genom att använda CDs för att analysera dess egenskaper. Kritik har dock riktats mot CDs i att metoden inte är vetenskaplig nog samt att den inte är applicerbar på vissa specifika forskningsområden trots utvärderingsramverkets breda användningsområde. I denna masteruppsats används CDs för att utvärdera SwiftUI, ett deklarativt ramverk för att skapa användargränssnitt på iOS. Möjligheter och begränsningar av att använda CDs i detta syfte diskuteras tillsammans med föregående kritik och relaterade utvärderingsramverk. Avslutningsvis diskuteras framtida möjligheter för CDs.

Historical empathy as a didactic tool in teaching about the Holocaust: A qualitative study on history teachers' didactic design of Holocaust education and challenges they see in relation to this teaching.  The author of the study, which includes 44 pages, is Marcus Johannesson. The survey is aimed at teaching about the Holocaust in a Swedish school context. It was carried out against the background of research that has highlighted that students have difficulties in understanding the Holocaust and its circumstances. Considering this, the aim is to contribute with increased knowledge about how teachers handle teaching about the Holocaust and how they believe that such teaching should be designed to develop students' learning. Furthermore, the aim is to investigate what challenges teachers see in relation to teaching about the Holocaust, as well as how historical empathy as a didactic tool can be helpful for history teachers in their teaching. Another aspect that is important for teachers' teaching about the Holocaust is that anti-Semitic expressions are increasing in society. This is because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The theory that is therefore applied in this study is Jason Endacott's definition of historical empathy, namely a concept that contains the three aspects of historical context, perspective taking and emotional attachment. The conclusion is that the interviewed teachers' design of Holocaust education to varying extents contains the three aspects of historical empathy, which can improve students' opportunities to understand and learn about the genocide. More conclusions are that the teaching needs to be adapted depending on the student group due to social development, that myths and misconceptions about the Holocaust occur in the respondents' classrooms and that historical empathy as a didactic tool can be helpful for current and future history teachers.

The subject of iterative prototyping with data is still in its infancy and problems arise when people with low programming skills aim to build a full-stack interactive web application on their own. This research attempts to evaluate how providing a framework with predefined notations and data structures can improve this process for novice developers. The work consists of an initial reimplementation of a model website and the evaluation of study participants with little experience in the frontend development field through the application of the Cognitive Dimensions and the Think-aloud methods. We have found that by eliminating the requirement of dealing with back-end queries through the offering of such a framework, the process of designing an interactive web application can be facilitated and hastened. There are, nevertheless, some improvements that can be made to further refine their programming experience. / Ämnet kring att framställa iterativa prototyper med data är fortfarande i sin begynnelse och problem uppstår när personer med låg kunskap i programmering har som mål att bygga en full-stack interaktiv webbapplikation. Denna forskning utvärderar hur utvecklingsprocessen kan förbättras för nya utvecklare genom att erbjuda ett ramverk med fördefinierade beteckningar och datastrukturer. Denna studie består av en implementerad modell av en webbapplikation samt utvärdering av studiedeltagare med begränsad erfarenhet inom front-end-utveckling. Utvärderingen gjordes genom användning av ramverket “Cognitive Dimensions” med tillhörande “Think-aloud”-metod. Resultatet visar att genom att eliminera krav för att hantera back-end-anrop har processen att designa en interaktiv webbapplikation kunnat underlättats och påskyndats med hjälp av ett ramverk. Resultatet identifierade även förbättringspunkter som kan implementeras för att vidare underlätta ramverkets programmeringsupplevelse för användare.

Sedentary behavior is linked to numerous adverse effects on a person’s health, such as obesity, depression, and a higher risk of cardiovascular events. Professions that are primarily sedentary have increased due to the growth of office-related occupations, one of which is software engineering. A potential intervention to reduce sedentary behavior is to utilize new interactive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) to change the work context and allow software engineers to interact with their work environment in a more embodied manner. This study has designed and evaluated a visual programming language (VPL) in VR for its potential to reduce sedentary behavior and its compromise on usability. Ten participants solving simple programming tasks using the VPL in VR revealed the potential of reducing continuous sedentary behavior with light physical activity. The main contributor to this activity was the need to walk to and from interactive elements placed a few meters from each other in the design. However, the usability evaluation showed that users modify the environment over time to reduce this distance such that less walking is needed. In contrast, movement induced by navigating to code blocks and getting an overview of the current state of the work had positive marks and a high contribution to the observed movement. Lastly, the second contributor to physical activity was moving blocks around. The usability evaluation indicates that using VR controllers was slower than using a mouse but allowed more precise interactions. / Stillasittande beteende har ett flertal negativa effekter på en persons hälsa, såsom obesitas, depression och en högre risk för kardiovaskulära händelser. Yrken som främst är stillasittande har ökat på grund av tillväxten av yrken som är kontorsbaserade, till exempel mjukvaruutveckling. Ett potentiellt ingripande för att minska stillasittande beteende är att använda nya interaktiva tekniker, så som virtuell verklighet (VR) för att förändra arbets kontexten och låta mjukvaruingenjörer interagera med sin arbetsmiljö på ett mer förkroppsligat sätt. Denna studie har utvecklat och utvärderat en visuellt programmeringsspråk (VPL) i VR för dess potential att minska stillasittande beteende och dess kompromiss på användbarhet. Tio deltagare som löste enkla programmeringsuppgifter med hjälp av VPL i VR visade potentialen för att bryta upp stillasittande beteende med lätt fysisk aktivitet. Den främsta bidragsgivaren till den observerade aktivitet var behovet av att gå till och från interaktiva element placerade med några meter avstånd från varandra. Utvärderingen visade dock att användare modifierar miljön över tid för att minska detta avstånd så att man behöver gå mindre. Däremot hade rörelser när man behöver navigera till kodblock och få en överblick över arbetet positiva kommentarer och ett högt bidrag till den observerade aktiviteten. Slutligen var aktiviteten att flytta runt block den handling som bidrog näst mest till den observerade fysisk aktivitet. Utvärderingen av användbarheten indikerar att VR-kontroller var långsammare än att använda en mus men tillät mer tillförlitliga interaktioner.

Cross-platform frameworks enable development for multiple platforms, such as iOS and Android, using the same codebase. Evaluation of cross-platform frameworks has traditionally been geared towards technical assessments and, more seldom, targeted usability, leaving a gap to be explored. This paper presents a usability analysis of Flutter and React Native, supported by a user study using the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations framework (CDN framework). Six developers were recruited and interviewed with the CDN framework questionnaire and a thematic analysis was performed where several usability issues, benefits and design trade-offs were identified. A recurring topic amongst the React Native developers was issues regarding hooks, while the Flutter developers unanimously identified problems relating to layout design. React Native was highlighted for its abstraction and progressive evaluation capabilities, indicating an edge toward Flutter. In contrast, comments regarding Flutters tooling capabilities and UI libraries showed an edge towards React Native. The identified usability benefits and trade-off characteristics give insight into each framework’s strengths and weaknesses. / “Cross-platform”-ramverk möjliggör applikationsutveckling till ett flertal plattformar såsom iOS och Android genom användning av samma kodbas. Flutter och React Native är i dagsläget två av de mest eftersökta “cross-platform”-ramverken. Utvärdering av dessa ramverk har vanligtvis utvärderat den tekniska aspekten, och mer sällan fokuserat på användbarhet. Denna masteruppsats presenterar en användbarhetsanalys av Flutter och React Native genom en användarstudie med utgångpunkt i ramverket “Cognitive Dimensions of Notations” (CDN-ramverket). Sex utvecklare rekryterades och intervjuades genom ett formulär tillhörande CDN-ramverket. En tematisk analys genomfördes på den insamlade datan och identifierade ett flertal problem och överväganden gällande design. Ett återkommande tema bland React Native-utvecklarna var problem relaterat till “hooks” medan Flutter-utvecklarna beskrev problem avseende layout-design. React Native mottog positiva kommentarer relaterat till abstraktionkapacitet och progressiv utvärdering jämfört med Flutter. Flutter mottog positiv kritik angående verktyg samt tillhörande UI-bibliotek jämfört med React Native. Utvärderingen av Flutter och React Native ger insyn i respektive ramverks styrkor och svagheter.

Usability aspects of programming languages are often overlooked, yet have a substantial effect on programmer productivity. These issues are even more acute in the field of Inductive Synthesis, where programs are automatically generated from sample expected input and output data, and the programmer needs to be able to comprehend, and confirm or reject the suggested programs. A promising method of Inductive Synthesis, CombInduce, which is particularly suitable for synthesizing recursive programs, is a candidate for improvements in usability as the target language Combilog is not user-friendly. The method requires the target language to be strictly compositional, hence devoid of variables, yet have the expressiveness of definite clause programs. This sets up a challenging problem for establishing a user-friendly but equally expressive target language. Alternatives to Combilog, such as Quine's Predicate-functor Logic and Schönfinkel and Curry's Combinatory Logic also do not offer a practical notation: finding a more usable representation is imperative. This thesis presents two distinct approaches towards more convenient representations which still maintain compositionality. The first is Visual Combilog (VC), a system for visualizing Combilog programs. In this approach Combilog remains as the target language for synthesis, but programs can be read and modified by interacting with the equivalent diagrams instead. VC is implemented as a split-view editor that maintains the equivalent Combilog and VC representations on-the-fly, automatically transforming them as necessary. The second approach is Combilog with Name Projection (CNP), a textual iteration of Combilog that replaces numeric argument positions with argument names. The result is a language where argument names make the notation more readable, yet compositionality is preserved by avoiding variables. Compositionality is demonstrated by implementing CombInduce with CNP as the target language, revealing that programs with the same level of recursive complexity can be synthesized in CNP equally well, and establishing the underlying method of synthesis can also work with CNP. Our evaluations of the user-friendliness of both representations are supported by a range of methods from Information Visualization, Cognitive Modelling, and Human-Computer Interaction. The increased usability of both representations are confirmed by empirical user studies: an often neglected aspect of language design.