The Internet, thirty-three year ago, fighting for recognition into the mainstream market, is being emerged as a single biggest application in the history of last century. Today, vast majority of people use Internet services, specifically, web which is a single most key driver of internet offering services ranging from social networking, VoIP (voice over IP), online gaming, entertainment and other professional services. Due to its rapidly emerging status from a facility to a necessity, Internet is becoming a basic utility in human day to day life. However, together with advancement in terms of bandwidth and usability of Internet services, human psychological behaviors like human patience, consciousness and expectation towards web services are also increasing proportionally. The future Internet paradigm is becoming more and more user centric. Therefore, Quality of experience, which is a process of gauging user subjective experience towards particular service, has its vital importance in future. However in current scenario a missing attribute of QoE is ‘context’ and within context there is human conscious behavior that is change from one instance to another. The aforementioned attribute often neglected by service providers and research community during web QoE (Quality of Experience) in controlled test environment. Due to the fact that Internet is everywhere e.g. at home, office and during mobility, web users activities are not always restricted to particular location and user web consciousness about performance may vary from context to context. The user centric approach in future Internet poses a real challenge to application and service providers towards provision of web services. That meets accordingly with human psychological requirements e.g. user satisfaction, consciousness, emotions etc. The empirical part of the research is to investigate the impact of user environmental and psychological context on user conscious behavior towards web performance. The purpose to quantify up to what extent this can create a significant impact on quality of experience.

Context. Usability work in software engineering is a measure of quality and it contributes to the overall acceptability of systems. However it is also the most neglected process in the software industry. While there are established guidelines and methods in usability, they are not used in the industry to the full extent. Objectives. In this case study I examine the level of usability and usability issues with the context of use in an M-Commerce solution. Also, I address the distance between development and the current and potential expert users of the wallet platform solution. Methods. In this exploratory research, a number of article sources such as IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Springer Link are used. Studies are selected after reading titles, abstracts and keywords, then chosen if relevant to the subject. The methods used in this study were literature review, case study and experiment. Results. A usability test was performed on a specific user interface, in order to detect potential usability issues that might have been overlooked in the development cycle. As an experiment, the test was performed with proxy users and verified with the actual users. A recommendation list based on the test results was produced for possible improvements in the interface. Conclusions. As a conclusion, a modified usability testing method is proposed. Also I conclude that performing usability testing based on the context of use and the ISO 9241-11 standard, brings value to Ericsson’s current and potential customers as well as to the solution itself. The results from the two groups used for testing were very similar and the proxy user group is thus a good alternative to actual users. With the engagement of a team that is working with the customers dispersed over the world, the context of use can be brought to the development department.

När digitala produkter ska utvecklas, egentligen alla typer av produkter, måste dess användbarhet utvecklas av någon behörig i området. Vad som är bra design är dock delvis subjektivt, beroende på bland annat faktorer som tidigare erfarenheter och kunskap. Något som ibland blir bortglömt är de yttre faktorerna som påverkar användbarheten. Det är precis vad kontext handlar om, de faktorer som normalt sett inte faller under användbarhet, utan mer som ett extra tillbehör. Vikten av kontextuell förståelse får dock aldrig underskattas, och det är precis vad den här studien är ämnad för. Vad krävs när ett gränssnitt ska utformas för en kontext som faller långt utanför vanligare kontexter som hemma, kontor eller mobilt? Ett projekt genomförs där målet är att ta fram ett användbart gränssnitt till styrning av undervattensrobotar (förkortas ROV). I studien genomförs datainsamling med hjälp av metoder som kontextuella enkäter, där svarande befinner sig i sin rätta kontext under tiden som de skriver svar på öppna frågor kring deras arbetsuppgifter, fysiska- och sociala miljö. Prototyper skapas och diskuteras med beställaren för att ge insikt i användningsmönster och ge svar på användbarhetsfrågor. Det visar sig vara utmanande att arbeta som ROV-pilot, det kräver stor koncentration och de jobbar i långa pass vilket resulterar i trötta huvuden efter en arbetsdag. Detta ställer stora krav på utformningen att få till de visuella byggstenarna på ett sätt som hjälper piloterna utföra sitt arbete så smidigt som det går. Resultatet blir en visuell prototyp som är anpassad efter analyserad data, tillsammans med välkänd teori inom användbarhet från namn som Alan Cooper och Donald Norman.

This study argues that including aspects of user experience relevant to the user's knowledge of a product's context-of-use in the early stages of product design can enhance the design of product usability. To explore these issues, research was undertaken to respond to three research questions: (i) What aspects of user experience influence people's understanding of product usability? (ii) What is the nature of the differences between users' and designers' understandings of product usability? (iii) How can context-of-use and human experience enhance the design of product usability? Findings from the study have shown that experience, context-of-use and knowledge about a product's usability are interrelated. Conceptual principles and design principles were established based on findings to explain (i) the relationships between aspects of experience and areas of product usability and (ii) differences between designers' and users' concepts of product usability. These principles responded to the first two research questions. Causal relationships found between experience and product usability suggested the need to implement them in an accessible manner for a product design process. A design tool -- named the Experience and Context Enquiry Design Tool (ECEDT) -- was devised to exemplify the implementation of findings. A trial run verified that the type of information that ECEDT brings to designers could assist them to address usability and experience issues during the early stages of the design process. This result responded to the third research question of the study. This study's conceptual principles and design principles contribute new knowledge to design theory and practice. This knowledge contributes to design theory in providing greater detail about the differences between designers and users than that addressed by existing theory; it contributes to design practice as it informs designers about the aspects of human experience that prompt users' understanding of a product's use. In doing so, it can potentially assist in the design of products that embed new technological applications, and support the design of product usability.

En informatique ambiante, les objectifs de l'utilisateur peuvent émerger opportunément. Il devient, dès lors, nécessaire de générer à la volée des systèmes interactifs. Un système interactif est composé d'un noyau fonctionnel et d'une Interface Homme-Machine (IHM). Cette thèse traite de la composition d'IHM pour un objectif utilisateur et un contexte d'usage (utilisateur, plate-forme, environnement) donnés. Elle en propose un espace problème fondé sur les exigences utilisateur recueillies par une étude qualitative. Un état de l'art positionne notre travail et en montre la complémentarité par rapport aux travaux existants : la composition du modèle de tâches. La composition de l'IHM concrète est déléguée à une boîte à outils d'interacteurs définis au niveau tâches. La composition du modèle de tâches se fait par planification automatique. L'étude montre que les planificateurs existants répondent partiellement au problème. Aussi, un planificateur a été spécifiquement développé pour l'IHM. Son utilisation est illustrée dans un prototype Compose. Le travail est original à deux titres : d'une part, son approche « Composition de modèles de tâches » est une extension de la littérature ; d'autre part, la composition d'IHM est un nouveau cadre applicatif pour les algorithmes de planification. / In ubiquitous computing, user needs may opportunistically emerge along the variation of the context of use. Thus, there is a need for dynamically composing interactive systems. An interactive system is made of a functional core and a User Interface (UI). This work deals with the composition of UIs to support opportunistic user needs in a given context of use (user, platform, environment). It proposes a problem space of UI composition based on a social study. A state of the art shows the originality of the work: the composition of the task model. The composition of the concrete UI is delegated to a toolkit of interactors defined at the task level. The composition of the task model is done by automated planning. The work shows that current planners do not fulfill Human Computer Interaction (HCI) requirements. Therefore, a specific planner has been developed to compose UIs. This planner is used in Compose, our proof of concept. The work is original in two points: first, by the high level of abstraction the composition is performed at; secondly, by the use of automated planning in HCI.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of subjective culture on the usability of computerized systems. The results of the experiment did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that any of the tested cultural dimensions affected the usability of the product. Analysis of the results indicated that the differences in scores could have been attributable to variables other than those tested and controlled for. This indicated a need to build a more detailed conceptual model of usability before empirical research of this nature can be effectively conducted. Consequently, further work needed to be done to identify the variables that influence usability, and the strategies for controlling for these variables under experimental conditions. Through a literature investigation, the validity of some of the proposed variables was established, and some additional variables were identified. The valid variables were then incorporated into a conceptual model of usability for use in future research endeavors. / Information systems / M. Sc.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of subjective culture on the usability of computerized systems. The results of the experiment did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that any of the tested cultural dimensions affected the usability of the product. Analysis of the results indicated that the differences in scores could have been attributable to variables other than those tested and controlled for. This indicated a need to build a more detailed conceptual model of usability before empirical research of this nature can be effectively conducted. Consequently, further work needed to be done to identify the variables that influence usability, and the strategies for controlling for these variables under experimental conditions. Through a literature investigation, the validity of some of the proposed variables was established, and some additional variables were identified. The valid variables were then incorporated into a conceptual model of usability for use in future research endeavors. / Information systems / M. Sc.

Dans ce travail, on s’intéresse aux Systèmes d’Aide à la Décision Mobiles qui sont basés sur le processus d’Extraction des Connaissances à partir des Données (SADM/ECD). Nous contribuons non seulement à l'évaluation de ces systèmes, mais aussi à l'évaluation dans le processus d’ECD lui-même. L'approche proposée définit un module de support d'évaluation pour chaque module composant le processus d’ECD en se basant sur des modèles de qualité. Ces modules évaluent non seulement la qualité d'utilisation de chaque module logiciel composant le processus d’ECD, mais aussi d'autres critères qui reflètent les objectifs de chaque module de l’ECD. Notre objectif est d'aider les évaluateurs à détecter des défauts le plus tôt possible pour améliorer la qualité de tous les modules qui constituent un SADM/ECD. Nous avons aussi pris en compte le changement de contexte d'utilisation en raison de la mobilité. De plus, nous avons proposé un système d’aide à l’évaluation, nommé CEVASM : Système d’aide à l’évaluation basée sur le contexte pour les SADM, qui contrôle et mesure tous les facteurs de qualité proposés. Finalement, l'approche que nous proposons est appliquée pour l'évaluation des modules d'un SADM/ECD pour la lutte contre les infections nosocomiales à l'hôpital Habib Bourguiba de Sfax, Tunisie. Lors de l'évaluation, nous nous sommes basés sur le processus d'évaluation ISO/IEC 25040. L'objectif est de pouvoir valider, a priori, l'outil d'évaluation réalisé (CEVASM) et par conséquent, l'approche proposée. / In this work, we are interested in Mobile Decision support systems (MDSS), which are based on the Knowledge Discovery from Data process (MDSS/KDD). Our work is dealing with the evaluation of these systems, but also to the evaluation in the KDD process itself. The proposed approach appends an evaluation support module for each software module composing the KDD process based on quality models. The proposed evaluation support modules allow to evaluate not only the quality in use of each module composing the KDD process, but also other criteria that reflect the objectives of each KDD module. Our main goal is to help evaluators to detect defects as early as possible in order to enhance the quality of all the modules that constitute a MDSS/KDD. We have also presented a context-based method that takes into account the change of context of use due to mobility. In addition, we have proposed an evaluation support system that monitors and measures all the proposed criteria. Furthermore, we present the implementation of the proposed approach. These developments concern mainly the proposed evaluation tool: CEVASM: Context-based EVAluation support System for MDSS. Finally, the proposed approach is applied for the evaluation of the modules of a MDSS/KDD for the fight against nosocomial infections, in Habib Bourguiba hospital in Sfax, Tunisia. For every module in KDD, we are interested with the phase of evaluation. We follow the evaluation process based on the ISO/IEC 25040 standard. The objective is to be able to validate, a priori, the realized evaluation tool (CEVASM) and consequently, the proposed approach.