Graphical User Interface, which is known as GUI, is a way for a person to communicate and interact with a system through icons or other visual indicators. A well designed and intuitive user interface is critical to the success of a system since it encourages a natural interaction between a user and a system, thus conveying information more clearly and efficiently to the user.The aim of this study is to design and develop a user interface that is used in a financial technology company in their credit risk assessment process. The current user interface contains a visualization of an individual credit assessment flow together with a lot of data that is generated in the process. Some of the data is not properly visualized, which leads to confusion among end users.In order to optimize the user experience, a user-centered design approach was used combined with a heuristic evaluation. A new user interface was designed and implemented and according to the heuristic evaluation result, the usability was greatly improved. The new interface is able to help the company to visualize their credit risk assessment process in a better way and facilitate credit officers to make credit decisions. The result could also provide insights to other companies or organizations in presenting their data more clearly and effectively. / Grafiskt användargränssnitt, som även kallas GUI, är ett sätt för en person att kommunicera och interagera med ett system genom ikoner eller andra visuella indikatorer. Ett väl utformat och intuitivt användargränssnitt är avgörande för framgången för ett system, eftersom det uppmuntrar till en naturlig interaktion mellan en användare och ett system och därmed förmedlar information tydligare och effektivare till användaren.Syftet med denna studie är att designa och utveckla ett användargränssnitt som används i ett finansiellt teknikföretag i deras kreditriskbedömningsprocess. Det nuvarande användargränssnittet innehåller en visualisering av ett individuellt kreditbedömningsflöde tillsammans med mycket data som genereras i processen. En del av data är inte korrekt visualiserade, vilket leder till förvirring bland slutanvändare.För att optimera användarupplevelsen användes en användarcentrerad designmetod i kombination med en heuristisk utvärdering. Ett nytt användargränssnitt designades och implementerades och enligt det heuristiska utvärderingsresultatet förbättrades användbarheten kraftigt. Det nya gränssnittet kan hjälpa företaget att visualisera sin kreditriskbedömningsprocess på ett bättre sätt och underlätta kreditansvariga att fatta kreditbeslut. Resultatet kan också ge andra företag eller organisationer insikter om att presentera sina uppgifter tydligare och mer effektivt.

Highly stressful situations have a prominent influence on the human psyche and it is crucial to take this into account when designing and evaluating software used predominantly in nerve wrecking situations. Lack of principles for design and evaluation of design of emergency handling software programs allows for graphic interface solutions that leave room for mistakes and slips in an environment where making an error can have catastrophic consequences. The study proposes a table of principles for evaluation and (re)design of user interface of programs used in highly stressful situations. The principles are grouped based on the human capability hindered by stress. Said principles were evaluated with the help of a case study on a tool for decision support (RASTEP) when facing a nuclear emergency. Statements on usability issues with RASTEP were collected through open group interviews and participant observation and pattern matched with proposed principles. Result of the pattern matching showed the disposition of usability issues per hindered capability following the same pattern as the one of the principles. Furthermore, all but one collected statement were identified as belonging to a group of hindered capabilities and were identified as violating at least one of the proposed principles. This points to the table of principles being able to serve as a tool in evaluating usability of graphic user interface of an existing emergency handling software and identifying its usability issues. / Mycket stressiga situationer kan ha en betydande påverkan på det mänskliga psyket, och det är avgörande att ta hänsyn till när man skapar och utvärderar mjukvara som främst används i pressade situationer. Brist på principer för utvärdering av design av nödhanteringsprogram möjliggör gränssnittslösningar som kan ge upphov till misstag i en miljö där felsteg kan ha katastrofala konsekvenser. Studien föreslår en tabell med principer för utvärdering och (re)design av användargränssnitt för program som används i mycket stressande situationer. Principerna är grupperade efter mänskliga förmågor som hindras av stress. Nämnda principer utvärderades genom en fallstudie av ett verktyg för beslutsstöd (RASTEP) vid kärnkraftsolycka. Vittnesmål om användbarhetsproblem med RASTEP insamlades genom öppna gruppintervjuer och deltagande observation (participant observation), och patternmatchades med de föreslagna principerna. Resultatet av patternmatchningen visade att fördelningen av användbarhetsproblem per hindrad förmåga följde samma mönster som fördelningen av principerna. Dessutom identifierades alla insamlade vittnesmål utom ett tillhöra en grupp av hindrade förmågor och identifierades bryta mot åtminstone en av de föreslagna principerna. Detta tyder på att tabellen med principerna kan användas som ett verktyg för att utvärdera användbarheten av gränssnitt hos ett befintligt nödhanteringsprogram och identifiera dess användbarhetsproblem.

To ensure that the web applications we use in our daily life work as intended, thorough testing is essential. Testing of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) is one of the more challenging parts of software testing and is often a manual process. There are several ways to automate GUI testing. Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a recent technology where a software robot mimics the actions of a human operator, has been suggested as a method of improving automated GUI testing. This thesis study investigates the viability of using an RPA-based approach for automated GUI testing of web applications by evaluating how well it compares to a dedicated software tool developed specifically for automated GUI testing in terms of performance and user experience. This thesis study presents an RPA-based approach using UiPath for testing the GUI of web applications and compares it with an approach using Selenium IDE. To compare the two approaches, a web application provided by Sellpy is used as the application under test. A set of test cases is created based on a user-flow analysis. The test cases are implemented using each approach and performance in terms of execution time, number of flaky tests, and code footprint is evaluated for each approach. In addition, a user study is conducted to evaluate and compare the user experience when using each approach. The results show that an RPA-based approach can be used for automated GUI testing of web applications. The RPA-based approach managed to achieve the same amount of testing coverage. In terms of performance, the results in this study show that the approach using Selenium IDE outperforms the RPA- based approach in both execution time and code footprint. On the other hand, the RPA-based approach had fewer number of flaky tests. The test subjects preferred the RPA-based approach, but the study showed that the difference was not statistically significant. Based on the results, we draw the conclusion that an RPA-based approach using UiPath can be used in automated GUI testing of web applications. However, we suggest more research aimed at investigating long-term usage. / För att säkerställa att de webbapplikationer vi använder i vårt dagliga liv fungerar som planerat är ordentlig testning nödvändig. Testning av det grafiska användargränssnittet (GUI) är en av de mer utmanande delarna inom mjukvarutestning och är ofta en manuell process. Det finns dock sätt att automatisera denna process. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) är en ny teknik där en mjukvarurobot härmar mänskligt beteende och har föreslagits som en metod att förbättra automatiserad GUI-testning. Denna studie undersöker hur väl ett RPA-baserat tillvägagångssätt kan användas för automatiserad GUI-testning av webbapplikationer genom att jämföra den med ett programvaruverktyg som utvecklats specifikt för automatiserad GUI-testning. Jämförelsen sker genom att undersöka exekveringstid, antal odeterministiska tester och storleken av testfilerna. Denna studie redogör ett RPA-baserat tillvägagångssätt där UiPath används och jämför den med ett tillvägagångssätt där Selenium IDE används. För att jämföra det två tillvägagångssätten används en webbapplikation som tillhandahålls av Sellpy och används som applikation-under-test (AUT). En användarflödesanalys utförs och resultatet används för att skapa en uppsättning testfall. Testfallen implementeras med de båda tillvägagångssätten och en prestandaanalys genomförs, där exekveringstid, antal odeterministiska tester och filstorlek undersöks. Dessutom genomförs en användarstudie för att undersöka och jämföra tillvägagångssättens användarupplevelse. Resultaten visar att ett RPA-baserat tillvägagångssätt kan användas för automatiserad GUI-testning av webbapplikationer. Den RPA-baserade metoden lyckades uppnå samma testtäckning. Vad gäller prestanda så visar resultaten i denna studie att Selenium IDE presterar bättre än UiPath både när det gäller exekveringstid och filstorlek. Däremot hade UiPath färre odeterministiska tester. Användarstudien visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan de två tillvägagångssätten, men testpersonerna föredrog det RPA-baserade tillvägagångssättet. Baserat på resultaten från denna studie drar vi slutsatsen att ett RPA-baserat tillvägagångssätt med UiPath kan användas som ett alternativ vid automatiserad GUI-testning av webbapplikationer. Vi föreslår dock mer forskning där långsiktig användning undersöks.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Gurdip Singh / TinyOS is a component based operating system written in nesC programming language. TinyOS provides interfaces and components for common low level abstractions such as packet communication, routing and sensing for node level sensor network application programming. This project aims to provide high level abstractions to users by providing the notion of a virtual node, which represents a set of physical nodes, allowing users to specify global scenarios, and a mechanism to decompose a high level global scenario into local node level scenarios for each of the individual sensor nodes. A global scenario with virtual components, provided by the user, is first converted into a global scenario by eliminating the virtual components from the model by using a mapping information provided the user and replacing these virtual components by their respective physical components. Appropriate algorithm components and the automatically generated adapter components for these algorithm components are then plugged-in to implement inter-node interactions. This global scenario is then converted to the node level local scenarios by introducing the automatically generated proxy components for the remote components and connecting these proxy components using the RMI layer. The Cadena model is modified to include the attribute location for the components to identify the remote components. The make files are then generated for these local scenarios and are ready to be deployed on the physical motes. The framework provides a GUI tool which is used to visualize the data of the sensor network in both simulation and deployment. The framework provides the user with commands that can be issued to the network from the Cadena component model as a set of interfaces to the components and a python script is used to capture this information in an xml file. The Cadena model is modified to include the attribute observable to the interfaces to identify them as the GUI commands. The GUI loads this XML file and the topology file for the actual deployment, can issue commands to the network and displays the results to the user. The GUI tool also enhances the Tossim simulator to model the external effects over the sensor network and to place the motes based on the topology information using the Tython environment.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Alley Stoughton / Forlan is a computer toolset for experimenting with formal languages. Forlan is implemented as a set of Standard ML (a functional programming language) modules. Forlan presently includes a tool named ‘JFA’ (Java Finite Automata Editor) which is a Java GUI tool for creating and editing ‘Finite Automata’ and a tool named ’JTR’ (Java Trees Graphical Editor) which is used for creating and editing ‘Parse Trees’ or ’Regular Expression Trees’. The JForlan tool is an attempt to unify the ‘JFA’ and the ‘JTR’ tools into one single tool so as to make it more robust, efficient and easy to use. Apart from integrating the tools a lot more functionality like creating and editing ‘Regular Expression Finite Automata’ and ’Program Trees’ (special kinds of Forlan trees which are used to represent Programs in Forlan) has been added to the tool which were not present in the ‘JFA’ and the ‘JTR’ tools. As the ‘Automata’ and the ‘Trees’ are closely related concepts it is highly beneficial to combine the tools into one single tool. The JForlan tool can be invoked either from Forlan or can be run as a standalone Application. Due to the integration of the ‘JFA’ and the ‘JTR’ tools the user can now view the regular expression which was entered as a transition label in the ‘Automata’ mode as a tree structure in the ‘Tree’ mode. Another important feature which is added to the tool is that during the creation of the trees the user need not follow the top down approach only (i.e. creating first the root and then adding children to it) but can create the nodes of the tree in any order the user wishes. An important feature of the tool is that after drawing the necessary automaton or tree the user can save it directly as an ‘image’ or a JForlan project or can select the option of saving it in Forlan syntax, which translates the figures drawn into the Forlan code automatically. The main purpose of developing this tool is to provide a user friendly, easy to use tool which would be ideal for students as educational software which would help them to learn and understand the basic concepts of automata and tree structure.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / PC technology has progressed to the point that it can very effectively support commercial geostationary spacecraft design, manufacture, test, launch, ground station, and on-orbit mission control activities. Many of the manufacturers that provide VME spacecraft test hardware and software are now providing the same functions and performance for the PC. A PC workstation equipped with single and multiple Pentium processors and Windows NT software can support single and multiple uplinks/downlinks and provide client/server capabilities that perform traditional UNIX client/server operations. Such a PC workstation can provide the functionality, features, and performance necessary for commercial spacecraft board-level test, unit-level test, subsystem-level test, spacecraft bus and payload integration, and ground station monitoring and control, as well as on-orbit mission control activities.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / There is a wave of change coming. It started in the industrial automation community and it is slowly and surely working its way into aerospace, satellite and telemetry applications. It’s called the PC, and its not just for simple quick-look data anymore. Using state-of-the-art commercial hardware and software technologies, PC-based architectures can now be used to perform self contained, reliable and high performance telemetry data acquisition and processing functions – previously the domain of expensive, dedicated front end systems. This paper will discuss many of the key enabling technologies and will provide examples of their use in a truly next generation system architecture based on the Microsoft® Windows NT Operating System and related features.

Šio darbo tikslas yra sukurti metodą, kuris teiktų galimybę kuo didesnę vartotojo sąsajos dalį apibrėžti deklaratyviai (komponentų kūrimas, įvykių klausytojų registravimas, komponentų tarpusavio sąryšių apibrėžimas ir vizualus komponentų išdėstymas languose). Darbe išanalizuotos įvairios komponentinės architektūros bei išraiškingą vartotojo sąsajos apibrėžimą įgalinantys sprendimai. Apibrėžta ir įgyvendinta architektūra leidžianti kurti deklaratyviai apibrėžiamus vartotojo sąsajos komponentus, kurie deklaruoja savo elgesį ir gali bendrauti tarpusavyje pranešimų pagalba. Rezultate buvo sukurta sistema, kuri leidžia kurti taikomąsias programas su Java Swing vartotojo sąsaja, naudojantis beveik vien tik deklaratyviais taikomosios programos dalių apibrėžimais. Sukurtos sistemos konfigūracijos galimybės leidžia sumažinti komponentų manipuliacijai skirto Java kodo poreikį. / A part of a user interface can be created using declarative means. The main goal of this paper is to maximize that portion. To do that, said means would be used to create components, register event listeners, describe relationships between components and layout them in windows. Various component-based architectures and existing solutions for declarative user interface definition were analyzed. As a result, an architecture was defined which allows user interface components to be created using a declarative approach. These components define their behavior and use messages to communicate with each other. The outcome was a system, which can create Java Swing applications using mostly declarative definitions of various parts of said applications. This system provides various configuration options that reduce the need of writing Java code for component manipulation.

The main objective of the research described in this thesis was to investigate and understand the origins of culturally-determined usability problems in the context of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to develop a method for treating this issue, when designing systems intended to be shared by culturally-heterogeneous user groups, such as Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) systems and the Internet. The resulting approach supports HCI designers by providing an alternative to internationalisation and localisation guidelines, which are inappropriate for tackling culturally-determined usability problems in the context of shared-systems. The research also sought to apply and test the developed approach in order to assess its efficacy and to modify or improve it accordingly.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Due to the rapid advancement of technology in GUI design tools within Microsoft Windows™, a sophisticated human-machine interface can be developed for telemetry systems. A PC Windows™-based telemetry system would effectively provide a "bridge" between the telemetry world and the Windows™ world, bringing many low cost off-the-shelf software and hardware tools into the telemetry realm that has been unprecedented. This paper describes the results of such an approach in the development of Loral's Visual Telemetry System (VTS) software.