Denna studie ämnar undersöka användarupplevelse i digitala miljöer med inriktning engagemang inom digitala sociala nätverk. Studien syftar till att ge en fördjupad förståelse kring området användarupplevelse inom hedoniska motivationssystem (HMS) med fokus på vad som skapar engagemang inom digitala sociala nätverk. Som ett hjälpmedel att på ett strukturerat sätt förklara användarupplevelser och hur engagemang uppkommer har det teoretiska ramverket Hedonic-motivation System Adoption Model, HMSAM, applicerats. De begrepp som användes var användarvänlighet, upplevd användarnytta, nyfikenhet, glädje, kontroll och fördjupat engagemang. För att bättre förstå begreppet fördjupat engagemang har även flow-teorin fungerat som teoretisk bas. Då studien syftade till att ge en fördjupad förståelse kring ett fenomen har dess ansats varit kvalitativ där semi-strukturerade intervjuer använts som datainsamlingsmetod. En innehållsanalys kopplat till teman användes i syfte att strukturera och tematisera den insamlade empirin. Resultatet visade att intresse nämndes inom samtliga teman och hade en stark korrelation till uppkomsten av engagemang. Detta var dock beroende av dess konsumerande kontext. Om det konsumerades i en kontext som inte främjar det fördjupade engagemangets uppkomst, tenderar det att förlora dess betydelse. Vidare framkom att kontroll spelar en viktig roll i sammanhanget då en upplevd bristande kontroll bidrar till en negativ användarupplevelse. Detta visades dock vara komplext då ett fördjupat engagemang delvis innefattar en bristande kontroll i form av förlorad självmedvetenhet och tidsuppfattning. Det spekuleras om de övertygande tekniker som används i dessa digitala sammanhang kan ha någon koppling till den upplevda negativa kontrollbristen. Studien kan ses som ett första steg i en designprocess för framtagande av digitala sociala tjänster med användaren i fokus, med inriktning engagemang och positiv användarupplevelse. / This study aims to examine user experience in digital environments with a focus on engagement within social networking sites. The study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the area of ​​user experience in hedonic motivation systems with a focus on what creates engagement in social networking sites. As a tool to explain user experiences in a structured way and how engagement arises, the theoretical framework Hedonic-motivation System Adoption Model, HMSAM, has been applied. The concepts used were perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, curiosity, joy, control, and immersion. To better understand the concept of the strong engagement named immersion, flow theory has also served as a theoretical basis. Since the study aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon, its approach has been qualitative where semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection method. A content analysis linked to themes was used to structure and thematize the collected empirical data. The results showed that interest was mentioned in all themes and had a strong correlation to the emergence of engagement. However, this was dependent on its consuming context. If it was consumed in a context that does not promote the emergence of immersion, it tends to lose its significance. Furthermore, it emerged that control plays an important role in the context as a perceived lack of control contributes to a negative user experience. However, this proved to be complex as immersion partly includes a lack of control in the form of loss of self-consciousness and time distortion. It is speculated that persuasive technology that is used in these digital contexts may have some connection to the perceived negative lack of control. The study can be seen as a first step in a design process for the development of user-centered social networking sites, with a focus on engagement and positive user experience.

Denna uppsats presenterar en studie på hur nudging kan påverka användarupplevelsen i hedoniska system. Studien grundas på teorin Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) för att förklara människans inre drivkrafter och hur dessa ter sig i förhållande till användarupplevelsen i hedoniska system. Vidare presenteras även teorier kring användarupplevelse med fokus på upplevelser i digitala gränssnitt, och nudging med ett fokus på digital nudging. En fallstudie på SVT Play, Sveriges Televisions digitala plattform för Video-on-demand (VoD) gjordes, vilken resulterade i ett förändringsförslag för den nuvarande plattformen. I en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av sex berättande intervjuer med olika informanter, undersöktes användarnas erfarenheter och tankar kring drivkrafterna i HMSAM, deras användarupplevelse av VoD samt hur de använder plattformen genom en praktisk genomgång av SVT Play. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade bland annat att informanterna upplevde att det idag inte gick att hitta information kring vilket medieinnehåll andra användare tycker om, någonting som för samtliga informanter var önskvärt i plattformen. Med avstamp i teorin kring nudging och den psykologiska principen sociala normer, vilken innebär att människor påverkas i sina val av hur andra gör, samt med utgångspunkt i resultatet från intervjuerna utformades ett förändringsförslag för SVT Play. Förändringsförslaget innebar att ändra titeln på sektionen “Populärt” i SVT Plays nuvarande gränssnitt till en titel med en högre grad socialt bevis (social proof på engelska, alltså hur tydligt den psykologiska principen sociala normer anspelas på). Sex olika varianter av rubriken med olika hög grad socialt bevis togs fram. Dessa sex varianter testades i realtid i ett så kallat A/B-test på SVT Play tillsammans med den ursprungliga rubriken “Populärt”, för att undersöka om en högre grad av socialt bevis hjälper användarna att hitta och välja innehåll, och således förbättrar deras användarupplevelse. A/B-testet låg uppe på SVT Play i åtta dygn och nästan en och en halv miljon användare exponerades för det. Resultatet från A/B-testet var dock inte tillräckligt signifikant för att dragna slutsatser ska hålla hög reliabilitet. Två av de förändringsförslag som användare klickade mest på samt såg klart innehållet, var de med högst nivå av socialt bevis: “Populärt bland andra tittare” och “Har du sett det andra älskar?” Även om mönstret inte är signifikant, visar summan av resultatet från den empiriska undersökningen att sociala normer kan användas för att påverka användarupplevelsen i en VoD-plattform. Ytterligare kvalitativa datainsamlingar är av intresse samt nödvändiga för att säkerställda samband. / The research conducted in this study aims to answer if, and in that case how, nudging can be used to affect the user experience in hedonic systems. The study is based on the theory of Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) to explain people ́s intrinsic motivations and how they are tied to the user experience of hedonic systems. Furthermore, theories about user experience focusing on experiences in digital interfaces, as well as the theory of nudging with a focus on digital nudging are also presented. The study has been conducted through a case study at SVT Play, the Swedish Television's digital Video on Demand (VoD) platform and resulted in a proposition for a change in the current platform. Through a qualitative data collection in the form of six narrative interviews with different informants, their experiences and thoughts about the inner motivations in HMSAM as well as their user experiences with VoD were investigated. In the end of each interview a “walkthrough” in SVT Play was conducted. The result from the narrative interviews showed that an element with information about what media content other users like was hard to find or perceived as nonexistent, something that all informants desired in SVT Play. From the theory about nudging and the psychological effect social norms, which implies that the choices people make are affected by what other people do, together with result from the interviews, a proposition of a change was created for SVT Play. The proposition suggested changing the title for the section “Populärt” (popular in English), in SVT Play ́s current interface, to a title with a higher level of social proof (meaning how clear the psychological effect social norms was being targeted). Six different versions of the title, with different levels of social proof were created. These six versions were then tested in real time through A/B testing in the SVT Play platform, together with the original title “Populärt”, to examine if a higher level of social proof help users find and choose media content, thus enhance their user experience. The A/B test was live in SVT Play during eight days, while being exposed to almost one and a half million users. The result was however not significant enough to draw any conclusions with high reliability. Two of the propositions that people clicked the most and completed watching content, were the two versions with the highest level of social proof, “Populärt bland andra tittare” (Popular among other viewers, in English) and “Har du sett det andra älskar? (Have you seen what other people love? in English). Even though the patterns are not significant, a summary of the result from the empirical enquiry suggest that social norms can be used to affect the user experience in a VoD platform. Additional qualitative data collections would be both interesting and necessary to ensure relationschips.

The study was focused on a research of how older people experience moving images on news pages online. It was based on the HMSAM model and of previous research in connection to user experience, information overload and accessibility. The increase of people watching moving images can help us sharing and publishing videos quickly. The aim of the study was to fill in the knowledge gap when it comes to older people and moving images. The purpose of the study has been to create an understanding of how news pages can be accessed more easily and help to increase good user experience even for older people. Eight potential users of news sites were involved in the study. The empirical material has been collected through individual semi-structured interviews and user tests with observations. Moving images can affect users negatively or positively depending on attitude, previous experiences and news format priorities. In general, they did not feel that moving images improves or worsen the user experience, it is more about what they contain and how it is posted. The results of this study have shown that users can lose interest in news due to loss of control, digital advertising and information overload. Video interviews provide first-hand information and are a credible news source according to research participants. You can remember the news better if you read a text and watch a video. Users want control and decide for themselves when they want to watch a video.

Microtransactions are part of a business model used almost extensively in the video-gaming industry where developers offer virtual goods or features via micropayments. The concept is relatively new and still unknown to many but deeply rooted in modern video-game developers’ business strategies. Microtransactions are found in smartphone applications, online games played on computer or gaming consoles, and while the concept might be unfamiliar to many, the odds are most have encountered it.   Most published games will feature in-game purchases where users have to option to purchase features, items or content for a small amount of money. A microtransaction in its most simplistic form is ad-removal, here developers offer the user a way to get rid of ads by charging a small amount, like $.99. While one microtransaction may seem insignificant, multiple impulsive purchases can quickly add up to considerable sums. This has resulted in the use of microtransactions becoming the most profitable business strategy for game developers.   This study seeks to describe what stimulates a person to complete a purchase by using the components of hedonic motivation from the HMSAM theory leading to the research question: Which hedonic motivations induce use of microtransaction systems and does it vary by age? To research the phenomena a quantitative questionnaire was formed based on hedonic motivations, including three motivations added by the author, gathering responses from 398 video-game players having completed a microtransaction purchase.   After analyzing the results, some components protruded more than others while the consensus suggested that the influence of hedonic motivation was comparatively low. The argument for this outcome may be that players see in-game items as objects of real-world value, making the microtransaction system within a game a utilitarian-motivation system. The general attitude towards microtransactions appeared to be poor which contradicts some elements of previous research while supporting others.   This thesis will contribute to the field of informatics by complementing the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) with hedonic motivations, as proposed by Lowry et al. in 2013. The author of this study argue it is a modernized way of researching intentions to use asort of system.

Spelindustrin är gigantisk och kontinuerligt växande, där detta inkluderar spelutveckling samt spelande av spel. Detta medför att en betydande mängd akademiker i sina yrkesliv kommer att beröra ämnesområdet spelutveckling. Trots detta faktum finns det en avsaknad av akademisk litteratur som behandlar ämnesområdet spelutveckling, specifikt med ett IS-perspektiv. För att fylla avsaknaden ämnar denna undersökning utöka det specifika konceptet inom spelutveckling som är “skapande av en 2D-spelmotor med tillhörande spel”. Att spela innebär hedonistiska upplevelser. Gäller denna hedonism också vid spelutveckling? Vilka utmaningar och vilken problematik uppstår vid utveckling av en spelmotor? För att utreda detta används en kvalitativ undersökning med en induktiv metodik via forskning genom design (eng. Research through Design, RtD) tillsammans med kollaborativ autoetnografi (Collaborative Autoethnography, CAE). Detta skapar ett unikt perspektiv som används för att producera välmotiverad vägledning för introduktion till ämnesområdet. Datainsamling utgörs av loggbok och dagbok där dessa används för att reflektera kring problem, utmaningar, framgångsfaktorer samt hedonistiska upplevelser inom processen. Undersökningens bakomliggande teori är baserat på Hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) samt kriterier för utvärdering av ett lyckat RtD-projekt. Resultaten visar att spelutveckling är en komplicerad process, där egenskaper av spelutveckling identifierats och som bildat riktlinjer som förbereder akademiker inför framtida forskning och arbete. / The gaming industry is gigantic and continuously growing, which includes game development and gaming. This means that a significant number of academics will touch on the subject area of game development during their professional lives. Despite this fact there is a lack of academic literature which deals with the subject area of game development, specifically with an IS perspective. To fill the gap, this study aims to expand the specific concept in game development that is “creation of a 2D game engine with an associated game”. Gaming involves hedonistic experiences. Is this also associated with game development? What challenges and problems arise when developing a game engine? Answering this involves a qualitative study with an inductive methodology via Research through Design (RtD) together with Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE). This creates a unique perspective that is used to produce well-motivated guidance for introduction to the subject area. Data collection consists of a journal and diary where these are used to reflect on problems, challenges, success factors and hedonistic experiences within the process. The study’s underlying theory is based on the Hedonic-motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) and criterias for evaluating successful RtD projects. The results show that game development is a complicated process, where characteristics of game development have been identified which developed guidelines that prepare academics for future research and work.