This study's aim is to examine the correlation between UX-design (user experience design)and brand. This happens through focusing on studying the possible importance of UX-designas a communication means of a brand. The specific case that is studied is the potentialconnection between the less optimal UX-design at the company ICA’s application websiteand how well their brand is communicated to the study’s participants. Furthermore it isexamined if and why this has an effect on previously held values associated with ICA’sbrand. To fulfill the purpose three research questions were used: does ICA’s applicationwebsite have a less optimal UX-design according to the study’s participants?, does ICAmanage to communicate their key values through the application website, and in that casehow? And lastly in light of these findings, how did the participants’ opinions about ICAchange after using the website? To find the answers we conducted interviews and user testswith seven participants. In the user test the participants were given the task to apply for a jobusing ICA’s application website. While performing the task the participants used the“thinking aloud” method in which the participants verbalize their thoughts out loud whileinteracting with the application website. The result was analyzed using Don Norman’sDesign Principles, Farham and Newbery’s framework as well as Encoding/Decoding andRepresentation theory by Stuart Hall. The conclusion suggests that the application website isless than optimal both from a user perspective and from a theoretical perspective, which doesnot seem to successfully communicate ICA’s key values. In spite of this the experience didmostly not affect the participants values associated with ICA’s brand. Through the analysispotential reasons for this outcome were discussed; such as the participants already had a suchstrong perception of the brand that one part of the company’s website couldn’t change.Furthermore, through the previous research on brand, especially on employer branding andcustomer-company relationship, the importance of studying UX-designs role incommunicating a brand was examined briefly.

Designs of human-computer systems intended for time-critical multitasking can benefit from an understanding of the human factors that support or limit multitasking performance and a detailed account of the human-machine interactions that unfold in a given task environment. An integrated, computational cognitive model can test and provide such an understanding of the human factors related to multitasking and reveal the dynamic interactions that occur in the task at the level of hundreds of milliseconds. This dissertation provides such a detailed computation model of human multitasking, built for a time-critical, multimodal dual task experiment and validated by the eye tracking data collected from the experiment. This dissertation also develops new approaches to conducting cognitive modeling, which enable efficient and systematical exploration of multitasking strategies, as well as principled model comparisons. The dual task experiment captures many key aspects of real-world multitasking scenarios such as driving. In the experiment, the participant interleaved two tasks: one requires tracking a constantly-moving target with a joystick, and the other requires keying-in responses to objects moving across a radar display. Peripheral visibility and auditory conditions of the experiment were manipulated to assess the influence of peripheral visual information and auditory information on multitasking performance. Detailed eye tracking data were collected, and this dissertation presents a detailed analysis of this set of data, which provides the bases for model development and validation. The cognitive model presented in this dissertation, built based on the Executive Processes-Interactive Control cognitive architecture, accurately accounted for the eye movement data and other behavioral data of each participant using systematic explorations of task strategies and parameters configured for each individual participant. A parallelized cognitive modeling system was developed to accommodate the much increased computational demand of strategy exploration and individualized model building. New model comparison techniques were proposed to determine which strategy best accounts for the empirical data. Payoff analyses were applied, and they revealed people’s tendency to locally optimize task performance based on task payoff as well as instantaneous feedback. The results point to new approaches for building a priori models that predict multitasking performance. This dissertation includes previously published coauthored material.

Zhou, Shengli. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-140). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Lee, Kai Ki. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-183). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

"In the United States, many students are doing poorly on new high-stakes standards-based tests that are required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Teachers are expected to cover more material to address all of the topics covered in standardized tests, and instructional time is more precious than ever. Educators want to know that the interventions that they are using in their classrooms are effective for students of varying abilities. Many educational technologies rely on tutored problem solving, which requires students to work through problems step-by-step while the system provides hints and feedback, to improve student learning. Intelligent tutoring researchers, education scientists and cognitive scientists are interested in knowing whether tutored problem solving is effective and for whom. Intelligent tutoring systems have the ability to adapt to individual students but need to know what types of feedback to present to individual students for the best and most efficient learning results. This dissertation presents an evaluation of the ASSISTment System, an intelligent tutoring system for the domain of middle school mathematics. In general, students were found to learn when engaging in tutored problem solving in the ASSISTment System. Students using the ASSISTment System also learned more when compared to paper-and-pencil problem-solving. This dissertation puts together a series of randomized controlled studies to build a comprehensive theory about when different types of tutoring feedback are more appropriate in an intelligent tutoring system. Data from these studies were used to analyze whether interactive tutored problem solving in an intelligent tutoring system is more effective than less interactive methods of allowing students to solve problems. This dissertation is novel in that it presents a theory that designers of intelligent tutoring systems could use to better adapt their software to the needs of students. One of the interesting results showed is that the effectiveness of tutored problem solving in an intelligent tutoring system is dependent on the math proficiency of the students. Students with low math proficiency learned more when they engaged in interactive tutoring sessions where they worked on one step at a time, and students with high math proficiency learned more when they were given the whole solution at once. More interactive methods of tutoring take more time versus less interactive methods. The data showed that it is worth the extra time it takes for students with low math proficiency. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development of a comprehensive theory of when educational technologies should use tutored problem solving to help students learn compared to other feedback mechanisms such as hints on demand, worked out solutions, worked examples and educational web pages. "

xi, 79 p. ： ill. (some col.) / Graphics provide a rich display medium that facilitates identification of spatial patterns but are inaccessible to people who are blind or low vision. Audio provides an alternative medium through which to display information. Prior research has explored audio display of lines representing functions and location of screen objects within a graphical user interface; however, presentation of spatial attributes of lines (angle, number of segments, etc.) of geographic data has received limited attention. This thesis explores a theoretical foundation for designing audio displays and presents an experimental evaluation of line symbology. Sighted users who were blindfolded and blind users performed a line following task and a matching task to evaluate the line symbology. Observed differences between the conditions did not reach statistical significance. User preferences and observed strategies are discussed. / Committee in charge: Dr. Michal Young， Chair

It is predicted that there will be more people over the age of 65 than under 5 by 2050 in developed countries. In recognition of the needs of an ageing population, there is a growing field of research in HCI focused on engaging older people with digital technologies. This thesis contributes to the field of ageing in HCI through a community-based participatory design investigation into the challenges and opportunities for older people to engage with digital tools in their everyday lives. We demonstrate how the commitments, practices and values of participatory design can be used to better understand and foster engagement between digital tools and older people through the support of community-based organisations. This is achieved through two case studies. The rst study with a traditional computer class at a local day centre. The second with a London-based intergenerational running club. The research reflects on and examines the details and decisions of the learning and adoption process across these two studies. We expand our view beyond the digital tools to the influences and situations that contribute to older people's attitudes and usage. Through the lens of participatory design and communities of practice we discuss the considerations of values, problem-solving, and identity that can potentially be transferred to other non-traditional digital learning environments for older people. We provide recommendations and reflect on our challenges to serve as guidance for other researchers engaging in similar participatory work `in-the-wild'.

When we forget things, we feel anxious which can impact our day negatively. Some individuals believe they are forgetful, so emphatically, it disrupts their day. There has been little discussion about perceived forgetfulness in design and HCI, combined with few studied smart objects to aid with memory. However, embedded systems, radio frequency identification (RFID) and HCI research provides inspiration towards creating a solution. Challenges of creating a day-to-day smart object that can enhance a user's lifestyle are explored and recommended design guidelines for creating a smart object in a specific domain are the focus of this thesis. Using an experience-centred approach, 'Message Bag' and 'Tag Along' are two purpose built object-based memory aids that have emerged as a result of investigating the design processes for smart objects. The work examines smart objects in the context of forgetting what items to pack in a bag. A solution presented is a device consisting of an RFID system involving (a) pre-tagging essential items; (b) scanning those tagged items and; (c) viewing a corresponding light illuminate, to communicate to the user. Although the conceptual model is simple, success depends on a combination of technical design, usability and aesthetics. These scanning interactions result in a person feeling more confident as suggested through autoethnography reporting, real-world, third person engagements - single user walkouts, conference demos, professional critiques, and residential weekends with potential users (focus group) studies conducted. My work involved extensive autobiographical research and design-led enquiries. Testing was undertaken with investigative prototypes, followed by field testing high-fidelity prototypes. This involved an in-the-wild comparative study involving six users over several months. Results show that people feel more confident and respondents claim no longer needing to continually check items are packed, thus 'gaining time', and feeling less forgetful. Although the application of RFID is not new to ubiquitous computing, this implementation, styling and system immediacy is novel. This thesis presents the development of ten prototypes as well as design guidelines. The research provides a solid base for further exploration, and includes discovery of the importance of a user's style universe and extreme ease-of-use. I conclude with the presentation of early positive results including; (i) the unique form factor becomes a reminder itself and; (ii) usability coupled with the intuitive nature of the system is shown to be essential. We found that when you are creating a smart object, usability and an intuitive nature is even more important than in a standard system. When dealing within the domain of forgetfulness, this is paramount.

This thesis argues for the use of what I term `poetic methods' in approaching the study of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) infrastructures. Poetic methods frame research experiments with techniques drawn from art practice and build understandings of an infrastructure's actions, or the \texture" [1] of those actions by leveraging symbol and metaphor. This work is situated in an interdisciplinary space across Human Computer Interaction (HCI), art, design and the study of Science, Technology and Society (STS). The theoretical grounding of the work draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Karen Barad's intra-activity [2] to emphasise sociotechnical practices and objects as emergent across combinations of material agency. From Bowker and Star's concept of infrastructural inversion [1], I argue that infrastructures become visible through points of breakdown. To probe GNSS infrastructure, I stage an experiment where its smooth operation is disrupted. Re-framing the infrastructure in this way draws participant's attention to its influence in forming practices. I then use a second method of short form speculative design [3] workshops to have participants think about scenarios where the user is pushed further into the background and user and infrastructure are understood as nodes in `more-than-human-networks'. Alongside this participant-facing research work, I give an account of artworks that developed from my own practice in response to the research questions. These are understood as deep responses to the design workshops' prompt to re-think how we understand the actions, influence and ontology of GNSS infrastructures. At the end of this art and research process I have a finished artwork and several sets of rich qualitative data. I use these to understand how effective my techniques are in achieving infrastructural inversion, diagnostically understanding the actions of GNSS infrastructure and the texture of how those actions are felt by participants, and interrogating ontological questions around concepts of `user' and `infrastructure'. I argue that the poetic methods offer an innovative set of techniques that can be added to a wider research project to help interrogate blackboxing, practically achieve infrastructural inversion and begin to move towards ontological critique. These offer a new methodological tool to STS researchers and contribute to HCI debates around non- user-centered design practices. I offer some suggestions for further refinements to these techniques and point towards some possible future work.

Dans le domaine de l'Interaction Homme-Machine, nos travaux concernent l'interaction multiutilisateur et multimodale. Exploitant les avancées importantes en terme de modalités d'interaction, de nombreux collecticiels reposent sur une combinaison de modalités, comme les systèmes multiutilisateurs autour d'une table augmentée. Néanmoins ces systèmes constituent des réalisations ad-hoc en l'absence d'outils de conception. Face à constat, nos contributions conceptuelles et logicielles concernent la phase de spécification de l'interaction multiutilisateur et multimodale. Nous présentons une notation de spécification notée COMM (COllaborative et MultiModale) qui est une extension de CTT par l'introduction de deux concepts, le rôle interactif et la tâche modale, et par la spécialisation des opérateurs temporels, en s'appuyant sur les relations de Allen. La notation COMM est instrumentée par un éditeur logiciel de spécifications COMM, nommé e-COMM ((http://iihm.imag.fr/demo/editeur/). COMM et e-COMM ont été utilisés dans un projet DGA de taille conséquente pour spécifier l'interaction au sein d'un poste de commande de drones militaires. / Multi-user multimodal interactive systems involve multiple users that can use multiple interaction modalities. Although multi-user multimodal systems are becoming more prevalent (especially multi-user multimodal systems involving multi-touch surfaces), their design is still ad-hoc without properly keeping track of the design process. Addressing this issue of lack of design tools, our doctoral research is dedicated to the specification of multi-user multimodal interaction. The doctoral research contributions include the COMM (Collaborative and MultiModal) notation and its on-line editor for specifying multi-user multimodal interactive systems. Extending the CTT notation, the salient features of the COMM notation include the concepts of interactive role and modal task as well as a refinement of the temporal operators applied to tasks using the Allen relationships. The COMM notation and its on-line editor e-COMM (http://iihm.imag.fr/demo/editeur/) have been successfully applied to a large scale project dedicated to a multimodal military command post for the control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) by two operators.