<p>When humans delegate tasks---whether to human workers or robots---they do so either to trade money for time, or to leverage additional knowledge and capabilities. For complex tasks, however, describing the work to be done requires substantial effort, which reduces the benefit to the requester who delegates tasks. On one hand, human workers---e.g., crowd workers, friends or colleagues on social network, factory workers---have diverse knowledge and level of commitment, making it difficult to achieve joint efforts towards the requester's goal. In contrast, robots and machines have clearly defined capabilities and full commitment, but the requester lacks an efficient way to coordinate them for flexible workflows. </p><p> </p><p> This dissertation presents a series of workflows and systems to enable efficient work transfer to human workers or robots. First, I present BlueSky, a system that can automatically coordinate hundreds of crowd workers to enumerate ideas for a given topic. The latent structure of the idea enumeration task is decomposed into a three-step workflow to guide the crowd workers. Second, I present CoStory, a system that requests alternative designs from friends or colleagues by decomposing the design task into hierarchical chunks. Third, I present AdapTutAR, a system that delegates machine operation tasks to workers through adaptive Augmented Reality tutorials. Finally, I present Vipo, a system that allows requesters to customize tasks for robots and smart machines through spatial-visual programming. This dissertation demonstrates that decomposing latent task structure enables task delegation in an on-demand, scalable, and distributed way.</p>

The way people inhabit a built space is being challenged in the Information Era. This thesis examines how interaction design could provide alternative ways of addressing the needs and activities of users of a built space that is traditionally in the domain of architecture. Through theoretical analysis and close examination of related contemporary practical examples, it re-examines interactive architecture and how it could support the exploratory activities of visitors of public buildings. Sketching, prototyping and contextual design methods are used to iterate between different possibilities of the physical and digital materiality and also to examine the experience of the users in the proposed context. Critical reflections between different phases of the design process lead to the development of Juncture, a design concept of an interactive architectural artefact that allows users to explore the physical space of a library.

This thesis book represents an exploration of the relationship between architecture and robotics, tailored to meet the requirements of both architecture students and professionals and any other creative user. The investigation encompasses three distinct robotic arm applications for architecture students, introduces and evaluates an innovative 3D printing application with robotic arms, and presents projects focused on the design of human-robot interaction techniques and their system development. Furthermore, the thesis showcases the development of a more intuitive human-robot interaction system and explores various user interaction methods with robotic arms for rapid prototyping and fabrication. Each experiment describes the process, level of interaction, and key takeaways. The narrative of the thesis unfolds as a journey through different applications of robotic fabrication, emphasizing the creative human as the focal point of these systems. This thesis underscores the significance of user experience research and anticipates future innovations in the evolving landscape of the creative field. The discoveries made in this exploration lay a foundation for the study and design of interfaces and interaction techniques, fostering seamless collaboration between designers and robotic systems. Keywords: Robotic Fabrication - Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) - Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) - User Experience Research - Human-Centered Design - Architecture - Art - Creative Application / Master of Architecture

This dissertation work considers communication between people. I look at coordinating dyads (couples in relationships) and people in working relationships to develop an understanding of how people engage in high-stakes, or emotional communication via various communicative media. The approach for this research is to observe and measure people's behavior during interaction and subsequent reporting of that behavior and associated internal experiences. Qualitative and quantitative methods are employed. Quantitative data are analyzed using a range of statistical analyses, including correlations matrices, ANOVAs, and multivariate statistics. Two controlled laboratory experiments were conducted for this research. These experiments involved couples in relationships. Couples were brought into the lab and argued with each other across one of three technological media: face-to-face, telephone, and instant messaging (IM). In one set of couples' experiments, the couples argued for twenty minutes; in the subsequent couples' experiment, couples were encouraged to take as much time as they needed for their arguments. One of the main results from the first experiment is that couples did, indeed, argue when brought into a laboratory setting. One of the important findings for the second experiment is that time did not affect couples' tendency to reach closure during their arguments. This research is a contribution in that it examines how people engage in highly emotional communication using various technological media. In a society with ever-increasing communication needs that require technology, it becomes necessary to study its communicative affordances. Understanding the context of highly emotional interactions between members of couples gives insight into how technology meets (or fails to meet) these communication needs. / Ph. D.

The world moves toward the era of a smart society that is human-centered, sustainable, and inclusive. Countries employed new information and communication technologies to deliver services and engage citizens in the decision-making process. These services are evolving and in the near future, we can expect a plethora of new services related to Smart Society 5.0 and Industry 4.0, in addition to more traditional services. The possibility of these new technologies to foster sustainable development can only be obtained when all target users have fair access to the offered services. In the e-government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience with the offered services and investigate the factors that significantly influence their adoption behavior. However, numerous research efforts investigated the user experience of e-government from the lens of specific government services in an individual or specific range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach for enhancing user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. The research approach was conducted through two main phases. The first phase aims to design the proposed conceptual framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Hence, we have conducted a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services and cover all different aspects to better understand target users and enhance their overall experience. This systematic review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating factors that significantly affect users' adoption of e-government services globally. The proposed framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. This framework is global, it is used to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government in any country to ensure that citizens have a good experience with e-government services in that country. The framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government that represent the necessary steps to enhance citizen experience and boost their adoption behavior. The second phase implies the utilization of the proposed framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government by developing a reference implementation of e-government adoption based on the proposed framework. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior. The questionnaire contains a set of measurement items pertaining to each factor that existed in the proposed framework to investigate their potential relationships. The questionnaire underwent an iterative process of testing and validation to ensure the reliability and credibility of the measurement items. Then, the multivariate statistics, including the structural equation modeling, have been adopted to analyze and examine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating user experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Then, the proposed framework alongside the reference implementation were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. The contributions of this thesis can be summarized by conducting a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services to inform the design of the proposed framework. Then, developing a global conceptual framework for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government. Overall, this thesis provides valuable insights into enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services, which supports government agencies, practitioners, and policymakers. / Doctor of Philosophy / Governments employed new technologies that are dynamic and smart to deliver services to citizens and ensure they are engaged while using these services. Nowadays, the phenomenon of 'smart society' refers to systems that are human-centered, sustainable, and accessed by all target users. Universal access to government services is the pillar to achieving sustainable development goals as expressions of a smart society. In the electronic government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience and investigate the factors that influence their adoption behavior. In the literature, there has been a lack of a comprehensive review of user experience towards e-government services globally. In addition, many research efforts focused on developing e-government adoption frameworks based on government services in a specific country or a limited range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach to enhance the user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. This comprehensive review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government services globally. Hence, the proposed framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government imported from the comprehensive review's results. This framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. It is used to evaluate the e-government adoption behaviors in any country to ensure the efficiency of e-government services and enhance the citizen experience in that country. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior based on the proposed framework. The questionnaire was tested and validated to ensure the reliability and credibility of the questionnaire items. After that, specific statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling, were used to examine and refine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating users' experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Hence, the proposed framework alongside the developed questionnaire and implemented analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. This thesis supports the e-government by providing valuable insights to government practitioners and policymakers on enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services.

En modernisering av Air Traffic Management pågår för att hållbart hantera den förutsedda ökningen av flygtrafik fram till år 2035. Som en del av denna modernisering har Saab AB utvecklat en produkt, “Digital Tower”, som möjliggör att flygtorn kan fjärrstyras genom ett system av kameror. I syfte om att öka kunskap kring flygledarnas behov och flygsäkerhet i takt med ökad mängd flygtrafik, har denna studie undersökt den kognitiva belastningen inom den operativa miljön av en Digital Tower som är i bruk. I dess nuvarande form har interaktiva gränssnitt inom arbetsmiljön begränsad flexibilitet och anpassningsmöjligheter. Frågeställningen har därför ställts kring hur dessa begränsade anpassningsmöjligheter påverkar flygledares arbete och samarbete. Studien har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ metodik, en contextual inquiry med observationer och intervjuer i kontext där arbetet skedde. Analysen gjordes utifrån Distributed Cognition som teoretiskt ramverk, vilket möjliggjorde en analys av den distribuerade kognitionen mellan aktörer och hur de brukar artefakter inom kontexten. Studiens slutsats är att gränssnittets begränsade anpassningsmöjligheter påverkar den kognitiva belastningen negativt, men anses inte som ett hinder för flygledarnas arbete. Eftersom den centraliserade arbetsmiljön har en stark närvaro av kollegor, har resultatet blivit att kollegorna kan kompensera för gränssnittets brister och avlasta i situationer av hög arbetsbelastning. / An ongoing modernization of Air Traffic Management is in effect to keep up with the forecasted increase in air traffic by 2035. As a part of this modernization a product was developed by Saab AB to control air traffic from remote control towers with a system of cameras, called “Digital Tower”. With the purpose of increasing the knowledge about the needs of Air Traffic Controllers and general flight safety with increased amount of flight traffic, this study researched the cognitive load within the operative Digital Tower environment in service. Currently the interactive interface within the work environment has limited flexibility and possibilities for adaptation. The study has therefore answered the question about how these limited adaptations affect the Air Traffic Controllers work and collaboration between them. The study has used qualitative methods in order to answer the question, by using a contextual inquiry which includes observations and interviews of the Air Traffic Controllers in their context. The result was analyzed by using Distributed Cognition theory, which made it possible to analyze the distributed cognition between people and artifacts within the context. The conclusion of the study is that the limited adaptations of the interface negatively affects the cognitive load, but has not been identified as a crucial interference for the Air Traffic Controllers. The centralized work environment has a strong presence of colleagues, which has led to the colleagues compensating for the limited interface by physically unburden the workload in critical situations.

Estudos atuais na área de Interação Humano-Computador evidenciam a importância de se considerar aspectos emocionais na interação com sistemas computacionais. Acredita-se que ao permitir agentes artificiais identificar emoções de usuários, em uma interação humano-computador, torna-se possível induzir e despertar emoções a fim de estimulá-los em suas atividades. Um dos grandes desafios dos pesquisadores em Interação humano-computador é prover sistemas capazes de reconhecer, interpretar e reagir de modo inteligente e sensível às emoções do usuário, para atender aos requisitos do maior número possível de indivíduos; um dos caminhos que se apresenta é o desenvolvimento de sistemas flexíveis. O principal objetivo de se promover essa interação emotiva é contribuir para o aumento da coerência, consistência e credibilidade das reações e respostas computacionais providas durante a interação humana via interface humano-computador. Nesse contexto, surge a oportunidade de explorar sistemas computacionais capazes de identificar e inferir o estado emocional do usuário em tempo de execução. Este projeto tem como objetivo desenvolver e avaliar um modelo que possa: i.) identificar o estado emocional do usuário; ii.) prover um mecanismo de persuasão com vistas a mudar o estado emocional do usuário (com um estudo de caso em player de música) e; iii.) explorar a abordagem flexível na persuasão (de acordo com o estado emocional particular de cada usuário) através de mecanismos persuasivos que poderão variar entre um player de música, jogos e/ou vídeos. Assim, ao longo do estudo, o modelo baseado em Comitê de Classificação se mostrou eficiente na identificação das emoções básicas (alegria, aversão, medo, neutro, raiva, surpresa e tristeza) com média de acurácia superior a 80% e, ainda, observou-se a satisfação dos usuários mediante a aplicação do modelo com o player de música. / Current studies in the field of Human-Computer Interaction highlight the relevance of emotional aspects while interacting with computers systems. It is believed that allowing intelligent agents to identify users emotions, they can induce and awaken emotions in order to stimulate them while interacting with computers. A major challenge for researchers in human-computer interaction is to provide systems capable of recognizing, interpreting and reacting intelligently and sensitively to the emotions of the user, to meet the requirements of the largest possible number of individuals. One of the ways presented in this project is the development of flexible systems to meet a large number of emotions/behaviors. The main objective of promoting this emotional interaction is to contribute to increasing the coherence, consistency and credibility of reactions and computational responses provided during human interaction via human-computer interface. In this context, the opportunity arises to explore computational systems able to identify and infer the emotional state of the user at runtime. This project aims to develop and evaluate a model that can: i.) identify the emotional state of the user/developer; ii.) provide a mechanism of persuasion in order to change the emotional state of the user (with a case study in music player) and; iii.) explore the flexible approach in persuasion (according to the particular emotional state of each user) through persuasive mechanisms that may vary from a music player, games and/or videos. Thus, throughout the study, the Rating Committee based model is efficient for identification of basic emotions (happiness, disgust, fear, neutral, anger, surprise and sadness) with average accuracy higher than 80% and also noted himself to user satisfaction by applying the model to the music player.

The purpose of this research is to critically inquire into the appropriateness of the current human computer interaction (HCI) practices in Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) system design given the contextual constraints and challenges found in developing country contexts. Despite user participation in system design being a buzzword of HCI the form of this participation varies with the different disciplinary perspectives and paradigms and their different methods for engaging users and identifying users' needs. Moreover, a majority of these dominant HCI perspectives are not only rooted in the developed countries context they also mainly focus on organisational management information systems (MIS) and less on information systems (IS) that place emphasis on the socio-economic context of developing countries. Literature review reveal that limited studies focus on the differences brought about by the western influenced methodologies and principles when applied in different contexts and how they affect the user participation process as well as the outcome. Building on past research, this research argues that HCI for ICTD needs to develop new contextualised participatory methods and strategies that consider the broader and complex contexts of the ICTD users. However, shifting the focus to localised forms of HCI in ICTD system design requires a better appreciation of the challenges and constraints encountered when applying the traditional HCI methods and strategies. Based on this argument the research conceptually explores and reflects on the underlying contextual factors and mechanisms present in participatory ICTD system design and the presumed relationships among them. Drawing on this conceptual framework, the research conducts semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations with three mobile money system design projects in Kenya that engaged the users during the design process to highlight how current HCI practices respond to the multifaceted nature of ICTD system design which present challenges that include social, technical, cultural and infrastructural issues. Findings from this qualitative study provide significant new insights that support the call for contextualised participatory methods and strategies. The findings suggest that there is tension between the underlying assumptions inherent in western HCI methods and strategies and the local context thus justifying the call for the appropriation of the design process. Drawing on the conceptual framework it was found that bias formed from factors such as power relations, diversity in interests for participation and cross-cultural differences moderate the design process and ultimately the participatory outcome. From the knowledge perspective, this research provides an in-depth understanding of the developing country contextual factors that mediate user participation process in ICTD system design. Furthermore, the research extends the knowledge with regards to participatory interventions in the development of IS in Africa. The research also presents a theoretical framework that makes explicit the contextual assumptions and constraints embedded in participatory ICTD system design interventions and how they shape the design process and the participatory outcome. Finally, the recommendations formulated from this research provide HCI designers and practitioners actionable knowledge in regards to reflecting on their current traditional HCI tools and techniques to ensure better localised design processes.

Existing Human Computer Interaction (HCI) strategies are seriously limited by current technologies. These are neither sensitive nor accurate enough to respond to users' emotional states, the fundamental basis for effective communication in real time. This offered the challenge of investigating factors that would impact on the designing of effective and more emotionally intelligent interaction strategies for Companions. These were applied to a conceptual tool, the Affective Channel (AC), to endow Companions with emotional capabilities. This was implemented in the Wizard of Oz (WoZ) platform to evaluate Companions in real time. The WoZ is an experimental setup where existing immature technologies and a human operator combine to simulate Companion interaction with end users. In these aspects of my work is my original contribution to the HCI knowledge base. Experiments, focus groups and face to face interviews were carried out to ascertain users' perception and expectations of virtual agents. ‘Descriptors' thus identified formed the bases for the designing of user friendly Companions. Verbal and facial expressions data and other affective elements of effective human-companion interactionwere collected for use in the AC and the WoZ as stated above. Companion evaluations yielded the subsidiary contribution that Companions are perceived as empathetic, useful and trustworthy entities. Further, that they arouse positive emotions in children and also that they promote their learning improvement. These findings were the result of two experiments, one within subjects and one between subjects, conducted with thirty grade four pupils in a rural school in the poor Oaxaca region of Mexico.

MENDES, Marília Soares. MALTU – um modelo para avaliação da interação em sistemas sociais a partir da linguagem textual do usuário. 2015. 199 f. Tese (Doutorado em Ciência da Computação)-Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2015. / Submitted by Vitor Campos (vitband@gmail.com) on 2016-09-27T23:24:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_msmendes.pdf: 9165504 bytes, checksum: 35e2398a141e078cdbae6331e1173c8a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jairo Viana (jairo@ufc.br) on 2016-09-27T23:40:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_msmendes.pdf: 9165504 bytes, checksum: 35e2398a141e078cdbae6331e1173c8a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-27T23:40:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_tese_msmendes.pdf: 9165504 bytes, checksum: 35e2398a141e078cdbae6331e1173c8a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / The field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has suggested various methods for evaluating systems in order to improve their usability and User eXperience (UX). The advent of Web 2.0 has allowed the development of applications marked by collaboration, communication and interaction among their users in a way and on a scale never seen before. Social Systems (SS) (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc.) are examples of such applications and have features such as: frequent exchange of messages, spontaneity and expression of feelings. The opportunities and challenges posed by these types of applications require the traditional evaluation methods to be reassessed, taking into consideration these new characteristics. For instance, the postings of users on SS reveal their opinions on various issues, including on what they think of the system. This work aims to test the hypothesis that the postings of users in SS provide relevant data for evaluation of the usability and of UX in SS. While researching through literature, we have not identified any evaluation model intending to collect and interpret texts from users in order to assess the user experience and system usability. Thus, this thesis proposes MALTU - Model for evaluation of interaction in social systems from the Users Textual Language. In order to provide a basis for the development of the proposed model, we conducted a study of how users express their opinions on the system in natural language. We extracted postings of users from four SS of different contexts. HCI experts classified, studied and processed such postings by using Natural Language Processing (PLN) techniques and data mining, and then analyzed them in order to obtain a generic model. The MALTU was applied in two SS: an entertainment and an educational SS. The results show that is possible to evaluate a system from the postings of users in SS. Such assessments are aided by extraction patterns related to the use, to the types of postings and to HCI factors used in system. / A área de Interação Humano-Computador (IHC) tem sugerido muitas formas para avaliar sistemas a fim de melhorar sua usabilidade e a eXperiência do Usuário (UX). O surgimento da web 2.0 permitiu o desenvolvimento de aplicações marcadas pela colaboração, comunicação e interatividade entre seus usuários de uma forma e em uma escala nunca antes observadas. Sistemas Sociais (SS) (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc.) são exemplos dessas aplicações e possuem características como: frequente troca de mensagens e expressão de sentimentos de forma espontânea. As oportunidades e os desafios trazidos por esses tipos de aplicações exigem que os métodos tradicionais de avaliação sejam repensados, considerando essas novas características. Por exemplo, as postagens dos usuários em SS revelam suas opiniões sobre diversos assuntos, inclusive sobre o que eles pensam do sistema em uso. Esta tese procura testar a hipótese de que as postagens dos usuários em SS fornecem dados relevantes para avaliação da Usabilidade e da UX (UUX) em SS. Durante as pesquisas realizadas na literatura, não foi identificado nenhum modelo de avaliação que tenha direcionado seu foco na coleta e análise das postagens dos usuários a fim de avaliar a UUX de um sistema em uso. Sendo assim, este estudo propõe o MALTU – Modelo para Avaliação da interação em sistemas sociais a partir da Linguagem Textual do Usuário. A fim de fornecer bases para o desenvolvimento do modelo proposto, foram realizados estudos de como os usuários expressam suas opiniões sobre o sistema em língua natural. Foram extraídas postagens de usuários de quatro SS de contextos distintos. Tais postagens foram classificadas por especialistas de IHC, estudadas e processadas utilizando técnicas de Processamento da Linguagem Natural (PLN) e mineração de dados e, analisadas a fim da obtenção de um modelo genérico. O MALTU foi aplicado em dois SS: um de entretenimento e um SS educativo. Os resultados mostram que é possível avaliar um sistema a partir das postagens dos usuários em SS. Tais avaliações são auxiliadas por padrões de extração relacionados ao uso, aos tipos de postagens e às metas de IHC utilizadas na avaliação do sistema.