The goal of the project is to explore the issue of information overload in grand-strategy games, specifically focusing on Paradox games,and utilizing Victoria 3 as the primary case study. The research delves into the background and theory of grand strategy games, includingthe user experience, tooltip design, tutorials, and think-aloud interviews.To accomplish this, the research methodology involves conducting preliminary interviews via the think-aloud method, as well as a surveybased study. In the survey, participants will be asked to share their understanding of tutorial information and their experience with tooltips.Data analysis will be conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods.This study discusses information overload for players within the tutorial section and tooltips within, analyzing issues from playersperspective and discussing and highlighting these issues and the challenges of overcoming them.

In recent years, many PC and console video games have seen a shift towards live service models as a means of generating recurring revenue through in-game purchases called microtransactions. Microtransactions have been linked to the concept of dark patterns—design patterns that favour the service at the expense of the end user—due to their possible negative impact on the user experience. One widespread yet poorly studied microtransaction is the battle pass, particularly from a player perspective. In order to investigate playerattitudes to dark patterns found in battle passes, we conducted two studies, by looking at battle passes found in 19 games, and by carrying out a series of discussion workshops, to identify dark pattern commonalities in battle passes, and to find out how players perceive and experience dark patterns in battle passes, respectively. Data was analysed by means of reflexive thematic analysis in both studies. The results show that battle passes attempt to drive increased player engagement and spending in a number of ways, and further that players have complex—and often contradictory—relationships to battle passes.

Chronic lower back pain (CLBP) presents a significant challenge in healthcare, requiring effective tools for rehabilitation and assessment. This study explores the use of virtual reality (VR) for the assessment of CLBP and addresses two research questions. Firstly, it investigates how movements and tasks considered problematic for individuals with CLBP can be incorporated into the VR application for assessment purposes. Secondly, it examines physiotherapists' perceptions of the VR application regarding tasks, feasibility, user experience, and overall design. To answer our questions, we conducted three design workshops with physiotherapists and HCI researchers and designed three VR applications that we evaluated with six physiotherapy students. The study provides valuable insights into participants' perceptions and experiences, shedding light on both the promising aspects and potential pitfalls of using VR in physiotherapy assessment. The findings underscore the value of incorporating user feedback into the design and implementation process, emphasizing the need for a user-centered approach, and provide several implications for the design of VR applications for assessment. This study lays the groundwork for the integration of VR as a valuable tool in physiotherapy assessment for CLBP.

In our progressively digitized world, the escalating demand for software solutions intensifies the need for proficient developers. Low-Code Development Platforms (LCDPs) present a promising approach to address this necessity, empowering individuals without traditional programming skills to create software applications. However, despite their potential, these platforms are often not accessible or intuitive for non-professional developers. This research examines the design of LCDPs, with an emphasis on enhancing the user experience for non-programmers. By investigating the usability of LCDPs and designing a prototype based on the findings, my aim is to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the democratization of software development and to propose enhancements that could make LCDPs more user-friendly, inclusive, and usable across devices. The research involves a combination of literature review, interviews, prototype development, and user testing, providing a multifaceted perspective on the topic. Moreover, it discusses potential implications for the design of LCDPs, as well as for the broader field of interaction design.

In this paper, I begin the first steps towards developing more ethical methods for designing for users with ADHD by investigating what needs stakeholders have when interacting with technology. Current interaction design projects concerned with ADHD are largely focused on children—ignoring adults with ADHD. Their aims and methods are problematic, potentially harmful, and erase experiences of those with ADHD by excluding them from the design process. These projects treat the ADHD community as a list of symptoms to be fixed by training behaviors—a practice that has been demonstrated to cause harm. Influenced by the Crip Technoscience, Neurodiversity, and Self-Advocacy movements and utilizing participatory/co-design methods I investigate the needs of users with ADHD by engaging with them throughout the process, ultimately leading to the development of preliminary guidelines for designing for ADHD accessibility which are presented in this paper alongside design examples and discussion of possible future work.

Understandings of road traffic interactions are largely based on human-human interactions. However, the development of vehicles controlled by highly auto- mated driving systems (ADS) would introduce a radically novel type of road user. This compilation thesis explores encounters between these “autonomous vehicles” (AVs) and human vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians and cyclists. The included publications are connected to three research questions. First, empirical studies are reviewed to highlight existing interactive be- haviors and communication cues. This is followed by a methodological question of how to investigate AV-VRU interactions. Finally, VRUs’ experiences from initial experiments on AV crossing encounters are presented. While road user trajectories and kinematic behaviors are viewed as primary mechanisms to facilitate traffic interactions, they might also be influenced by cues such as appearances, gestures, eye-gaze, and external human-machine interfaces (eHMI). Using the Wizard-of-Oz approach, we are able to explore VRU encounters with a seemingly highly automated vehicle. Compared to meeting an attentive driver, AV encounters resulted in a reported lower willingness to cross, lower perceived safety, and less calm emotional state, indicating that the absence of driver-centric cues could lead to interaction issues and impede acceptance of AVs. To further explore this, we included light-based eHMI to signal the driving mode and intent of the vehicle (e.g., intent to yield). Future research should continue to investigate how AVs may co-exist with human road users focusing on aspects such as behavioral adaptations, research methodologies, and the role of various eHMI.

Digital competence is a skill that schools must teach. As society becomes more and more digitized, there are good reasons to argue how big a role digital devices should have in the classroom and how it affects the pupil´s learning in contrast to the traditional analogue teaching. Of interest was how pupils` writing process is influenced by digital tools in the teaching. The method chosen to be used in the work was to investigate what previous research says about the research area. It was reviewed through thematic analysis and compiled. The result shows that the balance between digital and analogue is important, and that the tools should complement each other. A digital competence and motivation are factors that influence the writing process, the research highlights. The material does not only deal with studies at the primary level, due to research gaps, which is needed to ensure the contextual relevance. However, all studies are done in a school environment. For further research there is interest in investigating how digital competence can be developed among students and staff in Swedish schools.

This thesis examines the roles played by digital information and communication technologies in a Swedish public library’s three-year long renovation project. As a case study of technology-influenced collaboration in a cultural heritage institution, this study addresses a gap in digital humanities research on the practical details of sociotechnical collaboration, as well as a lack of documentation of an ongoing trend of renovations and rebuildings of Swedish public libraries.  A large number of internal materials produced at the library during the course of its renovations was studied, and semi-structured qualitative interviews with three of the cultural heritage workers involved were conducted. Reading these materials with an actor-network theory approach, an account was constructed of the renovation project and the usages therein of digital technologies, in order to examine these technologies as actors and their effects on the project. It was found that, throughout the project, information and communication technologies were used to think, plan, organize, discuss, and make decisions about the work, that limitations and affordances of these technologies shaped how they could be used, and that this thus had effects on the project. Digital technologies are shown to have been active and agential, and avenues for future research are suggested.

As system environments become more complex, digital onboarding plays an increasingly vital role in helping new hires adapt to their digital surroundings. However, the user experience for new employees during digital onboarding in the workplace remains understudied compared to non-digital onboarding. In this Research through Design project spanning almost five months, we investigated the key aspects of digital onboarding that impact new hires' user experience and devised strategies to overcome challenges posed by fragmented systems. Through interviews and vast data collection at a tech company, “Company X”, in Sweden, we identified pain points in the current digital onboarding process. Creative methods were employed to address these challenges, resulting in the creation and testing of a high-fidelity prototype. Feedback from new hires indicated that several of their experienced challenges had been successfully addressed. This study provides valuable insights for improving digital onboarding and user experience in fragmented system environments.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta fram en process för hur modern teknik kan användas för att organisationer ska lyckas med strategisk kompetensförsörjning. Begreppet datadrivna beslut används när så kallade klassificeringsalgoritmer kan hjälpa oss att upptäcka en ’önskad kompetens som saknas’ eller ’föreslå ett område som vi behöver utveckla’. Metoden utgår från tjänstedesign och denna studie använde sig av en empati karta, som skapades från en enkät studie på det sociala yrkesnätverket LinkedIn med virtuell snöbollsmetod (jmf. respondentdriven sampling). Den utgår från kvalitativa data som beskriver insikter utifrån användarnas upplevelser och drivkrafter. Sedan var det viktig att definiera vilka aktörer som berörs av utmaningen för att kunna beskriva stegen i en användarresa och ta fram en designskiss. Design processen inkluderade även intervjuer med huvudaktörerna för att kunna undersöka rotorsaker och sålla idéer med hjälp av klusteranalys. Slutligen testades en digital prototyp och för att utvärdera vad som fungerade och titta på förbättringar skapades feedback matris. Underlaget för att undersöka problemet kommer från behovet inom användargruppen och perspektiv från aktörer, som sedan validerats genom att använda flera olika verktyg hämtade från tjänstedesign. Slutsatsen var att datadrivet beslutsfattande går ut på att använda mätbara indikatorer och data för att fatta beslut som är i linje med strategiska mål inom kompetensförsörjning. Detta redovisas som en användarresa som består av stegen ”Initiera & kartlägga”, ”Genomföra & uppföljning” och ”Utvärdera & reflektera”. / The purpose of this study was to develop a process for how modern technology can be used for organizations to succeed in strategic competence provision. The concept of data-driven decisions is used when so-called classification algorithms can help us discover a 'desired competence that is missing' or 'suggest an area that we need to develop'.  The method is based on service design and this study used an empathy map, which was created from a survey on the professional social network LinkedIn using the virtual snowball method (cf. respondent-driven sampling). It is based on qualitative data that describes insights based on the users' experiences and driving forces. Then it was important to define which stakeholders that are affected by the challenge in order to be able to describe the steps in a journey map and produce a design sketch. The design process also included interviews with the main stakeholders in order to investigate root causes and sorting ideas using cluster analysis. Finally, a digital prototype was tested and to evaluate what worked and look for improvements, a feedback matrix was created. The basis for investigating the problem comes from the need within the user group and perspectives from stakeholders, which are then validated by using several different tools taken from service design. The conclusion was that data-driven decision-making involves define measurable indicators and data to make decisions that are in line with strategic goals in competence provision. This is reported as a user journey consisting of the steps "Initiate & map out", "Implement & follow up" and "Evaluate & reflect".