Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur några förskollärare upplever digital kompetens, hos sig själv samt i verksamheten, deras upplevelser av hur digital kompetens kan påverka deras arbete med IKT och deras upplevelser av att arbeta med IKT. Forskningsfrågorna lyder: Hur upplever några förskollärare sin digitala kompetens? Hur upplever några förskollärare att deras digitala kompetens påverkar hur de arbetar i förskolans verksamhet? Hur upplever några förskollärare arbete med IKT? Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Det har medverkat sex förskollärare från sex olika verksamheter i studien. Bearbetning av det insamlade materialet skedde genom en fenomenologisk analys samt en tematisk analys. Analysen presenteras i fyra kategorier: förskollärares upplevelser av digital kompetens, ett kvalitativt arbete med IKT, stöd och möjligheter för kompetensutveckling samt styrdokumentens roll och förväntningar. Resultatet visade på en skillnad mellan förskollärares definition av digital kompetens och hur skolverket definierar digital kompetens. Det framkom även en stor variation i hur säkra förskollärare upplever sig vara i sitt arbete med IKT. Resultatet visar även att det finns en skillnad mellan tillgången till digitala verktyg i verksamheter samt tillgång till kompetensutveckling. Slutsatsen är att arbete med IKT i förskolans verksamhet har en koppling till hur förskollärare ser på sin egna digitala kompetens, deras attityd och intresse till arbete med IKT samt de digitala möjligheter som verksamheten har att erbjuda.

In an era where the customer has the power, creating not only usable but also satisfiable systems and applications is of importance. However, research shows that software development practices do not always allow user experience design to take place and gives little guidance regarding how to conduct and integrate UX work. Despite UX’ increased popularity, gained recognition and prior research efforts, organizations and companies still encounter challenges when trying to embrace this change to offer customers more than just a system that ‘works’. Much recognition has gone to the UX field of late, however organizations that lack knowledge, strategies or personnel can often feel powerless. Therefore, we set out to explore what an in-house IT-department without UX practitioners perceived as challenges when integrating UX work and practices. We conducted interviews with developers and project managers within an IT-department to get their opinions. In our study, we identified factors that seem to play a part when integrating UX – such as communication, UX maturity, prioritization and attitudes. Based on these findings, we visualized these factors in what we call a maturity map.

This project explores the question of how to support women living with endometriosis in the transition into live with a chronic condition while maintaining the best possible quality of life. Design process was planned out and exercises in four steps - preparations and background research (outlining well-being perspective, desk research, research online via social media), design research (multiple surveys, interviews, reflections online, co-creation sessions, probing, interviews following probing with co-creation sessions, ideation sessions, analysis), explorations (creation of directions, analysis, initial concepts creation, feedback, synthesis, design proposal, feedback and evaluation sessions, design improvements) and final design proposal. Activities were aiming to repeatedly open up the scope of the project and then through the analysis of each phase narrow it down again following diamond shape. One important aspect of the process was to engage women living with endometriosis as well as their loved ones throughout the whole process and design together instead of designing for them. Of course, experts were consulted as well to make sure project is following standards of medical care, but the primary focus on the users was important since the product was shaped rather as a lifestyle change facilitator as well as data collection tool rather than a strictly medical solution. The outcome of the project is a flexible system VEA serving as a transition kit for women diagnosed with endometriosis, but also early detection screening tool and awareness platform for those who haven’t been diagnosed yet. Even though this might seem complicated I’ll try to explain why only this kind of a multifaceted approach can fully support women in their journey toward their best possible quality of life. VEA allows users to access Habit Nooks supporting them in introducing changes while guided by experts and supported by the community. Physical tracker allowing to track symptoms together with the Data Dashboard allow users to explore data patterns and make informed decisions. The system gives also an opportunity to get in touch with experts via calls or structured long-term programs. Beside the design proposal project was closed with a series of reflection touching on the bias in a medical field and how it might affect healthcare design, as well as designer’s experience of working on a project with a personal relevance.

This project explores the future of podcasting as a digital audio media format for stories. As podcasts continue to grow in popularity the medium becomes more and more influential amongst all age groups. Unfortunately, existing solutions do not give enough attention to all possible aspects of the medium. Podcasts carry an untapped potential as they are often treated similarly to music files. This project consists of a platform, Cast3, with two separate products directed to listeners and creators of audio stories. The platform gives users a possibility to connect with similar minded people around specific topics through clubs. Inspiration and Method To understand the needs of listeners and creators of the stories, I immersed myself with the storytelling world and conducted a thorough research with conversations with both users groups, opportunities evaluations and concepts testing. The insights gathered during the research brought the conclusion that both listeners and creators tend to want more involvement and have stronger community gathered around audio stories. That is why the project’s goal is to form an audio story community for listeners and creators, where they connect through similar interests and share inspiring content. Result The final outcome of the project consists of a platform Cast3 that has 2 separate products directed to listeners and creators of audio stories. The platform gives users a possibility to connect with similar minded people around specific topics through clubs. The clubs are the spaces where listeners can exchange information, discover new content through a word of mouth and bond with the creators through live shows. The creators’ needs are supported through specialised tools that help to record stories and help to learn more about the listeners. The users of the platform can interact with audio stories through a redefined media format called freecasting. The new format improves a listening experience and respond to presently existing needs of listeners as well as creators.

The overall purpose of this project is to develop an immersive storytelling experience that connects with both physical and social environment. To be specific, it focuses on the old prison in Umeå which was closed in 1981 and nowadays serves as a hotel. There are abundant historical materials related to the old prison preserved, and how might we transform such textual, historical information into relatively interactive experience. By collaborating with Hotell Gamla Fängelset ( Umeå’s Prison Hotel ), the result turns out to be an application in combination with augmented reality (AR), to build a guided tour that brings history to life at Umeå’s Prison Hotel. The tour not only demonstrates the plight of the prisoners, but also showcases the reform to humanized treatment over time, at the end linking back to the cozy hotel where the guests are staying. After users experience the tour application, it stimulates people’s imagination of the prisoners’ story and raises their awareness towards the cultural heritage that has always been forgotten.

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a process in Scania carried out to understand the root cause of vehicle breakdowns. It is commonly done by studying vehicle warranty claims and failure reports, identifying patterns that are correlated to the breakdowns, and then analyzing the root cause based on those findings. Vehicle usage is believed to be one of the factors that may contribute towards the breakdowns, but the data on vehicle usage is not commonly utilized in RCA. This thesis investigates a way to help RCA process by introducing a dataset of vehicle usage based on position data gathered in project FUMA (Fleet telematics big data analytics for vehicle Usage Modeling and Analysis). A user-centered design process of a visualization tool which presents FUMA data for people working in RCA process was carried out. Interviews were conducted to gain insights about the RCA process and generate design ideas. PACT framework was used to organize the ideas, and Use Cases were developed to project a conceptual scenario. A low fidelity prototype was developed as design artifact for the visualization, and a formative test was done to validate the design and gather feedback for future prototyping iterations. In each design phase, more insights about how visualization of vehicle usage should be used in RCA were obtained. Based on this study, the prototype design showed a promising start in visualizing vehicle usage for RCA purpose. Improvement on data presentation, however, still needs to be addressed to reach the level of practicality required in RCA. / Root cause analysis (RCA) är en process på Scania som används för att förstå rotorsaken till fordons behov av reparation.Oftast studeras fordonets försäkringsrapporter och felrapporter, för att identifiera och analysera mönster som motsvarar de olika behoven för reparation. Fordonsanvändningen tros vara en av de faktorer som bidrar till reparationsbehoven, men data angående detta används sällan i RCA. Denna rapport undersöker hur RCA-processen kan dra nytta av positionsdata som samlats in i projekt FUMA (Fleet telematics big data analytics for vehicle Usage Modeling and Analysis). En användarcentrerad designmetodik har använts för att ta fram ett visualiseringsverktyg som presenterar FUMA-data för personer som deltar i RCA-processen. Intervjuer har genomförts för att samla insikter om RCA-processen och för att generera designidéer. PACT-ramverket användes sedan för att organisera idéerna, och användningssituationer togs fram för att skapa ett konceptuellt scenario. En low-fidelity prototyp togs fraför personer som deltar i RCA-processenm som en designartefakt för visualiseringen och ett utvecklande test genomfördes för att validera designen och samla in feedback för framtida iterationer av prototyping. Under varje design-fas, samlades mer insikter om hur visualiseringen av fordonsanvändning skulle kunna användas för RCA in. Baserat på detta, visade design-prototypen en lovande start för visualisering av fordonsanvändning i RCA. Förbättringar på hur data presenteras måste dock genomföras, så att rätt genomförbarhet för RCA uppnås.

Despite advances made in modern electronic devices, their use by older people is significantly lower than for younger people. They experience difficulties using devices due to a combination of physical, cognitive and ‘generational’ differences. Many studies try to adapt devices to make them more usable, but they do not consider how older people feel in terms of attitudes towards technology or their existing habits. Seven participants were interviewed about their current use of technology, as well as their attitudes to modern technology, and a personal inventory was created for each participant. The interviews generated themes relating to how participants feel that technology is not made for them, barriers to their use, and generational differences as well as arguments against modern technology use and perceived negative aspects of technology. Some design considerations were created and illustrated using features from the most commonly used devices that suited the interviewees’ attitudes, behaviours and opinions.

The HCI community is well aware of the gap between research and practice in the field. The issue is often discussed in terms of the applicability and adaption of theories and methods to the real world, but both categories seem insufficient for explaining how practitioners navigate the complexity of the problems they work on. This study takes a more fundamental perspective, inspired by theories of reflective practice and design. As a consequence, the attention is shifted to the framing of a problem that happens prior—or in parallel—to the use of theories and methods. Six case studies were collected through semi-structured interviews to investigate this position. The findings point towards a rather small set of techniques which are used for supporting the (re-)framing of a problem in an often pragmatic and informal way. A model locating the methods in their respective stages is proposed; and the methods are related to other research to suggest additional possibilities not mentioned by the participants of this study. What most clearly distinguished HCI practitioners from designers in other professions was their distrust in their own intuition, and the key role they attached to the user in response.

Software Engineering is a rapidly changing area, especially in terms of its technological foundation. The computer and information technology changes both the kind of systems to be built and the methods and tools available with which to build them. To be able to stay competitive there is no doubt that managing knowledge is very important to the corporate learning process. But even when companies are superior to their competitors technologically, they often find it hard to handle knowledge within the company. Knowledge is to know, to be aware of something. Knowledge that have been gained by action, by exercise of a profession, is the most valuable knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be expressed by words and numbers, while tacit knowledge is not easily expressed and thus hard to formalize and write down. This licentiate’s dissertation presents the results from efforts in communicating, measuring and preserving knowledge. Approaches for communicating knowledge to individuals with no or little knowledge within the software development domain are presented. Furthermore, experiences regarding knowledge management at team level (small group) are presented. Our study show that knowledge is hard to measure, and thus difficult to preserve in text or number format. Instead, we propose that you should build social networks and rely more on oral communication.

Mobile handheld devices have become friends in people’s daily lives. Frequent usage of available applications, especially video streaming, causes exponential growth in mobile IP traffic. Service providers and application developers need to know the tradeoff between the end-to-end (e2e) performance and cost since, not fully met expectations of customers from those applications cause reduced usage of services, revenue, and growth in the churn rate. The user-centric approach, which involves users into the assessment of the performance of a particular service or application, has become important within the inter-disciplinary research field Quality of Experience (QoE). The ultimate goal is to obtain simplified QoE models on particular applications based on the underlying network-based performance metrics as well as other non-technical metrics related to the end-user. Android smartphones that use open-source code and well-documented Application Programming Interfaces (API), facilitate researchers to do low-level and network-based performance analysis on end-user mobile devices while considering user feedback. In this thesis, the influential factors for Android smartphone-based QoE are studied. The relation between the quantified user-perceived QoE metric, i.e., Mean Opinion Score (MOS), and the artifacts in real-time video streaming such as blockiness and jerkiness caused by network-level metrics, e.g., Packet Delay Variation (PDV), Maximal Burst Size (MBS), and video bit rate are identified. Challenges in assessing the user-perceived QoE of video with the focus on memory effects are discussed. The relation between the objective metric of user reaction time and the user-perceived QoE is presented. Furthermore, different methods to assess end-user-perceived QoE such as Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), Experience Sampling Method (ESM), and preliminary online survey are described. Further influential factors, e.g., context, user routines, user lifestyle, and Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as Round Trip Time (RTT) and Server Response Time (SRT), are studied. The thesis is concluded with preliminary findings that relate the instantaneous total power consumption to the jerkiness of a real-time video stream with evidences such as stalling events.