UX is a discipline which is gaining attraction and simultaneously changing. This study takes an exploratory approach into how UX practitioners adapt to this young and changing industry. The implications of this helps us understand their reality as well as potential areas for further research. To do this, data was collected in the form of interviews from working practitioners within the field and interpreted with thematic analysis. The contribution from analyzing the data revealed that UX practitioners are adapting by seeking knowledge from peers and other non-academic sources such as webinars and conferences, and they use this to adapt both to their environment as well as potential future areas. Other findings were the limitations in practice that UX practitioners struggle with on a day-to-day basis, and that these limitations could have a potential impact on why they seek knowledge.

Kommunikation är en förutsättning för att organisationer ska fungera och sätten att kommunicera på har utvecklats i takt med den tekniska utvecklingen. Med det stora utbudet av kommunikationskanaler som finns idag kan det vara svårt att veta vilken kommunikationskanal som lämpas i olika situationer. Den här rapporten baseras på en fallstudie där den upplevda kommunikationseffektiviteten tenderade att variera beroende på vilken kommunikationskanal som användes vid nyhetsspridning. Tidigare forskning har studerat hur valet av kommunikationskanal kan påverka kommunikationseffektiviteten ur olika perspektiv, men inte då informationstypen är en nyhet. Därför ansågs det intressant att studera hur olika kommunikationskanaler påverkar kommunikationseffektiviteten vid nyhetsspridning.   Syftet med studien var att lyfta fram och beskriva hur kommunikationskanaler påverkar den upplevda kommunikationseffektiviteten, när informationstypen är en nyhet. För att uppnå syftet skulle följande forskningsfråga besvaras:   Vilka för- och nackdelar upplever anställda med kommunikationskanaler gällande kommunikationseffektiveten vid nyhetsspridning på ett stort nationellt företag?   Teorier som användes för att uppnå syftet med studien var Media Richness Theory och Osgood och Schramms cirkulära kommunikationsmodell. Teorierna har använts för att förklara hur nyhetsspridning sker på fallföretaget och för att belysa och eventuellt förklara upplevda problem i samband med nyhetsspridningen.   Data samlades in genom tillämpning av en kvalitativ metod och utförandet av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Undersökningen visade att det upplevdes för- och nackdelar med samtliga kommunikationskanaler, samt att den upplevda kommunikationseffektiviteten tenderade att variera, beroende på vilken nyhetstyp som kommunicerades via kommunikationskanalerna. När resultatet ställdes mot forskningsfrågan och det teoretiska ramverket visade det sig att upplevda för- och nackdelar med kommunikationskanalerna, var kopplat till huruvida nyhetstypen är rutin- eller icke rutinmässig och hur den matchas med en rik eller fattig kommunikationskanal, vilket Media Richness Theory också förklarar.   Slutsatsen av studien visade att nyhetsspridning som sker face to face och via telefon möjliggör interaktion och förmedling av känslor i realtid, men där känslor inte upplevs förmedlas lika bra via telefon som face to face, de många signalerna kan dessutom upplevas som överväldigande. Mejl, anslagstavla och intranät är tidsmässigt effektivt och plats och tids oberoende i olika grad. Däremot är möjligheten till interaktion och förmedling av känslor begränsad. Resultatet tyder på att kommunikationskanalernas för- och nackdelar verkar vara kopplat till huruvida kommunikationskanalerna upplevs som lämpliga för att förmedla olika typer av nyheter. Rika kommunikationskanaler upplevs som effektiva för att förmedla icke rutinmässiga nyheter och mindre rika kanaler upplevs som effektiva för att förmedla rutinmässiga nyheter. / Communication is an important function within organizations and the ways of communicating have developed rapidly due to technological development, which can make it difficult to know which communication channel that is best to use in different situations. This report is based on a case study were the perceived communication efficiency tended to vary depending on which communication channel that was used. Previous research shows how the choice of communication channels can affect the communication efficiency, however, it does not show this from the perspective of news as an information type. Therefore, it was considered interesting to study how different communication channels affect the communication efficiency in terms of news distribution.   The aim of this study was to illustrate and describe how communication channels affect the perceived communication efficiency when the information that is transferred consists of news. To achieve this, the following research question would be answered:   What advantages and disadvantages do employees experience with communication channels regarding the communication efficiency for news distribution in a large national company?   Theories that have been applied in the study are Media Richness Theory and Osgood and Schramms circular communication model. Theories have been used to explain how news distribution takes place in the case company and to illustrate and possibly explain the problems that the company experience with news distribution.   Data was collected by applying a qualitative method in which semi-structured interviews have been used. The result shows that respondents experience both advantages and disadvantages with all the communication channels and that the perceived communication efficiency tended to vary depending on which kind of news. When the result was set against the research question and the theoretical framework, advantages and disadvantages that were experienced, turned out to be depending on if the news were routine or non-routine and how it was matched with a rich or poor communication channel, which Media Richness Theory also declare.    The conclusion of this study shows that news distribution through face to face and telephone enables direct interaction and transmission of emotions, however, emotions are not transmitted as well through telephone as face to face. The many signals can also be experienced as overwhelmingly. E-mail, intranet and signboard are effective in terms of time and are not as depending on time and space. In addition, the possibility of direct interaction and transmission of feelings is limited. The result indicates that advantages and disadvantages with the communication channels seems to be linked to whether the channel is perceived as suitable to transfer different kinds of news. Rich communication channels are perceived to be effective for transmitting non-routine news and poor channels are perceived to be effective for transmitting routine news.

Digitization of data offers more opportunities for future health and medicine care due to the availability of information technology in our everyday lives. Several studies have provided us with insights in designing persuasive eHealth services, but only a few studies have investigated the design of a persuasive eHealth application by using presently available smartphones and while including the target group. By pursuing an iterative design process, three smartphone application prototypes were created and tested with senior citizens by using cognitive walkthroughs, use case scenarios and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the target group involvement had positive influences on the design of the prototypes, with user insights uncovering setbacks and opportunities in the design. Thus, the study presents a set of primary characteristics for designing a persuasive eHealth application to be usable with smartphones and how the iterative design process with the involvement of senior citizens shaped the design.

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Technology has become ubiquitous in people’s everyday life. The number of websites and mobile applications available is growing, but so are various persuasive approaches to influence human behavior and decision-making in online environments. While designing for persuasion has many potential benefits, recent years have revealed different deceptive design techniques that utilize the understanding of psychological principles to nudge people in a desired direction. This thesis outlines and explores this phenomenon known as dark patterns, which favors business goals over user values. Practitioners have laid out many deceiving design strategies in the past, but it remains unclear how the end user perceives and experiences them. Therefore, a qualitative method approach was chosen to study the end users’ perspectives on the subject. The analysis of the data shows that even though there was some awareness, many manipulative techniques were unknown. Participants blame the businesses, remark however to be partly responsible for their own fate. In addition, the acceptability of such techniques shifts depending on the respective dark pattern.

Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka digitala verktyg ur ett genusperspektiv, hur pedagogerna förhåller sig till dessa två områden och hur genus konstrueras i mötet med de digitala verktygen. I studien har utgångspunkten varit forskning kring genusordning och socialkonstruktionismen som innebär att vi lär av och med varandra och att olika strukturer och normer påverkat vårat förhållningssätt till genus. Denna studie har grundat sig i intervjuer av sex personer och två observationstillfällen. Resultatet visade att det råder viss osäkerhet kring användningen av digitala verktyg vilket bidrar till en svårighet att använda dessa verktyg i genusarbetet. Pedagogerna visar på ett medvetet tänk kring genus genom intervjuerna men som i praktiken ibland faller i glömska, här kan tidigare erfarenheter styra hur de handlar. Resultatet visar hur det kan skilja sig i den digitala världen och den fysiska miljön i verksamheten. Avsaknaden av kompetens kring digitala verktyg gjorde att några av pedagogerna ansåg att de hade större nytta av en extra personal istället för att köpa in digitala verktyg.

This is a project exploring a possible future of embedded mobile augmented reality services in people's daily routine. The project was conduct- ed at Umeå Institute of Design as a MFA Thesis in Interaction Design. The constant development of technologies along- side with society’s increased usage of the mobile phone makes this medium more and more inter- esting amongst all age groups. The existing solu- tions focus on ways of communicating through short time interactions as well as on gameplays with a focus on storytelling. So far, these existing solutions are rarely implementing a service aspect for people's daily routine. The mobile augmented reality technology has the power to serve a variety of purposes, which are for now, not discovered. This lack of exploration creates challenges for the market and the user which leads to discourage in that medium. To understand the needs of the people and the language of the technology, I immersed myself into the augmentation of realities and conducted a thorough research with conversations with the target group and experts in the field, opportunity evaluations, and concepts testing. The insights gathered during the research brought the conclu- sion that the medium has the power to transfer knowledge by having the user experiencing rath- er than observing. This increases the chances of understanding and participating with information. This is why the project’s goal is to form a mobile AR service example, where the user feels motivat- ed to engage with their surroundings in their daily routine. The final outcome of the project consists of a plat- form which allows the user to explore the history of their current location. The platform is clustered in two areas. On the one hand a content library gathers information about explored locations. This information is displayed through a list and detail view of written information as well as through an immersive gallery. This gives the user the oppor- tunity to easily explore and share their discoveries with their communities. On the other hand an interactive map as well as a lens filter enables the user during their exploration to discover the infor- mation. Based on a data preview visualisation the user is able to create their own contextual digital gallery. This experience motivates the user to easily start discovering their location as well as building up routines based on that kind of interaction. This new service showcases possibilities to design for mobile AR as well as strengthen the relation be- tween the users and their environment.

Programming is currently being introduced as an obligatory part of the K-9 education in Sweden with the aim to strengthen pupils’ digital competence and prepare them with skills adapt for the 21st century. The challenge is now to successfully integrate programming as a tool for teaching and learning within existing practices. Teachers are expected to support their pupils learning about programming despite their own limited chance to acquire knowledge on the subject. The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket)has given some guidance but research on this area is rather limited and a lot is left to the teachers to decide and educate themselves in. Educational programming environments (EPEs), especially aimed at novices, can support teachers in this integration but needs to be suitable for the objectives from the Swedish school to not unintentionally direct the way teaching is done. This study aims to answer how an EPE should be designed to fit within the Swedish school context with a focus on the teachers’ perspective. To study this, seven interviews were conducted with educators in middle school with experience of working with programming in the classroom, followed by two observations during lectures with EPEs. The results provided implications that were used to form design guidelines for an EPE aimed at the Swedish school.

In a world dominated by digital technologies, user-centered design aims to ensure that the users are catered with solutions that deal with their needs. As agile methods have become a prevalent approach in software development, it is crucial for the two disciplines to work together. However, existing studies have already presented incompatibilities between the methods of the two disciplines. This study intends to investigate the impact that agile principles have on the adoption of user-centered approach on a broader scale through the many parties involved in the process. By conducting interviews with practitioners and interpreting the results through the lens of Engeström’s activity system model, the findings of the study reveal significant influences imposed on the user-centered approach by external and organizational factors that are intensified by the agile principles. Three main areas of concern are identified and accompanied by broad suggestions on how to approach resolving them, focusing on the empowerment of UX designers, accurate deliberation of the intentions and practices of user-centered approach, and close collaboration to raise awareness of the benefits of user-centered approach. Lastly, it is emphasized that the identified areas of concern – primarily the problematic impact from clients and executives – need further extensive research to provide definitive solutions.

nformation security (InfoSec) policies are widely used by institutions as a form of InfoSec control measure to protect their information assets. InfoSec policies are commonly documented in natural language, which is prone to ambiguity and misinterpretation, thereby making it hard, if not impossible, for users to comply with. These misinterpretations may lead the students or staff members to wrongfully execute the required actions, thereby making institutions vulnerable to InfoSec attacks. According to the literature review conducted in this work, InfoSec policy documents are often not followed or complied with; and the key issues facing InfoSec policy compliance include the lack of management support for InfoSec, organisational cultures of non-compliance, intentional and unintentional policy violation by employees (the insider threat), lack of policy awareness and training as well as the policy being unclear or ambiguous. This study is set in the higher education context and explores the extent to which the non-compliance problem is embedded within the policy documents themselves being affected by ambiguity. A qualitative method with a case study research strategy was followed in the research, in the form of an inductive approach with a cross-sectional time horizon, whereby a selection case of relevant institutional InfoSec policies were analysed. The data was collected in the form of academic literature and InfoSec policies of higher education institutions to derive themes for data analysis. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the policies, which identified ambiguity problems in the data. The findings indicated the presence of ambiguity within the policy documents, making it possible to misinterpret some of the policy statements. Formal methods were explored as a possible solution to the policy ambiguity. A framework was then proposed to address ambiguity and improve on the clarity of the semantics of policy statements. The framework can be used by policy writers in paying attention to the presence of ambiguity in their policies and address these when drafting or revising their policy documents. / School of Computing / M. Sc.(Computing)