Notifications are known to effectively improve the access to information and draw the users attention. Social media seems to be a popular domain for mobile users. The users seem to receive a lot of different notifications of social media. This is the reason why the data gathering source of this study is Instagram. The user experiences related to notifications are divided, as some people experience them as stressful and others seem to experience them as affirmative. The user experience depends on the context, content and what the notifications are triggered from. This study is done to identify the problems with the notification design. As a result, the study showed that the most common problems concern how the notification are shown to the users and its content. Suggestions of guidelines are created for future designers to improve the user experience of notifications.

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.

Les modèles d’aptitude et maturité de processus logiciel (AMPL) sont actuellement largement utilisés dans l’industrie. Pour exécuter les pratiques définies dans ces modèles, des approches d’ingénierie logicielle sont appliquées. On constate également une grande définition en termes de méthodes, techniques, patrons et normes pour l’analyse, la conception, la mise en œuvre et l’évaluation de systèmes interactifs, axés sur les questions d’Interaction Homme-Machine (IHM). Néanmoins, il est bien connu que les approches d’IHM ne sont pas largement utilisées dans l’industrie. Afin de profiter de l’utilisation des modèles AMPL, cette thèse propose d’intégrer les questions d’IHM (concepts de conception, mise en œuvre et évaluation de systèmes interactifs) dans le modèle international le plus connu (CMMI-DEV – Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) et dans le modèle brésilien (MR-MPS-SW – MPS for Software reference model). À cette fin, nous avons travaillé sur (i) l’identification des approches de l’IHM appropriées pour chaque pratique de l’ingénierie préconisée par ces modèles, (ii) l’évaluation et l’amélioration des approches de l’IHM identifiées avec des experts en IHM, (iii) la validation de la proposition dans un environnement académique, et (iv) la réalisation de deux études empiriques sur la perception de la connaissance et l’utilisation des approches de l’IHM dans l’industrie. En conséquence, nous avons obtenu 14 catégories d’approches de l’IHM avec des exemples de méthodes, techniques, patrons et normes propres à réaliser chaque pratique des activités d’ingénierie des deux modèles lors du développement de systèmes interactifs. De plus, l’étude empirique avec l’industrie brésilienne a confirmé statistiquement que les consultants de ces modèles AMPL ne connaissent et n’utilisent pas ou peu les approches de l’IHM, comme ils connaissent et utilisent des approches d’ingénierie logicielle. / Software process capability maturity (SPCM) models are currently widely used in industry. To perform the practices defined in these models, software engineering approaches are applied. We also have experienced a large definition of methods, techniques, patterns, and standards for the analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive systems focusing on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) issues. Nevertheless, it is well known that HCI approaches are not largely used in industry. In order to take advantage of the widespread use of SPCM models, this thesis proposes to integrate HCI issues (concepts of design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive systems) in the most known international SPCM model (CMMI-DEV – Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) and in the Brazilian SPCM model (MR-MPS-SW – MPS for Software reference model). To that end, we have worked on (i) the identification of appropriate HCI approaches for each practice of the engineering advocated by these models, (ii) the evaluation and improvement of the identified HCI approaches with HCI experts, (iii) the validation of the proposition in an academic environment, and (iv) the conduction of two empirical studies about the perception of knowledge and use of HCI approaches in the industry. As a result, we got 14 categories of HCI approaches with examples of methods, techniques, patterns, and standards adequate to perform each practice of engineering activities of the both models when developing interactive systems. Moreover, the empirical study, in Brazilian industry, confirmed statistically that consultants of those SPCM models do not know and do not use HCI approaches as well as they know and use software engineering approaches.

Les entrées et sorties unimodales dans les systèmes actuels ont atteint une maturité reconnue, avec les applications tactiles ou par les services distribués pour la géo-localisation ou la reconnaissance de la parole, du son ou l’'image. Cependant, l'intégration et l’instanciation de toutes ces modalités, manque d’une gestion intelligente du contexte d’acquisition et de restitution basée sur des notions fortement formalisées mais reflétant le sens commun. Ceci demande un comportement plus dynamique du système avec une approche plus adéquate pour gérer l'environnement de l'utilisateur. Cependant,la technologie nécessaire pour atteindre un tel objectif n’est pas encore disponible de façon standardisée, tant au niveau des descriptions fonctionnelles des services unimodaux que de leur description sémantique. Ceci est aussi le cas pour les architectures multimodales, où la composante sémantique est produite par chaque projet sans un accord commun pour assurer l’interoperabilité et est souvent limitée au traitement des entrées et sorties ou aux processus de fusion/fission strictement nécessaires au projet.Pour combler cette lacune, nous proposons une approche sémantique orientée services pour une architecture multimodale générique qui vise à améliorer la description et la découverte des composants de modalité pour les services d'assistance: l'architecture SOA2m. Cette architecture se veut entièrement focalisée sur la multimodalité et enrichie avec des technologies sémantiques car nous croyons que cette orientation permettra d'enrichir le comportement autonome des applications multimodales, avoir une perception robuste des échanges, et contrôler l'intégration sémantique. / Unimodal inputs and outputs in current systems have become very mature with touch applications or distributed services for geo-localization or speech, audio and image recognition. However, the integration and instantiation of all these modalities, lack of an intelligent management of the acquisition and restitution context, based on highly formalized notions reflecting common sense. This requires a more dynamic behavior of the system with a more appropriate approach to manage the user environment.However, the technology required to achieve such a goal is not yet available in a standardized manner, both in terms of the functional description of unimodal services and in terms of their semantic description. This is also the case for multimodal architectures, where the semantic management is produced by each project without a common agreement in the field to ensure inter-operability, and it is often limited to the processing of inputs and outputs or fusion / fission mechanisms. To fill this gap, we propose a semantic service-oriented generic architecture for multimodal systems. This proposal aims to improve the description and the discovery of modality components for assistance services: this is the architecture SOA2m. This architecture is fully focused on multimodality and it is enriched with semantic technologies because we believe that this approach will enhance the autonomous behavior of multimodal applications, provide a robust perception of the user-system exchanges, and help in the control of the semantic integration of the human-computer interaction.As a result, the challenge of discovery is addressed using the tools provided by the field of the semantic web services

La théorie de l'information a influencé un grand nombre de domaines scientifiques depuis son introduction par Claude Shannon en 1948. A part la loi de Fitts et la loi de Hick, qui sont apparus lorsque les psychologues expérimentaux étaient encore enthousiastes à l'idée d'appliquer la théorie de l'information aux différents domaines de la psychologie, les liens entre la théorie de l'information et l'interaction humain-machine (IHM) ont été peu explorés. L'objectif de cette thèse est de combler le fossé entre la théorie de l'information et l'IHM en considérant que l'interaction entre les humains et les machines peut être considérée comme un processus de communication et peut donc être caractérisée à l'aide des concepts de la théorie de l'information. Les trois principales contributions de cette thèse sont : (1) une perspective historique détaillée sur la manière dont la théorie de l'information a influencé la psychologie et l'IHM, avec en particulier une discussion approfondie et une analyse de la pertinence de la loi de Hick pour l'IHM, (2) le cadre formel Gain d'Information Bayésienne (BIG pour Bayesian Information Gain) qui quantifie et exploite les informations envoyées par l'utilisateur à l'ordinateur pour exprimer son intention et (3) une illustration des avantages de l'utilisation des mesures de la théorie de l'information pour évaluer la performance des entrées et pour caractériser une tâche d'interaction. Cette thèse démontre ainsi que la théorie de l'information peut être utilisée comme un outil unifié pour comprendre et concevoir la communication et l'interaction humain-machine. / Information theory has influenced a large number of scientific fields since its first introduction in 1948. Apart from Fitts' law and Hick's law, which came out when experimental psychologists were still enthusiastic about applying information theory to various areas of psychology, the relation between information theory and human-computer interaction (HCI) has rarely been explored. This thesis strives to bridge the gap between information theory and HCI by taking the stance that human-computer interaction can be considered as a communication process and therefore can be characterized using information-theoretic concepts. The three main contributions are: (1) a detailed historical perspective on how information theory influenced psychology and HCI, particularly an in-depth discussion and analysis of how relevant Hick's law is to HCI; (2) a Bayesian Information Gain (BIG) framework that quantifies the information sent by the user to the computer to express her intention; and (3) a further illustration of the advantages of using information-theoretic measures to evaluate input performance and to characterize the rich aspects of an interaction task. This thesis demonstrates that information theory can be used as a unified tool to understand and design human-computer communication.

This technical report presents the data and some results of the experimental research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (Kansei Engineering), undertaken jointly by Technische Universität Chemnitz (Germany) and Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia) in Feb- March 2016. In the experiment, 82 Master and Bachelor students of both universities evaluated 21 website of selected German and Russian universities per 10 emotional and 5 quality scales.

The study examines the differences between women’s and men’s perception of visual aesthetics on Pinterest. Therefore, we have chosen to examine the visual aesthetics through the lens of simplicity, diversity, colour and craftmanship. The purpose of the study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the perception of visual aspects between men and women on the social media platform Pinterest. As society grows and develops on a variety of levels, we humans must increasingly adapt to a higher pace of life. A higher pace of life can mean that we as humans are forced to have a greater focus on where we spend our time and what we choose to focus our attention on. This indicates that people in today's society and in their everyday lives must decide which social media they choose to pay attention to. We ask ourselves the question: How do people do when they must distribute time and attention over social media? What factors drive these decisions? Are men and women attracted to different factors? After studying the results, we were able to conclude that female participants valued Pinterest as less aesthetically pleasing than the male participants did. Finally, we would like to point out that even though the majority of users are women on Pinterest, our study shows that men value the visual aesthetics higher than women.

Information technology (IT) investment decision makers are required to process large volumes of complex data. An existing body of knowledge relevant to IT portfolio management (PfM), decision analysis, visual comprehension of large volumes of information, and IT investment decision making suggest Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and hypervariate display techniques can reduce cognitive load and improve decision confidence in IT PfM decisions. This dissertation investigates improving the decision confidence by reducing cognitive burden of the decision maker through greater comprehension of relevant decision information. Decision makers from across the federal government were presented with actual federal IT portfolio project lifecycle costs and durations using hypervariate displays to better comprehend IT portfolio information more quickly and make more confident decisions. Other information economics attributes were randomized for IT portfolio projects to generate Balanced Scorecard (BSC) values to support MCDM decision aids focused on IT investment alignment with specific business objectives and constraints. Both quantitative and qualitative measures of participant comprehension, confidence, and efficiency were measured to assess hypervariate display treatment and then MCDM decision aid treatment effectiveness. Morae Recorder Autopilot guided participants through scenario tasks and collected study data without researcher intervention for analysis using Morae Manager. Results showed improved comprehension and decision confidence using hypervariate displays of federal IT portfolio information over the standard displays. Both quantitative and qualitative data showed significant differences in accomplishment of assigned IT portfolio management tasks and increased confidence in decisions. MCDM techniques, incorporating IT BSC, Monte Carlo simulation, and optimization algorithms to provide cost, value, and risk optimized portfolios improved decision making efficiency. Participants did not find improved quality and reduced uncertainty from optimized IT portfolio information. However, on average participants were satisfied and confident with the portfolio optimizations. Improved and efficient methods of delivering and visualizing IT portfolio information can reduce decision maker cognitive load, improve comprehension efficiency, and improve decision making confidence. Study results contribute to knowledge in the area of comprehension and decision making cognitive processes, and demonstrate important linkages between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support IT PfM decision making.

Cette thèse traite des interfaces utilisateur tangibles (TUI). La première partie de ce manuscrit concerne l'interaction tangible sur table interactive. Nous introduisons tout d'abord les TUIs et les tables interactives. Nous validons une hypothèse concernant la spécialisation de la forme des interacteurs tangibles et nous en tirons les conséquences pour la conception des TUIs. Nous proposons une solution de boîtier à boutons pour y déporter certaines opérations dans le contexte d'une TUI sur table interactive. Nous abordons la construction et le développement d'un système de tables interactives tangibles transportables et à faible coût permettant de faire du prototypage rapide de TUIs. Nous terminons en soulignant les particularités de l'évaluation expérimentale des TUIs. La seconde partie de ce manuscrit traite un cas d'application d'une TUI pour les géosciences : GeoTUI. Nous commençons par présenter le contexte métier des géophysiciens et leurs besoins en terme de nouveaux moyens d'interaction. Nous présentons les résultats de notre conception d'une TUI pour les géosciences. Nous précisons le détail du développement de notre prototype. Pour terminer, nous présentons les deux expérimentations utilisateurs qui ont été conduites pour valider nos choix de conception. / This thesis focuses on tangible user interfaces (TUI). The first part of this manuscript is about tangible interaction on tabletop. We first introduce TUIs and tabletops. We validate an hypothesis about the specialization of the form of the tangible objects, and conclude from that consequences on TUIs design. We propose the solution of a button box to deport some operations in the context of tabletop TUI. We present the construction and development of a transportable and low cost tabletop TUI system that allows rapid TUI prototyping. We end pointing out the special features of user experiments of TUIs. The second part of this manuscript deals with an application case of a TUI for geoscience: GeoTUI. We start presenting the context of the geophysicists work and their need in term of new way of interation. We present the results of our design of a TUI for geoscience. We detail the development of our prototype. To finish, we present two user experiments we conducted to validate our design choices.

Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) has been recommended for patients in the National Health Service (NHS) Primary Care across the United Kingdom for management of mild to moderate anxiety and depression. This approach also promises financial savings, and may fill the gap between demand and supply of face-to-face therapy. Studies have shown that CCBT is feasible and effective. However, dropout rates can be as high as 86%, but the reasons remain unclear and the information available is limited. This thesis explores factors that may impact on the usability and user experience of this computer-mediated therapy. Espousing the “real world” research philosophy and widely used methods in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field for usability evaluations, four studies using a mixed-methods design were conducted. Study I was an online usability survey, which investigated if usability evaluations had been conducted for CCBT applications. Two versions of questionnaires were sent to four CCBT software developers and ten authors of randomised controlled trials. The categories and responses of the questionnaires gathered from five respondents were reviewed and summarised. The findings suggested that usability evaluations for CCBT were still in their infancy when compared to other healthcare interventions to which HCI approaches have been widely applied. Study II was a usability Heuristic Evaluation (HE) conducted with four expert evaluators to assess two different CCBT applications’ interfaces (MoodGYM and Living Life to the Full) against the self-designed usability heuristics for their compliance. The findings revealed numerous usability issues. Major problems related to navigation and inconsistency of the interfaces were identified. These could be rectified to enhance the user experience. Study III focused on other factors besides usability that might have an influence on the effective use of CCBT. Perceptions of service providers who were involved in both decision-making about CCBT availability and supporting its use were gathered. Nine service providers at different NHS organisations were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using techniques from Grounded Theory (GT). The findings suggested that the practitioners’ attitudes towards CCBT might have affected its service delivery. Four categories from the data analysis were identified: (1) shaping behaviour, (2) implementing and delivering, (3) making an appropriate referral, and (4) technology/CCBT packages - advancing with time. A conceptual model was also generated, “building support around CCBT”: a road-map that could address some of these issues. Study IV examined patients’ perceptions and acceptance of a CCBT application (Beating the Blues), its usability and the user experience, and also whether the user characteristics (e.g. computer experience (CE) and computer self-efficacy (CSE)) had any influence on patients’ use of this technology. A mixed-methods approach was utilised with a sample of 33 participants. Face-to-face and email interviews were conducted. Feedback was also gathered from a usability questionnaire and think-aloud protocol with seven participants selected from the sample. The data were analysed using Thematic and Saliency Analysis to uncover themes. Descriptive statistics were used to describe data from questionnaires. Two overarching themes from the interviews were identified: (1) access to CCBT services, and (2) perceptions and attitudes towards CCBT. Both themes revealed issues which might have significantly impacted on patients’ engagement with CCBT. Numerous flaws were also discovered in the application’s design and functionality (e.g. navigation, aesthetics, relevance of content, and inflexibility). However, the results from CE and CSE questionnaires suggested that participants were confident in using this technology. The four studies provided an in-depth understanding of factors that affect the usability and user experience of CCBT and possible reasons for the high attrition rates. The implications of this research point to the need for health policymakers to focus on the current implementation issues and on how best to deploy this treatment therapy to patients. Further development of CCBT is pivotal to its success, in particular, expanding contexts of use and increasing usability evaluations. Keeping users interested and engaged will improve treatment efficiency, completion rates and will achieve better clinical outcomes.