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Analogy is ubiquitous in human cognition. One of the important questions related to understanding the situated nature of analogy-making is how people retrieve source analogues via their interactions with external environments. This dissertation studies interactive analogical retrieval in the context of biologically inspired design (BID). BID involves creative use of analogies to biological systems to develop solutions for complex design problems (e.g., designing a device for acquiring water in desert environments based on the analogous fog-harvesting abilities of the Namibian Beetle). Finding the right biological analogues is one of the critical first steps in BID. Designers routinely search online in order to find their biological sources of inspiration. But this task of online bio-inspiration seeking represents an instance of interactive analogical retrieval that is extremely time consuming and challenging to accomplish. This dissertation focuses on understanding and supporting the task of online bio-inspiration seeking. Through a series of field studies, this dissertation uncovered the salient characteristics and challenges of online bio-inspiration seeking. An information-processing model of interactive analogical retrieval was developed in order to explain those challenges and to identify the underlying causes. A set of measures were put forth to ameliorate those challenges by targeting the identified causes. These measures were then implemented in an online information-seeking technology designed to specifically support the task of online bio-inspiration seeking. Finally, the validity of the proposed measures was investigated through a series of experimental studies and a deployment study. The trends are encouraging and suggest that the proposed measures has the potential to change the dynamics of online bio-inspiration seeking in favor of ameliorating the identified challenges of online bio-inspiration seeking.

Företag som bedriver handel via nätet på sajter som inriktar sig mot privatpersoner satsar idag mycket på att utvecklas för att på bästa sätt stödja kunden mot sitt mål. Dock har företag som inriktar sig mot andra företag (B2B-business to business) inte hängt med i samma utsträckning. Den här rapporten syftade till att undersöka hur man kan arbeta för att ta fram ett designförslag på en B2B-sajt, närmare bestämt vilka metoder och teorier man kan dra nytta av. Metoder och teorier som har använts är effektkartläggning, Coopers målinriktade designmetod, Nielsens designprinciper för användbarhet och information foraging. Arbetet resulterade i en prototyp kring vilken en diskussion fördes följt av slutsatsen att valet av metoder och teorier tycks vara en lämplig kombination vid utveckling av B2B-sajter men att ytterligare forskning krävs för att skapa en enhetlig metod.

Detaljhandeln har under en längre tid gjort en förflyttning från fysiska butiker till internetbaserad handel, så kallad e-handel. Sedan år 2020 har e-handeln ökat med 60 procent som följd av coronapandemin. Denna utveckling beror på att nya konsumenter har börjat handla via internet och att redan befintliga e-handelskunder har ökat inköpen, vilket medför att många idag är mer vana vid att handla online.  Det finns många olika typer av e-handelssidor. Den största andelen riktas direkt till konsumenter. Många webbplatser inom e-handeln har idag ett stort utbud av produkter, vilket leder till informationstunga menyer. Det ställer större krav på navigationsstrukturen och hittbarheten, då det påverkar användarnas upplevelse av interaktionen med systemet. Eftersom användare har olika strategier för att nå informationsmålen behöver e-handelssidor vara uppbyggda baserat på kunskapen om kategorisering av produkter och etiketter. Det måste också finnas förståelse för användarnas beteendemönster kring navigeringsstrategier, så att systemet hjälper användare att nå informationsmålen och ger en positiv användarupplevelse. Syftet med denna studie var att skapa kunskap och förståelse kring vilka faktorer inom e-handelns globala och lokala navigation, avseende UX och hittbarhet, som påverkar konsumenters användarupplevelse. Tidigare forskning påvisar att det kritiska designproblemet inte är att förse användare med så mycket information som möjligt utan att lättare kunna hitta rätt information. Hur människor navigerar på webben för att uppfylla informationsbehov är ofta genom att på kort tid erhålla så mycket väsentlig information som möjligt. Det förklarar i huvudsak varför de inte planlöst scrollar och klickar på länkar. Undersökningsmetoderna som har tillämpats i denna studie var kvalitativa användartester som observerades, följt av en SUS-utvärdering och kompletterande kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Användarstudien genomfördes vid ett datainsamlingstillfälle och metoderna ansågs lämpade för att ta reda på användarnas subjektiva erfarenheter, upplevelser, attityder och uppfattningar. Det kunde konstateras genom studien att olika faktorer påverkar användarupplevelsen både positivt och negativt. Det är individuellt hur användare navigerar på webbplatsen, tolkar etiketter samt vilka produkter de förväntas hitta under viss kategorisering. Ett generellt beteende kunde även påvisas gällande navigeringsstrategier, tolkning av etiketter och förväntningar på produkters placeringar som ofta grundades i en igenkänningsfaktor baserad på tidigare erfarenheter. / Retail has for a long time gone from physical stores to internet-based trade. In addition, e-commerce has expanded by 60 percent since 2020 as a result of the Corona pandemic. This development is partly due to the fact that new consumers have switched to shopping online, existing e-commerce customers have increased spending and that the habit of shopping online has increased. Today, there are many different types of e-commerce sites. The largest share is aimed directly at consumers. Many Websites in e-commerce today have a wide range of products, which leads to information-heavy menus. This requires greater demands on the navigation structure and findability as it affects the user experience of interacting with the system. Because users have different strategies for achieving their information goals, e-commerce Websites must be built based on the knowledge of categorizing products and labels. There must also be an understanding of users' behavioral patterns in their navigation strategies, so that the system helps to achieve the users information goals and provides a positive user experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors in e-commerce's global and local navigation, regarding UX and findability that affect consumers' experience. Previous research shows that the critical design problem is not to gather as much information as possible but rather finding the right information. The way people navigate the web to meet their information needs are often by obtaining as much essential information as possible in a short period of time. This mainly explains why they do not scroll and click on links aimlessly. The survey methods applied in this study were qualitative user tests that were observed, followed by a system usability scale (SUS), and supplementary qualitative semi-structured interviews. The user study was conducted at one data collection occasion and the methods were considered suitable to find out the users' subjective experiences, attitudes and perceptions. It could be ascertained through the study that various factors affect the user experience both positively and negatively. It is individual how the user navigates the website, interprets labels and which products they expect to find under a certain categorization. A general behavior could also be demonstrated regarding navigation strategies, interpretation of labels and expectations of product placement, which were often based on a recognition factor based on previous experience.

Internet portals are increasingly becoming a primary source of information. A portal is a gateway to information on the Internet or a hub from which users may locate relevant information (Strauss, 2000). Because university Web sites have various user classes, universities are beginning to adopt the portal concept for their Web sites. The study conducted aimed to determine the effect of tailoring information content and presentation style on a university Web portal. User ratings of information design on three metrics and user task performance measures of time and errors were compared for four prototypes. Three prototypes were built on the basis of user requirements and two Human-computer Interaction (HCI) theories and one was a replica of an existing academic information portal. The three metrics were derived from the HCI theories. The contributions of the study are a determination of user acceptance of and user performance with the tailored presentation styles and three metrics derived from HCI theories that can be used to compare alternative information presentation styles for portals. An important contribution is the remote data collection technique that was used in the study and a time-stamping technique that recorded clicks on hyperlinks. / Master of Science

In this dissertation, I examine how IT can support individuals, and in turn their organizations, in learning about and knowing their external environment on the Web. Specifically, I examine novel-knowledge discovery in the context of the multi-level organizational learning process, focusing on cognitive developments and changes to mental models. Novel knowledge is defined as knowledge that is potentially strategically important to the organization, not currently known to the organization, indirectly relevant and therefore difficult to find. Novel knowledge is proposed to be one of three different types of knowledge that organizations seek to discover in their environment. A theoretical framework is developed to identify the sets of tool characteristics, collectively referred to as levels, which are proposed to support the discovery of different types of knowledge, as well as different modes of learning and learning processes. In addition, extensions to the 4I organizational learning process model are proposed, specific to searching and learning on the Web: 1) adding a fifth process – information foraging and search-term development, and 2) adding a fourth level to the learning process – the machine-level. A competing theories approach is used to develop a rich understanding of knowledge discovery and learning on the Web. Understanding which types of tools are useful in different learning contexts has implications for learning effectiveness and may help firms understand how to “manage” their learning. Tools for the discovery of highly novel knowledge are less prevalent than tools to support the other levels of knowledge discovery. Accordingly, a design theory for novel-knowledge discovery tools is proposed based on organizational learning theories. An instantiation of the design theory, a novel-knowledge discovery tool, is developed and tested within the organizational learning process and compared to tools at the other two levels of knowledge discovery. In addition, different processes involved in using a novel-knowledge discovery tool at the group level are examined. Three separate studies were conducted, including a lab and field experiment, and case study. The results are proposed to demonstrate how novel-knowledge discovery tools can support organizational learning. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-26 09:25:31.367

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Η παρούσα διατριβή πραγματεύεται το πρόβλημα της αποτελεσματικής σχεδίασης ιστοτόπων που υποστηρίζουν την εύχρηστη διαδραστική αναζήτηση. Με τον όρο διαδραστική αναζήτηση περιγράφεται η διερευνητική αλληλεπίδραση ενός χρήστη με έναν ιστότοπο, με στόχο την εύρεση πληροφορίας στο πλαίσιο μίας εργασίας του, χωρίς τη χρήση διαδικτυακών μηχανών αναζήτησης. Η διατριβή εντάσσεται στην περιοχή της ευχρηστίας του Διαδικτύου και γενικότερα της μελέτης αλληλεπίδρασης ανθρώπου-υπολογιστή και ειδικότερα αλληλεπίδρασης χρηστών με πληροφορία. Ένας ιστότοπος είναι συχνά, όχι μόνο μια εφαρμογή με την οποία αλληλεπιδρά ο χρήστης αλλά και ένας πληροφοριακός χώρος, του οποίου η κατάλληλη δόμηση και διασύνδεση του περιεχομένου επηρεάζουν σε μεγάλο βαθμό την ευχρηστία του. Συνεπώς, η ανάπτυξη μεθοδολογιών για τον επιτυχή σχεδιασμό της πληροφοριακής αρχιτεκτονικής (information architecture) ενός ιστοτόπου παραμένει μία σημαντική σχεδιαστική πρόκληση. Η διατριβή προτείνει μία νέα μεθοδολογία σχεδιασμού και αξιολόγησης της πληροφοριακής αρχιτεκτονικής ιστοτόπων, τη MEDIAMIS (Methodology for the Efficient Design of Information Architectures based on Models of Interactive Search). Η συνεισφορά της έγκειται στο γεγονός ότι βελτιστοποιεί και συστηματοποιεί τη διαδικασία σχεδιασμού ή αξιολόγησης. Η MEDIAMIS είναι εμπνευσμένη από εδραιωμένες χρηστοκεντρικές τεχνικές και πρόσφατα μοντέλα της συμπεριφοράς των ανθρώπων κατά τη διαδραστική αναζήτηση. Η μεθοδολογία απευθύνεται σε μηχανικούς του Διαδικτύου και αποσκοπεί στη δημιουργία ιστοτόπων που υποστηρίζουν την εύχρηστη διαδραστική αναζήτηση από τους χρήστες τους. Προκειμένου να υποστηριχθεί η MEDIAMIS αναπτύχθηκαν δύο πρωτότυπα εργαλεία, το AutoCardSorter (Automated Card Sorting Tool) και το ISEtool (InfoScent Evaluator Tool). Το πρώτο υποστηρίζει τη διαδικασία δόμησης του περιεχομένου ενός ιστοτόπου, ενώ το δεύτερο τη δημιουργία σημασιολογικά κατάλληλων λεκτικών περιγραφών για τους υπερσυνδέσμους ενός ιστοτόπου. Τέλος, στο πλαίσιο της διατριβής, εξετάζεται η εγκυρότητα και αποδοτικότητα της MEDIAMIS και των υποστηρικτικών εργαλείων, μέσα από έξι πειραματικές μελέτες. Στις μελέτες αυτές συγκρίθηκαν εκτενώς τα αποτελέσματα της προτεινόμενης προσέγγισης με αυτά καθιερωμένων χρηστοκεντρικών τεχνικών και μετρικών της παρατηρούμενης συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών. Τα συμπεράσματα των μελετών έδειξαν ότι η MEDIAMIS παράγει αποτελέσματα εφάμιλλης ποιότητας με εδραιωμένες χρηστοκεντρικές τεχνικές, αλλά με σημαντικά αποδοτικότερο τρόπο. / This thesis addresses the problem of effective design of websites that enhance findability of information during interactive search. The term interactive search is used to describe the exploratory, goal−directed browsing activity of a user, while seeking information in a website. Seeking information using a search engine is not an object of study in this thesis. The thesis falls into the field of human computer interaction, and the subfields of Web usability and human information interaction. A website should be treated both as a user interface as well as a hypertext information space, whose structural design has a significant influence on intuitive access to content, task completion and overall user experience. In today’s information explosion, one of the biggest challenges in web design is the effective design of its information architecture. The latter constitutes the research objective of this thesis. The thesis proposes a new methodology to design and evaluate the information architecture of websites, the MEDIAMIS (Methodology for the Efficient Design of Information Architectures based on Models of Interactive Search). The contribution of the proposed approach is that is optimizes and systemizes the information architecture design or evaluation process. MEDIAMIS is inspired by established user-centered techniques and recent cognitive models of user’s interactive search behavior. MEDIAMIS is addressed to Web practitioners and deals with the design or evaluation of a website’s information structure and labeling system. In the context of the proposed methodology, two innovative tools have been developed. The first tool, AutoCardSorter (Automated Card Sorting Tool), supports the structural design of a website. The second tool, ISEtool (InfoScent Evaluator Tool), facilitates the production of semantically appropriate hyperlink labels for the typical goals of a website. The applicability of the proposed methodology and the effectiveness and efficiency of the associated tools were examined through six experimental studies. These studies compared both quantitavely and qualitatively the results of the proposed methodology against the ones derived from established user-centered design approaches, such as card sorting, and against observed and subjective user data. It was found that the proposed methodology lead to a substantial efficiency gain, without expense in the quality of results.