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Chatbots are the new kind of technique for organizations to implement in their operations. Although chatbots have been around for a while they have spiked in the last few years. With this new technique also comes new ways for users to interact and communicate with the organizations. The traditional usability tests do not fully cover the chatbots characteristics and new methods must be created. This paper will create an evaluation model based on chatbots and theories about usability testing and apply the evaluating method to three commercial chatbots and their interaction with a user. The result shows that the evaluation model in some ways was successful and fulfilled its purpose while further research and development is necessary for the model to perform as desired.

Usability guidelines for user interface (UI) design formulated by Nielsen and other authorities were used to redesign the web interface for a web based distance education course. The website's original UI, as judged by a group of web design professionals, violated standard guidelines for usability, readability, learnability, consistency, efficiency of use and flexibility. The original and redesigned UIs were tested using thinking aloud testing, a user satisfaction survey, and usability inspection. The results of user testing and heuristic evaluation suggest that the use of these guidelines in website redesign had a positive impact on user performance. A more conclusive result would have required a larger sample size and a redesigned testing protocol that varied the order in which participants worked with the old and redesigned interfaces.

Research in the field of Computer Aided Design (CAD) has long focused on reducing the time and effort required of engineers to define three dimensional digital product models. Parametric, feature-based modeling with inter-part associativity allows complex assembly designs to be defined and re-defined while maintaining the vital part-to-part interface relationships. The top-down modeling method which uses assembly level control structures to drive child level geometry has proved valuable in maintaining these interfaces. Creating robust parametric models like these, however, is very time consuming especially since there can be hundreds of features and thousands of mathematical expressions to create. Even if combinations of low-level features, known as User-Defined Features (UDFs), are used, this process still involves inserting individual features into individual components and creating all of the inter-part associativities by hand. This thesis shows that programmatic operations designed for a specific product type can streamline the assembly and component-level design process much further because a single programmatic operation can create an unlimited number of low-level features, modify geometry in multiple components, create new components, establish inter-part expressions, and define inter-part geometry links. Results from user testing show that a set of high-level programmatic operations can offer savings in time and effort of over 90% and can be general enough to support user-specified interface layouts and component cross sections while leaving the majority of the primary design decisions open to the engineer.

The demand for transparency within the fashion industry is rising, and retailers are under mounting pressure to become more sustainable. This pressure comes from both consumers becoming more aware of their carbon footprint and from new laws and regulations worldwide. However, the concept green gap indicates that consumers do not behave according to their attitudes. Also, interpreting sustainable related data, such as the amount of emitted CO2e gases, seems to be complex and challenging for consumers to comprehend. This master's thesis aims to get insight into issues regarding how retailers currently gather and communicate sustainability data. Further, this thesis explores how this data can be communicated to consumers through data visualization and user interface design. Thematic analysis is applied to data from interviews with companies and retailers. The results of these interviews point to key issues such as resistance against transparency, lack of an industry standard, and complex product life cycles. A number of prototypes are created and designed to inform users about the environmental impacts of garments and their shopping habits. The results from user tests could not measure behavioral changes. However, the tests pointed to the importance of transparent data, abstraction level in the design of environmental impact graphs, and providing context to data for users to be able to act upon.

Energy feedback systems have the potential to support households in utilizing their energy more efficiently and making sustainable decisions. However, the feedback must be carefully designed and delivered to resonate with the individual and change behavioral patterns. This thesis investigates the prerequisites needed to increase awareness and engagement of energy usage and presents a prototype of an energy feedback mobile application. The requirements were found through a qualitative study where eleven households of GodEl with varying characteristics participated in semi-structured interviews. The responses were analyzed through thematic analysis and contributed to a deeper understanding of an energy feedback system’s user needs and requirements. A prototype was created aiming to meet the needs and requirements found. Results suggest that households respond to feedback individually. However, the data presented in the system must be reliable, relatable, and assist the user in decision-making to accommodate the individual needs of each household. Evaluation through user testing reveals that the prototype would increase the users’ knowledge and awareness. However, the prototype’s effect on behavioral changes could not be confirmed without letting the users test the system over some time in a real-world context.

The Swedish fire department have been wanting a robot that can be sent to situations where it’s too dangerous to send in firefighters. A teleoperated vehicle is being developed for exactly this purpose. This thesis has its base in research that previously has been conducted within Human-Robot Interaction and interface design for teleoperated vehicles. In this study, a prototype was developed to be able to simulate the experience of driving a teleoperated vehicle. It visualised the intended interface of the operator and simulated the operating experience. The development followed a User-Centered Design process and was evaluated by users. After the final evaluation a design proposal, based on previous research and user feedback, was presented. The study discusses the issues discovered when designing an interface for a teleoperated vehicle that uses two cameras for maneuvering. One challenge was how to fully utilize the two video feeds and create an interplay between them. The evaluations showed that users could keep better focus with one larger, designated main feed and the second one being placed where it can be easily glanced at. Simplicity and were to display sensor data were also shown to be important aspects to consider when trying to lower the mental load on the operator. Further modifications to the vehicle and the interface has to be made to increase the operators awareness and confidence when maneuvering the vehicle. / Det svenska brandförsvaret har varit i behov utav en robot som kan användas i situationer där det är för riskfyllt att skicka in brandmän. Ett radiostyrt fordon håller på att utvecklas för exakt detta syfte. Detta arbete baseras på den forskning som tidigare genomförts inom Människa-Datorinteraktion och gränssnitts-design för radiostyrda fordon. I denna studie utvecklades en prototyp för att simulera känslan av att köra ett radiostyrt fordon. Det visualiserade det tänka gränssnitten för operatören och simulerade körupplevelsen. Utvecklingen skedde genom en Användarcentrerad designprocess och utvärderades med hjälp utav användare. Efter den slutgiltiga utvärderingen så presenterades ett designförslag som baserades på tidigare forskning och användarnas återkoppling. Studien diskuterar de problem som uppstår när man designar ett gränssnitt för ett radiostyrt fordon som använder två kameror för manövrering. En utmaning var hur man kan till fullo utnyttja de två kamerabilderna och skapa ett samspel mellan dem. Utvärderingarna visade att användarna kunde hålla bättre fokus med en större, dedikerad kamerabild och en mindre sekundär kamerabild som enkelt kan blickas över. Enkelhet och var sensordata placeras, visade sig också var viktiga aspekter för att minska den mentala påfrestningen för operatören. Vidare modifikationer på fordonet och gränssnittet behöver genomföras för öka operatörens medvetenhet och självförtroende vid manövrering.

Embedded in the quilt top, the fabric patches are relays, time pathways to stories and memories of their former owners. Through the quilts, the voices of the past survive. The stories trace a path of connection between oral traditions, storytelling, the invention of meaning, and the preservation of cultural memory. The theory and method described herein use the quilt patchwork metaphor as the basis for a web interface for designing and modeling knowledge-based graphical, narrative, and multimedia data. More specifically, the method comprises a digital storytelling and knowledge management tool that allows one or more users to create, save, store, and visually map or model digital stories. The method creates a digital network of a community's stories for digital ethnography work. Digital patches that represent the gateway to the stories of an individual are pieced together into a larger quilt design, creating a visual space that yields the voices of its creators at the click of a mouse. Through this narrative mapping, users are able to deal with complexity, ambiguity, density, and information overload. The method takes the traditional quilt use and appropriates it into a digital apparatus so that the user is connected to multiple points of view that can be dynamically tried out and compared. The hypertextual quilting method fulfills the definition of a deconstructive hypertext and emancipatory social science research methodologies by creating a collaborative, polyvocal interface where users have access to the code, content and conduits to rewrite culture's history with subaltern voices. In this digital place of intertextuality, stories are juxtaposed with images in a montage that denies the authority of a single voice and refuses fixed meaning. In dialogue, contestation, and play, the digitextuality of the Digital Story Quilt provides a praxis for critical theory. The Digital Story Quilt method concerns itself with questions of identity, the processes through which these identities are developed, the mechanics of processes of privilege and marginalization and the possibility of political action through narrative performance against these processes.

Due to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information presentation (e.g., via which modalities) to capitalize on an individual operator's information processing capabilities and the inherent efficiencies associated with redundant sensory information, thereby alleviating information overload. The present effort addresses this issue by proposing a theoretical framework (Architecture for Multi-Modal Optimization, AMMO) from which multimodal display design guidelines and adaptive automation strategies may be derived. The foundation of the proposed framework is based on extending, at a functional working memory (WM) level, existing information processing theories and models with the latest findings in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and other allied sciences. The utility of AMMO lies in its ability to provide designers with strategies for directing system design, as well as dynamic adaptation strategies (i.e., multimodal mitigation strategies) in support of real-time operations. In an effort to validate specific components of AMMO, a subset of AMMO-derived multimodal design guidelines was evaluated with a simulated weapons control system multitasking environment. The results of this study demonstrated significant performance improvements in user response time and accuracy when multimodal display cues were used (i.e., auditory and tactile, individually and in combination) to augment the visual display of information, thereby distributing human information processing resources across multiple sensory and WM resources. These results provide initial empirical support for validation of the overall AMMO model and a sub-set of the principle-driven multimodal design guidelines derived from it. The empirically-validated multimodal design guidelines may be applicable to a wide range of information-intensive computer-based multitasking environments.

[pt] A adoção de modelos de inteligência artificial está alterando a relação entre organizações e consumidores e o volume de produtos digitais dependentes de dados pessoais cresce a cada dia. As políticas de privacidade são o principal instrumento de informação do cidadão sobre como suas informações serão tratadas por empresas com as quais se relaciona. Porém, atualmente, as interfaces destes instrumentos não comunicam de forma objetiva suas informações. O presente estudo demonstra que a aplicação de diretrizes de design nas políticas de privacidade promove uma experiência mais satisfatória e uma aquisição de informação mais rápida de seu conteúdo pelos usuários. A metodologia do estudo abarcou uma revisão bibliográfica, pesquisa documental, adaptação da escala Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns, teste de usabilidade e análise de conteúdo. Literaturas de direito e design foram relacionadas para identificar requisitos legais que poderiam ser melhor atendidos por meio do design, o nível de preocupação com a privacidade dos participantes foi verificado e um teste comparativo de usabilidade foi conduzido. Uma réplica da política do Facebook foi comparada à nova proposta, que contava com elementos que representavam diretrizes de design. Os dados mostraram redução no tempo para localização de informações e na taxa de erro entre os usuários que acessaram a nova proposta, assim como maior frequência de declarações positivas a respeito desta versão. A pesquisa contribui para a ampliação do conhecimento sobre a influência do design de interface na construção destes instrumentos ao esclarecer que a consideração de boas práticas deste campo facilita a aquisição de informação. / [en] The use of artificial intelligence models is changing the relationship between organizations and consumers, and the volume of digital products dependent on personal data is growing every day. Privacy policies are the primary tool for informing citizens about how their information will be handled by companies with which they interact. However, currently, the interfaces of these instruments do not objectively communicate their information. The present study demonstrates that the application of design guidelines in privacy policies promotes a more satisfactory experience and faster user acquisition of information from its content. The study methodology encompassed a bibliographical review, documentary research, adjustment of the Internet Users Information Privacy Concerns scale, usability testing, and content analysis. Literature from law and design fields could be interconnected to identify legal requirements that could be addressed more effectively through design, the level of privacy concern of the study s participants was verified, and a comparative usability test was conducted. A replica of Facebook s policy was compared to a new interface, which included elements that represented design guidelines. The data showed a reduction in the time to find information, the error rate among users who accessed the new proposal, and a higher frequency of positive statements regarding this version. This research enhances the understanding of how interface design affects the creation of such instruments by showing that following best practices in this area facilitates information acquisition.