Enterprises utilize information and communication technology, including websites, to market themselves and expand their businesses. However, employing this technology is not always a guarantee of success, especially for small enterprises. This is often due to limited resources and to the extent of having web skills present within the enterprise. Deciding who will design the website for a small enterprise is therefore of importance since a well designed website is a requirement to attract interest in visitors. The design of a website is also a main factor for the first impression to a visitor, a website that is visually appealing tends to give a greater confidence at first glance. This thesis is based on the interest of small enterprises considerations about what website design development characteristics and objective characteristics is generating more positive first impressions. To find this out, interviews together with subjective and objective measures of visual aesthetics were conducted to immerse in the aesthetics of small enterprise websites. The methods implemented gave variables to test in a correlation analysis. This correlation analysis showed that two web development characteristics had strong correlations with users' perception of visual aesthetics. None of the objective aesthetic attributes based on previous theories gave any strong correlations. These characteristics were therefore supplemented with other objective characteristics, which gave two strong correlations. / Företag använder sig informations- och kommunikationsteknik, inklusive hemsidor, för att marknadsföra sig själva och för att växa som företag. Användandet av denna teknik är dock inte alltid en garanti för framgång, särskilt inte för småföretag. Detta beror ofta på begränsade resurser och i den utsträckning att det finns kompetens inom webbprogrammering i företaget. Beslutet att bestämma vem som ska design hemsidan för ett litet företag är därför av stor betydelse, eftersom en väl designad hemsida är ett krav för att locka intresse för besökare på hemsidan. En hemsidas design är också en viktig faktor för det första intrycket hos en besökare av en hemsida. Hemsidor som är visuellt tilltalande tenderar att ge större förtroende vid första anblicken. Denna masteruppsats bygger på intresset hos småföretags överväganden om vilka webutvecklingsegenskaper och objektiva estetiska egenskaper i en webbdesign som genererar mer positiva första intryck. För att ta reda på detta, genomfördes intervjuer samt subjektiva och objektiva mätningar av visuell estetik för att fördjupa sig i estetiken hos småföretags hemsidor. De genomförda metoderna gav variabler att testa i en korrelationsanalys. Denna korrelationsanalys visade att två utvecklingsegenskaper hade starka korrelationer med användares perception av visuell estetik. Ingen av de objektiva estetiska egenskaperna baserade på tidigare teorier gav starka korrelationer. Därför kompletterades dessa med andra objektiva egenskaper där två av dem gav starka korrelationer.

Schools should be safe places for young people to learn through freely expressing and sharing ideas. This requires respecting student privacy, as they otherwise feel distrusted and uncomfortable. At the same time, surveillance is becoming an increasingly important part of facilitating a safe school environment. This has created an interesting dynamic where increasingly pervasive surveillance solutions seeking safety and other benefits are threatening student privacy. Therefore, researchers stand before the urgent challenge of figuring out what is a desirable direction for this technology. This qualitative study focuses on students’ perspectives on surveillance and privacy. Data was collected through interviews, card sorting, and the use of a prototype together with scenarios. The results of the study expand upon current research and reveal that actively involving students in design and research processes is important to ensure sustainable solutions. Students desire more value in terms of control, assistance, safety and information. At the same time, many concerns about discomfort, distrust and abuse are present. A set of guidelines on important considerations for future surveillance research and design are presented which focus on collaboration, responsibilityand creativity. Key issues causing inefficient communication between studentsand researchers are discussed, and the need for providing further education on the topic is motivated.

As a result of the rapid development of technology and the implementation of it in work environments, productivity and profit can increase for an organization. Email has led to much shorter ways of communication but there are also less positive aspects of technology. Technostress, information overload and email overload are all three effects of this new ubiquitous digital era. We ask how individual information workers manage and reply to incoming email, to extend our knowledge regarding the effects of email overload on information workers, and to identify their coping strategies in their work life context. This knowledge can be used by practitioners, designers and researchers to develop email as a service further. By conducting nine qualitative interviews with information workers employed in three different organization, we found that balance in email management is important to utilize the full potential of the service, and it would be useful for individuals, as well as organizations, to establish clear rules regarding email use both within work hours, as well as on leisure time.

Gamification as an educational tool has been explored extensively in traditional academic contexts such as universities and schools. There is however a lack of research on the usage of games for educational purposes in organizations, and even less research has evaluated games’ potential in creating organizational awareness. To understand if companies could benefit from gamification, this study looked at how employees’ professional backgrounds, social interaction and context during a game experience can influence employees’ awareness of the organization. In order to do that, a digital game that portrayed the supply chain process of an industrial company and focused on specific key aspects was built and tested with 17 employees in a large international organization. The results show that digital games can further both awareness of the organization by letting employees play and experience key aspects of the delivery process. The most noticeable increase in awareness were with the participants whose work is not directly involved in the supply chain.

This study has been carried out from two points of view: how museums have changed to adapt to new technologies and the inclusion of people with different disabilities as a target group when developing a new product. This study is done through a series of qualitative interviews made to museum staff and personnel related to the target group, belonging to working directly any of the groups in which the disabilities are divided. Through the study and the application of their answers and contributions as well as the data collected in previous studies, the development of an interactive-multimedia Lab was accomplished, which is installed in the museum Kulturfabriken in Skövde. In order to execute a product development process properly, an adequate methodology was developed, which combines working methods, focused directly on the elaboration of the product from the most practical point of view and analysis methods, which helped analyze the process in an appropriate way through the different interviews and meetings held with the focus groups, to make a customized product with the needs of the museum, but also to combine the needs of the groups with disabilities and special features such as: surround sound system and immersive space, in order to create a suitable multimedia space.

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.