These master's thesis "Use of mobile technologies for personal goals achievement" deals with a comprehensive, multifaceted view of mobile applications designed to support physical acti- vity in the general population. The four main chapters are devoted to physical activity in relation to mental health, a detailed introduction to the Transtheoretical model of behavior change, the development of digital technologies and the issue of implementing theoretical concepts in mo- bile applications. The empirical part presents qualitative research, which deals with the intentions of the authors of selected mobile applications and analysis of the presence of psychological concepts of beha- vior change in these applications. The research goal was only partially achieved because it was not possible to get answers to the submitted questions from the addressed respondents. The analysis of mobile applications themselves using behavior change techniques shows the appli- cation of some processes of change. Keywords Behavior change, motivation, processes of change, mobile applications, digital technologies.

Today, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have become ubiquitous and are used everywhere. Millions of software applications can be purchased and installed on these devices, customizing them to personal interests and needs. However, the frequent use of mobile devices has let a new problem become omnipresent: their limited operation time, due to their limited energy capacities. Although energy consumption can be considered as being a hardware problem, the amount of energy required by today’s mobile devices highly depends on their current workloads, being highly influenced by the software running on them. Thus, although only hardware modules are consuming energy, operating systems, middleware services, and mobile applications highly influence the energy consumption of mobile devices, depending on how efficient they use and control hardware modules. Nevertheless, most of today’s mobile applications totally ignore their influence on the devices’ energy consumption, leading to energy wastes, shorter operation times, and thus, frustrated application users. A major reason for this energy-unawareness is the lack for appropriate tooling for the development of energy-aware mobile applications. As many mobile applications are today behaving energy-unaware and various mobile applications providing similar services exist, mobile application users aim to optimize their devices by installing applications being known as energy-saving or energy-aware; meaning that they consume less energy while providing the same services as their competitors. However, scarce information on the applications’ energy usage is available and, thus, users are forced to install and try many applications manually, before finding the applications fulfilling their personal functional, non-functional, and energy requirements. This thesis addresses the lack of tooling for the development of energy-aware mobile applications and the lack of comparability of mobile applications in terms of energy-awareness with the following two contributions: First, it proposes JouleUnit, an energy profiling and testing framework using unit-tests for the execution of application workloads while profiling their energy consumption in parallel. By extending a well-known testing concept and providing tooling integrated into the development environment Eclipse, JouleUnit requires a low learning curve for the integration into existing development and testing processes. Second, for the comparability of mobile applications in terms of energy efficiency, this thesis proposes an energy benchmarking and labeling service. Mobile applications belonging to the same usage domain are energy-profiled while executing a usage-domain specific benchmark in parallel. Thus, their energy consumption for specific use cases can be evaluated and compared afterwards. To abstract and summarize the profiling results, energy labels are derived that summarize the applications’ energy consumption over all evaluated use cases as a simple energy grade, ranging from A to G. Besides, users can decide how to weigh specific use cases for the computation of energy grades, as it is likely that different users use the same applications differently. The energy labeling service has been implemented for Android applications and evaluated for three different usage domains (being web browsers, email clients, and live wallpapers), showing that different mobile applications indeed differ in their energy consumption for the same services and, thus, their comparison is both possible and sensible. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first approach providing mobile application users comparable energy consumption information on mobile applications without installing and testing them on their own mobile devices.

The advances in mobile telecommunication networks as well as in mobile device technology have stimulated the development of a wide range of mobile applications. While it is sensible to install at least some components of applications on mobile devices to gain independence of rather unreliable mobile network connections, it is difficult to decide about the suitable application components and the amount of data to be provided. Because the environment of a mobile device can change and mobile business processes evolve over time, the mobile system should adapt to these changes dynamically to ensure productivity. In this paper, we present a mobile middleware that targets typical problems of mobile applications and dynamically adapts to context changes at runtime by utilizing reconfiguration triggers.

The purpose of this research is to provide companies with how they can affect customer’s trust through tools found within the three technological factors on mobile applications or websites. A research gap was discovered by the researchers due to the lack of in-depth exploration regarding this topic and took the opportunity to do research within this field. This research undertook a qualitative research approach with a deductive nature, this was done by using a theoretical sample technique with theories on what factors affect customers' trust on mobile applications and websites. When collecting information for this research, 14 unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted online. With the help of the interviews the researchers could gather rich in-depth information to explore the research question. The main theoretical findings of this research are the three personas, Branded Betty, Aesthetical Alexia and Recommended Rob. Each persona is representative of a customer and they are each stimulated by the technological tools differently to trust a mobile application or website.

Weight change applications have become increasingly common tools for managing various types of weight changes. Weight change applications were initially designed to support individuals undergoing weight changes, but over time, the applications have proven to be problematic as their use can lead to negative emotions. Common features that can trigger users include numerical data, constant reminders and competition. The purpose of the study is to gain knowledge on how weight change applications can support users in achieving a healthy weight change and gain insights into how the tool can be designed to avoid negative triggering experiences. In a design-oriented study, design proposals were developed based on identified literature. These design proposals formed the basis for a prototype that was evaluated through co-design workshops, and subsequently, the design proposals were revised. The study resulted in five design proposals on how weight change applications can be designed to promote a healthy weight change, focusing on data visualization, color choices, feedback, data input, and social interaction. / Viktförändringsapplikationer (VFA) har blivit allt mer förekommande verktyg för att hantera olika sorters viktförändringar. VFA är från början utformade för att stötta individer som genomgår en viktförändring, men med tiden har applikationerna visat sig vara problematiska då användningen kan leda till negativa känslor. Vanliga egenskaper som kan trigga användare är exempelvis numerisk data, ständiga påminnelser och konkurrens. Syftet med studien är att få kunskap om hur VFA kan stötta användare till en hälsosam viktförändring, samt få insikter i hur verktyget kan designas för att inte upplevas negativt triggande. I en designorienterad studie har designförslag tagits fram som identifierats i litteraturen. Designförslagen låg till grund för en prototyp som utvärderades med hjälp av co-design workshop och därefter reviderades designförslagen. Studien landade i fem designförslag för hur VFA kan designas för att främja en hälsosam viktförändring kopplat till visualisering av data, färgval, feedback, datainmatning samt social interaktion.

There are more and more parents that are considering to purchase smart watches for their kids. The children’s smart watches on the market are usually equipped with many practical functions like the GPS positioning, the camera and the messaging. Among all the smart watches for children, the ones that can be connected via a mobile application called SeTracker are popular for the acceptable prices. These smart watches may have different brands although they come from the same manufacturer company and share the common service and database. The security of the mobile application is essential to the security of the products. But are they designed in a secure way? There were reports about vulnerabilities of the products previously. Unfortunately, the security requirements do not stop upon solving those vulnerabilities. In this project, it was found that the parents can track the kids and communicate with them through the mobile application, but their accounts might be logged on the attacker’s phone at the same time. And it is surprisingly easy to get the password of the users because it is stored in a local file using simple substitution cipher. There are other examples of insecure design in the products. Among them are the unlimited attempts to send and enter verification codes used for changing the password. It seems that the server does not have a complete logging and monitoring mechanism to prevent abnormal behaviors. The security analysis and penetration testing of this project would provide an example of the mobile hacking, and it will also raise a warning on the security of smart devices. / Det finns fler och fler föräldrar som funderar på att köpa smarta klockor till sina barn. De smarta barnklockorna på marknaden är vanligtvis utrustade med många praktiska funktioner som GPS, kamera och meddelanden. Bland alla smarta klockor för barn är de som kan kopplas upp via en mobilapplikation som heter SeTracker populära för de acceptabla priserna. Dessa smarta klockor kan ha olika märken även om de kommer från samma tillverkarföretag och delar den gemensamma tjänsten och databasen. Säkerheten för den mobila applikationen är väsentlig för produkternas säkerhet. Men är de designade på ett säkert sätt? Det fanns rapporter om sårbarheter i produkterna tidigare. Tyvärr slutar inte säkerhetskraven när man löser dessa sårbarheter. I det här projektet fann man att föräldrarna kan spåra barnen och kommunicera med dem via mobilapplikationen, men deras konton kan vara inloggade på angriparens telefon samtidigt. Och det är förvånansvärt lätt att få användarnas lösenord eftersom det lagras i en lokal fil med hjälp av enkla ersättnings-chiffer. Det finns andra exempel på osäker design i produkterna. Bland dem är de obegränsade försöken att skicka och ange verifieringskoder som används för att ändra lösenordet. Det verkar som om servern inte har en fullständig loggnings- och övervakningsmekanism för att förhindra onormalt beteende. Säkerhetsanalysen och penetrationstesten av detta projekt skulle ge ett exempel på mobilhackning, och det kommer också att väcka en varning om säkerheten för smarta enheter.

Participatory sensing frameworks use humans and their computing devices as a large mobile sensing network. Dramatic accessibility and affordability have turned mobile devices (smartphone and tablet computers) into the most popular computational machines in the world, exceeding laptops. By the end of 2013, more than 1.5 billion people on earth will have a smartphone. Increased coverage and higher speeds of cellular networks have given these devices the power to constantly stream large amounts of data. Most mobile devices are equipped with advanced sensors such as GPS, cameras, and microphones. This expansion of smartphone numbers and power has created a sensing system capable of achieving tasks practically impossible for conventional sensing platforms. One of the advantages of participatory sensing platforms is their mobility, since human users are often in motion. This dissertation presents a set of techniques for modeling and predicting user transportation patterns from cell-phone and social media check-ins. To study large-scale transportation patterns, I created a mobile phone app, Kpark, for estimating parking lot occupancy on the UCF campus. Kpark aggregates individual user reports on parking space availability to produce a global picture across all the campus lots using crowdsourcing. An issue with crowdsourcing is the possibility of receiving inaccurate information from users, either through error or malicious motivations. One method of combating this problem is to model the trustworthiness of individual participants to use that information to selectively include or discard data. This dissertation presents a comprehensive study of the performance of different worker quality and data fusion models with plausible simulated user populations, as well as an evaluation of their performance on the real data obtained from a full release of the Kpark app on the UCF Orlando campus. To evaluate individual trust prediction methods, an algorithm selection portfolio was introduced to take advantage of the strengths of each method and maximize the overall prediction performance. Like many other crowdsourced applications, user incentivization is an important aspect of creating a successful crowdsourcing workflow. For this project a form of non-monetized incentivization called gamification was used in order to create competition among users with the aim of increasing the quantity and quality of data submitted to the project. This dissertation reports on the performance of Kpark at predicting parking occupancy, increasing user app usage, and predicting worker quality.

Understanding math is an important part of school, yet it is a common source of anxiety as many children find the subject difficult to grasp. One approach to encourage children to learn math is to implement game elements (gamification) in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) systems. However, designers must consider what motivates children to use such systems to better encourage them to learn. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investigate how gamification can be implemented in the design of a mobile TEL application, in this case the Albert application, to motivate children to learn math. This was researched by designing a concept focusing on avatars for Albert and letting users between the ages of 10 and 12 evaluate it. The design process followed the Double Diamond model, and the game elements were designed according to three core drives from the Octalysis framework. The results showed that children who like math are more likely to become motivated by the presented gamification concept than the children who have a more negative attitude towards math. As a conclusion, one can motivate children to learn math using a TEL platform by including avatarism as a form of gamification. / Att förstå matte är en viktig del av skolgången, samtidigt kan det ofta vara ångestframkallande för barn som anser att ämnet är svårt att greppa. Ett sätt att uppmuntra barn att lära sig matte är att implementera spelelement i så kallade ”Technology-Enhanced Learning” (TEL)-system. Dock måste designers ha i åtanke vad som motiverar barn att använda sådana system för att bättre kunna uppmuntra dem att lära sig matte. Målet med denna uppsats var därför att undersöka huruvida spelelement kan implementeras i designen av en mobil TEL-applikation, i vårt fall Albertapplikationen, för att motivera barn att lära sig matte. Detta undersöktes genom att designa att koncept fokuserat på avatarer för Albert, och låta användare mellan åldrarna 10 och 12 utvärdera det. Designprocessen följde Double Diamond-modellen, och spelelementen designades utefter tre ”core drives” från Octalysis-ramverket. Resultaten visade att det är mer sannolikt att barn som gillar matte blir mer motiverade av det presenterade konceptet, än barn som har en mer negativ inställning gentemot ämnet. Vi kunde dra slutsatsen att en kan motivera barn att lära sig matte genom att inkludera avatarism i en TEL-applikation.

In this project we have explored digital tools for service management on the bicycle paths of Malmö. This was done through the participation of citizens in order to attempt to discern how such interactions can be eased using a mobile app, as well as how this app can be designed in order to appear trustworthy with user friendly interactions.We have explored this field by using goal-oriented design through interviews, prototyping and user tests. We have created a digital prototype as a possible solution for how the interactions can be done.Throughout the process interviews were held and user tests with selected members of the user group. To explore the concepts we have used paper prototypes in order to establish the design and then defining the interactions with the help of a digital prototype.Finally we have concluded that a general app for bikers in the city would be functional and that a longer study in the effects of such an app would be interesting as a continuation of this work.

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. With the population rapidly aging, it is expected that 1 out of 3 Americans will have diabetes by 2050. Mobile devices and mobile applications have the potential to contribute to diabetes self-care by allowing users to manage their diabetes by keeping track of their blood glucose levels. Usability is important for systems that help people self-manage conditions such as diabetes. Age and diabetes-related cognitive decline might intensify the impact of usability issues for the users who need these mobile applications the most. As highlighted by usability researchers, the context of use (i.e. environment, user, task, and technology) has a significant impact on usability. The environment (lighting, temperature, audio and visual distractions, etc.) is of special interest to the mobile usability arena since in the case of mobile devices, is always changing. This dissertation aims to support the claim that context and more specifically environmental distraction such as semantic auditory distractions impact the usability of mobile applications. In doing so, it attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) Does semantic auditory distractions reduce the effectiveness of a blood glucose tracking mobile application? 2) Does semantic auditory distractions reduce the efficiency of a blood glucose tracking mobile application? 3) Does semantic auditory distractions reduce the user satisfaction of a blood glucose tracking mobile application? To answer the study research questions, a true experimental design was performed involving 30 adults with type 2 diabetes. Participants were paired based on their age and experience with smartphones and randomly assigned to the control (no semantic auditory distractions) or experimental (semantic auditory distractions) group. Research questions were tested using the general linear model. The results of this study confirmed that semantic auditory distractions have a significant effect on efficiency and effectiveness, and hence they need to be taken into account when evaluating mobile usability. This study also showed that semantic auditory distractions have no significant effect on user satisfaction. This dissertation enhances the current knowledge about the impact of semantic auditory distractions on the usability of mobile applications within the diabetic senior population.