The aim of the study was to replicate and validate the UEQ KPI introduced by Hinderks et al. (2019) in a context-only extension study by applying it to a product with high hedonic qualities, namely Netflix. The secondary research aim was to identify areas of improvement for Netflix’ user experience. An online survey was conducted with a positivist research philosophy and a deductive research approach in order to achieve the research aims. The chosen methodology proved to be appropriate and effective. The UEQ KPI was confirmed to be a valid methodology to evaluate products with high hedonic qualities. This study hence contributed to the validity of the UEQ KPI and to its generalisability. Certain areas of improvement and their perceived importance for Netflix’ UX were identified, listed from most to least promising: Efficiency, Stimulation and the Novelty. However, as the UEQ KPI is fairly new, more research on this topic is necessary to further validate it. Certainly, this topical development in UX research was proven to be a promising approach to assess the UX of products with different characteristics in a cheap, fast and accurate way.

This thesis compares a native Android application with two different classes of cross-platform applications, an interpreted application developed in React Native and a Progressive Web-Application (PWA). The main contribution of the thesis is a comparison table, placing application features on the y-axis and the evaluated frameworks on the x-axis. This table in conjunction with the cost analysis provide clear framework selection guidance. The evaluated applications were created to evaluate the frameworks' fulfillment of the enumerated features. A user study was performed to learn if there was any discernible difference between the evaluated applications. Qualitative data obtained from a think-aloud in the user study, indicates a slight preference for the PWA, despite a smaller feature set. However, quantitative analysis from a User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) failed to show any systematic UX performance difference over the evaluated applications. Therefore, it is concluded that cross-platform applications are able to both emulate and even outperform a native experience in some regards, with the added advantage of significantly offsetting both development and maintenance costs. Finally, we recommend using a cross-platform mobile application framework if it provides all the features required by the intended application. / Denna rapport jämför en “Native Android”-applikation med två olika klasser av plattformsoberoende applikationer, en “Interpreted”-applikation utvecklad i React Native och en “Progressive Web”-Applikation (PWA). Det största bidraget från denna rapport är en jämförelsetabell, där applikationsfunktioner placeras på y-axeln och de utvärderade ramverken på x-axeln. Denna tabell, i konjunktion med en kostnadsanalys, förser läsaren med en tydlig guide vid val av ramverk. De utvärderade applikationerna skapades för att utvärdera ramverkens tillgänglighet till de uppräknade funktionerna. En användarstudie utfördes för att utreda huruvida det existerade någon märkbar skillnad mellan de utvärderade applikationerna. De kvalitativa data som erhölls från en “think-aloud” i användarstudien indikerar en liten preferens för PWA:n, trots att den har tillgång till färre funktioner. Den kvantitativa analysen från ett “User Experience Questionnaire” (UEQ) misslyckades med att visa någon systematisk skillnad i UX mellan de utvärderade applikationerna. Slutsatsen är därför att plattformsoberoende applikationer både kan emulera, och till och med överträffa, en naturlig upplevelse i vissa avseenden, med en ytterligare fördel av att både utvecklings- och underhållskostnader väsentligt minskar. Slutligen rekommenderar vi användandet av ett plattformsoberoende applikationsramverk förutsatt att det har tillgång till alla funktioner som krävs för den avsedda applikationen.

<p>User onboarding for Graphical User Interface (GUI) applications usually involve walkthrough tutorials explaining various UI elements, functions, and navigation screens. These First-time User Experiences (FTUEs) are crucial in determining any subsequent user interaction. The purpose of this study has been explored by eliciting answers to two research questions in specific. The study primarily investigates a user's perception of a tailored onboarding experience. Following this, the impact of these tutorials on the user's performance has also been used as a way to verify their effectiveness.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The emergence of educational crowdsourcing platforms has revolutionized traditional models of teaching and learning by engaging students in collaborative, real-world problem-solving activities. However, the success of crowdsourcing platforms in education largely depends on their ability to provide a positive and engaging user experience, particularly for first-time users. As a part of another ongoing study, the need for an engaging onboarding tutorial to educate users on the concept of worked-out examples and peer evaluations was evident. Thus, the interventions developed in this study are built upon a crowdsourcing platform designed to collect worked-out examples from university students. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study seeks to provide insights into the design of effective onboarding tutorials in the context of crowdsourcing educational resources. There have been numerous attempts to devise effective onboarding strategies. For instance, the interplay of narration and animation has been utilized as a way to gamify and design engaging FTUEs. The design choices for tailoring the experience were hence determined through Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) methods. Analysis of the experimental data shows that there is a statistically significant improvement in the FTUE when users are presented with a tailored onboarding tutorial. Their usage patterns also tend to improve post their interactions with the tutorials. These results hope to contribute to a better understanding of user engagement in FTUEs, thus paving the way for furthering product adoption and value metrics on a broad scale.</p>

The implementation of game elements has quintessentially uplifted the overall experience of applications in various domains and thereby expanding the customer base. This process is called gamification which has now been introduced in many domains. The purpose of the study is to understand gamification and how its impact would be if it is deployed in a financial savings application. The gamified elements are implemented based on a gamification framework called the Octalysis framework1. This Octalysis framework is a human-centric gamification framework which serves as a template to implement the required gamified elements. Based on a pre-study of financial applications and the Octalysis framework, two distinct prototypes (Version A and Version B) of the same mobile app concept were developed where the difference is the presence of gamified elements in one prototype. The evaluation is based on analyzing the impact the gamified elements have caused on the usability and the emotional engagement of the financial savings application. The participants are provided to interact with both prototypes and interviews are conducted to evaluate the emotional engagement and the usability of both the prototypes of the financial savings application. The study shows an increase in emotional engagement corresponding to the gamified elements whereas the usability more or less remained the same, indicating a deeper investigation of the gamified elements with regards to usability is required.