Improving the user experience of an extensive existing web system can be a challenging task. There are a number of questions that have to be addressed. 1) What part of the system should be improved to achieve the most significant upgrade? 2) What changes should be made? 3) How should these changes be implemented?  The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what methods can be used to find answers to these questions, more specifically, what methods are suitable to evaluate the KollaCity platform .  The background study resulted in two methods for deciding which parts of the system should be improved. An online survey showed what the potential users were interested in, and Think-aloud protocol interviews highlighted the best and most complicated parts of the current platform.  A competitor analysis and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis gave an understanding of the market position of the platform and aided in the process of selecting which parts of the platform that was to be improved.  The design process started with sketching, followed by feedback, continued to a proto- type, and then finally an implementation.  A conclusion from the background study is that reading emails still is the most common online activity in 2011. This makes email marketing very effective and useful if it’s carried out in the right way. There are many pitfalls, but if the content is right and the structure and design follow the guidelines set up by governments and experts, there are big chances for success. However, keep in mind that designing HTML emails is not like designing websites. There are many limitations, and the difference between rendering engines is big.

Together with Topp Design & Innovation, this thesis explores the possibilities of designing for fika time - a Swedish phenomenon of scheduled coffee breaks. The thesis attributes to interaction design through inspiration of how one can design the social context of fika. By conducting semi-structured interviews and observations, the aim is to unravel the opinion of fika from the employees’ perspective. Insights from the research showed that improvement in norms, non-work-related conversations and planning of fika were themes to be improved on. As a result, this thesis proposes three concepts; “Visual Conversations”, “Fika Troll 2.0” and “Breaking the Norms”.

This study was conducted to understand the motivations that drive participants to join user experience (UX) research studies at Red Hat (software company). Mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative nature were used to gather data and determine key insights that were supported by multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks. The findings were used to inform the client (Red Hat) on how to improve their UX research recruitment practices.

User Research ist eine wichtige und in vielen Ansätzen die erste Phase eines iterativen Designprozesses. Aber wie kann eine valide User Research für eine in die weite Zukunft gerichtete Produktgestaltung durchgeführt werden? User Research erfordert die Einbindung zukünftiger NutzerInnen oder potentieller KundInnen. Diese können aber überwiegend keine plausible Auskunft über die eigenen Bedürfnisse der (fernen) Zukunft geben. Auch können sie ausgehend vom individuellen Ist-Zustand nicht zwischen realisierbaren und utopischen Produktkonzepten unterscheiden. In diesem Beitrag diskutieren wir die Herausforderungen von User Research speziell für mittel- und langfristige Zielsetzungen und stellen einen Lösungsansatz vor: Wir empfehlen daher den Designprozess mit einem Szenarioverfahren zu initiieren, welcher eine Trendanalyse und eine Expertenbefragung beinhaltet. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen aus der Szenarioarbeit werden die NutzerInnen in einer späteren Phase des Designprozesses zur Evaluierung von Nutzungsszenarien eingebunden. Anhand von zwei aktuellen transdisziplinären Projekten „Elektrifizierung von landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben“ und „Sustainable Energy-Efficient Aviation“, in denen der angenommene Status zukünftiger sozialer, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Trends die Perspektive und das Konsumverhalten fiktiver NutzerInnen kontinuierlich prägen wird, zeigen wir, wie wir Nutzerforschung in strategischen Designprozessen mit hoher Vorhersagegüte einsetzen.

This thesis was initiated by Cambio Healthcare Systems and was aimed to investigate the usage of keyboard shortcuts (KBS) in the electronic health record system COSMIC. The aim was to determine which users would benefit from learning keyboard shortcuts and understand how users can learn them effectively. The study also aimed to identify suitable techniques for users in the sensitive healthcare environment, with a focus on efficiency. Through workshops and interviews with individuals with experience of the user, it was found that most users would benefit from learning more KBS, particularly primary nurses who would save significant time. A thematic analysis revealed four themes: Benefits Everyone, Key Users, Documentation, and Visibility. Lack of awareness and a need for visualization were identified as the main issues. To address these findings, design requirements were established to meet user needs. Two design concepts, a visualizing wiki and an all-knowing search, were created as prototypes to represent potential design solutions. Evaluation with three participants showed positive results for the first concept, indicating it would be effective for teaching KBS to novice users. The second concept, while insufficient on its own, could complement the first concept and benefit users seeking quick results in COSMIC, such as medical secretaries and administrators. The study's strength lies in its preliminary stages, which provided valuable insights into user needs and identified underlying issues related to KBS in COSMIC.

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), might have earlier primarily found industrial use, improving production chains, efficiency and the like but are now an integral part of private and commercial application. Many systems are using, or are claiming to use, machine learning to improve the end user's experience. This study aims to explore applications that are using creative ML, in which output might have a plethora of solutions instead of a single correct one. More specifically the focus is to evaluate which Key Tension Points, central lesser components of a complex and bigger issue, arise for researchers, designers and users coming into contact with this technology. The goal is to draw upon these Key Tension Points and attempt to frame guidelines which researchers and designers can use to further their understanding of the relationship between ML and design and how they can be accounted for to build and develop better application. The study found that these tension points (Impersonality, passive consumers & transparency) vary considerably depending on the application and presents how designers can account for them. / Maskininlärning (ML) och artificiell intelligens (AI) har sedan tidigare oftast använts på en industriell skala, för att effektivisera produktionskedjor eller förfina dessa. Dock har det skett ett skifte och nuförtiden är ML en betydande del i applikationer som har privatpersoner som målgrupp. Den här studien undersöker kreativa maskininlärningslösningar, sådana som kommer med fler än ett förslag. Mer specifikt så undersöker den här studien vilka Key Tension Points, dvs. betydande mindre komponenter av komplexa stora problem, som forskare, designers eller användare kommer i kontakt med. Målet är att ta fram Key Tension Points och sedan undersöka huruvida riktlinjer kan formuleras som underlättar för forskare och designers att hantera frågor rörande design och tillgänglighet av ML. Dessutom underlättar användandet av Key Tension Points vid byggandet och utvecklingen av kreativa ML applikationer. Studien fann att Key Tension Points varierar betydande beroende på vilken typ av applikation som används av konsumenten.

In Virginia Tech's Digital Library Research Laboratory, we support subject-matter-experts (SMEs) in their pursuit of research goals. Their goals include everything from data collection to analysis to reporting. Their research commonly involves an analysis of an extensive collection of data such as tweets or web pages. Without support -- such as by our lab, developers, or data analysts/scientists -- they would undertake the data analysis themselves, using available analytical tools, frameworks, and languages. Then, to extract and produce the information needed to achieve their goals, the researchers/users would need to know what sequences of functions or algorithms to run using such tools, after considering all of their extensive functionality. Our research addresses these problems directly by designing a system that lowers the information barriers. Our approach is broken down into three parts. In the first two parts, we introduce a system that supports discovery of both information and supporting services. In the first part, we describe the methodology that incorporates User eXperience (UX) research into the process of workflow design. Through the methodology, we capture (a) what are the different user roles and goals, (b) how we break down the user goals into tasks and sub-tasks, and (c) what functions and services are required to solve each (sub-)task. In the second part, we identify and describe key components of the infrastructure implementation. This implementation captures the various goals/tasks/services associations in a manner that supports information inquiry of two types: (1) Given an information goal as query, what is the workflow to derive this information? and (2) Given a data resource, what information can we derive using this data resource as input? We demonstrate both parts of the approach, describing how we teach and apply the methodology, with three case studies. In the third part of this research, we rely on formalisms used in describing digital libraries to explain the components that make up the information system. The formal description serves as a guide to support the development of information systems that generate workflows to support SME information needs. We also specifically describe an information system meant to support information goals that relate to Twitter data. / Doctor of Philosophy / In Virginia Tech's Digital Library Research Laboratory, we support subject-matter-experts (SMEs) in their pursuit of research goals. This includes everything from data collection to analysis to reporting. Their research commonly involves an analysis of an extensive collection of data such as tweets or web pages. Without support -- such as by our lab, developers, or data analysts/scientists -- they would undertake the data analysis themselves, using available analytical tools, frameworks, and languages. Then, to extract and produce the information needed to achieve their goals, the researchers/users would need to know what sequences of functions or algorithms to run using such tools, after considering all of their extensive functionality. Further, as more algorithms are being discovered and datasets are getting larger, the information processing effort is getting more and more complicated. Our research aims to address these problems directly by attempting to lower the barriers, through a methodology that integrates the full life cycle, including the activities carried out by User eXperience (UX), analysis, development, and implementation experts. We devise a three part approach to this research. The first two parts concern building a system that supports discovery of both information and supporting services. First, we describe the methodology that introduces UX research into the process of workflow design. Second, we identify and describe key components of the infrastructure implementation. We demonstrate both parts of the approach, describing how we teach and apply the methodology, with three case studies. In the third part of this research, we extend formalisms used in describing digital libraries to encompass the components that make up our new type of extensible information system.

Thesis deals with the UX research from the perspective of UX professionals. The main objective of this thesis is to determine the point of view these professionals on UX research. The first partial objective of this thesis is to identify problem areas and the causes of problems in the context of UX research. The second objective is to identify how the experts assess the impact of efforts carried out in connection with the UX. The third objective is to identify the benefits of conducting UX research. Methods for achieving these objectives are conducting qualitative and quantitative research in the form of interviews and a survey targeted at 164 UX professionals. The contribution of this thesis is capturing of the views and experiences of these professionals on issues, impact assessments and benefits of conducting UX research.

In the evolving landscape of building systems and human-building interaction (HBI), the complexity of building interfaces has significantly increased, posing both challenges and opportunities for enhancing energy consumption, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and building services. This dissertation, titled "User-centered Evaluation of Multi-modal Building Interfaces," delves into the realm of HBI by focusing on the user's experience and perception of multimodal building control interfaces, particularly the various visual modalities of Connected Thermostats (CTs). This body of work aims to support CTs' ongoing adoption, expansion, and performance through a user-centered perspective. The research is motivated by the observation that the design process in the current building industry often overlooks a human-centered approach, leading to a disconnection between occupants' needs and building interface design. This misalignment not only results in user dissatisfaction but also leads to a missed opportunity in leveraging smart building technologies to enhance building performance for achieving climate change mitigation goals. This research attempts to address the main identified gaps in the literature and AEC industry concerning 1) human interaction and perception of multimodal CT interfaces,2) the scarcity of knowledge in the field of human-computer-building interaction (HCBI) regarding the user study methods, 3) the exiting highly non-standard practices in the design of building interfaces. This research highlights 1) the necessity of a multimodal interaction approach, 2) robust mixed-methods User Experience (UX) summative evaluation studies, and 3) the need for standardization in HCBI. This body of work is grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Human Information Processing (HIP) theories, aiming to foster the adoption of connected building controls with a special focus on usability by suggesting best practices in design and research. The methodology comprised three-step mixed-methods summative evaluation studies designed using a funnel approach to answer the general question: "How do users interact with connected thermostats, and how do these interactions inform our understanding of human-building interaction?": 1) The first and broadest study leveraged texting mining big data of user reviews to identify the general themes and patterns that affect the UX and acceptance of CTs. 2) The second study employed mixed-methods lab experiments to further focus on usability, being recognized as the most determining factor in the adoption of CTs in the first study. This study investigated human interaction with three of the most prevalent modalities of CTs: the Fixed Visual Display (FVD), the phone app, and the web portal. 3) The third study investigated human interaction with a specific visual aspect of UI of FVD and phone app modalities, the interface icons, with the goal of providing some data-driven guidelines for their standardization. Throughout the three studies, the dissertation employed and evaluated some novel and established HCI summative user evaluation methods, including a grounded theory approach for text mining and analyzing user-generated content, eye-tracking think-aloud protocol and contextual inquiry, A/B testing and NASA TLX and SUS surveys to evaluate UX, usability and mental workload. The dissertation outlined three discrete contributions: 1) It bridged some of the well-established UX research methods into HCBI and highlighted the potential of knowledge in the HCI field, 2) Provided guidance for human-centered design of multimodal building interfaces through identifying the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in UX of CTs, 3) Informed the standardization of UI of multimodal building interfaces. / Doctor of Philosophy / Modern building systems are becoming increasingly complex to enhance energy savings and improve occupant convenience. Traditional buildings are typically controlled by wall-mounted devices that manage lighting, temperature, and security. However, in smart buildings, occupants now have new ways to interact with these systems, including remote control options like smartphone apps. This research explores how people interact with and perceive different types of building controls. Specifically, it compares user experiences with two main types of controls: fixed controls, such as wall-mounted thermostats, and mobile controls, like smartphone apps. The goal is to improve the design of these controls to make them easier to use, widely adopted, and more effective in promoting energy efficiency and comfort. Among building controls, smart residential thermostats are particularly important. How they are designed and how people use them can significantly impact energy use in homes. However, advanced thermostats, especially those with programming features, are often seen as difficult to use for building occupants. Designers sometimes overlook the needs of users due to agile design processes or a limited understanding of user-centered design. These complex interfaces can lead to user frustration and missed opportunities to improve building performance. This research addresses these challenges by studying how people actually interact with different smart thermostat controls, including wall-mounted devices, phone apps, and web portals, emphasizing the importance of designing with user needs in mind. This study identifies the common issues users face with the dashboard of these devices, proposes solutions, and offers best practices for creating user-friendly building controls. This study makes three key contributions: First, it introduces well-known methods from other fields for designing and evaluating technology and applies these methods to evaluate the user experience of building controls. Methods include text analysis of user reviews, surveys, eye-tracking, and user performance measurements, some of which are relatively new in the context of human-building interaction. Additionally, the study provides guidance for future researchers in developing a user-centered framework for building interfaces by comparing these methods. Finally, it helps designers by identifying critical usability problems in building interfaces and highlighting opportunities for improvement.

Building complex games like Grand Strategy Games for both PC and console is a costly endeavour. Normally, two different platforms imply two different User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) designs, even though it is the same game. If the game’s UI could have similar designs for both platforms, this costly obstacle could be overcome. This study aimed to take the first steps to look at “one UI to rule them all”. Due to the lack of existing research on this topic, this study had to begin from scratch. This led to a focus on existing strategy games on consoles, and an evaluation of the User Experience (UX) of these games. Considering the lack of Grand Strategy Games on consoles, eleven existing strategy games on console similar to Grand Strategy Games were chosen to be investigated further with the aim to find possible best practices and/or the most important aspects of the player’s experience in these games. Through discussion with game industry experts (experienced and senior UX designers), the UI and UX of strategy games on console were broken down and grouped as specific game interactions, with emphasis on the similarity to Grand Strategy Games. By using the defined game interactions, a quantitative survey was carried out to pinpoint the game interactions with the biggest impact on the player’s experience. The analysis of the results from the 864 respondents in the quantitative survey showed the importance of console first. It could be determined by looking at how well the only console first game of the survey did. Halo Wars 2 had the overall best-perceived experience in five out of the eight defined game interactions. Yet the participants preferred playing Halo Wars 2 on PC to an equal extent as they preferred to play it on consoles, concluding that console first seems to be the design approach to use when a game studio wants to ship a game simultaneously to both PC and consoles since it gives the overall best player experience. Furthermore, the pace, meaning the speed with which the player can execute specific in-game actions and reach their goals, was found to be a major factor in the player’s experience of the chosen strategy games on console. This led to a further developed definition of the pace through discussion and workshops with industry experts. Research then continued with remote and unmoderated playtests (qualitative usability testing) of two of the chosen games being most similar to Grand Strategy Games; Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. These playtests aimed to find what are the most important aspects of the pace and how the pace affects the player's experience. When the participants were asked to rank what they thought has the biggest impact on the pace in the game, game mechanical aspects were ranked higher than UI and UX aspects of the pace. This shows the game mechanics to be more important than the UI and UX aspects of the pace when designing the pace in a game like Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.