The impacts of climate change have resulted in the need for adaptation tools to provide stakeholders with the ability to respond to a broad range of potential impacts. Geovisualizations serve as powerful engagement tools due to their capacity in communicating complex climate data to various audiences. Studies have shown a preference towards conveying climate data through geo-visual representations, to quickly present ideas rooted in geographical challenges and solutions. However, a rapid pace of technological advancements has paved the way for an abundance of geovisualization products that have eclipsed the necessary theoretical inquiry and knowledge required to establish effective visualization principles. This study addresses this research gap by conducting a structured review of the geovisualization for climate change literature, and creating a conceptual framework that classifies existing geovisualization products into themes relating to visualization features, audiences, and the intended outcome or purpose of the visualization medium. The Climate Visualizations for Adaptation Products (CVAP) framework, is a tool for researchers and practitioners to use as a decision support system to discern an appropriate type of geovisualization product to implement within a specific use case or towards a particular audience. The process of developing a geovisualization software tool for displaying sea ice probability (SIP) in Arctic regions is detailed, in the context of suggested best practices for web development. Challenges and opportunities encountered while adhering to the best practice protocols and guidelines are examined. A usability evaluation is suggested to assess the general user attitude towards a website or service. Finally a summary with conclusions and suggestions for future research are provided. / Graduate

With the increased use of online recruitment websites, many organizations have started building up these services to serve various kinds of users. There are some forms of usability evaluations that measure web applications. The inspection method is the most widely used, especially the heuristics evaluation. However, when facing substantial market demands, there is no set of heuristics to guide web designers on how to offer users a good user experience.  Therefore, developing usability heuristics for online recruiting websites is very necessary. According to existing research, Nielsen ten heuristics are the most widely used and well known. However, with the continual emergence of new technologies, these ten heuristics cannot continue to satisfy designers who are looking for more focused heuristics that apply to a specific domain. There exists no working strategy for developing specialized guidelines to ensure specialized heuristics actually work better than using general heuristics.  This thesis aims to develop usability heuristics for online recruitment website domains. Even though there are no appropriate theories or models for developing heuristics in a specific domain, we established a proposal of 21 usability heuristics for online recruitment based on the existing heuristics and methodologies to develop new specialized heuristics. These new heuristics offer evaluators smoother operations with higher efficiency (problems/time spent) in heuristics evaluation.

In today’s modern society large amounts of learning materials and lectures have beendigitalized and made available in different forms as video, text and images on variousplatforms. Platforms specific to e-learning are common and having a design that is bothresponsive and with high usability plays a great part in how users can absorb information.Making content available across different devices in a usable way enables users to performsome (if not all) tasks on devices more suitable "on the go", like mobile phones or tables.This thesis concerns the development and evaluation of an usable and responsive ad-ministration tool for e-learning. The intent of the tool is to improve and possibly replacethe platforms used today by adding missing functionality in the current tools. The imple-mented tool is evaluated using heuristic evaluation on both desktop and mobile devices inorder to evaluate the usability and responsiveness of the design.

There is scarce research that implement a formal framework when evaluating usability evaluation methods such as heuristicevaluation. This paper aimed to explore and compare the results of a heuristic evaluation performed by end-users and a heuristicevaluation performed by experts. Both heuristic evaluations took place in the context of forestry industry where a mobileapplication developed to give harvest operators performance feedback was evaluated. A thorough literature review for researchregarding evaluation of UEM was a crucial first step. The outcome of this produced an evaluation framework that included threecriteria, Relevance, Frequency and Timeliness. These criteria were used to analyse the results from the heuristics evaluationsperformed by the two groups, using mixed methods. The quantitative analysis concluded that the evaluation performed by theend-users had a higher frequency and relevance value, and that the evaluation performed by the expert group had higher valuefor their solution rate in the timeliness criteria. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis held within the criteria timeliness concludedthat the two groups identified different types of usability problems, confirming previous research performed on different types ofheuristic evaluators.

The use of Linked Data to model and visualize complex information entails usability challenges and opportunities to improve the user experience. This study seeks to enhance the user experience of a product information tool which is developed with Linked Data approach. The research was carried out in an industrial setting and follows the case study paradigm. It consists of 1) user research and literature review to define design requirements, 2) prototyping, and 3) usability testing. The user research produced a list of user experience issues which were in turn translated into design requirements by reflecting on related research and following the user's needs and goals. The design requirements formed the design elements which are embedded into the development of low- and high-fidelity prototypes. Next, usability evaluation of the final high-fidelity prototype examined the extent to which the design decisions could optimize the Linked Data visualization. The results show that several design decisions, such as adding interaction dynamics and the use of rich color representation, could indeed improve it. Also, in terms of general information and visual notation, the shift from UML diagram to node-links diagram received positive feedback from the users. But both node-links diagram and UML diagram received similar scores for the effectiveness and efficiency. / Användningen av Linked Data i syfte att modellera och visualisera komplex information medför både utmaningar och möjligheter för förbättringar när det kommer till användarupplevelsen. Denna studie strävar efter att förbättra användarupplevelsen av ett produktinformationsverktyg som utvecklats med Linked Data-tekniker. Studien är en fallstudie som genomfördes i en industriell miljö och består av: 1) användarundersökning och litteraturöversikt för att definiera designkrav, 2) prototyputveckling, och 3) användbarhetstester. Användarundersökningen resulterade i en lista av problem relaterade till användarupplevelsen, vilken i sin tur översattes till designkrav genom reflektioner kring både tidigare forskning och användarnas behov och mål. De identifierade designkraven utgjorde sedan grunden för de designelement som inkluderades i utvecklingen av High and Low-fidelity-prototyper. Därefter utvärderades i vilken utsträckning de nya designelementen i den slutgiltiga High-fidelity-prototypen kunde förbättra datavisualiseringen. Resultaten visar att designbeslut som att inkludera interaktionsdynamik och rik färgrepresentation kan förbättra användarvänligheten av systemet. Även om både tillvägagångssätt som UML-diagram och Node-Link-diagram fick likartade resultat när det kom till effektivitet, gav skiftet från UML-diagram till Node-Link-diagram en mer positiv respons från användarna när det kom till generell information och visuell notation.

Digitalization is a topic that affects most of the industries as well as the society overalltoday. Within this topic, the use of mobile technology devices, such as smartphones,allows organizations to perform tasks in an anytime-anywhere situation – usually calledenterprise mobility. The Swedish Police Authority see the potential of this technologyshift that is happening and are currently focusing on developing tools to support thedaily operations. The debriefing process for the intervention police is an area wheredigitalization and mobility could improve the efficiency. However, it is today unknownwhat technical solution could support the operations, what features it should include,and how it should look.The purpose of this study was to investigate how mobility can support the debriefingprocess in forms of efficiency for the polices in field from an exploratory point of view.An inductive research approach was chosen together with a case study researchmethod. Semi-structured and unstructured interviews were held with 35 participantsfrom different parts of the organization to get both a breadth and depth of knowledge.The delimitation was made to study the Swedish Police Authority and more in detail theintervention police. The current debriefing process was observed and mapped in thefirst part of this study, followed by part two which included a technical specification andprototyping of a mobile debriefing tool based on interviews and observations. Thefindings from part one and part two resulted in a proposed specification of a mobiledebriefing tool for what it should include and how it should look.The study shows that the proposition of a debriefing tool can increase the efficiency forthe Swedish Police Authority by reducing the duplication of work, increase the usabilityfor the users, reduce the risk for human errors, and reduce the dependency ofstationary workplaces for debriefing. The debriefing tool includes quality assurance ofthe information gathered through a structured working process at the same time. Thefactors mentioned above can also be linked to reduced time spent on the tasks whileretain or even increase the quality of the results – which in this case is the debriefingreport.

In the engineering field, log data analysis has been conducted by most companies as it has become a significant step for discovering problems and obtaining insights into the system. Visualization which brings better comprehension of data could be used as an effective and intuitive method for data analysis. This study aims at applying a participatory design approach to develop a visualization system of log data, employed with design activities including interviews, prototyping, usability testing and questionnaires in the research process, along with a comparative study on the impacts of using narrative visualization techniques and storytelling on usability and user engagement with exploratory visualizations. The findings exposed that using storytelling and narrative visualization techniques seems to increase user engagement while it does not seem to increase usability. Definitive conclusions could not be drawn due to a low demographic diversity of participants; however, the results could be an initial insight to trigger further research on the impacts of storytelling and narrative visualization techniques on user experience. Future research is encouraged to recruit more participants in a wide diversity, pre-process log data and conduct a comparative study on selecting the best visualization for log data. / Inom teknikområdet har loggdata-analys genomförts av de flesta företag eftersom det har blivit ett viktigt steg for att upptäcka problem och fa insikt i systemet. Visualisering som ger bättre förståelse av data kan användas som en effektiv och intuitiv metod for dataanalys. Denna studie syftar till att tillämpa en deltagande designmetod for att utveckla ett visualiseringssystem av loggdata, anställda med designaktiviteter inklusive intervjuer, prototyper, användbarhetstest och frågeformulär i forskningsprocessen, tillsammans med en jämförande studie av effekterna av att använda berättande visualiseringstekniker och berättelse om användbarhet och användarengagemang med utforskande visualiseringar. Resultaten visade att användning av berättelser och berättande visualiseringstekniker verkar oka användarnas engagemang medan det inte verkar oka användbarheten. Definitiva slutsatser kunde inte dras på grund av en lag demografisk mångfald av deltagare; emellertid kan resultaten vara en första insikt for att utlösa ytterligare forskning om effekterna av berättelser och berättande visualiseringstekniker på användarupplevelsen. Framtida forskning uppmuntras att rekrytera fler deltagare i en stor mångfald, förbereda loggdata och genomföra en jämförande studie om att välja den basta visualiseringen for loggdata.

A detailed walkthrough of the engineering process for the development of an accessible search engine tool. Contributions include a comprehensive literature review, assumptions, requirements, high-level design, implementation, and usability evaluations. / The internet has become useful in just about anything we do. Unfortunately, as vision degrades so does our ability to perceive the web. The design of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) has become overwhelmingly common and is meant to be coupled with a screen and mouse. The interface introduced in this thesis was developed to avoid graphically driven design and create a novel Search Engine interface intended for blind and low vision users. This is achieved by minimizing the total concern of the user (the userspace) to a handful of options and a predetermined structure to the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This thesis describes the entire development process starting from the literature review and including implementation, evaluation, and future work. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The usability of an application often plays an important role in determining its success. Accordingly, organizations that develop software have realized the need to integrate usability engineering into their development lifecycles. Although usability practitioners have successfully applied usability engineering processes to increase the usability of user-interaction designs, the literature suggests that usability practitioners experience a number of difficulties that negatively impact their effectiveness. These difficulties include identifying and recording critical usability data, understanding and relating usability data, and communicating usability information. These difficulties are particularly pronounced for novice usability practitioners. With this dissertation, I explored approaches to address these difficulties through tool support for novice usability practitioners. Through an analysis of features provided by existing tools with respect to documented difficulties, I determined a set of desirable tool features including usability problem instance records, usability problem diagnosis, and a structured process for combining and associating usability problem data. I developed a usability engineering tool, the Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting Tool (DCART), which contains these desirable tool features, and used it as a platform for studies of how these desirable features address the documented difficulties. The results of the studies suggest that appropriate tool support can improve the effectiveness with which novice usability practitioners perform usability evaluations. More specifically, tool support for usability problem instance records helped novice usability practitioners more reliably identify and better describe instances of usability problems experienced by participants. Additionally, tool support for a structured process for combining and associating usability data helped novice usability practitioners create usability evaluation reports that were of higher quality as rated by usability practitioners and developers. The results highlight key contributions of this dissertation, showing how tools can support usability practitioners. They demonstrate the value of a structured process for transforming raw usability data into usability information based on usability problem instances. Additionally, they show that appropriate tool support is a mechanism for further integrating usability engineering into the overall software development lifecycle; tool support addresses the documented need for more usability practitioners by helping novices perform more like experts. / Ph. D.

Previous usability evaluation method (UEM) comparison studies have noted an evaluator effect on problem detection in heuristic evaluation, with evaluators differing in problems found and problem severity judgments. There have been few studies of the evaluator effect in usability testing (UT), task-based testing with end-users. UEM comparison studies focus on counting usability problems detected, but we also need to assess the content of usability problem descriptions (UPDs) to more fully measure evaluation effectiveness. The goals of this research were to develop UPD guidelines, explore the evaluator effect in UT, and evaluate the usefulness of the guidelines for grading UPD content. Ten guidelines for writing UPDs were developed by consulting usability practitioners through two questionnaires and a card sort. These guidelines are (briefly): be clear and avoid jargon, describe problem severity, provide backing data, describe problem causes, describe user actions, provide a solution, consider politics and diplomacy, be professional and scientific, describe your methodology, and help the reader sympathize with the user. A fourth study compared usability reports collected from 44 evaluators, both practitioners and graduate students, watching the same 10-minute UT session recording. Three judges measured problem detection for each evaluator and graded the reports for following 6 of the UPD guidelines. There was support for existence of an evaluator effect, even when watching pre-recorded sessions, with low to moderate individual thoroughness of problem detection across all/severe problems (22%/34%), reliability of problem detection (37%/50%) and reliability of severity judgments (57% for severe ratings). Practitioners received higher grades averaged across the 6 guidelines than students did, suggesting that the guidelines may be useful for grading reports. The grades for the guidelines were not correlated with thoroughness, suggesting that the guideline grades complement measures of problem detection. A simulation of evaluators working in groups found a 34% increase in severe problems found by adding a second evaluator. The simulation also found that thoroughness of individual evaluators would have been overestimated if the study had included a small number of evaluators. The final recommendations are to use multiple evaluators in UT, and to assess both problem detection and description when measuring evaluation effectiveness. / Ph. D.