<p>Denna rapport är resultatet av mitt examensarbete i informationsdesign vid Mälardalens Högskola. Rapporten behandlar utvärdering och utveckling av ett gränssnitt som används på charkuterimaskinen Handtmann VF 300. Målgruppen är nyanställda personer på charkuteriföretaget ”Ingemar Johansson i Sverige AB”.</p><p>Rapporten beskriver det tillvägagångssätt som använts för att utveckla gränssnittet och målet har varit att göra det lättare för nyanställda att förstå hur det fungerar. Det nya gränssnittet skulle också minska olycksrisken och göra användarna tryggare. Detta för att uppfylla de krav som ställs på årets tema som är <em>säkerhet</em>.</p><p>Utprovningar har skett på det befintliga och nya gränssnittet i form av kvalitativa intervjuer och användartester. Data som samlats in vid användartester på det befintliga gränssnittet har stått som grund vid utvecklingen av det nya.</p><p>Resultatet visar stora skillnader vid användning av de båda gränssnitten.</p>

In order to make technology easier to handle for its users, the field of HCI (Human- Computer Interaction) has recently often turned the environment and the context of use. In this thesis the focus is on the relation between the user and the technology. More specifically, this thesis explores how roles and professional identity effects the use and views of the technology used. The exploration includes two different domains, a clinical setting and a media production setting, where the focus is on the clinical setting. These are domains that have strong professional identities in common, in the clinical setting neurosurgeons and physicists, and the media setting journalists. These settings also have a strong technological profile, in the clinical setting the focus has been on a specific neurosurgical tool called Leksell GammaKnife and in the journalistic setting the introduction of new media technology in general has been in focus. The data collection includes interviews, observations and participatory design oriented workshops. The data collected were analyzed with qualitative methods inspired by grounded theory. The work with the Leksell GammaKnife showed that there were two different approaches towards the work, the tool and development, depending on the work identity. Depending on if the user were a neurosurgeon or a physicist, the definition of the work preformed was inline with their identity, even if the task preformed was the same. When it comes to the media production tool, the focus of the study was a participatory design oriented development process. The outcome of the process turned out to be oriented towards the objectives that were inline with the users identity, more than with the task that were to be preformed. At some level, even the task was defined from the user dentity.

Information security and privacy in health care is a critical issue, it is crucial to protect the patients’ privacy and ensure the systems availability all the time. Managing information security systems is a major part of managing information systems in health care organizations. The purpose of this study is to discover the security metrics that can be used in health care organizations and to provide the security managers with a security metrics scorecard that enable them to measure the performance of the security system in a monthly basis. To accomplish this a prototype with a suggested set of metrics was designed and examined in a usability study and semi-structured interviews. The study participants were security experts who work in health care organizations. In the study security management in health care organizations was discussed, the preferable security metrics were identified and the usable security metrics scorecard specifications were collected. Applying the study results on the scorecard prototype resulted in a security metrics scorecard that matches the security experts’ recommendations. / Graduate / 0723 / 0769 / 0454 / hebae@uvic.ca

This research examines the relationship between the development of a portfolio of interactive digital techniques and compositions, and its impact on user experiences of time and place. It is designed to answer two research questions: (i) What are some effective methods and techniques for evoking an enhanced awareness of past time and place using interactive digital technologies (IDTs)? (ii) How can users play a role in improving the development and impact of interfaces made with IDTs? The principal creative and thematic element of the portfolio is the concept of the palimpsest, and its artistic potential to reveal visual and aural layers that lie behind the landscapes and soundscapes around us. This research thus contributes to an evolving cadre of creative interest in palimpsests, developing techniques and compositions in the context of testing, collating user experience feedback, and improving the ways in which IDTs enable an artistic exploration and realisation of hidden layers, both aural and visual, of the past of place. An iterative theory-composition-testing methodology is developed and applied to optimise techniques for enabling users to navigate multiple layers of content, as well as in finding methods that evoke an increased emotional connection with the past of place. This iterative realisation cycle comprises four stages - of content origination, pre-processing, mapping and user interaction. The user interaction stage of this cycle forms an integral element of the research methodology, involving the techniques being subjected to formalised user experience testing, both to assist with their further refinement and to assess their value in evoking an increased awareness of time and place. Online usability testing gathered 5,451 responses over three years of iterative cycles of composition development and refinement, with more detailed usability labs conducted involving eighteen participants. Usability lab response categories span efficiency, accuracy, recall and emotional response. The portfolio includes a variety of interactive techniques developed and improved during its testing and refinement. User experience feedback data plays an essential role in influencing the development and direction of the portfolio, helping refine techniques to evoke an enhanced awareness of the past of place by identifying those that worked most, and least, effectively for users. This includes an analysis of the role of synthetic and authentic content on user perception of various digital techniques and compositions. The contributions of this research include: • the composition portfolio and the associated IDT techniques originated, developed, tested and refined in its research and creation • the research methodology developed and applied, utilising iterative development of aspects of the portfolio informed by user feedback obtained both online and in usability labs • the findings from user experience testing, in particular the extent to which various visual and aural techniques help evoke a heightened sense of the past of place • an exploration of the extent to which the usability testing substantiates that user responses to the compositions have the potential to establish an evocative connection that communicates a sense close to that of Barthes' punctum (something that pierces the viewer) rather than solely that of the studium • the role of synthetic and authentic content on user perception and appreciation of the techniques and compositions • the emergence of an analytical framework with the potential for wider application to the development, analysis and design of IDT compositions

The importance of evaluating the usability of e-commerce websites is well recognised and this area has attracted research attention for more than a decade. Nearly all the studies that evaluated the usability of e-commerce websites employed either user-based (i.e. user testing) or evaluator-based (i.e. heuristic evaluation) usability evaluation methods; but no research has employed softwarebased (i.e. Google Analytics software) in the evaluation of such sites. Furthermore, the studies which employed user testing and/or heuristic evaluation methods in the evaluation of the usability of e-commerce websites did not offer detail about the benefits and drawbacks of these methods with respect to the identification of specific types of usability problems. This research developed a methodological framework for the usability evaluation of e-commerce websites which involved user testing and heuristic evaluation methods together with Google Analytics software. The framework was developed by comparing the benefits and drawbacks of these methods in terms of the specific areas of usability problems that they could or could not identify on ecommerce websites. The framework involves Google Analytics software as a preliminary step to provide a quick, easy and cheap indication of general potential usability problem areas on an e-commerce website and its specific pages. Then, the framework enables evaluators to choose other methods to provide in-depth detail about specific iv problems on the site. For instance, the framework suggests that user testing is good for identifying specific major usability problems related to four areas: navigation, design, the purchasing process and accessibility and customer service, while the heuristic evaluation is good for identifying a large number of specific minor usability problems related to eight areas including: navigation, internal search, the site architecture, the content, the design, accessibility and customer service, inconsistency and missing capabilities. The framework also suggests that the heuristic evaluation is good at identifying major security and privacy problems. The framework was developed based on an extensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the three methods in identifying specific usability problems in three case studies (e-commerce websites) in Jordan. This highlighted the usefulness of the methods and therefore helps e-commerce retailers to determine the usability method that best matches their needs. The framework was tested and the results indicated the usefulness of the suggested framework in raising awareness of usability and usability evaluation methods among e-commerce retailers in Jordan. This will help them address usability in the design of their websites, thus helping them to survive, grow and achieve success.

The main objective of the research described in this thesis was to investigate and understand the origins of culturally-determined usability problems in the context of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to develop a method for treating this issue, when designing systems intended to be shared by culturally-heterogeneous user groups, such as Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) systems and the Internet. The resulting approach supports HCI designers by providing an alternative to internationalisation and localisation guidelines, which are inappropriate for tackling culturally-determined usability problems in the context of shared-systems. The research also sought to apply and test the developed approach in order to assess its efficacy and to modify or improve it accordingly.

Healthcare is an important arena for improvement and innovation by the use of e-health solutions. But many obstacles exist, such as insufficiency in interoperability and usability. One reason for this problematic situation is that the development process has been inadequate. Swedish healthcare serves under regulations for public procurement. Hence, almost every e-health solution has to be procured to prevent an orientation towards illegal direct award of contracts. Specifying requirements that explain what the customer and users needs and why, is one of the most critical parts of that process. The customer gets what asked for, but often the requirements are on a high level of interpretation and not explicit or traceable enough. This prevents interoperability and usability from being a vital part of the prioritizing activity. Today knowledge about requirement processes and traceability is fragmented, and often more based on ideal models than on practical, real life experiences. The aim of this work is therefore to understand how traceability is managed and how it can be improved. I investigate who is most suitable to perform the “traceability activity” and, maybe even more important, the skill needed to fulfil that task. With a practice-based and ethnographical approach several studies have been conducted in different healthcare settings in Sweden, all closely connected to the design- and development process in e-health projects. The research shows that traceability maintains the relation between needs and solutions by providing a reality check for every step in the procurement and development. To accomplish that, requirements must be made explicit and interpretable for different stakeholders. The actors best suited for this “traceability activity” must have a holistic approach and know how to identify needs and relate them to the context. This demands a domain-specific knowledge about the healthcare setting and understanding how the organisation works practically and politically. It is crucial to also be skilled at usability, design, development and procurement. In addition, implementing IT in healthcare cannot be separated from business development. I argue that it is time to update the way healthcare development is managed and by whom. First, healthcare management must pay more attention on usability and the crucial role that healthcare professionals have as change leaders and needfinders to strengthening existing initiatives. Second, the design community must match existing initiatives and roles in healthcare with the designers’ special knowledge to support innovation and design processes.

Society today is becoming increasingly digitalised. This has led to several daily routines that used to be handled either via telephone or face to face, are nowadays being handled via the internet. Important actors in society such as authorities but also companies open their web-sites at the internet, thereby enabling more options for people to interact with them, however the elderly group (+65 years) of users is not being included in the digitalization due to various reasons. The purpose of this study is to explore whether differences in user experience can be found within the elderly group and why. Furthermore, the purpose is to contribute with more material for future development of relevant interfaces. Initially, a group of seniors answered our surveys. Thereafter, the study deepened by doing interviews and observations of seniors when interacting with an online booking system. The result presents a number of factors such as previous experiences but also age related factors that affects the informants’ interaction with the interface. / Samhället präglas idag av en ökad digitalisering, vilket har lett till att ett flertal vardagliga ru-tiner som tidigare skötts antingen på plats med personal eller via telefon numera sköts via internet. Viktiga samhällsaktörer såsom myndigheter men även företag upprättar sina webbplat-ser på internet och därmed möjliggörs fler sätt för människor att interagera med dem. Dock inkluderas inte den äldre (+65 år) användargruppen i digitaliseringen av olika anledningar. Syftet med studien är att förklara huruvida skillnader i användarupplevelse går att finna inom den äldre (+65 år) populationen. Vidare är syftet att bidra till ökat underlag för framtida ut-veckling av relevanta gränssnitt. Initialt fick en grupp pensionärer besvara våra enkäter. Utöver enkätens data fördjupades arbetet genom att utföra intervjuer och observationer av pens-ionärer när de interagerade med ett bokningssystem online. Resultatet presenterar en rad fak-torer såsom tidigare erfarenheter men även åldersrelaterade faktorer som påverkar informan-tens interaktion med gränssnittet.

Much of the research on metacognition in human factors has focused on prescriptive, normative strategy training. That is, many researchers have concentrated their efforts on finding ways to improve system users’ prediction, planning, monitoring and evaluation strategies for tasks. However little research has focused on the strategies and heuristics users employ on their own to make usability predictions. Understanding usability prediction methods is critical because users’ predictions inform their expectations about whether they will make errors using a product, how much effort they will need to expend to be successful in using the product, whether they can perform two tasks successfully at the same time, whether the costs of learning to use a device are worth the benefits of using it, which tools will assist in accomplishing goals and which tools will make performing the same task more difficult. The following study aims to identify the specific strategies people use to make usability predictions about product designs. From these strategies a set of guidelines, for designers who wish to ensure users’ expectations meet post hoc usability assessments, were proposed. The study was completed in two phases. During the first phase of this study, prediction strategies were elicited by 1) asking participants to make routine product usability judgments, from which implicit strategies can be inferred, and by 2) using explicit free-response methods. Judgments were analyzed using multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) methods to establish the number of dimensions that are implicitly used to predict usability. Subject matter experts (SMEs) coded free-response strategies using coding schemes developed in a pilot study. SMEs will also matched user strategies to formal, professional usability standards. The outcome of Phase 1 was usability taxonomy for classifying usability strategies that includes both expert and user language. The procedure was repeated with three different product design classes to determine how strategies differ as a function of the to-be-judged product. During the second phase of the study, a new group of participants rated specific usability attributes of designs to validate the strategies collected from users’ free-responses in Phase 1. Attributes were selected based on the strategies discovered in Phase 1. These usability attribute ratings helped to inform interpretations of the dimensions of the MDS model generated in Phase 1 and provided input into defining the usability attributes that influenced usability predictions. Results of this study reveal that the type design class participants evaluated had a significant effect on the type of strategy participants used to make their a priori usability assessments (UAs). Participants reported using “complexity” or “organization” most often to predict the usability of cookbooks. Participants reported using “mental simulation” or “typicality/familiarity” most often for predicting the usability of drinking glasses. Participants reported using “complexity,” “organization,” and to a lesser extent “typicality/familiarity,” and “mental simulation” as strategies for predicting the usability of cooktops. MDS methods were used to uncover the underlying dimension of the UA space. For drinking glasses, the “fanciness” and “holdability” were associated with UAs. For cooktops, “the number of controls” and whether participants believed “it was easy to understand how each burner was controlled” were associated with making UAs. And for cookbooks, “the length of the instructions” and “poor contrast of the text with the background” were associated with UAs. Overall, there is evidence that at least some participants in Phase 2 used terminology that was consistent with the terminology people used to describe the designs during Phase 1 and that these were congruent with the uncovered strategies.

This study is qualitative and interpretive in nature. It examines the perception of 6 people aged 23-32 with decent experience in using the Web on the usability of three user interface website design patterns. These patterns are the ‘hamburger’ icon (an icon used primarily in mobile websites and apps that shows a hidden navigation when clicked), CAPTCHAs (a task that users have to complete to continue browsing a webpage to prevent automated software operating on the webpage) and returning to the homepage. It searches for the characteristics that they desire to see in those three user interface design patterns and the actions that those patterns represent. The participants are reached through interviews and observations and the research pinpoints that although experienced Internet users find the user interface elements relatively usable some usability factors can be worked upon in the chosen design elements and pinpoints what users would want to see changed, the actual changes they want and the problems they actually encounter with the current status of the three (3) design patterns and their usability. More noticeably, the research pinpoints that a “Homepage” button would be more usable than “Home” button which is the de facto standard as of this moment and it shows that the ‘hamburger’ icon is usable enough amongst experienced users, contradicting the research pinpointing that 71 out of 76 fail using the icon (Fichter and Wisniewski, 2016) probably due to the participants’ experience with technology, but other, preferable alternatives to the ‘hamburger’ icon are revealed from the participants which are in line with the current literature. CAPTCHAs are confirmed as a ‘nuisance’ (Pogue, 2012) and the need for CAPTCHAs which are quick to solve emerges which is what forms the perception of usability of the participants.