Eye tracking-teknologi har blivit mer och mer populärt att använda inom user experience-forskning med åren. I den här studien undersöks hur forskare väljer att visualisera eye tracking-data, vad dessa visualiseringar fyller för syfte och hur de skapades. Målet med studien är att identifiera hur forskare inom området motiverar deras val av visualiseringsmetod och om de redogör för hur de genererat deras figurer för visualisering. Studien är en litteraturstudie där artiklar har analyserats för att hitta jämförbar data. Alla artiklar är relaterade till user experience och har utfört sina studier med hjälp av eye tracking-teknologi. Deras eye tracking data samlas från webbaserade plattformar och visualiserasgenom figurer inkluderade i texterna. Resultat visar att samtliga studier inte motiverar deras val av visualiseringsmetod eller redogör på ett tydligt sätt hur de skapat visualiseringar. Samtliga studier gör också antaganden och slutsatser om användarupplevelsen av deras gränssnitt baserat på deras respektive visualiseringar trots att skapandet av visualiseringar inte redogjorts. / Eye tracking-technology has become increasingly popular to use in user experience research over the years. This study examines how researchers choose to visualize eye tracking-data, the purposes these visualizations serve, and how they were created. The aim of the study is to identify how researchers in the field justify their choice of visualization method and whether they explain how they generated their figures for visualization. The study is a literature review where articles have been analyzed to find comparable data. All articles are related to user experience and have conducted their studies utilizing eye tracking-technology. Their eye tracking data is collected from web-based platforms and visualized through figures included in the texts. The results show that none of the studies justify their choice of visualization method or clearly explain how they created their visualizations. All studies also make assumptions and draw conclusions about the user experience of their interfaces based on their respective visualizations, despite not providing details about the creation of said visualizations.

The objectives and goals of this study is to analyze different styles of viewing information on mobile platforms and to find out what each different view brings to the table by creating and testing them with varied users. The study takes into account List View, Scroll View, and Grid View and compares them while viewing three different data formats. For this study, plain text, tabulated text, and interactive text will be analyzed. Smart mobile devices are the most used platform to view data in today's information rich world according to a survey conducted by Forrester Research. When designing for them, a lot must be considered but not knowing what is best suited for each application can be daunting for developers and designers, especially in the user experience context. This study aims to explore each mobile interface and give a better understanding about the different user interface designs features. Information visualization on cross-media information spaces and platforms is an important part of how information is disseminated today. Considering nowadays people get their information through multiple different media platforms like tablets, mobile phones, and web browsers, how to visualize data across all these platforms is a study to focus on in itself. The study showed that users performed better with certain views paired with different data types over others. Certain features of each view helped users understand the data types better over others while others improved users speed in reading data. Users showed certain preferences when interacting with each view on mobile devices when viewing cross media information which is mentioned in the study. / Målet för den här studien är att analysera olika sätt att visa information på mobila enheter och jämföra dessa genom att testa med olika användare. Studien undersöker de olika vyerna List View, Scroll View och Grid View och jämför dem med tre olika dataformat: vanlig text, tabellerad text och interaktiv text. Smarta mobila enheter är den mest använda plattformen för att synliggöra i dagens informationsrika samhälle enligt en undersökning av Forrester Research. När man utformar designlösningar för smarta mobila enheter är det mycket man behöver ta hänsyn till. Att inte veta vad som är bäst för varje applikation kan vara en svår uppgift för utvecklare och designers, särskilt ur användarperspektiv. Den här studiens syfte är att utforska varje mobilt gränssnitt och ge en bättre förståelse för de olika designlösningarna. Att visualisera information på olika mediers informationsytor och plattformar är en viktig del av hur information sprids idag.Om man tar i beaktan att människor numera får information via flertalet medieplattformar som tex läsplattor, mobiltelefoner, och webbläsare så inser man att visualisering av data på alla dessa medieplattformar är en studie i sig. Studien visade att användare lyckades bättre med vissa vyer och datatyper i kombination jämfört med andra. Specifika funktioner i varje vy hjälpte användare att förstå vissa datatyper bättre än andra, medan andra förbättrade användarnas snabbhet att läsa data. Användare tycktes föredra att interagera med vyer på mobila enheter när de tittade på information på olika medieplattformar, vilket nämns i studien.

<p dir="ltr">Asian international students face various challenges and emotional issues during the process of acculturation, often finding it difficult to truly connect with the domestic culture. Current research often focuses on interactions and adaptation within the international student community, with little mention of how international students communicate with domestic students. Especially in the digital age, the ways people acquire information and communicate have evolved significantly from the past. This research takes into account the current era's context, seeks to understand the current status and needs of new Asian international students and propose further assistance guidelines. It employed interviews and co-design activities to delve into the issues from the perspective of Asian international students, encouraging them to integrate into the domestic culture. The findings suggest that new Asian students encounter similar challenges and utilize various strategies, with a view to fostering social connections with domestic students in future platforms.</p>

The primary aim of the research project presented in this thesis was to develop and test a comprehensive psychological model of interaction experience with news Web sites. Although news media have been publishing on the Web increasingly since the second half of the 1990s and news sites have become a favoured source of news for many, there is a lack of knowledge about news sites in terms of interaction-experience constructs and their structural relationships. The project aimed to examine people’s use of news sites from the perspective of interaction-experience research by developing a model and, based on this model, to provide guidance for designers of news sites. The project comprises three research phases: (1) exploratory phase, (2) modelling phase and (3) experimental phase. In the exploratory phase, a review of literature and an exploratory study of interaction experience with news Web sites were conducted. The latter explored how users of a particular news site interact with the site and which aspects of their experience they report. Data for the exploratory study were collected with an online questionnaire and by recording participants’ use of a news site under think-aloud instructions. In the modelling phase, an online questionnaire was used to collect answers to psychometric scales that were selected based on the literature review and the exploratory study. A measurement model was formulated to test the relationship between measurement items and the measurement scales, and structural models were formulated to test hypotheses related to the structural relationships of variables. Following the test results, a model of interaction experience with news sites was formulated to predict outcome measures of interaction experience from variables measuring aspects of interaction experience. Components of interaction experience, in turn, were predicted from measures of perceived news-site characteristics. In the experimental phase, an experiment was conducted to test the model of interaction experience with news sites in a controlled setting. Additionally, measures of person- and context characteristics were included in the prediction of components of interaction experience. The model of interaction experience with news sites was supported and accounted for a medium to substantial amount of variance in outcome measures. Finally, design guidance was derived from the model to advance interaction-experience knowledge, and conclusions were drawn regarding the model, in relation to existing research.

This empirical work aims to investigate the impact of using multimodal communication metaphors on e-learning systems’ usability, overall user experience and affective state. The study proposed a triple evaluation approach to avoid the problem of conventional assessment relying only on usability measurements of efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfactions. Usability in that sense refers only to the functionality and pragmatic side of the product and neglects other aspects of the system. Learning is a cognitive and repetitive task, requiring learners’ attention as well as their interest. Therefore, when delivering content, in addition to the pragmatic functionality, an e-learning system should provide a constructive overall user experience and positive affective state. Doing so will ensure user engagement, facilitate the learning process and increase learners’ performance. The impact of using five different communication metaphors was evaluated in three dimensions using the proposed approach. Within the usability dimension, the evaluation criteria involved measuring system efficiency, effectiveness, user satisfaction and learning performance. Within the user experience dimension, the evaluation criteria involved measuring pragmatic aspects of the user experience, the hedonic aspects of user experience in terms of stimulation as well as identification and the overall system attractiveness. Within the affective state dimension a self-assessments manikin technique was used in conjunction with biofeedback measurements, and users’ valence, arousal and dominance were measured. The study found that system attractiveness and the hedonic user experience had a profound impact on users’ learning performance and attitude toward the tested system. Furthermore, they influenced users’ views and judgement of the system and its usability. The communication metaphors were not equal in their influence within the evaluation criteria. Empirically derived guidelines were produced for the use and integration of these metaphors in e-learning systems. The outcome of the study highlights the need to use the triple evaluation approach in the assessment of e-learning interfaces prior to their release for better adoption and acceptance by end users.

Frågan som denna rapport ställer sig är hur en användares engagemang i en aktivitet påverkas av vetskapen att motparten är en datorstyrd, dels jämfört med om motparten är en människostyrd Agent jämfört med en människostyrd Avatar och dels beroende på om den datorstyrda Agenten uppvisar ett mer mänskligt beteende, till motsats till ett mer maskin-likt. I syfte att besvara denna fråga har en utförlig litteraturstudie gjorts, som dels utforskat konceptet Engagemang, men även utforskat andra koncept, såsom Social närvaro, Ethopoeia och Simulering av mänskligt beteende. Dessa teorier har sedan använts för att utveckla ett webbaserat experiment, vars mål har varit att samla empiriska data. Experimentet gick ut på att lösa en serie enklare matematiska uppgifter, vissa mot datorn och andra med en mänsklig administratör som deltog på distans, och det som mättes var s.k. Dwell time, d.v.s. hur länge användaren var engagerad nog att ha fokus på aktiviteten. Resultatet visade att det fanns klara indikationer på att engagemanget i aktiviteten är lägre om motparten styrs av en dator, jämfört med om den styrs av en människa. Den andra ”delfrågan” var svårare att definitivt svara på, men författaren anser att det går att tolka resultatet som att engagemanget blir högre. / The question that this essay posed was how the user’s engagement is affected by the fact that the other party is a computer controlled Agent, both compared to if the other party was a human-controlled Avatar, but also depending on whether the Agent displays a more human-like behavior, as opposed to a more machine-like one. To answer this question an extensive litterature study was performed, both to develop the concept of Engagement, but also to explore other concepts, such as Social presence, Ethopoeia and Simulation of human behaviour. These theories were then used to design a web based experiment, with the purpose of collecting empirical data. The experiment consisted of solving simple math tasks, some against the computer, but others involving a human administrator, who participated from a remote location. The measured metric was Dwell time, i.e. the actual time the user was engaged enough to focus on the activity. The result showed that there is a definite indication that the level of engagement in activities is lower if the other party is controlled by a computer, as opposed to it being controlled by a human. The second part of the question was not as clearly answered by the result, but the author believes the result can be interpreted as showing an increase of engagement.

Enligt “Teorin om planerat beteende” så finns det tre orsaker till beteendet. Denna teori handlar om vad som påverkar en persons förväntningar och beteende innan de ska utföra en uppgift på en webbplats. Tidigare forskning har visat att tillgängligheten på webbplatser fortfarande är bristfälliga för personer med synnedsättning, eftersom de har olika behov och det spelar en viktig roll hur webbplatserna är uppbyggda och anpassade för personer med synnedsättning. Det ska vara lätt för användaren att hitta, förstå och kunna ta del av informationen på webbplatsen. För att kunna anpassa en webbplats på bästa sätt för personer med synnedsättning, bör en designer ta hjälp av olika riktlinjer för att kunna designa webbplatsen mer tillgänglig med bra och användbar information för personer med synnedsättningar. Men dessa riklinjer hjälper inte alltid användare med svår synnedsättning, eftersom de är i behov av olika hjälpmedel. Forskningsområdet berör områdena universell design, tillgänglighet, användarupplevelse, tillgänglighet och förväntningar på webben. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka tillgängligheten för personer med synnedsättning på Linnéuniversitets webbplats och studera om webbplatsen är tillgänglig för dem, och studera om webbplatsen uppfyller deras förväntningar och upplevelse till att använda webbplatsen. Studien har studerat hur tillgängligheten påverkar användarupplevelsen för människor med synnedsättning på en webbplats och vilka förväntningar som användaren har på webbplatser. En empirisk studie genomfördes utifrån användartest med uppgifter och intervjuer på den befintliga webbplatsen med hjälp av personer med synnedsättning. I detta arbete har fullständig blindhet uteslutits, eftersom det är helt annan inriktning. Resultatet av intervjuerna sammanställdes och kategoriserades inom tillgänglighet, upplevelse och förväntningar av webbplatsen utifrån de mönster där testpersonerna hade angett liknande svar. Resultatet av sammanställningen av användartestet och intervjuerna på Linnéuniversitetets webbplats visade att testpersonerna anser att webbplatsen är tillgänglig för personer med synnedsättning och att deras förväntningar på webbplatsen uppfylldes. Resultatet visade att det som påverkar tillgängligheten på en webbplats är dåligt utformade med dåliga kontraster som till exempel ljus blått på vit bakgrund. På grund av dålig utformade webbplatser så kan inte personer med synnedsättning använda sina eventuella hjälpmedel, till exempel talsyntes, för att läsa upp innehållet på webbplatsen åt dem. Rörliga bilder, placering av objekt, otydliga menyer och rubriker, dåliga typsnitt eller att texten är för liten så att den blir svår att läsa. Det som personer med synnedsättning förväntar sig ska finnas på en tillgänglig webbplats: bra kontraster, bra typsnitt och tydliga rubriker. Bra placering av element så att det blir lätt att navigera sig, inga rörliga bilder, kunna lyssna på innehållet och att kunna använda sina eventuella hjälpmedel på webbplatsen. Genom detta får användaren en positiv upplevelse av webbplatsen. / According to “Theory of planned behavior", there are three reasons for the behavior. This theory is about what affect a person ́s expectations and behavior before they need to perform a task on a website. Previous research has shown that the availability of websites is still inadequate for people with visual impairment, because they have different needs and it plays an important role in how sites are built and adapted for people with visual impairment. It should be easy for users to find, understand and be able to take note of the information provided on the site. To be able to customize a site in the best way for people with visual impairment, a designer should take the help of various guidelines to design a website more accessible with useful information for people with visual impairment. But these guidelines don't always help users with severe visual impairment, because they are in need of different means. The research area relevant to the fields of universal design, accessibility, user experience, availability and expectations on the websites. The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability of people with visual impairment on Linnaeus University website and learn about how the site is available to them, and to study their expectations and experience of using the website. This study has studied how accessibility affects the user experience for people with visual impairment on a website and the expectations that the user has on websites. To be able to examine, I conducted an empirical study based on user tests with data and interviews on the existing site with the help of people with visual impairment. In this work I have excluded complete blindness, because it is quite a different focus. The results of the interviews were compiled and were categorised in availability, experience and expectations of the website based on the pattern in which subjects had stated similar answers. The result of the compilation of user test and interviews at Linnaeus University website showed that subjects think that the website is accessible to people with visual impairment, and that their expectations of the website were satisfied. The results showed that what affects the accessibility of a website is poorly designed interfaces with poor contrasts such as light blue on a white background. Because of badly designed websites, persons with visual impairment cannot use any assistive devices such as speech synthesizers to read out the contents of the site for them, pictures that moves, position of objects, obscure menus and headlines, bad fonts or that the text is to small, making it difficult to read. What person with visual impairment expects to find on an accessible website: good contrast, good fonts and clear titles. Good placement of the elements so that it will be easy to navigate, no pictures that moves, ability to listen to the content and to use any means at the site. Through this, the user receives a positive experience of the website.

This thesis investigates the Out-of-Box Experience (OoBE) of interactive consumer products for older adults, with a view to improve the User Experience (UX) of a product by manipulating factors of the OoBE. This research emerges in the context of current demographic trends, which see people living longer and in better health, and the increasing ubiquity of technology in modern life. The OoBE describes the very first stages of interaction with a new product, including acquisition, unpacking and setup. This crucial initial experience has the potential to influence product acceptance and therefore determine its future use. Creating a positive OoBE requires an empathic understanding of the intended users, as well as contextual knowledge about current practices. A review of the literature revealed that many of the difficulties older adults experience with technology concern elements of the OoBE, such as complicated documentation, technical jargon and inadequate support for inexperienced users. However, the absence of research on how to engage older adults during the OoBE of new technology reinforced the need for further research. To this end, two user studies were conducted with older people, followed by a design study with designers. The first study explored older adults relationship with technology and their current practices of the OoBE, using the Technology Biography method. The second study used cultural probes to investigate the social side of UX and its effect on personal feelings of independence. Data from these two studies were used to create four personas, which were used in the design study. This third and final study focused on whether the construct of social benefits could be operationalised within the OoBE of new technology. Collectively, the findings indicated that the involvement of other people during the OoBE can be a strong motivator for older people to take up and use technology. Far from impinging on individual perceptions of independence, some older people actively manipulate the OoBE in order to derive social benefits. This research thus contributes to the discussion of how Inclusive Design can evolve through the incorporation of social benefits, in order to generate desirable and successful future products.

This study explored human-robot interaction where children got to play with the interactive social robot Romo. The focus of the study was to explore if children experienced the interactions with the robot differently depending on two parameters. The parameters used were thought to measure differences in experiences, attitudes and expectations towards the robot depending on whether the children were co-creators of the robot or merely had playful interaction with the robot. The results indicated that the children in both activity parameter groups had similar pleasurable experiences apart from four additional categories that were detected in the co-creation group. Something that indicates that the group of children that were given the opportunity to manipulate and form Romo’s behavior had a richer user experience compared to the group of children that only played with Romo. It was also noticeable that none of the children that manipulated and formed Romo’s behavior experienced it as direct learning. They saw the learning process more as being a playful experience and many of them expressed that they had taught Romo to do various things. The ability to edit Romo’s robotic motions and behavior, through an easy contextual-sign interface, inevitably allowed the children to understand physical and computational models through play. / Denna studie undersökte människa-robot interaktion där barnen fick leka med interaktiva sociala roboten Romo. Målet med studien var att undersöka om barnen upplevde interaktioner med roboten på olika sätt beroende på två parametrar. De parametrar som användes var avsedda att mäta skillnader i upplevelser, attityder och förväntningar till roboten beroende på om barnen var medskapare av roboten eller enbart hade en lekfull interaktion med det. Resultatet visade att barnen i båda aktivitets parameter grupperna hade liknande upplevelser av interaktionen med roboten förutom att gruppen som var medskapare av roboten hade ytterligare fyra njutbar upplevelser. Något som tyder på att den grupp barn som fick möjlighet att manipulera och forma Romos beteende hade en rikare användarupplevelse jämfört med den grupp av barn som bara lekte med Romo. Det var också anmärkningsvärt att ingen av barnen som manipulerade och formade Romos beteende upplevde det som direkt inlärning. De såg inlärningsprocessen mer som en lekfull upplevelse och många av dem uttryckte att de hade lärt Romo att göra olika saker. Möjligheten att redigera Romos rörelser och beteenden, genom en enkel kontextuellt gränssnitt, oundvikligen tillät barnen att förstå fysisk- och beräkningsbaserad modellering genom lek.

User-Centred Design (UCD) was proposed in the 1980s and, since then, its philosophy has helped to solve design problems, regardless of the advances in technology over time. The standard ISO 9241:210 (2010), formerly ISO 13407, provides guidance in human-centred design principles and activities undertaken throughout the design lifecycle to further support UCD. In addition, since it was mentioned in ISO 9241:210, UCD has also utilised User Experience Design (UXD) in recent years. There are many approaches that support UCD to ensure it is more attainable when designing. In addition, large firms, such as HP, IBM and Microsoft, use anthropologists in their user research in order to make products more user-centred. However, the concept of UCD should, theoretically, be more widely used in all product design and it is intriguing as to why it is not as popular as it should be. As noticed in the real world, imperfect designs still frustrate us everywhere. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the difficulties of practicing a UCD approach in idea generation and to design solutions for idea generation that would encourage further practice of UCD/UXD. In the first part of the thesis, there is an exploration of the problems encountered when practicing UCD idea generation. When examining the process, a multitude of problems were found, with most blamed as being costly, time consuming and requiring complex skills. In addition, it was suggested that a systematic solution was required to overcome such difficulties. Therefore, later in this research, a systematic model is proposed and evaluated using participants (both designers and target users). Due to the fact that design practitioners are not usually researchers, further help to implement the model in the form of persona application software is needed. Hence, the concept of service design was employed to further assist with the use of the model. In the end, computer-aided development was introduced, together with the integration of the systematic UCD model. The UCD model and the software have been evaluated as effective from both the responses of product design practitioners and end-users. Future recommendations and the research limitations are also discussed in each chapter and the overall results are given in the last chapter. This thesis successfully provided the complete process during the exploration of the low usage problems of UCD, and solutions were presented to assist designers with their UCD/UXD in the future.