This diploma thesis focuses on design of the web application for project management. The final product is more process-oriented compared to most of other widely spread project management tools. It builds on the visual representation of tasks' progress. One of the main features is its simplicity and user friendliness as it also aims at the users who are not willing to invest their time to discover more complex applications but are willing to use some project management tool. The application is developped in the Symfony framework.

An interactive multiple screen visualisation might become an opportunity for engaging and illustrative presentations of scientific, complex, and abstract research. With multiple (interactive) monitors, storytelling and interfaces could bring engagement, immersion, and attraction to the audience. The challenge of designing for a multiple screen setup is that the amount of information can be overwhelming, causing the perception of it and engagement with it to decrease. This thesis explores approaches that could enhance the perception and engagement of the content for a multiple screen setup. The Research Through Design approach sets the structure for the entire thesis. It consists of methods for exploration, concepting, prototyping, and user testing. By following this research approach, three versions of a prototype were developed and tested which led to the results of this thesis. The overall nature of this research process was exploratory and the design decisions were applied during the activities. The main findings of this thesis regarding the multiple screen setup during the research process included three attention guiding approaches: black and white, blur, and pause, and according to the user test participants, the preferred approach was black and white. The second vital aspect of the research and testing were the five-act story arc and interactive storytelling structures. According to the data from user tests, interactivity helped to increase the engagement and perception of the exhibition piece.

Buildings consume a significant portion of the world's overall electricity consumptionand it is critical for people's well-being and performance to have a good indoor climate. This is projected to rise as living conditions improve and climate change occurs. This means that energy-efficient interior climate systems are critical, and it is a worthwhile topic to research. This Master Thesis is focused on the topic of indoor climate and how user experience design can improve efficiency and sustainability in the commissioning process. In addition to being a topic that is not much explored, the longer it takes to install wireless systems, the more expensive and more harmful it is to construction sites. The aim of this study was to identify challenges that users face during the commissioning process. Another aim of this research was to investigate what are the improvement opportunities in the indoor climate commissioning process. The final aim of this study is an artifact that has been created with suggested actions that address the identified challenges that users encounter during the commissioning process. The methods chosen for this research will be a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, known as a mixed-method approach. This approach will be used to obtain answers to the study's research questions. The outcome of the survey and interviews with employees who have participated in the commissioning processsomehow will enable us to answer the research questions. The project includes, for example, user studies, technical studies, and the development of new concepts.

Den här studien syftar till att besvara frågeställningen: Hur kan existerande designriktlinjer inom gränssnittsdesign anpassas för heuristisk utvärdering av gränssnittskomponenter i digitala strategibrädspel? Rapporten inleds med en bakgrund över brädspels historia, inklusive dess digitalisering och tidigare forskning inom både fysiska och digitala brädspel. Vidare redogörs en beskrivning av heuristisk utvärdering och olika designriktlinjer inom fysiska brädspel, datorspel och generell gränssnittsdesign. Baserat på en litteraturstudie över tidigare forskning om designriktlinjer för brädspel, datorspel och generell gränssnittsdesign har en lista med ett urval av etablerade designriktlinjer gjorts. Dessa har sedan använts i en heuristisk utvärdering för att undersöka hur väl de är lämpade för utvärdering av digitala strategibrädspels gränssnitt. Baserat på en analys av utvärderingen har listan med designriktlinjer itererats, som i sin tur utvärderats av tre externa utvärderare med expertis inom spelutveckling och/eller UX-design. Utvärderarna har även deltagit i en semi-strukturerad intervju om hur det var att utvärdera ett digitalt brädspel och hur listan med designriktlinjerna var att använda. Sammanlagt har litteraturstudien, de heuristiska utvärderingarna, en observation av de externa utvärderarna samt intervjuerna resulterat i en ny lista med designriktlinjer specifikt anpassade för heuristisk utvärdering av digitala strategibrädspel och visar på hur designriktlinjer behövs anpassas för utvärdering av digitala strategibrädspel. / This study aim to answer the research question: How can existing design guidelines in interface design be adapted for heuristic evaluation of interface components in digital strategy board games? The study begins with a background of the history of board games, including its digitalization and related studies of both physical and digital board games. Furthermore, a description of heuristic evaluation and different design guidelines for physical board games, video games and general interface design is made. A list of selected design guidelines have been created based on a literature review on previous studies on design guidelines for board games, video games and general interface design. These have been used in a heuristic evaluation to examine how well they work for evaluation of the interfaces of digital strategy board games. A new list with design guidelines was then created based on an analysis of the evaluation, which later got evaluated by three external evaluators with expertise in game design, UX-design or both. The evaluators also participated in a semi-structured interview about their opinions and experience of using the design guidelines to evaluate a digital board game. The literature review, the heuristic evaluations, an observation of the evaluators and the interviews resulted in a new list with design guidelines, specifically intended for heuristic evaluation of digital strategy board games, and shows how design guidelines needs to be adjusted for evaluation of digital strategy board games.

This study investigates the 404 error and in what way feedback should be given to the user in an error message to generate a good user experience. To investigate this, data was gathered from 1) a literature review looking at previous studies in User Experience Design, as well as different models to evaluate ease of use and perceived usefulness, 2) a pre-study questionnaire with nine participants who were asked questions related to error messages and feedback in general, and 3) two user tests; the first including 16 participants and the second including 46 participants. During the user tests the participants interacted with a prototype of a website that included 404 error messages. In the first user test the participants' user experience was evaluated based on the TAM model, including perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The second user study focused more on text and illustrations and their effects on the user experience. Three versions of texts were tested, formal, apologetic and amusing. The illustrations either included a character or an object. The result showed that, in general, the users preferred formal texts, as well as illustrations that included a character. The result also suggested that there is not one type of feedback that fits all users, in order to generate a good user experience, it is important to know the audience.

As e-health systems are becoming more common and necessary, it is an important field to explore. One important part that has not yet been explored enough is the formation of trust within e-health. An established approach to help formation of trust in other fields is that of user experience design. This Master thesis is focused on the topic of trust formation of first-time e-health service users and how user experience design can influence trust formation. For fulfilling the purpose, the method of think-aloud and semi-structured interviews were chosen. In addition to that, a prototype of an e-health service was developed. The outcome of the interviews was examined through a thematic analysis in order to answer the research questions. Based on the analysis, new aspects which influence trust formation on the surface level were identified, as well as some previously known were confirmed. The themes which are overlapping with previously conducted studies are Design feeling and Element placement. The newly identified themes contain Consistency, Colour and some aspects of Reading experience. The reasons for the identified aspects were categorized into the two themes of Craftsmanship and Expectations. Those findings were compared with previous studies, and recommendations for future research were formulated.

Today’s generation is born with digital devices like computers, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles. Children’s passive engagement with digital mediums (digital devices and the content they offer) has become a primary concern for parents because it limits children’s learning opportunities through physical play. In this digital age, we cannot completely take away these devices from children’s sight. Still, we can create more situations and contexts that encourage children to reduce their time with digital mediums and/or convert children’s passive engagement into an active engagement. This research-informed design project aimed to understand children’s (aged 8-11) motivations, aspirations, likes, dislikes, and engagement with different physical and digital activities in their daily lives. Learning from different phases of the design process was applied to design a proposal that helps increase children’s physical play during their engagement with digital activity. Method: Findings from the exploratory research led to a few opportunity areas, which were further investigated using research through the prototyping method. User personas, their needs, and their involvement in different activities inspired me to define a few design principles I followed throughout the project to evaluate my design decisions. I set my initial research question as “How might we integrate ‘digital mediums’ with the qualities of ‘physical play’ to provide our children more exciting growth opportunities.” I could probe, test, observe, learn, and finally prototype a few scenarios that enabled children’s physical play during the digital activity. Result: The final concept is “animo- A tool to engage children in a storytelling activity through physical play.” The concept combined children’s current interest in digital mediums with their interests in the creative activity of drawing and doodling. It creates opportunities for children to build the creation by COMBINING two or more objects or mediums, by ENGAGING in physical play and/or with the surrounding, and SHARING the creation that increases their social interactions. Children learn drawing, handwriting, animation, and storytelling skills. They become more curious, observant and notice more the living and non-living things. Bringing feelings and emotions to their drawings increases their expressive and imaginative abilities. They develop empathy, love, and care by sharing their creation with others. Small recognitions of their creation give them a sense of being noticed and encourages them to explore more. Animo helps children learn storytelling through animation, but more than that, it exposes them to the infinite possibilities of learning through physical play.

In today’s competitive landscape, shaping positive digital experiences with the brand is crucial for the company’s market success. The study aimed to investigate the interconnected relationship between User Experience (UX) and Brand Experience (BX) by exploring the potential for enhancing BX through the implementation of User Interface (UI) elements aligned with brand values within an e-commerce website. In this study, a two-phase quantitative experiment was employed, and four high-fidelity e-commerce web page prototypes were developed based on the Swedish multinational furniture retailer IKEA’s e-commerce website. In conclusion, this study establishes that the implementation of UI elements in line with brand values has the potential to enhance BX within the context of an e-commerce website. Through one of the prototypes, all dimensions of BX could be positively influenced. By emphasizing the interconnectedness between UX and BX, these findings contribute to our understanding of the critical role of UX design in shaping positive brand experiences online.

This research paper delves into the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the process of user experience (UX) design resulting in more-than-human-made designs. Specifically, the study focuses on the utilization of the text-to-image AI tool, Midjourney. The primary research questions addressed in this paper are twofold: 1) How do AI tools influence the current UX design process of a high-fidelity prototype? and 2) How do more-than-human-made high-fidelity prototypes compare with human-made high-fidelity prototypes in terms of UX? To answer these research questions, a two-method study design was employed. Firstly, two focus groups with in total of 8 designers as participants were formed, with one group utilizing Midjourney to investigate its influence on the design process and to compare the two groups regarding their workwise. The aim was to create two comparable prototypes within a specific e-commerce setting. Secondly, a between-subjects design user study with 32 participants was conducted to test the high-fidelity prototypes and to assess any potential disparities in UX quality between them. The findings regarding the first research question indicate that Midjourney primarily serves as an inspirational tool. Designers were able to harness the AI tool to generate dark mode images, with the final chosen dark mode exemplifying the impact of Midjourney. Additionally, designers attempted to utilize the tool for creating icons. Regarding the second research question, the user study revealed that, despite similar and comparable use cases, there were only minor significant differences in terms of UX quality. The overall scores in System Usability Scale (SUS) and User Experience Questionnaire Plus (UEQ+) did not exhibit any significant disparity. This study suggests that while Midjourney proves to be a useful tool within the design process, its current influence on designers' UX design process and the ultimate performance of the final prototype remains relatively modest. Further research and development may be required to enhance its impact in the field of UX design and the study design should be used to test other AI tools in comparable settings.

The game development processes behind entertainment games are not well understood. While there are studies that report on user interface evaluation in game production, there are very few studies that report on user interface design. The purpose of study is to explore and learn more about the game industry perspective and their processes behind user interface design. A systematic literature review was performed on the Game developers Conference database, GDC Vault. The review uncovered 105 presentations that relate to UI Design. A thematic analysis was performed to explore the eight most relevant presentations to the research question. The analysis resulted in two themes. The first theme describes UI designers’ experience of interdisciplinary collaboration. The second theme describe two seemingly conflicting goals in the UI design process: aesthetics and usability. The study contributes to the field of game development research with some knowledge about how the game industry create UI design.