Ubiquitous computing aims to make human-computer interaction as naturalistic and functionally invisible as possible through embedding computing potential within a particular context to support human activity. However, much of ubiquitous computing research is focussed on technical innovation due to the challenges involved with deploying embedded computing, thereby reducing the commitment to the philosophical ideals of ubiquitous computing in research. This dissertation describes the investigation of a participatory approach to technically-complex research in order to understand how our view of the engineering and human challenges changes when the two are approached hand-in-hand. The domain chosen for this system was a dental surgery. Dentistry involves a complex workspace with computer interaction constrained by surgery hygiene. Ubiquitous computing offers a compelling interaction alternative to the keyboard and mouse paradigm in such an environment. A multi-method approach that employed ethnographic research and design prototyping was undertaken with dentists from several different private practices. A series of field studies used ethnographic methods such as observation and interview. Design events explored prototypes with activities such as design games, contextual interviews, role-playing and contextual prototyping. Activities were devised with the aim of providing a level playing field, whereby both designers and participants feel they can contribute equally, with their respective disciplinary knowledge. It was found that methods needed to be carefully chosen, devised and managed, in order to communicate complex concepts with participants and to constrain the design to technically feasible options. The thesis examines the design problem from the perspectives of a variety of different stakeholders within a participatory design framework, reflected upon by means of human-centred action research. Data was gathered through design speculations and observation, and explored using methods such as the Video Card Game and Video Interaction Analysis. Fieldwork was analysed using a multi-stage qualitative analysis process which informed further design collaboration with participants. The analysis of data gathered during design studies with dentists also contributed to the development of a prototype system to validate methodological contributions. The resulting prototype utilised off-the-shelf hardware and software which allowed for innovative customisation and development. In-situ prototyping (defined by the author as “participatory bootstrapping”) and a comprehensive knowledge of the domain afforded the creative application of technology. In addition to contributing to the prototype design, the interpretive understandings drawn from analysis identified how technical ideas were presented and utilised by participants of the studies, and how best to engage busy professionals. The final outcomes of the research were a multimodal ubiquitous computing system for interacting within a dental surgery; the development and implementation of a variety of methods aimed at communicating technical concepts and eliciting user motivations, practices and concerns; and a set of design principles for engineers engaging in design of systems for human use. The research presented within this thesis is primarily part of the field of human-computer interaction, but provides evidence of how engineering development can be influenced by a user-centred participatory approach. The benefits that derive from inclusive methods of design are demonstrated by the evaluation of a prototype that employed such methods. The contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate and delineate methods for developing ubiquitous computing technologies for the context of human use. This led to a set of design principles for the engineering of systems for human use: 1. Technology needs to be robust and simple to appropriate. This allows users to give insights on technology developments and also to allow users to discover for themselves how they would use the technology. 2. An evolving and carefully considered set of methods are needed to elicit communication between practitioners and across disciplines. The gaps in understandings and the different representations that arise across the disciplines provide essential clues to next steps in design. These gaps and differences form tensions that can be exploited productively. 3. Context is important for determining which design steps to take. Rather than abstracting a problem in order to solve it, as is usual in engineering design, the problem should remain grounded in the context of use. It reveals what the real problems are that need to be solved rather than the imagined ones. This requires an appreciation of the situated nature of action and of the variability of work. In turn it also requires an appreciation of what the human can and does do and what the machine should support. 4. Accountability in design is required. There is a fundamental tension between trying to make something work and seeing what really does work; specifically it is necessary to understand when automation is worth it in human machine systems. While engaged in the design process, engineers should ask how much technology should reconfigure human practices because of a useful outcome, rather than attempting to automate and converge devices for its own sake. A clear understanding of the constraints and workings of the work space needs to be balanced with the understandings of the limitations of the technology in order to design a system that improves work practice and empowers the practitioner.

Coeliac disease is an intestinal disorder, requiring patients to maintain a life-long gluten-free diet to ensure better health and reduce the risks of osteoporosis, intestinal lymphoma and other associated diseases. Patients must have access to clear information about the disease and about what foods are safe to eat, detect foods that contain gluten and make adjustments that need to be made to their diet. There is very little well designed information currently available for Coeliac patients. Eating out and shopping in supermarkets can become a nightmare. A User-centred design approach was used to generate information and insights on the Coeliac disease and patients' needs to conceptualise, design and evaluate an information handbook that is both functional and pleasurable to use. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were used to generate empirical data that guided a participative design process before the evaluation of the handbook. This project consists of a handbook as practical work that represents the main body of applied research. The practical work and the exegesis constitute 50% each of the thesis value.

The interest in the complex relationship between the behaviour of users and the design of interactive system has been significantly increased as the digital technology has advanced. This has led to usability becoming one of the key elements in user-centred interaction design. Systems need to be designed in a usable way; efficient, use-enhancing, flexible and learnable and the design should also meet the user’s needs and aspirations. This thesis aimed to develop a more usable prototype of the Maintenance Ground Support System (MGSS), using prototyping and a user-centred design approach. The prototype was developed using an adaptation on the evolutionary software development process that consisted of four iterative steps. The prototypes were created, tested and evaluated with surrogate and end-users. The design of the prototype is based on a customizable and simple dashboard application that supports multiple user needs and requirements, in a familiar environment where the user can feel confident and be in control. Based on usability testing, the prototype was concluded to be more efficient, understandable as well as easier to use than the existing system.

This study is a case study for a mobile app for fishing enthusiasts, Fishbrain with the purpose of presenting personas based on user-research. This assignment was carried out upon request of Fishbrain as the company finds that they lack qualitative data. One main reason for this is that the majority of the users are located in the US. Fishbrain has 4.83 million users mainly across the United States, Australia, Sweden and Brazil (14th of December 2017). This study intends to determine whether our chosen methods for user-research can apply when the interviewers and the responders are located at different geographical locations, and to evaluate if our chosen method for deriving personas can be applied on a large user base. This study is based on quantitative data collected through surveys. Subsequently, interviews were conducted as a method for collecting more qualitative data. Based on this empirical foundation, interesting insights and recurring factors were categorized. Two primary personas and two secondary personas were developed from this analysis. This study finds that our chosen methods for user-research are valid when users and researchers are located in different places, but that there are certain limitations that the researchers should take into consideration, for example the time difference. This may require a longer research timeframe  than if the research is conducted in a lab environment. / Denna undersökning är en fallstudie för Fishbrain med syfte att presentera personas framtagna utifrån användarundersökningar. På önskan av Fishbrain genomfördes detta uppdrag då företaget upplever att de saknar kvalitativ data, eftersom majoriteten av användarna befinner sig i USA. Fishbrain har 4,83 miljoner användare fördelat över främst USA, Australien, Sverige och Brasilien (2017-12-14). Med denna studie hoppas vi kunna svara på huruvida våra valda metoder för användarundersökningar är lämpliga då undersökare och deltagare befinner sig på olika geografiska platser, samt att utvärdera huruvida vår valda metod för framtagande av personas kan appliceras på en stor användarbas. Undersökningen utgår från kvantitativt insamlad data från enkätundersökningar. Därefter används intervju som metod för att komma åt mer kvalitativa aspekter. Utifrån denna empiriska grund kategoriseras olika intressanta insikter och återkommande faktorer. Vid analys av datainsamlingen utvecklas två primära samt två sekundära personas. Undersökningens slutsats är att det är applicerbart att genomföra användarundersökningar när användarna och undersökarna befinner sig på olika platser, men att det finns vissa begränsningar som undersökarna bör ta hänsyn till, såsom tidsskillnad. Dessa begränsningar medför att den tidsram som sätts för projektet bör beräknas längre än om undersökningarna genomförs i laboratoriemiljö.

The purpose with this thesis was to study user activities in a business system, MediusFlow. The overall objective was to identify user related problems and to analyse which of the usability data gathering methods to use in the future development process of the company Medius. The outcome of this study indicated that a cognitive related user problem was the most important problem to solve. A Star Life Cycle method was preferred. Two low-fidelity prototypes were developed to exemplify an alternative design solution to the identified cognitive user problem. Furthermore, the two best methods to use when gathering user related requirements were heuristic evaluation and expert review. In addition a company specific Style Guide was created with generic guidelines as a foundation for development of future applications within Medius.

The main goal of this study was to do a heuristic evaluation of the information architecture (IA) of the recently redesigned academic library website of the University of Pretoria and to provide recommendations for improvement if necessary. The main problem that is addressed by this study is that there is no comprehensive list of heuristics for the purpose of evaluating the IA of academic library websites. This study used various methods to address this problem and achieve the main goal. A literature review resulted in a set of integrated usability heuristics that can be used to do a heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library websites. The set was created based on an integration of existing usability principles from authorities in the field of usability. The integrated set of existing principles was made applicable to academic library websites through the addition of sub-criteria based on a review of twenty related studies. A multiple-case study method was used for the heuristic evaluation of the library websites of the top three universities in South Africa, i.e., University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand, and Stellenbosch University. The results of the multiple-case study method were used to further adapt the list of principles. The heuristic evaluation method was used in each of the case studies as a data collection method. Another case study was done, using the same method and revised heuristics, to evaluate the usability of the library website of the University of Pretoria and to provide recommendations. The main outcomes of this study is a list of heuristics that can be used for the heuristic evaluation of the IA of academic library websites, as well as a list of recommendations for the improvement of the newly redesigned library website of the University of Pretoria. The list of heuristics is not limited to academic library websites, however, as it can be adapted and reused for the heuristic evaluation of other types of websites. / Dissertation (MIS)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Information Science / MIS / Unrestricted

Durch den Fortschritt der Digitalisierung sind Computer zu einem wesentlichen Bestandteil des Alltags ihrer Nutzer geworden. Folglich wächst die Bedeutung der nutzerzentrierten Entwicklung von soziotechnischen Systemen, die neben dem technischen System auch die komplexen Anforderungen des sozialen Systems berücksichtigt. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht in diesem Zusammenhang die nutzerzentrierte Gestaltung der Mensch-Computer Interkation (MCI) in soziotechnischen Systemen, damit sie den Nutzer bestmöglich und intuitiv unterstützt. In diesem Zusammenhang werden (a) die Integration der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit, die für die nutzerzentrierte Entwicklung benötigt wird, in den Entwicklungsprozess, (b) die nutzerzentrierte Erhebung von Anforderungen an die MCI, (c) die Gestaltung der MCI in soziotechnischen Systemen basierend auf den identifizierten Anforderungen und (d) die Evaluation soziotechnischer Systeme hinsichtlich der Erfüllung der Nutzeranforderungen untersucht. Durch die Erhebung von Anforderungen und Entwicklung von Gestaltungsprinzipien, Vorgehensmodellen und Prototypen sowie die rigorose Evaluation der Ergebnisse trägt die Dissertation zur gestaltungsorientierten Wirtschaftsinformatik bei und bietet der Praxis wertvolle Erkenntnisse über Nutzeranforderungen, Nutzungsverhalten und Gestaltungsprinzipien, die zur Realisierung und Verbesserung der MCI beitragen.

We have been working together with Triona AB to design a dashboard mock-up for their web application TNE Editor, so they can get a better overview of important information. A process with many steps is needed to gather information about Trionas customers, we want to reduce the number of these steps. Triona is an IT-consulting business. They primarily work with logistics and infrastructure organizations. Our goal was to develop an administrative dashboard for TNE Editor. A user centred design (UCD) approach was used. This was done by involving the users in the process from the beginning to determine what requirements the users had. A UCD methodology helps use valuate if they are satisfied with the design according to the usability requirement satisfaction. Our research questions were: How can a dashboard reduce the steps needed to gather statistical information of Trionas customers? By implementing design principles for a dashboard, will the users be satisfied with the dashboard design? We interviewed employees at Triona that use the TNE Editor and made a SWOT-analysis based on their answers. The results showed opportunities to implement different data about Trionas customers on a dashboard. Information like the activity trend the customers, proportion of accepted and rejected projects and common error messages. We designed a dashboard mock-up with the feedback from the interviewees together with design guidelines such as gestalt theory and information visualization theory. We have also taken usability and user experience principles into consideration to make the dashboard as efficient and user friendly as possible. The users of the TNE Editor generally seem pleased with the dashboard mock-up. However, there is still room for additional iterations to improve the design further. / Vi har samarbetat med Triona AB för att designa en dashboard prototyp för deras webbapplikation TNE Editor, så att de kan få en bättre översikt över viktig information. För att samla information om Trionas kunder så krävs en process med många steg, vi vill minska antalet steg i denna process. Triona är ett IT-konsultföretag som främst arbetar med logistik- och infrastrukturorganisationer. Vårt mål var att utveckla en administrativ instrumentpanel för TNE Editor. Vi använde oss av en användarcentrerad design (UCD)-metodik. Detta gjordes genom att involvera användarna i processen från början för att fastställa deras krav och behov. En UCD metodik hjälper oss även att utvärdera om de är nöjda med designen enligt usabilitykravet satisfaction. Våra forskningsfrågor var: Hur kan en dashboard minska antalet steg som behövs för att samla statistik om Trionas kunder? Genom att implementera design principer för en dashboard, kommer användarna bli nöjda med dashboard designen? Vi intervjuade anställda på Triona som använder TNE Editor och genomförde en SWOT-analys baserad på deras svar. Resultaten visade möjligheter att implementera olika data om Trionas kunder på en dashboard. Information som aktivitetstrender för kunderna, andel accepterade och avvisade projekt samt vanliga felmeddelanden. Vi designade en dashboard prototyp utifrån feedback från intervjupersonerna tillsammans med designriktlinjer såsom gestaltningsteori och teori för informationsvisualisering. Vi har även tagit hänsyn till principer för användbarhet och användarupplevelse för att göra dashboard så effektiv och användarvänlig som möjligt. Användarna av TNE Editor verkar generellt sett nöjda med prototypen för instrumentpanelen. Det finns dock fortfarande utrymme för ytterligare iterationer för att ytterligare förbättra designen.

This paper is a research through design approach (Zimmerman et al 2007),that seeks to reflect upon several designerly practices in action. Chiefly it’sconcerned with describing the development of a web-service withcollaborative media elements, as part of a user-centred design process, tosupport physiotherapy patients during their self-directed recovery. The reportalso reflects on a failed first design attempt, and draws through that reflectiondescribes the way I now choose to operate as a designer. The paper proposesa new definition of design for well-being which draws upon and combineswork by Dodge et al (2012) and Miller & Kälviäinen (2006). Finally, thereport also proposes a series of further steps to take in the futures to developthe web-service.

This study aims at exploring and developing an approach for user-centred product planning for product managers in multi-product tech companies. Applying the Design Thinking methodology in this research project allows for product managers to be involved in the design process as a whole. From research and interviews with product managers it can be seen that there is a global understanding of the importance of a shift in focus towards user experience rather than product features while planning, but that there are no clear means yet to facilitate this. Through co-design with product managers as well as individual prototyping, a lo-fi prototype of a planning tool is developed and tested. The results show that the prototype successfully facilitated multi-product planning and shifted the focus from features to experiences. The methodology used can be reproduced in analogous companies and the results can be used as a starting point to continue adapting and developing the approach. / Denna studie syftar till att utforska och utveckla ett tillvägagångssätt för användarcentrerad produktplanering för produktchefer inom tekniska produktutvecklingsbolag som utvecklar flera olika samverkande produkter. Metoden Design Thinking har använts i detta forskningsprojekt, vilket möjliggjort att produktchefer kunnat att vara involverade i designprocessen som helhet. Från initiala intervjuer med produktchefer framkom det att de förstod vikten av att ha fokus på användarupplevelse snarare än produktegenskaper under planering av flerproduktslösningar, men att de i dagsläget inte finns några tydliga verktyg för att underlätta detta. Genom samdesign med produktchefer formades ett antal prototyper av ett planeringsverktyg. En Lo-Fi-prototyp utvecklades och utvärderades av produktägare. Testerna visade att multiproduktplanering framgångsrikt underlättades och flyttade fokus från funktioner till användarupplevelser. Den metodik som använts här kan reproduceras i liknande företag och resultaten kan användas som utgångspunkt för att fortsätta anpassa och utveckla arbetssättet.