Inclusive design is a concept intended to promote the development of products and environments equally usable by all users, irrespective of their age or ability. This research focuses on developing a method to derive heuristics for inclusive design. The research applies the actionfunction diagram to model the interaction between a user and a product, design difference classification to compare a typical product with its inclusive counterpart, graph theory to mathematically represent the comparison relations, and graph data mining to extract the design heuristics. The goal of this research is to formalize and automate the inclusive-design heuristics generation process. The rule generation allows statistical mining of the design guidelines from existing inclusive products. Formalization results show that, the rate of rule generation decreases as more products are added to the dataset. The automated method is particularly helpful in the developmental stages of graph mining applications for product design. The graph mining technique has capability for graph grammar induction, which is extended here to automate the generation of engineering grammars. In general, graph mining can be applied to extract design heuristics from any discrete and relational design data that can be represented as graphs. Concept generation studies are conducted to validate the heuristics derived in this research for inclusive product design. In addition, an inclusivity rating is created and verified to evaluate the inclusiveness of the conceptual ideas. Finally, appreciation and awareness about inclusive design is important in an engineering design course, hence, a module is compiled to teach inclusive design methods in a capstone design course. The results of the exploratory study and validation show that there is problem dependency in the application of the representation scheme. It cannot be stated with certainty at this point if the representation scheme is helpful for designing consumer products, where only the activities related to the upper body are involved. However, self-reported feedback indicates that the teaching module is effective in increasing the awareness and confidence about inclusive design.

Developing high quality software is of eminent importance to keep the existing customers satisfied and to remain competitive. One of the most important software quality characteristics is performance, which defines how fast and/or efficiently a software can perform its operation. While several studies have shown that field problems are often due to performance issues instead of feature bugs, prior research typically treats all bugs as similar when studying various aspects of software quality (e.g., predicting the time to fix a bug) or focused on other types of bug (e.g., security bugs). There is little work that studies performance bugs. In this thesis, we perform an empirical study to quantitatively and qualitatively examine performance bugs in the Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browser projects in order to find out if performance bugs are really different from other bugs in practice and to understand the rationale behind those differences. In our quantitative study, we find that performance bugs of the Firefox project take longer time to fix, are fixed by more experienced developers, and require changes to more lines of code. We also study performance bugs relative to security bugs, since security bugs have been extensively studied separately in the past. We find that security bugs are re-opened and tossed more often, are fixed and triaged faster, are fixed by more experienced developers, and are assigned more number of developers in the Firefox project. Google Chrome project also shows different quantitative characteristics between performance and non-performance bugs and from the Firefox project. Based on our quantitative results, we look at that data from a qualitative point of view. As one of our most interesting observation, we find that end-users are often frustrated with performance problems and often threaten to switch to competing software products. To better understand, the rationale for some users being very frustrated (even threatening to switch product) even though most systems are well tested, we performed an additional study. In this final study, we explore a global perspective vs a user centric perspective of analyzing performance data. We find that a user-centric perspective might lead to a small number of users with considerably poor performance while the global perspective might show good or same performance across releases. The results of our studies show that performance bugs are different and should be studied separately in large scale software systems to improve the quality assurance processes related to software performance. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-30 01:28:22.623

This thesis explores how Natural User Interface (NUI) interaction and Multiple Display Technology (MDT) can be applied to an existing Freight Management System (FMS), to improve the command and control interface of the dispatch operators. Situational Awareness (SA) and Task Efficiency (TE) are identified as being the main requirements for dispatchers. Based on studies that have been performed on SA and TE in other time critical occupations such as Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) and Air Traffic Control (ATC), a substitute dispatch display system was designed with focus on courier driver and freight management systems and monitoring. This system aims to alleviate cognitive overheads without disrupting the flow of the existing CFMS by providing extended screen area matched with a natural input mechanism for command and control functionality. This Master’s thesis investigates which of commercial state-of-the-art interface tools is best to use in a wide Field-of-View (FOV) multiple screen display and to dicern if there is any practical impact that a proposed NUI system will have to courier dispatching. To assess the efficacy of such a hypothetical system the author has developed an experimental prototype that combines a set of three monitors in a Multi-Monitor System to create the overall display system, accompanied with two traditional and two advanced NUI direct and indirect interaction techniques (mouse, trackpad, touch screen and gesture controller). Experiments using the prototype were conducted to determine the optimum configuration for control/display interface based upon task effectiveness, bandwidth and overall user desirability of these methods in supporting behavioural requirements of dispatch workstation task handling. The author use the well-studied and robust Fitts' Law for measuring and analysing user behaviour with NUIs. Evaluation of the prototype system finds that the multi-touch system paired with the multi-monitor system was the most responsive of the interaction techniques, direct or indirect. Based on these findings, employing such an interaction system is a viable option for deployment in FMS's. However for optimal efficiency, the firmware that supports the interactivity dynamics should be re-designed so it is optimized to touch interaction. This will allow the multi-touch system to be used effectively as an affordance technology. Although the gesture interaction approach has a lot of potential as an alternative NUI device, the performance of gesture input in this experimental setting had the worst performance of all conditions. This finding was largely a result of the interface device limitation within the wide FOV display range of the multi-monitor system. Further design improvements and experimentation are proposed to alleviate this problem for the gesture tracking and for the touchscreen modalities of interaction.

Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to increase understanding and provide new knowledge on the applicability and value of the living lab approach in user-centric product and service development in public and private sector. Research has been carried out within the authentic living lab environment of the Oulu Urban Living Labs (OULLabs) and the PATIO user community and user involvement tool in 2011–2018. Empirical evidence is gathered from qualitative living lab case studies conducted in multiple contexts: public service development, commercial product and service development, business accelerating, innovation instruments, public procurement and urban planning. The primary source of information are the 70 in-depth interviews with the customer companies and organizations. Both general and context-specific value of the living lab approach for public and private sector customers are identified. The living lab approach provides an effortless process for user-centric development. Knowledge and practice of user involvement are transferred into customers. The living lab approach supports the development of usable and desirable products and services. The diverse context-specific value of the living lab approach includes, e.g., information for the development and decision making, learning and knowledge, new customer and end-user contacts, increased efficiency, improvement of organizational culture and communication, enhanced quality of products and services, gaining visibility, involvement of citizens and increased productivity. PATIO is perceived as a fast, easy and efficient digital tool to involve users regardless time and location in a living lab environment. The main contribution of the thesis is the new knowledge of less researched long-term and partly novel living lab studies in a remarkable breadth. The findings of the thesis support the adoption of the living lab approach as a natural and continuous practice in a variety of product and service development activities, especially in local innovation ecosystems but also in international environments. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä ja tuottaa uutta tietoa living lab -toimintatavan soveltuvuudesta ja arvosta yritysten ja julkisen sektorin tuote- ja palvelukehityksessä. Tutkimus on toteutettu autenttisessa Oulu Urban Living Labs (OULLabs)- ja PATIO living lab -ympäristössä vuosina 2011‒2018. Tutkimuksen empiiriset todisteet perustuvat laadulliseen tapaustutkimukseen, jossa living lab -menetelmiä ja -työkaluja on hyödynnetty eri konteksteissa: julkisten palvelujen kehittäminen, kaupallisten tuotteiden ja palvelujen kehittäminen, yrityskiihdyttämö, innovaatioinstrumentit, julkiset hankinnat ja kaupunkisuunnittelu. Tutkimuksen pääaineisto koostuu 70:stä yritysten ja muiden sidosryhmien edustajien haastattelusta. Tutkimuksessa on tunnistettu sekä yleisiä että kontekstisidonnaisia living lab -toiminnan hyötyjä julkisen ja yksityisen sektorin asiakkaille. Living lab -toimintatapa tarjoaa vaivattoman prosessin käyttäjäkeskeiseen kehittämiseen sekä lisää uutta tietoa ja uusia käytäntöjä käyttäjien osallistamisesta. Living lab -toimintatapa tukee käytettävien ja haluttujen tuotteiden ja palveluiden kehittämistä. Living labin monet kontekstisidonnaiset hyödyt ovat esimerkiksi informaatio tuote- ja palvelukehityksen ja päätöksenteon tueksi, tiedon ja oppimisen lisääntyminen, prosessien tehostaminen, uudet asiakas- ja loppukäyttäjäkontaktit, tuottavuuden lisääntyminen ja taloudelliset hyödyt, organisaatiokulttuurin ja kommunikaation parantaminen, tuotteiden ja palveluiden parempi laatu, näkyvyyden lisääminen sekä kuntalaisosallistaminen. Digitaalinen käyttäjäyhteisö ja käyttäjien osallistamistyökalu PATIO on nopea, helppo ja tehokas tapa aktivoida käyttäjiä tuote- ja palvelukehitykseen living lab -ympäristössä. Tutkimus tuo uutta tietoa vähän tutkituista pitkän aikavälin living lab -toiminnan tuomista hyödyistä ja uudenlaisista living lab -tutkimuksista merkittävässä laajuudessa. Tulokset tukevat living lab -toiminnan omaksumista luonnolliseksi ja jatkuvaksi osaksi tuotteiden ja palveluiden kehittämistoimintoja paikallisissa innovaatioekosysteemeissä, mutta myös kansainvälisissä toimintaympäristöissä.

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Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) delivers television content to users over IP-based network. Different from the traditional TV services, IPTV platforms provide users with large amount of multimedia contents with interactive and personalized services, including the targeted advertisement, on-demand content, personal video recorder, and so on. IPTV is promising since it allows to satisfy users experience and presents advanced entertainment services. On the other hand, the Next Generation Network (NGN) approach in allowing services convergence (through for instance coupling IPTV with the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture or NGN Non-IMS architecture) enhances users' experience and allows for more services personalization. Although the rapid advancement in interactive TV technology (including IPTV and NGN technologies), services personalization is still in its infancy, lacking the real distinguish of each user in a unique manner, the consideration of the context of the user (who is this user, what is his preferences, his regional area, location, ..) and his environment (characteristics of the users' devices 'screen types, size, supported resolution, '' and networks available network types to be used by the user, available bandwidth, ..') as well as the context of the service itself (content type and description, available format 'HD/SD', available language, ..) in order to provide the adequate personalized content for each user. This advanced IPTV services allows services providers to promote new services and open new business opportunities and allows network operators to make better utilization of network resources through adapting the delivered content according to the available bandwidth and to better meet the QoE (Quality of Experience) of clients. This thesis focuses on enhanced personalization for IPTV services following a user-centric context-aware approach through providing solutions for: i) Users' identification during IPTV service access through a unique and fine-grained manner (different from the identification of the subscription which is the usual current case) based on employing a personal identifier for each user which is a part of the user context information. ii) Context-Aware IPTV service through proposing a context-aware system on top of the IPTV architecture for gathering in a dynamic and real-time manner the different context information related to the user, devices, network and service. The context information is gathered throughout the whole IPTV delivery chain considering the user domain, network provider domain, and service/content provider domain. The proposed context-aware system allows monitoring user's environment (devices and networks status), interpreting user's requirements and making the user's interaction with the TV system dynamic and transparent. iii) Personalized recommendation and selection of IPTV content based on the different context information gathered and the personalization decision taken by the context-aware system (different from the current recommendation approach mainly based on matching content to users' preferences) which in turn highly improves the users' Quality of Experience (QoE) and enriching the offers of IPTV services

Detta projekt undersöker social isolering och ensamhet bland äldre. Målet med projektet är att öka sällskapligheten bland äldre. Metoderna bygger på en användarcentrerad strategi och med kvalitativ forskning och kvantitativ data som genereras. Som en del av en interaktionsdesignstudie. Teorier om vad som har gjorts i fältet presenteras och relaterat arbete för att förstå fältet. Insikten från den empiriska studien definierar problem i designprocessen, från intervjuerna och undersökningen. I designprocessen presenteras såväl metoder som används för att skapa idéer som resultatet. Designprocessen presenterar nio koncept som en lösning på forskningsfrågan. Avslutningen och diskussionen presenterar nya idéer och tankar om hur projektet kan ha tagits i en annan designmetod och utforskning. / This project explores social isolation and loneliness among elders. The goal of the project is to increase sociability among elders. The methods are based on a user-centered approach and with qualitative research and quantitative data generated. As part of an interaction design study. Theories about what has been done in the field are presented and related work to get an understanding of the field. The insights gained from the empirical study define problems in the design process, from the interviews and survey. In the design process methods that are used to create ideas are presented as well as the result. The design process presents nine concepts as a solution to the research question. The conclusion and discussion present new ideas and thoughts on how the project might have been taken in a different design approach and exploration.

The field of building services and the topic of interior user-centric climate has been gaining on importance in recent years. The pandemic of COVID-19 has resulted in an increased amount of time spent indoors, extensive energy usage in the built environment, and has also brought up the important issue of a pleasant interior climate. These two implications have become prominent on top of the ones resulting from the existent, persistently growing threat which is posed on our planet by climate change. Rising temperatures & increasing amount of sunlight, extensive energy consumption due to higher demand for cooling and heating, especially in large buildings (i.e. office buildings) occupied by large amounts of people with different preferences and user habits - these are all challenges we now have to face. Considering these challenges, this thesis suggests how a holistic approach could protect against them, mitigate their further development and so prevent their future impact on us humans. The overarching goal of this thesis, the pursuit of the “ideal” interior climate in office buildings, is achieved through setting up scenarios where different variations of daylighting, thermal comfort and energy consumption will be experimented with. The “ideal” interior climate will then be determined through assessing these scenarios and their corresponding results, yielding a recommendation for building future office spaces - these will no longer be only functional and provide shelter, but will also support interior occupant comfort and be efficient while doing so.

This thesis presents a preliminary design of a demand forecasting service using a service design approach. The service aims to provide a better user experience when forecasting demands for the Operational Managers (OM) in an online food-delivery platform. Based on the internal user interviews, demand forecasting is essential to plan the right yet efficient balance between order demand and delivery supply. However, some limitations were discovered in the existing process that creates unnecessary manual work, and therefore less time productivity. This thesis explores whether to create a better digital and centralized forecasting service and can be introduced to reduce the manual tasks as much as possible using Machine Learning models. The research methodologies used in this thesis are the user-centric design methods, for example, semi-structured interviews, Affinity diagrams, Stakeholder Mapping, Persona, User Journey Mapping, and Service Blueprint. Moreover, the research highlights the current gaps in the forecasting process and presents comprehensive suggestions in designing the forecasting service. The results also combined the stakeholder aspirations to ensure operational efficiency and user-centric design methods to solve those gaps. / Denna uppsats presenterar en preliminär design för en tjänst för efterfrågeprognostisering med hjälp av en tjänstedesignmetod. Tjänsten syftar till att ge en bättre användarupplevelse vid prognostisering av efterfrågan för de operativa cheferna på en online-matleveranstjänst. Intervjuer med interna användare visade att prognostisering av efterfrågan är viktig för att kunna planera en korrekt men effektiv balans mellan efterfrågan och antalet kurirer. I den nuvarande processen upptäcktes dock några begränsningar som skapar onödigt manuellt arbete och mindre tidsproduktivitet. Förslaget var att skapa en bättre digital och centraliserad prognostiseringstjänst och minska de manuella uppgifterna så mycket som möjligt med hjälp av maskininlärningsmodeller. I forskningen tillämpades användarcentrerade designmetoder, till exempel halvstrukturerade intervjuer, affinitetsdiagram, intressentkartläggning, persona, kartläggning av kundresor och service blueprint. Dessutom belyste forskningen de befintliga luckorna i hela processen och presenterade omfattande förbättringsförslag för utformningen av prognostiseringstjänsten. Resultaten kombinerade också intressenternas ambitioner för att säkerställa operativ effektivitet med användarcentrerade designmetoder för att lösa rätt problem. Prognostiseringstjänsten utvecklades av företaget utgående från forskningsresultatet.

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