The engagement in multiple activities in the workplace leads to the challenge of managing several tasks. When managing multiple tasks, it may be difficult to remember to complete all tasks. Within an operations team at a hedge fund, there are demands that all trades are reported by the end of the day to the correct prime brokerage. This thesis examines the research question: How can a GUI be designed to remind and aid users to verify that trade information has been managed correctly? The research was conducted at a financial company, and focused on improving the workflow for one of the company’s clients and its operations team. To identify the challenges of a financial operator, contextual inquiries were conducted, followed by a design workshop to generate design ideas. The results were used as inspiration for the prototype of a GUI. The prototype was evaluated through cognitive walkthroughs, expert review, and with end users. The prototype was found to aid financial operators to verify if there was any work left, but the reminder aspect would need to be examined with a real system during an extended period. / Att engagera sig i flertalet aktiviteter på en arbetsplats leder till utmaningen att hantera många uppgifter. När det finns många uppgifter att hantera, kan det vara svårt att komma ihåg att slutföra alla uppgifter. Inom ett operationsteam på en hedgefond finns krav att alla värdepappersaffärer ska vara rapporterade innan dagens slut till rätt huvudmäklarfirma (prime brokerage). Denna uppsats undersöker forskningsfrågan: Hur kan ett GUI designas för att påminna och underlätta för användaren att verifiera att information om värdepappersaffärer har hanterats korrekt? Forskningen genomfördes på ett finansiellt företag och fokuserade på att underlätta arbetsflödet för en av företagets kunder och dess operationsteam. För att identifiera utmaningarna för en finansiell operatör genomfördes kontextuella intervjuer, vilka följdes av en designworkshop för att generera designidéer. Resultaten användes som inspiration till en prototyp för ett GUI. Prototypen utvärderades genom kognitiv genomgång (cognitive walkthrough), expertgranskning och med slutanvändare. Prototypen ansågs underlätta för finansiella operatörer att verifiera om det fanns kvarvarande uppgifter, men påminnelseaspekten skulle behöva undersökas ytterligare med ett fullt utvecklat system under en längre period.

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Haptic-based Virtual Reality (VR) applications have many merits. What is still obscure, from the designer’s perspective of these applications, is the experience the users will undergo when they use the VR system. Quality of Experience (QoE) is an evaluation metric from the user’s perspective that unfortunately has received limited attention from the research community. Assessing the QoE of VR applications reflects the amount of overall satisfaction and benefits gained from the application in addition to laying the foundation for ideal user-centric design in the future. In this thesis, we address certain issues and concerns regarding QoE of virtual environments. In essence, we propose a taxonomy for the evaluation of the QoE for multimedia applications and in particular VR applications. The taxonomy classifies QoE related parameters into groups. The groups’ organization is generated from the definition we have adopted for the QoE which is the Quality of Service (QoS) plus the user experience (UX). We model this taxonomy using first mathematical modeling based on weighted averages and then a Fuzzy logic Inference System (FIS) to quantitatively measure the QoE of haptic virtual environments. We test both models conducting user study analysis to evaluate the QoE of a VR application. These models serve as engines that facilitate the calculation of QoE with minimal amount of users. We specifically attend to the issue of the new media, haptics, within the context of increasing the QoE of virtual environments (VE). This special attention is important for comparing the effect of tactile and kinesthetic feedback on the QoE. In accordance, we investigate a particular topic that seems to have a colossal effect on QoE throughout our analysis, which is fatigue. Our analysis involved users' studies since the main focus is on the user. The QoE for virtual environments is in its primary stages. This thesis tackles issues that are vital in dealing with and understanding the importance of QoE. The various results suggest a positive user's disposition toward haptics and virtual environments, yet there will always be obstacles and challenges such as fatigue that if minimized will enhance the QoE of haptic-based applications.

A multiplatform e-learning system is an e-learning system that can deliver learning content to different accessing devices such as PCs, PDAs and mobile phones. The main objective of the research is to formulate a framework for multiplatform e-learning systems. This thesis focuses on the formulation, competency and constitution of the multiplatform e-learning systems framework and the implementation of a multiplatform e-learning system. In conjunction with the main objective, the research also addresses the factors that influence learner satisfaction during their engagement with a multiplatform e-learning system. In addition, the research investigates the relationships between these factors in influencing learner satisfaction. The research also intends to validate the assertion that multiplatform e-learning systems are better than non-adaptive e-learning systems. A comparative evaluation between a traditional e-learning system and a multiplatform e-learning system from end user (learner) perspective was conducted. The evaluation instrument is based on multiplatform e-learning system questionnaires (MELQ). A total of forty participants took part in the evaluation. Four participants took part in the initial pilot evaluation while thirty six participants took part in the final evaluation. Data analysis and statistical results indicate that there are potential gains in learner satisfaction score in multiplatform e-learning systems over traditional e-learning systems. The results also show that the gain is most significant in mobile devices than in desktop PCs. Statistical analysis reveals that all the factors that influence the learner satisfaction are significant and they have different levels of influence over learner satisfaction. These factors can be further organized into primary factors and secondary factors. These findings and the methodology of evaluation can play an important role for e-learning systems designer to improve the adaptation process and to enhance the level of learner satisfaction in multiplatform e-learning systems.

Abstract User experience research has focused mainly on understanding user experiences during or directly after use. However, studies that focus on anticipated user experiences are scarce. Different methods and metrics have also been developed to measure user experience, but only a few are suitable for evaluating visual user interface design in an anticipated use situation. Moreover, these methods do not provide guidance on how to create suitable examples for research. This thesis investigates how anticipated user experiences, needs, and wishes for visual user interface design can be studied in the early development phase. Furthermore, it investigates how visual design examples can be created and used in these studies as well as their benefits. To answer these questions, it was necessary to create and evaluate prototypes and visual design examples in the user early development phase user experience studies. The examples allowed the study of how interactive elements of user interfaces should be visually designed to draw users’ attention to them. In addition, the thesis explains the means of increasing the visibility of an interactive object and the impact of its use context on its visual design. A constructive design research approach is used in this thesis. The research material is compiled from the artifacts and results of the seven user studies. The main data collection and analysis methods are qualitative, supported with some quantitative methods. The main contribution of this thesis is a practical EDE method for creating visual design examples and evaluating them in early development phase anticipated user experience studies focused on the visual design of a user interface. The second contribution of this thesis is user experience-based preliminary suggestions for the design of interactive elements within the studied user interfaces. The findings are useful for both practitioners and researchers dealing with user experience and visual user interface design. / Tiivistelmä Käyttäjäkokemustutkimus on keskittynyt käyttäjien kokemuksiin varsinaisen käytön aikana tai heti sen jälkeen. Kiinnostus ennakoidun käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimukseen ennen käyttötilannetta on herännyt vasta hiljattain. Käyttäjäkokemuksen arviointi- ja mittausmenetelmiä on kehitetty paljon, mutta vain harvat niistä sopivat visuaalisen käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun tutkimiseen ennakoidussa käyttötilanteessa. Menetelmät eivät myöskään opasta arviointiin sopivien visuaalisten esimerkkien suunnittelussa. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, miten käyttäjien ennakoituja kokemuksia, tarpeita ja toiveita visuaalisesta käyttöliittymäsuunnittelusta voidaan tutkia tuotekehityksen alkuvaiheessa. Lisäksi selvitetään, kuinka visuaalisia esimerkkejä voidaan luoda ja käyttää alkuvaiheen ennakoidun käyttäjäkokemuksen arvioinneissa sekä pohditaan niiden etuja tutkimuksille. Jotta näihin kysymyksiin voidaan vastata, täytyi luoda prototyyppejä ja visuaalisia esimerkkejä sekä arvioida niitä käyttäjätutkimuksissa. Esimerkkien avulla tutkitaan, miten vuorovaikutteisia käyttöliittymäelementtejä tulisi visuaalisesti esittää, jotta käyttäjä erottaisi ne muusta sisällöstä. Lisäksi selvitetään, miten elementin vuorovaikutteista ilmettä voitaisiin vahvistaa sekä arvioidaan sovellusympäristön vaikutusta elementin visuaaliseen esittämiseen. Tutkimuksen lähestymistapa on konstruktiivinen suunnittelun tutkimus. Aineisto muodostuu artefakteista ja seitsemän käyttäjäkokemustutkimuksen tuloksista. Tutkimusten tiedonkeruumenetelmät ja aineiston analyysimenetelmät ovat laadullisia. Lisämenetelminä on käytetty myös määrällisiä mittareita ja analyysimenetelmiä. Tutkielman päätulos on käytännöllinen EDE-menetelmä, joka on tarkoitettu visuaalisten esimerkkien luontiin ja arviointiin alkuvaiheen ennakoiduissa käyttäjäkokemustutkimuksissa, jotka keskittyvät tuotteen visuaaliseen suunnitteluun. Tutkielman toinen tulos on käyttäjäkokemuspohjaiset alustavat suositukset tutkittujen käyttöliittymien vuorovaikutteisten elementtien visuaaliseen suunnitteluun. Tulokset palvelevat visuaalisen käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun tai käyttäjäkokemuksen parissa työskenteleviä tutkijoita ja teollisuuden ammatinharjoittajia.

Haptic-based Virtual Reality (VR) applications have many merits. What is still obscure, from the designer’s perspective of these applications, is the experience the users will undergo when they use the VR system. Quality of Experience (QoE) is an evaluation metric from the user’s perspective that unfortunately has received limited attention from the research community. Assessing the QoE of VR applications reflects the amount of overall satisfaction and benefits gained from the application in addition to laying the foundation for ideal user-centric design in the future. In this thesis, we address certain issues and concerns regarding QoE of virtual environments. In essence, we propose a taxonomy for the evaluation of the QoE for multimedia applications and in particular VR applications. The taxonomy classifies QoE related parameters into groups. The groups’ organization is generated from the definition we have adopted for the QoE which is the Quality of Service (QoS) plus the user experience (UX). We model this taxonomy using first mathematical modeling based on weighted averages and then a Fuzzy logic Inference System (FIS) to quantitatively measure the QoE of haptic virtual environments. We test both models conducting user study analysis to evaluate the QoE of a VR application. These models serve as engines that facilitate the calculation of QoE with minimal amount of users. We specifically attend to the issue of the new media, haptics, within the context of increasing the QoE of virtual environments (VE). This special attention is important for comparing the effect of tactile and kinesthetic feedback on the QoE. In accordance, we investigate a particular topic that seems to have a colossal effect on QoE throughout our analysis, which is fatigue. Our analysis involved users' studies since the main focus is on the user. The QoE for virtual environments is in its primary stages. This thesis tackles issues that are vital in dealing with and understanding the importance of QoE. The various results suggest a positive user's disposition toward haptics and virtual environments, yet there will always be obstacles and challenges such as fatigue that if minimized will enhance the QoE of haptic-based applications.

There is currently no set standard for evaluating visualization environments. Even though the number of visualizations has increased, there is a tendency to overlook the evaluation of their usability. This thesis investigates how a visualization tool for crowd trajectory data can be made using the visualization technique of animated maps and the JavaScript library D3.js. Furthermore it explores how such a visualization tool can be evaluated according to a suggested framework for spatio-temporal data.     The developed tool uses data taken from the UCY Graphics Lab, consisting of 415 trajectories collected from a video recorded at a campus area. User evaluation was performed through a user test with a total of six participants, measuring effectiveness as completed tasks, and satisfaction as ease of use for three different amounts of trajectories. Qualitative data was recorded through using the think aloud protocol to gather feedback to further improve the implementation. The evaluation shows that the visualization tool is usable and effective, and that the technique of animated maps in combination with a heatmap can aid users when exploring and formulating ideas about data of this kind. It is also concluded that the framework is a possible tool to utilize when validating visualization systems for crowd trajectory data. / Det finns i dagsläget ingen etablerad standard för att utvärdera visualiseringssystem. Även om antalet visualiseringar har ökat finns det en tendens att förbise utvärderandet av deras användbarhet. I det här arbetet undersöker vi hur ett visualiseringsverktyg för data av gångbanor hos folksamlingar kan skapas, med hjälp utav visualiseringsmetoden animated maps och JavaScript-biblioteket D3.js. Vidare undersöker vi hur det är möjligt att evaluera ett visualiseringsverktyg utefter ett givet ramverk.  Visualiseringsverktyget använder data från UCY Graphics Lab. Datan består av 415 gångbanor som är insamlade från en videoinspelning av ett campusområde. En utvärdering genomfördes sedan med sex deltagare, där visualiseringens effektivitet och användarvänlighet mättes. Frågorna ställdes för tre olika mängder av gångbanor. Kvalitativa data dokumenterades genom en så kallad ''think aloud'', för att ge återkoppling och förslag på möjliga förbättringar av visualiseringen. Evalueringen visar på att animated maps i kombination med en heatmap kan hjälpa användare att utforska data av gångbanor hos folksamlingar, samt att verktyget är effektivt och användbart. Det är också visat att det ramverk som användes vid evalueringen är ett möjligt verktyg för att validera visualiseringsverktyg av den typ som gjorts i det här projektet.

Wasaline is a shipping company that has automated their check-in process for trucks carrying cargo. This increased effectiveness and provided a better experience for drivers. To make sure that the new system was as effective as possible, the user experience of the check-in automats also had to be as good as possible. Their design, usability, and performance were evaluated based on research and ISO 25022:2016 Quality-in-Use to find issues and potential improvements. This was also backed by data collected from log files during the automated check-in process that could be compared with the old manual check-in process along with a heuristic evaluation of the system. Finally, interviews were conducted with truck drivers and staff members to get their perspective. Potential solutions to these problems were presented as a prototype that illustrates how improvements could be implemented while keeping the company’s original design.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka vilken typ av brister som anmäls till IVO iärenden som rör familjehemsvård inom socialtjänsten och hur dessa brister kanförstås utifrån ett förändringsperspektiv. I denna kvalitativa dokumentstudie har 30klagomål analyserats utifrån en innehållsanalys av sekundärdata. Resultatet påvisaratt både familjehem och vårdnadshavare upplevt brister i kommunikationen från ochmed socialtjänsten, det visar även att det skett en särbehandling mellanvårdnadshavare. Studien visar att klagomålen berör olika områden, dock ger flertaletklagande uttryck för att de inte känner sig lyssnade på. I diskussionen diskuterasresultatet utifrån studiens centrala begrepp, tolkningsram samt tidigare forskning.Studiens resultat och diskussion visar att det finns ett behov av att stärkakommunikationen mellan socialtjänsten och dess brukare, en viktig faktor i det äratt försöka säkerställa att information mottagits och förståtts på ett korrekt sätt. / The purpose with this essay was to research what type of flaws reported in casesabout family home care in the social services and how they can be understood froma change perspective. In this qualitative document study, 30 complaints have beenanalyzed with content analysis of secondary data. The result shows that both familyhomes and caregivers have experienced communication flaws from and with thesocial services, it also shows that there has been special treatment betweencaregivers. The flaws concern different areas, many express that they do not feellistened to. In the discussion, the results are discussed based on the study's keyconcepts, interpretive framework and previous research. The results and discussionshow that there is a need to strengthen the communication between the socialservices and its users, an important factor is to ensure that information is receivedand understood in a correct way.

Attempts have been made in Sweden to increase readability for texts addressed to the public, and ongoing projects are still being conducted by disability associations, private companies and Swedish authorities. In this thesis project, we explore automatic approaches to increase readability trough text simplification and keyphrase extraction, with the goal of facilitating text comprehension and readability for people with reading difficulties. A combination of handwritten rules and monolingual machine translation was used to simplify the syntactic and lexical content of Swedish texts, and noun phrases were extracted to provide the reader with a short summary of the textual content. A user evaluation was conducted to compare the original and the simplified version of the same text. Several texts and their simplified versions were also evaluated using established readability metrics. Although a manual evaluation of the result showed that the implemented rules generally worked as intended on the sentences that were targeted, the results from the user evaluation and readability metrics did not show improvements. We believe that further additions to the rule set, targeting a wider range of linguistic structures, have the potential to improve the results.