System development has been an innovational trend in the field of Information systems in both past and present time; and users of the system is one of the key success in the development life cycle of human and computer based systems. Information system is one of the most emerging technologies in developing countries; Nigeria as a case and the development of these IS is deployed in both private and public sectors of the economy for organizational data management. Due to some characteristics of developing countries such as poor communication facilities, unequal distribution of wealth, large population and so many others, many of these information system development has been carried out for the provision of services to both public and private organizations. But on the other hand, such projects have failed in one way or the other due to poor end user involvement in or during the development process. For this research, the involvement of users in developing country and more appropriate concepts which developers/designer could possibly use to involve users for a successful system were studied. The approach to this investigation was with the use of questionnaire which was distributed to the users of two different systems which were developed using different concepts of user involvement (Scenario-based user involvement technique and Interview-based user involvement technique). Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), was used for this quantitative analysis and the Independent t-test analysis was done to prove the significance between these systems. The findings from this study shows that in the developing countries such as Nigeria, these concepts of user involvement is also applicable and Interview-based user involvement technique seem to be the more appropriate method. Further research on the combination of these concepts/techniques for end user involvement should be considered or rather the creation of an advanced technique/concept for gathering end user needs and requirements for an excellent usable system in developing countries with respect to their limiting factors as mentioned in this thesis.

Context. The subject presented in this research is the fact that people resist IT induced change and want to maintain their current situation when implementing a new information system.  If no strategy is set to deal with it, resistance to change leads to Information System failure. Objectives. In this study, the author is investigating how to anticipate and handle resistance to change when implementing a new information system in order to succeed. This is followed by introducing the factors affecting user satisfaction which in turn affects user acceptance. Methods The data collection involves interviews in order to assemble appropriate, justifiable and relevant data, in addition to surveys to measure and validate the hypotheses in this thesis. The banking sector in Lebanon was selected as a source of data collection. Results. Three factors Perceived ease of use(PEOU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and User Involvement react together to satisfy user and hence to make the user accept change. Conclusions. Based on the studies conducted so far with respect to this topic, there exists an indirect relationship between the three factors discussed in this thesis, the user satisfaction, and the user acceptance. The more the user finds the system easy to use (simple way of work with less efforts) and useful (the extent to which person’s work is improved) and the more he/sh  is involved, the more he is satisfied and hence the more he is willing to accept the change and causes system success.

Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the drastic growth of the Internet over the past decade have considerably changed the environment for end users of computer systems. Therefore, it is important to review how user satisfaction is measured with information systems, especially in a web-based environment. User satisfaction has become one of the most important measures of the success or effectiveness of information systems; however, there is a need of better understanding of its structure and dimensionality in the web environment. The objective of this research was to develop and validate an instrument for measuring user satisfaction in a web-based environment. In this research, three commercial websites were taken as representatives of Web-Based Information Systems (WBIS) for e-services. This study involved testing the validity and reliability of the end-user satisfaction over a set of heuristics, based on responses from users of three e-service websites. This thesis explores not only the role of user satisfaction but also the role of aesthetics and other factors, which play a significant role in service oriented websites. In the past, satisfaction was thought to originate from the effectiveness and efficiency of a product and less from its aesthetic qualities. This theory is beginning to change as numerous studies have indicated the importance of visual aesthetics in web design. In service interfaces, aesthetics (the perceived visual appeal and appropriateness of an object) has shown to correlate positively with many aspects of usability and emotional satisfaction.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In virtually any field of endeavour today, access to information is a prerequisite for success. Library services are affected by financial considerations and staffing problems. This work evaluated library performance with the aim of improving service management. Its targets are UWC, and others such as the Stellenbosch University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The application of selected service management techniques and measures used in business will be explored. The study also touched on transformation and change management. / South Africa

Customer overall satisfaction towards a public transport system depends mainly on two factors: how satisfied they are with different aspects that make up the service and how important each of the service aspects is to the customer. Traditionally, researchers use revealed preference surveys and ordered probit/logit models to estimate the contribution of each service attribute towards the overall satisfaction. This paper aims to verify the possibility of replacing the traditional method with the more cost-effective best-worst case 1 method, using a customer survey recently conducted in Santander, Spain. The results show that the satisfaction level obtained from these alternative methods are remarkably similar. The relative importance of each attribute delivered by the two methods differ, with the Best-Worst approach showing more intuitive and consistent results with the literature on public transport customer satisfaction. A regression method is developed to derive customer satisfaction with each service attribute from Best-Worst modelling results.

Information system’s impact on organization’s effectiveness is a well-researched scientific area and has over the years grown exponentially. Information systems exist in order to intensify the information flow within an organization, at all levels, specifically to allow set of data to reach the designated person, in the right format, and at the right time, generating a positive and beneficial contribution to the organization. This qualitative thesis aims to investigate two different implementations of information systems and its result on the respective organization’s effectiveness. The thesis uses three factors, Time-saving, Workload, and System Reliability, to distinguish users’ perceptions and experience with the system and how they affect the organization’s effectiveness. An interpretative method is used, due to the paradigm’s focus on social constructions and human interpretations to explain reality. In total were seven (7) interviews conducted, three at Organization A, and four at Organization B.  The result of the findings shows that the implementation of a new MIS (Management Information System) has a greater impact on an organization’s effectiveness, compared to an older system that gets updated and add-ons. However, when comparing the first versions of the older MIS with the latest, the findings showed a large improvement in all factors as well. Although, the responses highlighted that there are still several problems that need to be fixed in the older MIS in order for it to reach a better level of satisfaction by its users, but also to achieve better effectiveness. Additionally, the result showed that within Organization B, which utilizes the older system, there were external- and internal factors that were not affected by the MIS, that dictated, to an extent, the workload and if time could be spared.  The thesis helps researchers and organizations alike to better understand the importance of a well-adapted MIS, in terms of the organization's goals, and the importance of increased recognition from the user organization when a system should be discontinued. Furthermore, this thesis helps us to better understand the result of two of the most common IS implementations. The implementation of information systems is challenging for organizations since most are put into place without a practical- and efficient implementation strategy, focusing on wrong critical factors. By comparing differences between different implementation of management information systems, focusing on how the chosen approach affects the effectiveness in each organization, a better grasp, and understanding of an area that lacks research and attention is highlighted.

This paper describes the process of evaluating an audience engagement tool developed by a company called Stagecast. It is evaluated using the system usability scale, which is a common and simple way of measuring the usability of an application. The process starts with developing a feedback moment for the application that includes questions from the system usability scale. The application is then first tested in a laboratory setting with the feedback moment launched after an event, and second, it is tested in a real live event. The results in this paper indicate that the overall satisfaction with the Stagecast application was average, based on scoring of previous usability tests, with a score of 65.96 for the SMASK live event, though the participation in the feedback moment was limited. / Den här rapporten beskriver processen för utvärderandet av en produkt för att engagera publiken under live event som utvecklats av företaget Stagecast. Produkten är utvärderad med hjälp av system usability scale (SUS), vilket är ett vanligt och simpelt sätt att mäta användarvänlighet för applikationer. Processen börjar med att utveckla en feedback moment för applikationen som innehåller frågor från system usability scale. Applikationen är sedan testad i en studio där feedbackmoment lanseras efter eventet. Steg nummer två är att lansera feedbackmoment efter ett live event. Resultaten i den här rapporten indikerar att generella tillfredsställelsen med Stagecast applikationen var medel, baserat på en sammanställning av tidigare undersökningar med SUS. Poängen blev 65.96 för SMASK eventet, men deltagandet i feedbackmoment var begränsat.

Last mile transportation is the most problematic phase of transportation needing additional research and effort. Longer waits or search times, lack of navigational directions and real-time information are some of the common problems associated with last mile transportation. Inefficient last mile transportation has an impact on the environment, fuel consumption, user satisfaction and business opportunities. Last mile problems exist in several transportation domains, such as: the landing of airplanes, docking of ships, parking of vehicles, attended home deliveries, etc. While there are dedicated inter-connected decision support systems available for ships and aircraft, similar systems are not widely utilized in parking or attended handover domains. Therefore, the scope of this thesis covers last mile transportation problems in parking and attended handover domains. One problem area for parking and attended handovers is due to lack of real-time information to the driver or consumer. The second problem area is dynamic scheduling where the handover vehicle must traverse additional distance to multiple handover locations due to lack of optimized routes. Similarly, during parking, lack of navigational directions to an empty parking space can lead to increased fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Therefore, aim of this thesis is to design and develop decision support systems for last mile transportation problems by holistically addressing real time customer communication and dynamic scheduling problem areas. The problem areas discussed in this thesis consists of persistent issues even though they were widely discussed in the literature. In order to investigate the problem areas, microdata analysis approach was implemented in the thesis. The phases involved in Microdata analysis are: data collection, data processing, data storage, data analysis and decision-making. Other similar research domains, such as: computer science or statistics also involve phases such as data collection, processing, storage and analysis. These research domains also work in the fields of decision support systems or knowledge creation. However, knowledge creation or decision support systems is not a mandatory phase in these research domains, unlike Microdata analysis. Three papers are presented in this thesis, with two papers focusing on parking domains, while the third paper focuses on attended handover domains. The first paper identifies available smart parking tools, applications and discusses their uses and drawbacks in relation to open parking lots. The usage of cameras in identifying parking occupancy was recognized as one of the suitable tools in this paper. The second paper uses a thermal camera to collect the parking lot data, while deep learning methodologies were used to identify parking occupancy detection. Multiple deep learning networks were evaluated for identifying parking spaces and one method was considered suitable for acquiring real time parking occupancy. The acquired parking occupancy information can be communicated to the user to address real-time customer communication problems. However, the decision support system (DSS) to communicate parking occupancy information still needs to be developed. The third paper focuses on the attended handovers domain where a decision support system was reported which addresses real-time customer communication and dynamic scheduling problems holistically. Based on a survey, customers accepted the use of mobile devices for enabling a real-time information flow for improving customer satisfaction. A pilot test on vehicle routing was performed where the decision support system reduced the vehicle routing distance compared to the route taken by the driver. The three papers work in developing decision support systems for addressing major last mile transportation problems in parking and attended handover domains, thus improving customer satisfaction, and business opportunities, and reducing fuel costs, and pollution.

The purpose of this study was to explore the usage of data cubes in the context of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). This study investigated what added benefit could be provided to users of the GEOSS platform by utilizing the capabilities of data cubes. Data cubes in earth observation is a concept for how data should be handled and provided by a data server. It includes aspects such as flexible extraction of subsets and processing capabilities. In this study it was found that the most frequent use case for data cubes was time analysis. One of the main services provided by the GEOSS portal was the discovery and inspection of datasets. In the study a timeline interface was constructed to facilitate the exploration and inspection of datasets with a temporal dimension. The datasets were provided by a data cube, and made use of the data cubes capabilities in retrieving subsets of data along any arbitrary axis. A usability evaluation was conducted on the timeline interface to gain insight into the users requirements and user satisfaction. The results showed that the design worked well in many regards, ranking high in user satisfaction. On a number of points the study highlighted areas of improvement. Providing insight into important design limitations and challenges together with suggestions on how these could be approached in different ways. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur Data Cubes kunde komma att användas inom ramarna för Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Vilka fördelar som kunde dras ifrån att utnyttja den potential som data cubes besitter och använda dem i GEOSS plattformen undersöktes i studien. Data cubes för earth observation är ett koncept om hur data ska hanteras och tillhandahållas av datatjänster. Det ämnar bland annat flexibel extrahering av datapartitioner och dataprocesseringsförmågor. I denna studie iakttogs det att det mest frekvent förekommande användningsområdet för data cubes var analys av tid. Ett huvudsyfte med GEOSS portalen var att tillhandahålla användaren med verktyg för att utforska och inspektera dataset. I denna studie tillverkades ett användargränssnitt med en tidslinje för att ge användaren tillgång till att även utforska och inspektera dataset med en tidsdimension. Datasetet tillhandahålls från en data cube och utnyttjar data cubes färdighet i att förse utvalda partitioner av datasetet som kan extraheras längs valfri axel. En användarstudie har gjorts på användargränssnittet för att utvärdera till vilken grad användarna var nöjda och hur det uppfyllde deras krav, för att samla värdefulla insikter. Resultatet visar på att designen presterar väl på flera punkter, den rankar högt i användartillfredsställelse. Med studien klargör även framtida förbättringsmöjligheter och gav insikter om viktiga designbegränsningar och utmaningar. I rapporten diskuteras det hur dessa kan hanteras på olika sätt.

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