Business Intelligence (BI) enables organizations to collect and analyze internal and external business data to generate knowledge and business value, and provide decision support at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The consolidation of data coming from many sources as a result of managerial and operational business processes, usually referred to as Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) is itself a statically defined process and knowledge workers have little to no control over the characteristics of the presentable data to which they have access. There are two main reasons that dictate the reassessment of this stiff approach in context of modern business environments. The first reason is that the service-oriented nature of today’s business combined with the increasing volume of available data make it impossible for an organization to proactively design efficient data management processes. The second reason is that enterprises can benefit significantly from analyzing the behavior of their business processes fostering their optimization. Hence, we took a first step towards quality-aware ETL process design automation by defining through a systematic literature review a set of ETL process quality characteristics and the relationships between them, as well as by providing quantitative measures for each characteristic. Subsequently, we produced a model that represents ETL process quality characteristics and the dependencies among them and we showcased through the application of a Goal Model with quantitative components (i.e., indicators) how our model can provide the basis for subsequent analysis to reason and make informed ETL design decisions. In addition, we introduced our holistic view for a quality-aware design of ETL processes by presenting a framework for user-centered declarative ETL. This included the definition of an architecture and methodology for the rapid, incremental, qualitative improvement of ETL process models, promoting automation and reducing complexity, as well as a clear separation of business users and IT roles where each user is presented with appropriate views and assigned with fitting tasks. In this direction, we built a tool —POIESIS— which facilitates incremental, quantitative improvement of ETL process models with users being the key participants through well-defined collaborative interfaces. When it comes to evaluating different quality characteristics of the ETL process design, we proposed an automated data generation framework for evaluating ETL processes (i.e., Bijoux). To this end, we classified the operations based on the part of input data they access for processing, which facilitated Bijoux during data generation processes both for identifying the constraints that specific operation semantics imply over input data, as well as for deciding at which level the data should be generated (e.g., single field, single tuple, complete dataset). Bijoux offers data generation capabilities in a modular and configurable manner, which can be used to evaluate the quality of different parts of an ETL process. Moreover, we introduced a methodology that can apply to concrete contexts, building a repository of patterns and rules. This generated knowledge base can be used during the design and maintenance phases of ETL processes, automatically exposing understandable conceptual representations of the processes and providing useful insight for design decisions. Collectively, these contributions have raised the level of abstraction of ETL process components, revealing their quality characteristics in a granular level and allowing for evaluation and automated (re-)design, taking under consideration business users’ quality goals.

User centered design is a process which aims to understand user needs and desires by using different tools and methods. This is challenging in the industry as companies have different goals compared to the academic discipline of user centered design. As companies have different goals, common UCD methods which are used in the academic field are often not used. Therefore, there is a gap in how UCD is done in practice compared to theory. Designers and user experience specialists must use the tools which are available, capitalize on the opportunity to use existing resources in the organization in order to understand users and their needs. Insights explain the why and the motivation of the consumer or user, and they are less apparent and intangible, hidden truths that result from continuous digging. Insights can be draw from several different sources, from data and qualitative sources. This thesis investigates from what available sources in an organization can insights be generated from in order to understand users and design better experiences, specifically from the organizations perspective. The purpose is not only to understand users but to drive the organization’s objectives and goals. This thesis uses an innovative collaborative workshop methodology, working with digital designers, to answer the research questions and as a result presents an insights generation model. The research has been specifically conducted for an organization, and from their available sources, but the methodology and model creation has the potential to be used in similar settings, domains or projects.

Abstract Usability methodology has matured into a well-defined, industrially relevant field with its own findings, theories, and tools, with roots in applying information technology to user interfaces ranging from control rooms to computers, and more recently to mobile communications devices. The purpose is regularly to find out the users’ goals and to test whether a design fulfils the usability criteria. Properly applied, usability methods provide reliable and repeatable results, and are excellent tools in fine-tuning existing solutions The challenges of usability methodologies are in finding new concepts and predicting their characteristics before testing, especially when it comes to the relatively young field of mobile user interfaces. Current usability methods concentrate on utilising available user-interface technologies. They do not provide means to clearly identify, e.g., the potential of auditory or haptic output, or gestural input. Consequently, these new interaction techniques are rarely used, and the long-envisioned useful multimodal user interfaces are yet to appear, despite their assumed and existing potential in mobile devices. Even the most advocated and well-known multimodal interaction concepts, such as combined manual pointing and natural language processing, have not materialised in applications. An apparent problem is the lack of a way to utilise a usage environment analysis in finding out user requirements that could be met with multimodal user interfaces. To harness the full potential of multimodality, tools to identify both little or unused and overloaded modalities in current usage contexts are needed. Such tools would also help in putting possibly existing novel interaction paradigms in context and pointing out possible deficiencies in them. In this thesis, a novel framework for analysing the usage environment from a user-centric perspective is presented. Based on the findings, a designer can decide between offering a set of multiple devices utilising various user-interface modalities, or a single device that offers relevant modalities, perhaps by adapting to the usage environment. Furthermore, new techniques for creating mobile user interfaces utilising various modalities are proposed. The framework has evolved from the experiences gathered from the designs of experimental and actual product-level uni- and multimodal user interface solutions for mobile devices. It has generated novel multimodal interaction and interface techniques that can be used as building blocks in system designs.

The “What” and “Why” in information system development in resource restricted environments is already well covered in literature. However, the “How” to do it still has not been explored. This thesis reports on the development of a locally flavoured participatory user requirements elicitation framework for the development of information systems in resource restricted environments. It uses existing participatory design practices, user requirements elicitation literature and local participatory norms and traditions to achieve this. In doing so, it takes a step towards the way information systems could be developed in resource restricted environments. The topic of this thesis is mainly motivated by the recent calls in existing literature for developing countries to start developing their own information systems in order to address their own requirements. Accordingly, and to lay a foundation towards the realisation of this goal, this research is positioned within the user requirements elicitation region of information systems development. Current user requirements elicitation methods use traditional methods where experts/designers ask system users questions through interviews or learn about their environment through observations. This research proposes a shift from this approach to one that not only views users as equal partners in the elicitation process but in the whole information systems development process. This is in the spirit of participatory design, which was developed in Scandinavia more than four decades ago. Further, recent research in participatory design emphasises the importance of its contextual nature and concedes that there is no single best practice for participatory design in information systems that applies to all contexts. This research explores the information systems development discourse in resource restricted environments in Africa. Its purpose is to enhance understanding of the local contexts, thus providing new insights on how to develop a framework that speaks to local challenges using norms and traditions in order to develop information systems that address local requirements. Thus, the main contribution of this research lies in laying a foundation for a locally flavoured participatory approach for information systems development in resource restricted environments. It contributes to the existing information systems development, participatory design and user requirements elicitation body of knowledge by developing a framework for participatory user requirements elicitation. In addition, it contributes to the participatory design body of knowledge by introducing an age-old African participatory decisionmaking approach to the academic participatory design community. In doing so, it adopts the meaning of participation from an African value system point of view, which is something that has only been previously explored in the Nordic countries and North America. Finally, recommendations for the application, limitations and avenues for further research are incorporated into the findings of this research.

The present work was performed at Aurora Innovation. Its purpose was to develop a proof-of-concept of an application where you could book an appointment and add personal information. This application is meant to be used by people of different ages, technology skills and preferences. User centered design was used during the development of the proof-of-concept, primarily the user centered design methods existing in contextual design. This project reflects on the value of these methods, and what the consequences could be if a product is developed from a single point of view. It was found that even for a relatively small project the user centered design proved valuable for collecting data, which then was used to improve the final proof-of-concept. Furthermore the results show how not having a varied test group can negatively affect your final product.

Globally in the medical and healthcare field, due to technological advancement and higher success rate of life-saving procedures, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of blood stem cell transplants performed each year. Consequently, the demand for blood stem cells from the donors is continual. The process of acquiring these cells from donors has its obstacles. Once volunteers are willing to donate and are identified as a potential match to the patient, they go through various stages, involving a long waiting period for the donors.  The aim of the project  is to apply and combine interaction design practices in the healthcare and medical world: how it would affect and shape specific experiences for the blood stem-cell donor. I would propose a digital service design that provides strategies to enhance the donation journey experience for the volunteer donors and the stakeholders involved in the process. The thesis project explores how we might design alternative ways to enhance a donor experience through digital services.

This report presents a development of an analytic tool for advisors, developed with a usercentred design process. The tool is developed to help advisers enhance profitability in a company in a simple and flexible way, and to convey the knowledge to their customers. The report focuses on usability and visual representations to present data from an analysis of the operating branches as well as key performance indicators. The work has a usercentered design process divided into four steps and performed by a pre-study and two iterations. The prestudy was the basis of the project, which included a literature study, interviews compiled to two persons and an effect map. The first iteration began with exploring different visual representations for an analysis of the operating branches and key performance indicators. The visual representations were user-tested through a questionnaire. The second iteration developed the tool by designing and implementing a prototype in the program React in order to be user-tested. The test focused on the visual representations and was performed through task-based questions, Likert-questions about the visual representation and the standardized questionnaire System Usability Scale. The report concluded that users thought that bar graphs, tables and texts are the easiest tools to use. The visual representations can therefore be used to visualize economic values. However, a bullet graph was more likely to be chosen in order to visualize key performance indicators. Bullet graphs contain a lot of information, which makes the diagram complex for the user to understand. A simple and fast tool should therefore be limited and use the details-on-demand of the information visualization mantra to enable the user to obtain more information when needed. The tool is not fully developed and more iterations are needed to complete a final product. / Denna rapport presenterar utvecklingen av ett analysverktyg för ekonomiska rådgivare med inriktning på lantbruk, utvecklat genom en användarcentrerad designprocess. Verktyget är utvecklat för att hjälpa rådgivare att förbättra lönsamhet i ett företag på ett en-kelt och smidigt sätt, samt förmedla kunskapen till sina kunder. Examensarbetet fokuserar på användbarhet och visuella representationer för att presentera data från en driftsgrensanalys samt nyckeltal. Arbetet använder en användarcentrerad designprocess uppdelat i en förstudie och två iterationer. Förstudien låg till grund för projektet och innehöll en litteraturstudie, intervjuer sammanställt till två personer och en effektkarta. Första iterationen utforskade olika visuella representationer för en driftsgrensanalys och nyckeltal. De visuella representationerna användartestades genom en enkätundersökning. Den andra iterationen utvecklade verktyget genom att designa och implementera en prototyp med React för att användartestas. Användartestet fokuserade på de visuella representationerna av resultatet och utfördes genom uppgiftsbaserade frågor, Likert-frågor om den visuella representationen och en standardiserade enkäten för att undersöka användbarheten (System Usability Scale). Resultatet visade att användare tycker att stapeldiagram, tabeller och texter är de enklaste verktygen att använda. De visuella representationerna går därför att använda för att visualisera ekonomiska värden. Visualiseringen för nyckeltal gjordes med ett nysansdiagram vilket fungerade bra med förklaring. Visualiseingen innehöll mycket information vilket gjorde den komplext vid första anblick för användaren att förstå. Ett enkelt och snabbt verktyg bör därför begränsas och använda sig av informationsvisualiseringsmantrats detaljer vid efterfrågan (details-on-demand) för att ge användaren möjlighet att få mer information vid behov. Verktyget är inte färdigutvecklat och fler iterationer behövs för att färdigställa en slutlig produkt. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

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Denna studie utreder möjligheterna till design för ett hållbart konsumtionsbeteende i syfte att motverka matsvinn i hushåll. Med ett användarcentrerat fokus undersöks detta genom tekniker från Design for Sustainable Behaviour och Nudging. Kylskåpet används som fokusområde för att identifiera behov i användandet för att minska matsvinnet genom lösningar inuti och utanför kylskåpet. Genom metoder såsom Cultural probes, intervjuer, observationer och litteraturstudier anknutet till ett teoretiskt ramverk grundat i hållbar utveckling så presenteras designförslaget Food Members. Kunskapsbidraget består av insikten att det är möjligt att implementera kunskap om matens hållbarhetsbehov i kombination med användarnas behov inom ramen för en hållbar beteendeförändring i användarcentrerad design. / This study investigates the possibilities for design for sustainable consumption behavior in order to counteract food waste in households. With a user-centered focus, this is explored through techniques from Design for Sustainable Behavior and Nudging. The refrigerator is used as a focus area to identify needs for use in order to reduce food waste through solutions inside and outside the refrigerator. Through methods such as Cultural probes, interviews, observations and literature studies linked to a theoretical framework based on sustainable development, the design proposal Food Members is presented. The knowledge contribution consists of the insight that it is possible to implement knowledge about the food’s sustainability needs in combination with the users’ needs within the framework of a sustainable behavior change in user-centered design.

Business Intelligence (BI) enables organizations to collect and analyze internal and external business data to generate knowledge and business value, and provide decision support at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The consolidation of data coming from many sources as a result of managerial and operational business processes, usually referred to as Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) is itself a statically defined process and knowledge workers have little to no control over the characteristics of the presentable data to which they have access. There are two main reasons that dictate the reassessment of this stiff approach in context of modern business environments. The first reason is that the service-oriented nature of today’s business combined with the increasing volume of available data make it impossible for an organization to proactively design efficient data management processes. The second reason is that enterprises can benefit significantly from analyzing the behavior of their business processes fostering their optimization. Hence, we took a first step towards quality-aware ETL process design automation by defining through a systematic literature review a set of ETL process quality characteristics and the relationships between them, as well as by providing quantitative measures for each characteristic. Subsequently, we produced a model that represents ETL process quality characteristics and the dependencies among them and we showcased through the application of a Goal Model with quantitative components (i.e., indicators) how our model can provide the basis for subsequent analysis to reason and make informed ETL design decisions. In addition, we introduced our holistic view for a quality-aware design of ETL processes by presenting a framework for user-centered declarative ETL. This included the definition of an architecture and methodology for the rapid, incremental, qualitative improvement of ETL process models, promoting automation and reducing complexity, as well as a clear separation of business users and IT roles where each user is presented with appropriate views and assigned with fitting tasks. In this direction, we built a tool —POIESIS— which facilitates incremental, quantitative improvement of ETL process models with users being the key participants through well-defined collaborative interfaces. When it comes to evaluating different quality characteristics of the ETL process design, we proposed an automated data generation framework for evaluating ETL processes (i.e., Bijoux). To this end, we classified the operations based on the part of input data they access for processing, which facilitated Bijoux during data generation processes both for identifying the constraints that specific operation semantics imply over input data, as well as for deciding at which level the data should be generated (e.g., single field, single tuple, complete dataset). Bijoux offers data generation capabilities in a modular and configurable manner, which can be used to evaluate the quality of different parts of an ETL process. Moreover, we introduced a methodology that can apply to concrete contexts, building a repository of patterns and rules. This generated knowledge base can be used during the design and maintenance phases of ETL processes, automatically exposing understandable conceptual representations of the processes and providing useful insight for design decisions. Collectively, these contributions have raised the level of abstraction of ETL process components, revealing their quality characteristics in a granular level and allowing for evaluation and automated (re-)design, taking under consideration business users’ quality goals.