This paper analyses the players’ perception of the feedback and polling systems of OldSchool RuneScape to determine what level of participatory design is achieved by the feedback and polling systems used in the game. The aim of the research is to increase the availability of knowledge regarding participatory design in live-service games, as only limited coverage of the topic exists. The study uses an adapted survey created by Segalowitz and Chamorro-Koc that uses three different metrics to measure genuine participation. The survey was presented to in-game players and users of the game’s different forums. It was determined that a high level of genuine participation and participatory design is achieved.

This study focuses on evaluating and enhancing the user experience of Emely, a conversational agent aimed at improving language skills for second language learners, particularly those who want to increase their chances of securing employment in Sweden. Usability testing was conducted in two test rounds, with the first round providing design implications for the user interface in the second round. However, assessing the effectiveness of the interface improvements was challenging due to low Swedish proficiency among the test groups consisting of potential users of Emely. Although the study did not result in design implications for the user interface, important findings highlight the need to adapt conversational agents, like Emely, for users with low literacy levels and illiteracy, emphasizing the importance of inclusive design for effective language learning support.

The goal of study 1 was to use a remote eye tracker to understand how eye movements change with 7 geometrically varied remote controls to determine design element saliency. 20 participants were used to measure the following eye metrics: number of fixations prior to first fixation of any AOI, time to first fixation of an AOI, number of fixations on an AOI, dwell time of the first fixation on an AOI, total dwell time of an AOI, and the percentage of time spent on an AOI. The results of the study showed that all participants spent between 75-85% of their time fixated on the button layout which was not defined as an AOI. No statistical differences were found in the values measured for all eye tracking metrics across similarly defined AOIs. In study 2, the objective was to determine attitudes towards appearance and usability of the 7 remote control designs using the participants from study 1. Participants were asked to rate their attitudes and preferences, using a Likert-based questionnaire, about the qualities of appearance and usability for the attributes of proportion, shape, and configuration. They were asked open-ended questions about their likes and dislikes regarding the qualities of appearance and usability. Lastly, participants were given a pairwise comparison survey where they chose their preferred remote design, based on appearance, for 10 paired sets of contrasting remote designs. The hourglass subjacent and hourglass round designs were rated highest for appearance and usability from the Likert questionnaire. The hourglass round design was ranked highest for the pairwise comparison survey. For study 3, the goal was to determine attitudes towards appearance and usability of the 7 remote designs with online participants. 300 participants were asked to rate their attitudes and preferences using the same Likert-based questionnaire from study 2. They were asked the same open-ended questions and administered the same pairwise comparison survey as in study 2. The results of the Likert questionnaire showed that the hourglass subjacent and hourglass round designs were rated highest for appearance and usability. From the pairwise comparison survey, the hourglass round design was ranked the highest.

Donating to charity is a phenomenon found in cultures and religions worldwide. Studies have examined how to attract donors, get them to engage, and eventually make a donation. But what happens after? The post-donation part of the process is less explored and often lacking in transparency toward the donor; where did the donation go, and how can the donors make sure it reaches the intended beneficiaries? This study investigated how post-donation transparency can enhance the user experience of donating money by identifying the donor’s needs and desires post-donation and fulfilling them in a design proposal. The Double Diamond model of design and its four phases were chosen to achieve this. In the first two phases, Discover and Define, the problem space was explored and defined through a literature study and initial interviews. The interview data was analyzed through the Affinity Diagram method resulting in two ”How might we”-questions. The needs and desires of users were also identified at this stage. A brainstorming session based on the ”How might we”-questions initiated the following, and last phases Develop and Deliver. Prototypes of different levels of fidelity were then created and tested on both users and experts before finally landing in a design proposal. Results showed that the elements added for creating post-donation transparency were appreciated by users and experts alike. A high score from a UMUX-LITE usability test suggested that the prototype was usable, elements in the prototype were pointed out for achieving transparency, and all participants expressed positive feelings after using the prototype. Therefore, the prototype was concluded to have achieved post-donation transparency within the frames of this study. Further studies are recommended as the final prototype was never tested on users. The hope is that more tests would give a better understanding of how user needs and desires could be achieved post-donation. / Att donera till välgörenhet är ett fenomen som hittas i kulturer och religioner över hela världen. Studier har undersökt hur man kan rekrytera donatorer, få dem att engagera sig och så småningom göra en donation. Men vad händer sen? Tiden efter donation är mindre utforskad och saknar ofta transparens gentemotgivaren; vart tog donationen vägen och hur kan givarna ta reda på om pengarna når fram? Denna studie har undersökt hur transparens i processen efter genomförd donation kan förbättra användarupplevelsen av att donera pengar genom att identifiera givares behov och önskemål och uppfylla dem i ett designförslag. Metoden Double Diamond med dess fyra faser valdes för att uppnå detta. I de två första faserna Discover och Define utforskades och definierades problemområdet genom en litteraturstudie och intervjuer. Intervjudatan analyserades med Affinity Diagram-metoden vilket slutligen landade i två ”How might we”-frågor. Användarnas behov och önskemål identifierades också i det här stadiet. En brainstorming-session baserad på ”How might we”-frågorna initierade de två sista faserna Develop och Deliver. Prototyper med olika detaljnivå skapades sedan och testades på både användare och experter innan ett designförslag slutligen kunde tas fram. Resultaten visade att de element som adderats för att skapa transparens efter donation uppskattades av både användare och experter. En hög poäng från ett UMUX-LITE användbarhetstest antydde att prototypen var användbar, element i prototypen pekades ut för att inge en känsla av transparens och alla deltagare uttryckte positiva känslor efter att ha använt prototypen. Därför ansågs prototypen att ha uppnått transparens efter genomförd donation inom ramarna för denna studie. Ytterligare studier bör genomföras då den slutliga prototypen aldrig testades på användare. Förhoppningarna är att fler tester skulle ge en bättre förståelse för hur användarnas behov och önskemål skulle kunna förverkligas i processen efter en genomförd donation.

The rise of rock climbing is a global phenomenon. Seven out of ten bouldering gyms opened during this decade in Stockholm. With the increasing sports climbing population, the lighting condition of sports facilities should be a concern, especially since electricity demand growth in buildings has been remarkably rapid. However, not much research has been conducted regarding investigating the effect of artificial lighting on indoor bouldering users' experiences. This thesis investigates a balance between addressing sustainable development goals number 7.3 and maintaining users' experiences while exercising, taking Klätterverket Gasverket as a case study. Different research methods have been used to provide a pilot study to be explored by others, including literature review, semi-structured interviews, and empirical study.  This research has shown that it is hard to draw conclusions regarding the perceived qualities of light. The qualitative and quantitative results conclude that we can decrease electrical consumption in a situation that has sufficient daylight without sacrificing climbers’ experience.  Adjusting the distance between the luminaire and climbing wall can slightly improve the average illuminance level and user experience.

In this paper we analyze the existing methods for exploring and evaluating the characteristics of the jump mechanic in video games by comparing qualitative research done in the field of game studies. For this study we are using the jump as a centerpiece, starting with an analysis of different methodologies that break down game mechanics and assessing their functionality and possible effects on players. Primarily this focus will be on how mechanics are broken down from different perspectives and how these methodologies compare. The intent behind the review of these methodologies is to objectively simplify the process of collecting and comparing relevant research in order to familiarize the reader with the concept of game mechanics and their parts from an assortment of perspectives while also retaining knowledge on their similarities and differences. This paper comes to the conclusion that one could argue for the discovery of three thematic similarities between the methodologies.These similarities are then presented to shape an understanding of how a resonating or “Harmonic”(Swink, 2008, p.297) systems could be developed.

There are a lot of spaced repetition system based online learning services available nowadays, but none of them are popular or widely accepted as a good means for studying. The problem of these services is, instead of exploiting and utilizing the possibility of modern technology, they simply brought this old school learning method to the web as an application with exactly the same experience as one could have with textbooks and flash cards. This master’s thesis project concerns Sharplet, a spaced repetition system based web service, who is trying to stand out by offering some features that none of the other comparable services have. One of these features is the integration of YouTube video clips, so that in addition to text and pictures, study materials may now include both audio and video material. This thesis begins by reviews spaced repetition systems in general, and then focuses on some of the existing services and how to provide a better service. Next the thesis describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a new service that includes both audio and video content. The main practical result of this master’s thesis project is a working prototype audio and video enabled spaced repetition based service. Unfortunately, the actual performance of this prototype is unacceptable, hence there is a need to improve its performance before it can be integrated with the production spaced repetition system. / Det finns en hel del repetitionssystem baserat online- lärande tjänster som finns idag, men ingen av dem är populära och allmänt accepterat som ett bra sätt för att studera. Problemet med dessa tjänster är, i stället för att utnyttja och utnyttja möjligheten till modern teknik, de helt enkelt fört din gamla inlärningsmetod för webben som ett program med exakt samma upplevelse som man kunde ha med läroböcker och flash-kort. Denna magisteruppsats projektet gäller Sharplet, ett repetitionssystem baserat webbtjänst, som försöker sticka ut genom att erbjuda vissa funktioner som ingen av de andra jämförbara tjänster har. En av dessa funktioner är att integrera YouTube- videoklipp, så att förutom text och bilder, samt ljud och video både är nu tillgänglig för läromedel. Detta examensarbete recensioner repetitionssystemi allmänhet, fokuserar sedan på några befintliga tjänster och hur man kan ge bättre service. Den största utmaningen kommer att undersöka YouTube API och studera användarbeteendeför att ge en bättre användarupplevelse. Det viktigaste resultatet av detta examensarbete är en fungerande prototyp av en ljud -och video aktiverat repetitionsbaserad tjänst. Tyvärr är det faktiska utförandet av denna prototyp oacceptabelt, därför finns det ett behov av att förbättra sina resultat innan den kan integreras med tillverkningen fördelade upprepning systemet.

When developing mobile apps, multiple factors must be considered when choosing between native or cross-platform technologies. The latter offers deployment of one codebase to multiple operating systems, such as Android and iOS. However, we argue that common design techniques lack an understanding of specific needs that separate iOS and Android users. This work presents an experimental approach using UI prototypes and existing native iOS and Android mobile applications to identify issues in usability of the two systems. We conduct a large amount of usability tests involving 34 participants and find that our prototypes and apps that follow Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines are easier to use in terms of one primary usability metric, notably task time, with a statistically significant difference between iOS and Android testers in two out of four tests. On this basis we investigate what key UI elements and design patterns cause disruptions in otherwise smooth User Experiences. Alongside documenting those, we also list key elements that influence the usability on a more general level. We provide suggestions to app designers and developers on avoiding designs that are considered producing usability issues by at least one of the two groups of iOS and Android users and on design patterns to improve the User Experience.

With the increasing popularity of Agile methods in software development projects, an emerging question is how Agile incorporates user needs to their process – which is the staple of User Centered Design (UCD). Existing reports indicate that integrating Agile and UCD has shown to improve the process and end product and that they are a natural fit. However, there is also a general lack of guidelines of how an effective integration may be done, and further research is requested. This study aims to provide that by portraying some aspects of how Agile and UCD may be integrated in practice, but also some factors that may affect such an integration. This is done through an empirical study, by gaining insights from the perspective of UX-designers who are part of Scrum teams. TenUX-designers took part in semi-structured interviews, and based on a thematic analysis, results are portrayed in terms of suggested factors to consider when integrating Agile and UCD methods. / Samtidigt som Agila metoder ökar i popularitet inom mjukvaruutvecklingsprojekt, så uppstår även frågan om hur Agilt arbete integrerar användarcentrerade krav i sin process ett område som är i fokus inom Användarcentrerad Design (ACD). Tillgängliga rapporter indikerar på att integrationen av Agilt och ACD har givit förbättrade processer och slutprodukt, samt att båda processer är kompatibla med varandra. Det anses dock finnas en brist på riktlinjer i hur man kan integrera båda processer, och det efterfrågas vidare studier i ämnet. Denna studie ämnar till att erbjuda just detta genom att presentera några faktorer av hur Agilt och ACD kan integreras i praktiken, men också exempel på faktorer som kan påverka hur väl integration lyckas. Detta tas fram genom en empirisk studie, genom att ta del av insikter från UX-designers som jobbar i olika Scrum projekt. Tio UX-designers deltog i semistrukturerade intervjuer, och baserat på en tematisk analys så presenteras resultat i form av föreslagna faktorer att ta del av när man vill integrera Agila och ACD metoder.

I report on the iterative process of designing a mobile AI poetry system, along with a series of broad scale use cases in which different variants of the system has been tested in the wild. The project has so far resulted in the generation of about 20 million individual poems, co-created by the system together with millions of users. Apart from the design of the technical side of the system, my focus has been on how the system could be adapted to and deployed in different commercial settings. I discuss my insights related to systems support for creative processes, and how findings from these use cases could be applicable also to other AI content generation systems. / Här beskrivs den iterativa utformningen av en mobilapplikation för AI-genererad poesi, samt en serie storskaliga kommersiella kampanjer där olika varianter av systemet har testats i verklig användning. Genom detta genererades cirka 20 miljoner enskilda dikter, producerade av systemet tillsammans med miljontals användare. Förutom systemets tekniska funktionalitet beskrivs hur systemet anpassats för att distribueras i olika kommersiella sammanhang. Utifrån denna process diskuteras insikter relaterade till systemstöd för kreativa processer, och hur lärdomar från denna process kan tillämpas även i andra system för AI-genererat innehåll.