Denna studie undersöker hur engagemanget för nyhetsartiklar bestående av både text och video förändras om artikeln består av flera kortare videor istället för en längre video. Detta för att se hur multimodala metoder påverkar engagemanget för nyheter. Med mutimodala metoder menas blandningen av olika medier i en kommunikation vilket används för att skapa mening för användarna. Undersökningen består av totalt 23 st användartester där användarna blir exponerades för en av tre olika varianter av en nyhetsartikel. Skillnaden var att de bestod av noll, ett eller tre videoklipp. Engagemanget mättes sedan utifrån hur användaren agerar och hur användaren beskriver artikeln och video. I studien så undersöks engagemanget ur två aspekter, det inre engagemanget och det yttre engagemanget. Det inre engagemanget beskriver hur användaren upplever artikeln när hen läser den samt hur användaren läser artikeln. Det yttre engagemanget beskriver vad användare väljer att göra med artikeln efter att hen har läst klart den. Studiens resultat är att en uppdelad video påverkar vissa delar av engagemanget men inte alla aspekter. Mycket tyder på att det är troligare att användare väljer att se minst en video om den är uppdelad i flera kortare videor. De användare som exponerades för denna artikel utvärderade även varje video separat samtidigt som användarna som fick artikeln med en video talade mer allmänt om video i de fall de inte såg videoklippet. Användare som fick prototypen med fler video talade även mer negativt om video generellt. / This study examines how user engagement in news article consisting of text and video changes if the article consists of multiple short videos instead of one long video. This is to investigate how a multimodal methods affect user engagement in news articles. Multimodal methods is a combination of different types media in communication. The study consists of a total of 23 user tests where users was exposed to one of three different versions of a news article. The difference between the articles was that it consisted zero, one or three videos. Engagement levels was measured in how the user read the article and how the user described video. The study look at user engagement from two aspects, inner engagement and outer engagement. Inner engagement describes how users feel about the article when he or se reads it. Outer engagement describes what the user chose to do after he or she finish reading the article. The conclusions of the study is that multiple videos affects some parts of user engagement but not all aspects of it. The result suggests that its more likely that a user choses too se at least one video if there is more shorter videos to chose from. Users that tested this article evaluated each video separately and the users that tested the article whit one video evaluated video as a whole and not the individual clip. User that was exposed to multiple videos also spoke more negative about video.

A helpful tool in forming, breaking, and maintaining habits and behaviors is a digital behavior change intervention (DBCI). These are interventions that leverage digital technologies to help their users to either take on or avoid certain behaviors. A common problem is a lack of user engagement with the interventions’ content, which is key for its effectiveness. It has however been shown that gamified content and using prompts—such as push notifications—may have the effect of increasing user engagement, for both DBCIs and other applications. Furthermore, two commonly occurring game concepts are competition and cooperation, each with different influences on engagement which in turn may vary depending on the context and the user. Therefore, this thesis set out to examine how push notifications can be used to increase user engagement with a gamified DBCI by making its gamified elements more salient. Additionally, it will investigate if there is any difference in influence on engagement of notifications that either promote competition or cooperation. This was evaluated by deploying two different push notification strategies on Deedster—a gamified mobile DBCI with the aim to get its users to reduce their personal CO2-emissions—and tracking user behavior. The results of the evaluation showed that users who received push notifications were more engaged—started more sessions and spent more time—with the application than users who did not receive any. They also performed a significantly higher amount of target behaviors. There was no difference in the influence on performed target behaviors between the notifications promoting competition or cooperation, and only one significant difference—usage of intervention features—regarding user engagement. The gender of the user was also found to be a considerable factor in the influence of the push notifications. Competition increased engagement more than cooperation for male users, but not for female users. / Ett effektivt verktyg för att forma, bryta eller bibehålla vanor och beteenden är en så kallad digital beteendeförändrings-intervention (eng. digital behavior change intervention eller DBCI). Dessa interventioner använder digital teknik för att hjälpa deras användare att antingen påbörja eller undvika särskilda beteenden. Ett vanligt problem med dessa är att användarna ofta inte är särskilt engagerade i interventionernas innehåll eller funktioner, vilket är viktigt för deras effektivitet. Emellertid har det visats att spelifierat innehåll och användandet av notiser—såsom push-notiser—kan ha en ökande effekt på engagemanget. Två vanligt förekommande spelkoncept är tävling och samarbete, båda med sina olika effekter på engagemang vilket också skiftar beroende på kontexten och användaren. Därför ska detta examensarbete undersöka hur push-notiser kan användas för att öka användar-engagemanget i en spelifierad och mobil beteendeförändrings-intervention genom att göra dess spelifierade element mer framträdande. Dessutom kommer det även undersökas om det är någon skillnad i effekt mellan notiser som antingen främjar tävling eller samarbete. Detta var utvärderat genom att använda två olika push-notis-strategier på Deedster—en spelifierad, mobil intervention som syftar till att minska dess användares CO2-utsläpp—och sedan följa användarnas beteende. Resultaten visade att användare som fick push-notiser var mer engagerade—startade mer sessioner och spenderade mer tid—inom applikationen jämfört med användare som inte fick några notiser. De utförde också signifikant fler önskade beteenden. Det var ingen skillnad i effekt på antalet önskade beteende utförda mellan att främja tävling eller samarbete och endast några få skillnader i engagemang. Dock visade det sig att användarens kön var en betydande faktor i effekten av notiserna. Notiserna som främjade tävling var mer effektiva för manliga användare jämfört med de som främjade samarbete. Denna effekt syntes inte bland kvinnliga användare. / Designing digital technologies for supporting energy-related behavior change in the kitchen

This study investigates the impact of specific gamification elements in the Duolingo application on user experience, engagement, and motivation in language learning. Despite the widespread integration of gamification in educational technologies, there is a lack of detailed analysis on how individual elements—such as streaks, levels, XP, lingots, hearts, badges, and rewards—affect learning outcomes. To address this gap, we conducted A/B testing with two prototypes of Duolingo: one with gamification elements (Gamified Duolingo) and one without (Non-Gamified Duolingo). Six participants, who do not have Swedish as their native language, completed a Swedish lesson using both prototypes. The results indicate that specific gamification features significantly enhance user engagement and motivation. Elements like streaks and badges were particularly effective in motivating users to maintain consistent learning habits and achieve milestones. However, some participants found that overemphasizing gamification could distract from deeper learning. This suggests that while gamification can positively impact user experience, it needs to be carefully balanced to avoid potential drawbacks. The study's findings have practical implications for the design of language learning applications. Customizable and balanced gamification features are recommended to cater to diverse user preferences and enhance overall learning effectiveness. Additionally, timely and relevant feedback through gamification elements can sustain long-term user engagement. Scientifically, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how specific gamification components affect learning, emphasizing the importance of personalized and adaptive strategies in educational technologies. Future research should include larger and more diverse participant samples to validate these findings and explore the long-term effects of gamification on language learning. Investigating the underlying psychological mechanisms and adaptive gamification systems could further refine the application of gamification in education, ultimately leading to more effective and user-centered learning solutions.

Följande studie undersöker hur varumärken kan använda storytelling som SMMA för att generera användarengagemang. Detta genom att via en kvalitativ innehållsanalys först ta reda på hur varumärken använder storytelling som SMMA för att via en kvantitativ innehållsanalys sedan ta reda på vilka av dessa faktorer som genererar högst användarengagemang. Studien undersöker också vilka av dessa faktorer som ökar användarnas vilja att kommentera innehållet, det vill säga delta i eWOM. Resultatet visar att för att generera användarengagemang bör varumärken publicera innehåll som är lättillgängligt och lättförståeligt, såsom enklare bildinnehåll. Varumärkesstoryn och skapelseberättelsen är de berättelsetyper som genererar högst användarengagemang. För att öka användares vilja att kommentera bör varumärken däremot publicera rikare medieinnehåll, såsom videor med tillhörande berättande text. Berättelsetyperna livskriser och framgångssagor samt samhällsberättelsen är de mest framgångsrika för att öka viljan att kommentera. / The following study examines how brands can use storytelling as SMMA to generate user engagement. This was done by first conducting a qualitative content analysis to understand how brands utilize storytelling as SMMA, and then by conducting a quantitative content analysis to identify which of these factors generate the highest user engagement. The study also investigates which of these factors increase users' willingness to comment the content, in other words participate in eWOM. The results show that to generate user engagement, brands should publish content that is easily accessible and understandable, such as simple image content. ”The Brand Story” and ”The Creation Story” are the types of stories that generate the highest user engagement. However, to increase users' willingness to comment, brands should publish richer media content, such as videos accompanied by narrative text. The types of stories most succesfull in increasing the willingness to comment is instead ”Life crises and success stories”, as well as ”Societal narratives”.

Over the history of interaction design, concepts and methods of prototyping have been significantly developed to address new challenges faced by the field and the ever-going advancement of new technologies. Some of the important developments are related to the notions of mixed-fidelity prototyping, experience prototyping, and prototypes as filters. Building upon these developments, this study explores a multiple-fidelity prototyping approach, that is, using progressively higher fidelity prototypes in iteration. The study focused particularly on the design of user engagement. It documented, and contributed to, an actual design process of Xplore, an augmented reality game-based learning application. Three participatory design-style workshops employing low-, mixed-, and high-fidelity prototypes were conducted respectively. Thematic analyses of participants’ interactions revealed sets of themes in the workshops, which reflected the changing focus and scope of the design space. The implications of the results obtained in the study highlighted the role of prototypes of each fidelity level in engaging users in a design process, as well as the potential benefits of combining multiple fidelity prototypes when designing for user engagement.

Abstract Organizations continuously strive to engage customers in the services development process. The social web facilitates this process by enabling novel channels for voluntary feedback-sharing and collaborative interaction through social media and technologically advanced environments. The component parts of these environments are information systems that are linked with social media and designed for large displays to support interactivity. The work performed during this research involved the design and assessment of operational software features for encouraging user engagement through publicly displayed information systems. Drawing upon socio-psychological theories and interconnecting them to the seven social influence design principles listed in the Persuasive Systems Design model, this dissertation examines the role of persuasive software features in altering human behavior with respect to engagement in feedback-sharing and collaborative interaction. The dissertation consists of five quantitative studies, including one Twitter survey (involving 403 respondents) and four experiments with publicly displayed Twitter-based systems (involving 284 users), that successively complement each other to address the main research question: How can social influence design principles persuade people to engage with publicly displayed systems that are integrated with social media? The results of these studies reveal interplay between the design principles and indicate that they have the capacity to improve the persuasiveness of information systems and predict the behavioral intentions of users to engage with such systems in the future. Based on these findings, a framework for studying socially influencing systems (SIS) is proposed. This framework is potentially instrumental in achieving a richer understanding of how to effectively harness social influence for enhanced user engagement through socio-technical environments and for the future development of persuasive information systems. / Tiivistelmä Organisaatioiden palvelukehityksen tavoitteena on sitouttaa ja innostaa asiakkaita. Sosiaalinen verkko edistää tätä prosessia tarjoamalla uusia väyliä niin vapaaehtoiselle palautteenjaolle kuin sosiaalisessa mediassa ja edistyneissä teknologisissa ympäristöissä tapahtuvalle interaktiiviselle yhteistyöllekin. Nämä ympäristöt koostuvat tietojärjestelmistä, jotka on yhdistetty sosiaaliseen mediaan, ja jotka on suunniteltu interaktiota edistäville suurille näytöille. Tässä tutkimuksessa on suunniteltu ja arvioitu ohjelmisto-ominaisuuksia, joiden tarkoitus on suostutella ja osallistuttaa julkisesti esilläolevien tietojärjestelmien ja näyttöjen kautta. Tutkimus nojaa sosiopsykologiseen teoriapohjaan, ja yhdistää näitä seitsemään sosiaalisen vaikuttamisen suunnitteluperiaatteeseen, jotka on kuvattu vaikuttavien suunnittelumenetelmien mallissa. Tämä väitöstyö tutkii vaikuttavien ohjelmistollisten ominaisuuksien osuutta käyttäytymisen muuttamisessa kohdistuen erityisesti siihen, miten loppukäyttäjää voidaan suostutella jakamaan palautetta ja ottamaan osaa interaktiiviseen yhteistyöhön. Työ koostuu viidestä määrällisestä tutkimuksesta, jotka vastaavat tutkimuskysymykseen: kuinka sosiaalisen vaikuttamisen suunnitteluperiaatteet voivat suostutella ja vakuuttaa ihmiset käyttämään julkisesti esilläolevia järjestelmiä, jotka on yhdistetty sosiaaliseen mediaan? Tutkimuksista yksi on Twitter-kyselytutkimus (403 vastaajaa) ja neljä tutkimusta tehtiin julkisesti esilläolevalla Twitter-pohjaisella järjestelmällä (284 vastaajaa). Tutkimusten tulokset osoittavat mainittujen suunnitteluperiaatteiden keskinäisen vuorovaikutuksen, sekä kuinka niiden avulla voidaan parantaa tietojärjestelmien vaikuttavuutta ja ennustaa tulevaa käyttöä. Tutkimustulosten pohjalta työssä luodaan viitekehys sosiaalisesti vaikuttavien järjestelmien tutkimukseen. Tämä viitekehys on keskeisessä asemassa pyrittäessä saavuttamaan syvällisempi ymmärrys siitä, kuinka käyttäjiä voidaan suostutella hyödyntämällä sosiaalista vaikuttamista. Viitekehystä voidaan käyttää myös vaikuttavien järjestelmien kehittämisessä.

Duolingo is a popular mobile language-learning application that has been around the market since 2012 and has been researched in its language-learning abilities. It is crucial for mobile language learning applications to keep their users interested, nevertheless, as users easily lose interest in continuing their language study. This thesis looks at how Duolingo's gamified system design implements persuasive principles to increase user engagement. The thesis aims to advance the knowledge of user engagement in language learning apps and help create useful mobile language learning applications. To achieve the goal, it was necessary to determine which persuasive principles were being applied by Duolingo's gamified system design. This was done using the Persuasive System Design (PSD) model by Oinas Kukkonen and Harjumaa (2009). The research consisted of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 8 young adults living in Sweden. The aim of the interviews was to find detailed, deep, empirical data and compare it to a theoretical framework using thematic analysis. The results of these interviews showed that Duolingo's gamified system design effectively applies persuasive principles to engage and encourage language learners. However, it was discovered that several persuasive principles needed to be improved in order to further enhance user involvement. This study adds to the understanding of persuasion by demonstrating how these principles can be applied to other mobile language learning applications to increase user engagement.

This  research  emphasizes  the role  of  social  media  in  customer  acquisition  retention.Furthermore, it investigates insights that have the potential to benefit tech startups inshaping  their  strategies  and  effectively  allocating  resources  to  achieve  consistentcommunication with their customer base. The field of research is particularly relevant dueto the research gap present in the literature that does not investigate how technologystartups should approach the initial acquisition and retention of the user base, consideringthe limited resources available to these newborn organizations. The research providesinsights into customers' perceptions of brands and companies on social media platforms.It offers intuitions on how to enhance customer trust through these platforms and whichare the preferred way of interaction between customers and companies both on and offsocial media.The study was performed using qualitative and quantitative primary data with the purposeof gaining a deep understanding of the research topic. However, the focus has been puton the quantitative data aiming to create objective and generalizable  results, seekingunbiased findings.The  results  of  the research  showed  how important it  is  to  have  an  effective CRM(Customer Relationship  Management) system as well as  being able to identify  theaudience, understanding, therefore, the communication method that best fit the chosentarget, with the aim of interacting with them in the expected and preferred way, beingthus one step closer on achieving customer retention and acquisition.

As electronic waste and unsustainable Information- and communication product consumption is a growing global problem, more effective tools are required for people and businesses to measure and improve their social and environmental impacts. The Agenda 2030 plan for sustainable development addresses this issue and calls for proper and safer treatment of material extraction, recycling and disposal. TCO Development have created an IT impact assessment tool which addresses this specific problem by giving procurers and purchasers the ability to browse and compare sustainable IT products. To be an effective tool, usability and user engagement attributes have to be considered, as well as the context of the user. The target audience of IT procurement officers are defined and a qualitative study is conducted to evaluate which changes to the design are important to implement to increase the usability and user engagement of the IT sustainability impact assessment tool. The evaluation of the tool shows general positive feedback towards the general layout, design and functionality. Only a few severe errors are discovered which are identified to be in the filtering process. Errors regarding the sensitivity of the slider tool, the excess of options when choosing a TCO certificate version, and confusing terminology while choosing a product type are a few problems which are discovered. A few corrective design alterations were presented based on these discoveries. Moving forward, the iterative design process should continue to address the remaining usability errors. Furthermore, developers and designers should prioritize improving the aspects of data accuracy, transparency as well as system integration to improve corresponding user engagement attributes. / Elektroniskt avfall och ohållbar konsumtion av informations- och kommunikationsprodukter är ett växande problem i världen. Fler och effektivare verktyg behövs för att människor och företag ska kunna mäta och förbättra sin sociala och miljömässiga påverkan. Agenda 2030-planen för hållbar utveckling berör denna fråga genom att efterlysa säkra och hållbara metoder för materialutvinning, återvinning och avfallshantering av produkter. TCO Development har skapat ett verktyg som bedömer IT-produkters klimatavtryck vilket tillåter inköpare och upphandlare att gå igenom och jämföra hållbara IT-produkter med varandra. För att fungera effektivt behöver verktygets attribut för användbarhet och användarengagemang tillgodoses. Vidare behöver kontexten för verktygets användning analyseras. Målgruppen för verktyget definierades och en kvalitativ studie genomfördes därefter för att identifiera vilka designförändringar som är viktiga att implementera för att öka användbarheten och engagemanget hos användarna. Resultatet av studien visar att det finns en generell positiv attityd gentemot den allmänna layouten, designen och funktionaliteten hos  verktyget. Endast ett fåtal allvarliga avvikelser upptäcktes och kunde isoleras till filtreringsprocessen. Känsligheten av skjutreglaget, ett överflöd av certifieringsalternativ att välja bland, samt missvisande terminologi vid val av produkttyp är några problem som upptäcktes. Utifrån dessa, kunde förslag på åtgärdande designförändringar presenteras. I framtiden bör TCO Development fortsätta arbeta iterativt med designprocessen och fokusera på de kvarvarande användbarhetsavvikelserna. Vidare bör utvecklare och designers prioritera verktygets förmåga att presentera korrekt och transparent data, såväl som integrationen med externa system. På så vis kan de tillhörande attributen för användarengagemang förbättras.

Digital growth and the adaption of internet-based solutions, particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning, have dramatically changed the way design is done today. This rapid change in technology has challenged the level of automation, which influences the human-automation interactions with the available colour-design tools (academic and commercial). As colour design and selection are known to be one of the most critical steps of any art or design journey, the currently available tools use one over the other approaches, from the automation-levels spectrum, when it comes to contextual search for colour palettes, colour-extracting, and colour compatibility. On the one hand, fully automated approaches could exclude the designers’ intervention; on the other hand, fully manual approaches could be affected by human errors and weaknesses. Both approaches tend to have problems when used in colour design tools, such as restricting the designers’ freedom, overwhelming designers with information-overload and option-widget clutter that exist in the interfaces of such tools, or limiting designers by the functionalities offered by the tool based on its purpose, causing it to partially support certain parts of the designers’ colour selection process rather than the whole process. The thesis focuses on investigating the possible solutions for balancing the automated and manual methods for generating colour palettes and supporting the designers’ non-standardised colour-selection processes while tailoring the solution to intellectually stimulate and engage designers who work in different design fields, in comparison with the Adobe Explore Page–which is one of the most well-known and established colour design tools in today’s market and one of the applications that offers a contextual search feature. To fulfil the purpose of this research, a web-based application was prototyped (named Paletto), which consists of the requirements for enabling the rapid generation and exploration of colour palette variations, supporting end-users to contextually search for palettes, and allowing users to apply constraints (via a preference selection list) for a holistic palette adjustment. Afterwards, the proposed application was evaluated with 20 individuals from the target audience, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to prove the concept according to participants’ acceptance, estimate Paletto’s effectiveness on their workflow and design process, examine their engagement and experience when completing the exploratory tasks, and gather additional insights about the design or the conceptual design and implementation of the application. Paletto generally received positive responses towards (1) the accuracy and relevance of its search results, (2) the selection feature and its adaptability and flexibility for human interventions, and (3) the system’s feedback in terms of information accessibility (e.g., search word and number of pages in the pagination). However, the palette generation feature had partially negative responses where participants showed annoyance, confusion, and thought it was complicated. At the same time, several participants appreciated the diversity of the generated palettes and the conceptual design of Paletto in general. Paletto found to effectively facilitate the colour-selection process and designers’ workloads in several areas, such as: fulfilling the end-user goals of producing quality palettes to be used in design projects; resources-efficiency (e.g., money-preserving, effort facilitation, and time-saving) for inspirational image gathering; automatic colour extraction and palette generation; providing freedom and support of decision making to explore colour combinations and variations via the iterative preferences selection; supporting colour-pattern identification in the selections; providing variation and relevant results when searching inspirational image gathering with accurate colour extractions that represent the searched images. Moreover, Paletto proved to offer greater user engagement and a better user experience in comparison with Adobe’s Explore Page. This was due to the felt involvement and the continuous interactivity offered by Paletto’s search and preference-selection features that allowed iterative palette generation and modification. In conclusion, the evaluations indicated some pain-points and gaps in the current design that were discussed in this thesis, and are accordingly recommended to be investigated in future work.