The presentation of the search result information has become more important ever since the rapid development and use of smartphones. This thesis investigated what makes search engine result pages efficient and effective on the smartphone screen. For this thesis an experimental study of Karolinska Institutet’s search solution was executed. Three different versions of Karolinska Institutet’s search engine result pages were developed, by researching potential features that would improve the effectiveness and efficiency. The developed versions were compared to the original search engine result pages through experiments with students from Karolinska Institutet. The quantitative results showed no statistical significance of improvement in effectiveness or efficiency. The qualitative results indicated that categories and summary texts are preferable features in a search GUI in a smartphone. Thus the results were indecisive, the author reflects and provides ideas on how to achieve clearer results. / Hur man presenterar sökresultat har blivit allt viktigare i och med dagens av smarttelefoner. Det här arbetet undersökte vad som gör sökresultatssidor effektiva när man använder en smarttelefon. I arbetet utfördes en experimentell studie av Karolinska Institutets söklösning. Tre olika versioner av Karolinska Institutets smarttelefonsgränssnitt utvecklades genom att undersöka potentiella \emph{features} (funktioner, egenskaper) som förbättrar effektiviteten. De olika utvecklade versionerna jämfördes mot det original som Karolinska Institutet använder idag. Detta gjordes genom experiment med studenter från Karolinska Institutet. De kvantitativa resultaten kunde inte visa på någon statistisk signifikant effektivitetsförbättring. De kvalitativa resultaten pekade på att kategorisering och summeringstexter är föredragna features i ett sökgränssnitt i smarttelefonen.

The internet is becoming the primary channel for many daily tasks, services and necessities. The information and services available on the internet should be accessible to everyone, especially when the only channel available is the internet. For the visually impaired the internet can be a great asset, but also an impossible barrier depending on how the website has been implemented. The goal of this paper was to explore why accessibility for the visually impaired on the internet is not more widespread, and what factors affect the creation of visually accessible websites. Through creating an evaluation method and assessing it, along with end-user as well as developer interviews and feedback we find indicators that the root cause of the issue is multi-factored. Education, resources and directive from clients and superiors seem to be the major culprits.

This study investigates the impact of sustainable design practices on the visual elements of websites, with a focus on their potential to mitigate environmental harm. The principal area of interest is efficiency - designing web pages to minimize energy usage.  In pursuit of sustainable design principles, websites from companies and organizations that advocate for the environment were analyzed. This was done to determine whether these websites are implementing sustainable design principles within their visual elements. Two custom React web pages were subsequently developed: one implementing design principles from the analyzed websites and the other integrating sustainable design principles. Standardized tools and metrics, including Ecograder, Google Lighthouse, and Google PageSpeed Insights, were used to assess the performance and energy efficiency of these pages in order to measure any discrepancies. From previous research, the results identified five most common design principles as principal considerations in website design. Interestingly, many of the companies/organizations were found to partially or completely disregard these sustainable design principles in their web pages. Additionally, the React web page that incorporated sustainable design principles demonstrated a significantly lighter page weight compared to its modern design counterpart, resulting in less energy usage. Further research is needed though to corroborate these results due to the limitations of the measurements in this study.

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Engineering students at Linköping University are given the opportunity to improve their soft skills through the course Professionalism for Engineers. Soft skills are becoming more and more important in succeeding professionally as well as personally, especially among engineering students, who are more used to improving their hard skills. The course presents the students with a mixture of in-class and out-of-class activities, in which the latter makes use of three different platforms to provide the students with necessary information regarding the course.  This study has focused on combining the three platforms by creating a new E-learning platform, where further improvements and additions have been added to create a more supporting environment, in which the out-of-class activities are at the centre. The platform was evaluated through qualitative user tests and the quantitative User Experience Questionnaire, in which four students, enrolled in the course Professionalism for Engineers, participated. Every category in the User Experience Questionnaire received a positive value, implying that the users were overall pleased with the platform and experienced it as being intuitive, efficient and motivating.  The proposed platform, with the added functions and design elements, has the potential to support the students in doing their out-of-class activities, and the circumstances whilst doing these activities has been changed to enhance the students' active learning experience.

Usability and User Experience are two important aspects in the design and develop-ment of software systems and websites. One part of this is the visual design, or aesthetics,of the system i.e., how does the product look to the user?In this study, it was investigated if adapting a website to a graphic profile would in-crease the overall user experience, and if changes to the visual design would affect howother areas of usability were experienced. The system that was studied was the web in-terface of a documentation server that was used by software developers at Toyota MaterialHandling Manufacturing Sweden AB (TMHMS) in Mjölby. To evaluate the research ques-tions, two surveys based on the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) were conducted. Thefirst survey was done before making changes to the website and the second survey after, asto be able to compare the experience of the users. Changes to the website, such as changingfonts and colors, were made in accordance to the graphic profile of TMHMS and the resultsshowed that the overall experience of using the website improved after these changes. Theresults also showed that aesthetic improvements had a positive impact on the perceivedusability of other areas. The results are consistent with previous studies made and pro-vides a good stepping stone for continued research into how visual design and consistentthemes may affect the user experience of websites and systems.

This dissertation looks at the information-seeking practices of doctoral students in the context of their search for a doctoral program and considers the implications for design of the graduate school Web space. Of particular interest is the description of patterns of Web use and the practices related to students' preparation for interactions with technology, the nature of the interactions, and the thinking that occurs. An exploratory study that brings together hypertext theory, contextual, holistic approaches, and information behavior, this research includes a focus group of current undergraduate and graduate students to gather fresh details about information-seeking for a graduate program as a preliminary investigation in this area, eight interviews with current doctoral students admitted in Fall 2007 to capture the specific details of students' information-seeking experiences for a doctoral program by mapping the journeys, and an online survey of current doctoral students admitted in Fall 2007 as further investigation of information-seeking for a doctoral program. Doctoral students who participated in this study rely on the Web as the primary source of prior knowledge of graduate education and graduate school, as well as the source most used to build that knowledge during the information-seeking journey for a graduate program and to prepare them for the start of their graduate study. The eight maps of students' information-seeking journeys for a graduate program show how complex and wide-ranging these journeys are. Based on bits collected through their many Web encounters over six months to two years, students develop a 'feeling' for the people who make up the graduate program, social interactions within this group and research subgroups, and what it would be like to be a student in the program, all contributing to students' decision making. Academic Web sites play a key role as support structures for students and have to do more than make the information available and findable; they must design in order to encourage and sustain engagement, or deep involvement. This study proposes several suggestions for academic Web design.

Knowledge regarding accessibility adaptations in web design in order to benefit and include people with disabilities in today's digital society is an important cornerstone in the work of minimizing the digital divide. Such features include enlarging or reducing text, distinct navigation, alt-texts, ensuring high contrast between foreground and background. Web design also needs to be compatible with commonly used aids. Previous studies show that there is a lack of accessible websites (Hewitt & Yingchen, 2021), thus proving proof of limited knowledge regarding accessibility adaptations amongst designers and developers (Ferati & Vogel, 2020). The digital divide may increase and more people may feel excluded and discriminated against unless this doesn't change soon (Post och telestyrelsen, 2019). This study aims to explore whether the lack of knowledge among designers and developers affects the digital divide.

Can a tool effectively aid user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designers, along with frontend developers, in implementing more energy efficient websites? The foundation for formulating the thesis questions and identifying the issue was laid through an exploration of related work. This study aims to present the development of a tool encompassing recommendations and practices from existing research, providing valuable support for designers and developers.  Several methods, namely six, were established to better define and concretise the problems. The idea phase continued exploring potential solution both through looking at similar solutions as well as doing workshops together with potential users. In this phase the guidelines, now named SCOPES - System Conscious of Potential Energy Saving, started taking shape. The prototype was designed to assist web designers and developers in reducing energy consumption during website development. The study and especially the test phase found that guidelines empowered web designers to create energy efficient web pages, and users accept lower energy pages when aware of their efficiency, given that essential functionalities are retained.  The results of this thesis, supported by a total of 16 methods and 64 users with various backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders, emphasize the importance of addressing the challenges, posed by our energy-demanding society, pointing to potential pathways for a more sustainable and efficient future.

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