The employment of virtual reality (VR) in the cultural heritage context has been recognized as a new trend shaping the way audiences interact with museums. This research explores the effect of VR experience on art interpretation through an audience reception analysis of two VR exhibitions: Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass and Dreams of Dalí. An ethnographic method was used, i.e., semi-structured interviews with 10 participants served to understand how audiences react to VR. Hall’s encoding/decoding model and Norman’s concept of affordances were employed to determine whether, and in what way, decoding of the VR affordances affects the interpretation of the presented art. First, the results showed that all five previously identified affordances (immersion, presence, empathy, embodiment and usability) are existent in the VR exhibitions. Space perception as an additional affordance has been identified, including seclusion as an anti-affordance specific to VR exhibitions. Second, the results of the conducted interviews’ analysis show proportionality between the VR affordances and interpretation, i.e., the preferred reading of the artwork. In most cases, the stronger the affordances are, the stronger the comprehension, and the more positive the evaluation. Empathy affordance has demonstrated to be the strongest indicator of a preferred interpretation since it is proportionate to the evaluation of all 10 interviewees. These results have implications both in and outside the cultural heritage context – VR employs unconventional and persuasive modes of communicating; it encourages creative, more inclusive, and tacit learning.

In the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chatbots have become a widely used technology for streamlining the services between organizations and consumers. The present study advances the understanding of human-AI interactions by producing new knowledge on chatbot affordances and customer value creation. While many organizations jumped on the trend and implemented chatbots as a new communication channel, less is known about chatbot affordances and how value creation take place from a consumer perspective. Using affordance concept as a lens this study uncoversnine affordances of banking chatbots and showcase how consumer value is created from these affordances. By undertaking a qualitative research approach, the study conducted semi structured interviews with six banking consumers from three different banks in Sweden to inductively gain rich insights. The results show how consumer value yield and fluctuate with different banking chatbot affordances in the three phases of Affordance Concept; Affordance Perception, Affordance Actualization and Affordance Effects. The study’s contribution is twofold. First, it proposes a conceptual model which includes useful insights to guide researchers towards understanding the consumer value creation from exploring the affordances of banking chatbots. Secondly, the study supports financial institutes to improve chatbot service’s usability and usefulness by incorporating the value creating affordances. Furthermore, the study identified areas for future research which provides a groundwork for researchers seeking to engage with the research area.

This paper explores interaction with lighting through a tangible user interface (TUI). In a TUI the physical object and space around it are part of the interface. A subset of tangible interaction called spatial interaction is the main focus of this paper. Spatial interaction refers to translation, rotation or location of objects or people within a space. The aim of this paper is to explore the relation between spatial inputs and lighting outputs based on different design properties. A user test is set up to explore the effect that design properties of a TUI have on the lighting output that participants map to spatial inputs. The results of the conducted user test indicate that communicating affordances to the user is an important factor when designing couplings between spatial inputs and lighting outputs. The results further show that the shape of the interface plays a central role in communicating those affordances and that the overlap of input and output space of the interface improves the clarity of the coupling. / Den här studien utforskar gripbar (tangible) interaktionsdesign med fokus på ljus och belysning. Vid användning av ett gripbart (tangible) gränssnitt används den fysiska miljön som gränssnitt. Detta skiljer sig till stor del från interaktion med ett grafiskt användargränssnitt, där alla interaktioner sker och begränsas av en skärms egenskaper. Denna studie fokuserar på rumslig (spatial) interaktionsdesign, vilket är en del av gripbar interaktionsdesign. Rumslig interaktion refererar till översättning, rotation eller plats av objekt eller människor i ett utrymme. Ett användartest har utförts för att testa vad för effekt olika rumsliga indata och designegenskaper har på förväntad utdata för ljus och belysning. Resultatet från användartestet visar att starka affordances och begränsningar, tillsammans med överlappningen av rumslig indata och utdata för ljus och belysning, är de viktigaste egenskaperna för att designa tydliga övergångar.

Human-computer interaction design principles largely focus on static representations and have yet to fully incorporate theories of perception appropriate for the dynamic multimodal interactions inherent to virtual environment (VE) interaction. Theories of direct perception, in particular affordance theory, may prove particularly relevant to enhancing VE interaction design. The present research constructs a conceptual model of how affordances are realized in the natural world and how lack of sensory stimuli may lead to realization failures in virtual environments. Implications of the model were empirically investigated by examining three affordances: passability, catchability, and flyability. The experimental design involved four factors for each of the three affordances and was implemented as a 2 [subscript IV] [superscript 4-1] fractional factorial design. The results demonstrated that providing affording cues led to behavior closely in-line with real-world behavior. More specifically, when given affording cues participants tended to rotate their virtual bodies when entering narrow passageways, accurately judge balls as catchable, and fly when conditions warranted it. The results support the conceptual model and demonstrate 1) that substituting designed cues via sensory stimuli in available sensory modalities for absent or impoverished modalities may enable the perception of affordances in VEs; 2) that sensory stimuli substitutions provide potential approaches for enabling the perception of affordances in a VE which in the real world are cross-modal; and 3) that affordances relating to specific action capabilities may be enabled by designed sensory stimuli. This research lays an empirical foundation for a science of VE design based on choosing and implementing design properties so as to evoke targeted user behavior

The aim of the study is to explore three healthcare apps, Numa, Ella, and Leia Health, and their affordances in digital healthcare. By applying discourse analysis and discursive interface analysis as primary methods, the study investigates reward and motivation features within these apps, aiming to uncover the norms and assumptions embedded in their interfaces. Theoretical concepts such as motivation affordance, technology affordances, and sociomaterialism are used as frameworks to understand and analyze the results. The interface analysis provides insights into how various affordances, such as functional, cognitive, sensory, and collaborative, shape the user experience in healthcare apps. The results offer an overview and understanding of how user behaviors are influenced by the structure, design, and features of health apps through their digital interfaces, illustrating how the apps provide users with support and information.

INTRODUCTION. Assessing the participation experiences of young people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities (SIDD) in recreational activities is imperative to ensure these activities provide youth with optimal opportunities to develop skills needed for adulthood. Currently, no instrument accessible to youth with SIDD is available to asses these experiences. The Participatory Experience Survey (PES) and the Setting Affordances Survey (SAS) were developed to meet this need. METHOD. The PES was developed with input from a panel of youth with SIDD while they were participating in a summer program. A draft was then presented to three groups of stakeholders: parents of youth with SIDD, service providers, and experts in intellectual disability and/or program planning. After making revisions based on stakeholder feedback, cognitive interviewing was conducted with eight youth ages 14 – 22 with SIDD. Next, to examine feasibility of the PES, the survey was given to 10 youth with SIDD. After finalizing a draft of the PES based on youth feedback, questions for the SAS were written to align with topics on the PES. Finally, a program evaluation was conducted that provided an additional feasibility evaluation of the PES and SAS. RESULTS. Of the 24 initial questions on the PES, stakeholder groups identified 15 questions needing revision and suggested 7 additional questions. Youth feedback during cognitive interviewing identified 13 questions needing revisions and 4 needing removal. Changes were made to address three issues: word choice, understanding of concept, and questions relating to others. Administering the PES directly following an activity was found to be feasible, however, the length was shortened from 31 to 15 questions to provide an appropriate administration time (<5 minutes). CONCLUSION. The PES and the SAS proved to be relevant, accessible and feasible ways to assess the individual experiences of youth with SIDD in recreational settings and the affordances, measured objectively, of those settings. Use of these two measures may help programs to include young people with SIDD during program evaluations, resulting in better-structured, more supportive programs.

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Deepfakes are synthetic content, like pictures, videos, and sounds, that are generated with advanced deep learning and AI-technology. Anyone can create deepfakes and therefore, deepfakes create threats to the individual, financially and to the society. For example, bullying, defamation, fraud, damage to democracy and news media manipulation. The aim of the study is to analyze and discuss whether deepfakes potentially can affect the way society views and uses news media in a positive or negative way. The research methodology chosen was a cross-sectional study. A cross-sectional study is done to measure a particular aspect of a social phenomenon or trend. In this study the phenomenon is deepfakes and how they might affect the way news media is used, what are the affordances and constraints with this phenomenon? The study was conducted in two steps. The first step of was to study discussion forums and blogs. Discussion forums and blogs where AI and deepfakes were discussed. The second step was to conduct semi-structured interviews with people selected through purposive sampling. The results show that deepfakes have both positive and negative aspects to them. Deepfakes could have great impact on the entertainment business and within news media and journalism. They can be used to show things that only are speculative or very hard to capture on video or in a picture. They can be used within news media or journalism to protect people and get a broader following. The results also shows that deepfakes can lead to psychological, financial and social harm. Source criticism is a topic that needs to be more discussed and have a bigger part in education. Without source criticism and with a larger use of deepfakes people could experience a lot of fear and confusion since it might get harder to know what source to trust and to determine whether published content is fake or not.

The study investigates preschool children’s perspectives on the outdoors as a learning environment in an Irish context. The aim is to gain preschool children’s perspectives on their outdoor learning environment as too often children’s perspectives are not represented in research. The research aims to answer questions regarding how children engage with the outdoor environment, how the environment affords them different possibilities and what parts of the environment the children deem important. This study is a qualitative study using different methods to gain the children’s perspectives. The methods include participant observations, photography tours and semi-structured interviews. The research was conducted in three outdoor preschools in Ireland, a total of 45 children participated.   The findings of the research show that children are very creative in the way in which they use their preschool environments. Outdoor spaces were where the children engaged in physical activities and imaginative play in the outdoor environments, revealing the multifaceted engagement of children. The environment also afforded the children many sensory experiences which resonated differently among the children. The children also placed importance on the relationships they have formed within the preschool with friends and teachers. The connection children had with nature was also evident throughout the results and reflected their curiosity about their surroundings. Children from different preschools seem to have many similar experiences while also having individual and unique experiences of their own. It is evident while shared experiences exist among the participants each child’s experience is distinct in its own way. The study is significant as it highlights the importance and need for young children to be a part of the research process and how their opinions are important as they are the ones with first hand experiences. Ultimately this study shows the pivotal role children’s perspectives play in understanding their experiences in outdoor educational environments.

The focus of this thesis is on how elderly people make use of digital screens. The study studies how these elderly individuals view their screen time and it highlights how they have adapted to an ever-changing media landscape. The empirical material has been collected through four qualitative interviews where all of the interviewed were 80 years old or older at the time of the interview. Two females and two males were part of the study. The empiricism has been coded, themed and analyzed using the qualitative method of thematic analysis. The analysis is supported by the theoretical framework where uses and gratification theory, affordances and constraints theory and the theory of adoption categories has been applied to the empirical material. The theoretical framework has contributed to understanding why people use different types of media, which affordances and constraints that people see in technologies and what types of adoption categories there are and what that means for the individual. The analysis of the empirical data finds that these older individuals utilize digital screens for various reasons, where the most prominent finds were for relaxation, cognitive fulfillment and to the gratification of affective needs. Smartphones and computers are employed for safety, social interaction and communication while television is used as a tool for escaping daily life and monitoring the world. The study identifies a widespread theme indicating a noticeable enhancement in their everyday life making various tasks easier thanks to digital screens. A social factor becomes evident where the interviewees use digital screens as a utility for keeping contact with friends and family, but also through a reoccurring theme implying that older individuals need a social network that can assist them with unfamiliar technologies that they can not manage themselves.