This qualitative study is constructive in its nature and it aims to find how remote workers perceive usability of communication features across different tools and platforms. Answering two main research questions; How do remote users perceive usability of communication features across different communication tools and platforms? and How, according to users, that features can be improved?, this research aims to link them with scholarly literature, find potential knowledge gaps and highlight improvement areas. Learnability, efficiency, universality and general satisfaction are researched within five participants, coming from different sectors and occupations. Usability in IS context connects ICT with HCI. Trends, challenges and solutions in remote work field lead us to different practices in work and knowledge sharing. Thematic analysis brings seven main themes that show satisfactory results in general. However, dissatisfaction is addressed to efficiency and universality with functionality of communication tools and platforms which falls within ICT, and learnability within its human component, HCI. Furthermore, three step solution is proposed: organizational readiness, standards in communication practice and soft skills. Contributions of this research confirm importance of human component that defines usability in remote field. General usability and satisfaction with ICT and its components is confirmed and improvement areas are addressed within HCI. This research serves as a good base for research of usability of same communication features across different channels however, comparing on-site and remote workers within specific fields.

The thesis covers a research into the relationship between the Czech organizations and employees and modern information and communication technologies (abbreviated as ICT). From the perspective of organizations, the research focuses on the specific technologies that have been implemented in recent years. How have the technologies been proved and whether they managed to influence an organizational structure of companies. The research is also interested in the impact of these technologies on employees, especially on their productivity. The research, carried out between foreign articles, showed that in countries such as China or USA people suffered from a technostress. The technostess could be described as a stress induced by these technologies. Then, the technostress has a negative impact to the mentioned labor productivity. The introductory part of the text contains secondary research, which focuses on two basic topics. The first part concerns the description of an organization. It indicates what that organization is, and yet the historical opinions on the organizations are also described here. Furthermore, there is described the term like an organizational behavior and its integration into the functioning of the organization. Followed by a section, which defines the position of the individual within the organization. The next section contains a description of the organizational structures. The second basic topic within the secondary research describes ICT. But there is not described a technical specification, there is a description of their importance to the organization, including the relationship of employees of organizations to these technologies. The second half of this dissertation thesis contains two primary researches that are built on the previous theoretical part. Its objectives are: 1) the creation of a model which would includes ICT and also shows the ICT’s impact on a company; 2) to develop a methodology for determining the benefits of ICT to the company and to set them on the basis of the results of the research carried out in this thesis; 3) to identify the latest trends in the implementation of ICT in organizations in the ICT sector in the Czech Republic; 4) to determine whether the current organizational structures of the examined companies are affected by ICT; 5) to ascertain whether the modern ICT affect Czech employees in a negative way, so that caused their lower productivity; and 6) make some recommendations regarding the implementation of ICT for other companies in the Czech Republic. The result of the thesis is the synthesis of knowledge acquired on the basis of the analytical part. During the data collection the inductive and deductive methods were used and the both studies yielded the following conclusions. The employees who use these technologies, do not mostly suffer from the technostress, despite the fact that there was proved a weak dependence between the technostress and a lower labor productivity by the statistical test. The research into the organization also showed that larger Czech companies from the ICT sector tend to focus on the short-term benefits within acquisition of the new ICT. The examined link between the ICT and organizational structures of companies was not demonstrated. The further evaluation showed that the companies mostly acquired software, which was specially developed for them. Finally, it can be considered as a trend in the acquisition of the new ICT to the Czech organizations.

Digitalization has spread to affect many aspects of our lives but it has yet to fully engage equestrians. Many stables still extensively use the traditional whiteboard in combination with digital technologies. Is it because digital technologies are not designed with the unique needs of an equestrian? Since research in this area is lacking, this study describes the daily conventions around the traditional whiteboard and the complementary use of digital technology, while exploring equestrians’ attitudes toward digitalization. Ethnographic methods of participant observation and group interviews were conducted at two large equestrian centers in Sweden, and the informants were a mix of horse owners, stable owners, stable staff, and riding school students. The results show that whiteboards are used to communicate and collaborative planning, but there is a problem of not noticing new handwritten information. Informants are hesitant toward incorporating new digital technologies because they worry about limitations, and some are content with the current traditional conventions - even if they employ many workarounds to issues related to the traditional way. The study also contributes toward a broader understanding of how future digital technologies can be designed in the unique setting of a stable, and the importance of a thorough understanding of users.

Digitization in society is increasing and has meant that school curricula now include paragraphs ondigital competence. How this is implemented in the classrooms varies, which has consequences forlearning. The purpose of this essay is to, through a research overview, investigate the effects of ITsolutions in school. Based on the socio-cultural perspective and the concepts of habitus and capital,these effects are analyzed. The result shows that a well-thought-out pedagogy is required for thepositive effects of the digital aids to become apparent. Furthermore, low-achieving students tend tobe more susceptible to the negative effects that IT solutions bring. Whether digital aids in schoolconstitute an obstacle or an asset for learning depends on how they are implemented.

This paper presents an exploratory work on using Large Language Models (LLM) in User Experience (UX) design. Previous research shows that UX designers struggle to envision novel designs and to prototype with AI as a design material. We set out to investigate the question of how designers can be sensitized to LLMs, and their implications for the professional role of UX designers. Using autobiographical design, we develop a prototype of a digital workspace (the “PromptBoard”) for designing and prototyping chatbots utilizing ChatGPT. A design sprint workshop with six participants is performed, in an effort to answer the research questions by working with the PromptBoard. Discussions and participant-designed artifacts are analysed using thematic analysis. Findings include that participants are able to express design ideas and successfully create chatbots using the tool but express a conflicting sense of lacking creativity or ownership of the results. Implications to the field of UX design are discussed.

The independence of children with cognitive impairments is vital for successful social integration. As emerging technological advancements, autonomous buses possess significant potential in this regard. The study aims to investigate the potential of autonomous buses to support children with mild cognitive impairments in attaining increased independence during their travels. To achieve this goal, two studies were conducted to gather comprehensive data: an analysis of videos provided by the ASALL project and a focus group study involving Skelleftea municipality workers. The study findings shed light on the challenges and needs of children with cognitive impairments during their trips and offer suggestions for how autonomous buses could provide support to increase their independence. It also highlights the importance of considering human factors while designing technology products and emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts combining technological and human support to enhance the independence of children with cognitive impairments. In addition, insights from people familiar with children with cognitive impairments can provide valuable guidance to researchers and designers when creating other technology products.

Parental control applications were introduced to regulate and avoid the negative effects of adolescents’ technology usage. However, parental control apps lack focus on promoting adolescents' autonomy and parent-adolescent collaboration. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to research how parental control apps can be designed to support adolescents’ development towards adulthood and to enhance the active participation from both parties. The research was conducted by interviewing parents (N=7) in which a provocative prototype was used to prime discussions around the topic. This study generated five design implications which are parent-adolescent collaboration, communication support for parental understanding, communication support customized for different cultures, incentivizing healthier habits, and adapting the design for different literacy levels. These implications were extracted from the results which show that parents respect their adolescent’s digital privacy and autonomy. However, there are indications that although parents value insight into their adolescent’s online activities, they are concerned about the infringement of their privacy. Our results suggest that parent-adolescent collaboration is essential for meeting the requirements of parents and adolescents. We conclude that parental control apps could be designed in alternative ways with less focus on surveillance functionality and instead strive for aspects of collaboration, communication, and autonomy.

Mainstream video games retain players' interest with dynamic updates of graphics such as game characters, levels, themes and other game inventory items. For visually impaired players, updates in graphics for player retention are not very efficient. Video games for people with serious visual impairment rely heavily on audio. The players are presented with either frequent audio instructions or 3D audio to be able to roughly judge the state of the game. In both cases, the players could either overwhelmed by frequent audio instructions or might lose interest in the game after some time. A possible reason could be that there are limited ways to evolve these games to keep the players interested as compared to games developed for sighted players. Multiplayer functionality can potentially bring a continuous stream of challenges and competitive situations in games. The research question investigated in this thesis focuses on whether the addition of multiplayer functionality in 3D audio game will increase the level of player interest. The hypothesis was evaluated by performing an experiment. The results of the study showed that multiplayer functionality can significantly increase the level of player interest and enjoyment in 3D audio based game for people with serious visual impairment.

This empirical investigation sheds new light on a neglected topic of research on mobile phone use among the youth population of refugees that can help understand better how vulnerable youth can maximize the use of available resources in an active attempt to reduce their distresses and overwrite a better future for themselves and their families. Therefore, in light of James Coleman's social capital theory, I examined the use of mobile phones and social networking sites among 64 young Syrian refugees aged between 14 and 25 years old living in Lebanon. / 博士(グローバル社会研究) / Doctor of Philosophy in Global Society Studies / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

On February 24, 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. This quickly escalated into a full-scale war that is still ongoing. The current war has forced drastic changes to all sectors in Ukrainian society, one of the most affected is the higher educational sector. As a result of the war all higher educational institutions (HEIs) have been forced to adjust the entire educational process to an online education environment. In order to maintain the educational process, HEIs have come to rely on the use of various Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). However, militarization of regions, limited Internet access and destruction of university infrastructure are all the war-related challenges that aggravate the use of these digital technologies. Today, significant research has been done on ICTs in higher education as well as on wartime conditions. However the convergence between the two concepts are rarely explored in scientific research. Thus this study aims to explore the interrelation between the integration of ICTs in higher education and wartime in Ukraine. To address the research problem, two research questions have been formulated: (1) What is the current state of ICT integration in higher education in Ukraine? and (2) How have the ICTs helped sustain the higher educational process in Ukraine during wartime? In order to answer the research questions, this thesis applies a strategy of systematic review along with the application of thematic analysis. Data was collected through a document study approach. The scope of the systematic review is limited to the last decade (2013-2023) and in order to facilitate the data collection process, the PRISMA framework has been used. The findings conclude that the level of ICT integration in higher education is limited. The findings further indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic did increase the awareness and need for ICTs, thus has managed to change the attitude toward the use of ICTs. Additionally, the thesis suggests that four main categories of ICTs are currently used to maintain the educational process during the war in Ukraine: (1) Learning management systems, (2) Digital learning platforms, (3) Video communication platforms and (4) Social media networking platforms. The findings in this thesis contribute to the area of Technological Enhanced Learning by providing some valuable insights on ICTs in higher education in relation to the current war in Ukraine.