The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how search engine algorithms and the continuous growth of the internet affect the work with search engine optimization and website visibility. By using two complementary methods, one quantitative and one qualitative, consisting of an online survey and interviews, this study investigates SEO company employees’ experiences of working with search engine optimization and their thoughts regarding search algorithms and the internet. The result of this study shows that the continuous growth of the internet is hugely affecting how demanding the work with search engine optimization is. The amount of competition involved in making a website visible among all others is consuming a great amount of resources and time. It also became clear that the search engine algorithms are not really part of the greater problem when it comes to optimizing a website. Rather, the problem lies with the resources it takes to do so. Suggestions are made on what further scientific research is needed around search engine optimization. Foremost there is a lack of studies investigating just how much of an impact the continuous expansion of the internet has on the rivalry among websites to be visible and how much time and resources are needed to keep getting high rankings and visibility for a website.

Are the websites of official bodies easy to read and understand? Swedish legislation states that the language of the public sector is to be cultivated, simple and comprehensible. This study investigates which factors within information architecture (IA) can contribute to making websites easy to read and understand. What role can IA play to increase comprehensibility? We have used a pragmatic approach in our research, which consisted of a case study and a sequential combination of two methods: qualitative content analysis and questionnaires. The case study was conducted on the webpage on krisinformation.se giving information about the coronavirus, Covid-19. With a starting point in the usability theories of the Nielsen Norman Group, an analysis tool was developed to list IA factors within the categories structure, content and graphics. The result shows that 67 % of the 50 respondents to the questionnaire found that the websites of official bodies were in general easy to read and understand. Several of the IA factors we had listed were described by respondents as contributing to the ease of reading and understanding of krisinformation.se. However, less than half of the advisory principles from the Nielsen Norman Group are included in Klarspråksreglerna (general rules drawn up by the Institute for Language and Folklore for writing in plain Swedish). We conclude that it would be an advantage to supplement the section entitled “Att skriva för webben” in Klarspråksreglerna with IA factors to make it more complete and give it a firm grounding in research. In extension, this may help to make the websites of official bodies easier to read and understand.

This essay covers the importance of information architecture principles and the study of usability of a governmental mobile version of its website. This study is directed for users with vision impairments and elders who use the website during the corona pandemic. The main problem in the area of usability lies within the design principles of usability which are described under this investigation study. By using a qualitative study this investigation tries to find out the behaviors of chosen target groups and find out how they interact with the mobile website and finding the information needed. The conclusion of this study was that the authority’s website is well designed but still has some issues that can be solved. For example, some symbols, multimedia screen reading quality and enhanced navigational descriptions for the chosen target audience with visual impairments and elder users. However, this essay contains a small target audience during investigation. For better results the further study may include a larger target audience and a mix method in both qualitative and quantitative studies of the investigation problem.

This essay examines social nudging and influencing factors on user choices on the two mobile apps Foodora and Uber Eats that offer services for food delivery, and whether there are any connections between these factors and the interface design. This type of service has in recent years become popular with the digitization of society. To investigate this, the survey was designed and analyzed based on factors from Fogg's behavior model, as well as categories for interface design from previous research. This study was based on a qualitative research strategy with a focus on deeper descriptions from six selected participants. Data were collected through a test on an interactive prototype combined with a semi-structured interview to achieve the purpose of this study about how digital social nudging affects user choices. The study showed mixed results. The social nudging feature in the form of ratings turned out to have a great influence on user choices, while the feature in the form of popular choices did not. This indicates that some methods of social nudging may be more favorable than others in this type of environment. A new factor was also identified, preference, which turned out to influence user choices more than the social nudging in the form of popular choices. The results also showed a connection between the influence of nudging and the interface design of the apps, as the design may have been influential for whether the social nudging benefits users or not.

The purpose of this study is to identify if the design principles control, consistency and error prevention affect the usability during the booking process on travel agencies websites, whether they are implemented or not. The research methodology consists of qualitative and quantitative methods such as usability testing and a quick quantified questionnaire, the System Usability Scale model. To identify the design principles' effect on usability, this study will examine three design principles; control, consistency, and error prevention, through usability aspects; learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction. Observations and a think aloud method have been used to better understand the users perception of the website, whether they feel safe and in control during their interaction with the system. The study also examines how well the user recover from an error or how well the system has prevented potential errors from occurring. The System Usability Scale model clarifies the users thoughts and perception of the website, where interpretation is being excluded with a structural and quantified outcome. The study can conclude that usability is dependent on the design principles that has been examined, particularly for the specified context on travel agencies websites. The study also shows that the information architecture on the examined websites has an overall positive user experience and usability, that only need minimal improvements.

Tiktok was the world’s most visited website in the year 2021 and is one of the fastest growing applications with a large quantity of users in several countries. Every month, more than 1 billion people around the world use TikTok. The aim of the study is therefore to gain an understanding of how Swedish TikTok-users between ages 18-30 experience the application, by exploring their options about the application user interface, usability and features. A semi-structured interview was conducted as a qualitative data collection method. A theoretical view of the study is based on affordance, teachability and visibility. The result of the study shows that TikTok is perceived as an application that is easy to learn as the user interface works the way the users expect it to. Therefore, it did not take a long time for the participants to understand how to interact with the application. It also emerged that TikTok’s features are perceived as visible and easily accessible. Many of the features’ symbols were already known to the users and they therefore understood how to use them. The participants had suggestions for more features which could possibly increase the usability of the application, such as being able to check their viewing history to find videos.

This bachelor's thesis examines how gender equality challenges manifest within the Swedish IT industry, with a specific focus on women with web editor degrees. Despite Sweden's reputation for gender equality, issues persist within the IT sector, including gender-based disparities in promotions, wage gaps, and challenges in career advancement. The study employed a two-fold methodology, beginning with a thorough review of existing literature, followed by qualitative interviews with women professionals in web editor roles. The analysis of these interviews applied Hirdman's gender theories, encompassing the gender contract and gender order. The findings illuminate that gender expectations and historical gender hierarchies significantly influence the challenges faced by women in web editing. In conclusion, gender equality within the web editing profession remains complex due to the interplay of the gender contract and gender order. Ongoing efforts are needed to dismantle traditional gender roles, raise awareness of industry-specific challenges, and promote inclusivity. Future research can explore strategies to advance gender equality in web editing.

This study aims to investigate if users find the informationthey are looking for on the IKEA web site. To examine this,both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. Themethods used in this study is heuristic evaluation, survey,contextual inquery and web analysis. The result shows thatusers has hard to find categories that are hidden in a dropdownmenu and find it hard to notice elements that areseparated from the content itself.

Föreliggande arbete ämnade undersöka hur mentala modeller kan stödjas i en informationsarkitektur i ett administratörsgränssnitt (specifikt för systemet Phoniro Care) samt ta fram riktlinjer för fortsatt och framtida design. Arbetet utfördes i samarbete med företaget Phoniro med målet att anpassa installationsprocessen för larmmodulen i systemet Phoniro Care till användare i verksamheten. Genom designprocessen tillämpades ett användarcentrerat arbetssätt genom metodik såsom kontextuella observationer, card sorting och deltagande design. Utifrån detta framkom resultatet att användarnas mentala modeller av systemet motsvarade en hierarkisk struktur med grupperingar. Ytterligare resultat var ett flöde för installationsprocessen. Med detta som grund bildades en ny informationsarkitektur som visualiserades med stöd från data samt designprinciper. Den visuella designen som skapades anses kunna fungera som ett underlag för framtida arbete med utformningen liksom de dokumenterade designmål och designbeslut som tagits genom arbetets gång.

En användare vilken inte är tillfreds med användarupplevelsen på en internetsida tar sig lätt vidare genom endast ett musklick, vilket betyder att det är av största vikt att användbar design är central. Disciplinen interaktionsdesign tar hänsyn till hur användaren använder och upplever en internetsida genom att ta hänsyn till mänskliga beteenden och vad användaren vill uppnå med tjänsten och på så vis skapar positiv användarupplevelse, samt gör den användbar.Interaktionsdesign är en av flera discipliner som ingår vid skapade av positiv användarupplevelse för användaren. Andra av dem är informationsarkitektur, grafisk design och användbarhet. Informationsarkitektur är en disciplin vars syfte är att särskilja information och dataledning ifrån varandra och genom detta att skapa en internetsida som är lätt att använda, ger bra information och uppfyller syftet för användaren genom strukturerad information. Grafisk design handlar om hur element tas om hand och arrangeras för att förmedla beteende och information. Användbarhet handlar om lättheten i användningen av en internetsida med fokus på hur lätt den är att lära sig och hur lätt den är att använda. Att skapa användbarhet på Internet innehåller förståelse av användaren som använder sidan genom förståelse av hur denne lever och arbetar, så att tjänstens form och beteende stödjer de mänskliga beteendena och för att fullgöra det måste interaktionsdesign inkluderas i den arbetsgången. Interaktionsdesign är därför en viktig disciplin för att skapa positiv användbarhet och användbarhet i sin tur är viktigt för att skapa positiv användarupplevelse. En studie från 2008 visar på att så många som 70 % av den totala bokningen av resor sker via resetjänster på Internet, dock är det endast 50 % av användarna som återkommer till sidan för att boka igen. Detta visar på vikten av att skapa användbarhet för användaren, så att användaren får en positiv användarupplevelse och inte byter sida under bokning eller aldrig återkommer. EU har samma år kritiserat resetjänster hårt för att ha missledande priser på sina sidor, vilket gjorde att många av dem åtgärdade problemet. Dock visar det på problem att skapa användbara resesajter. Lars Hult (2000) skriver även i sin avhandling ”Publika gränsytor – ett designexempel” att mer forskning genom fälttester av internetbaserade tjänster bör göras. Han menade att dessa fälttester skulle resultera i fördjupad kunskap om användarnas informationsbehov och informationsvanor för att sedan relatera det till designarbetet vid skapande av internetsidor. Vi såg här ett problem med att skapa positiv användarupplevelse för användaren och såg det intressant att studera. Målet med vår studie var att bringa klarhet i hur en positiv användarupplevelse av resetjänster i ett internetbaserat system skapas. För att svara på frågan skapade vi oss en förförståelse i teori för att sedan genomföra laboratorieexperiment och intervjuer med fokus på ett antal valda interaktionsdesignprinciper. Detta för att ta reda på vilka problem användarna stötte på vid användning av resetjänster i ett internetbaserat system och för att studera interaktionsdesignprincipernas vikt för positiv användarupplevelse. Utifrån det framkom fler interaktionsdesignsprinciper vilka var viktiga för att skapa positiv användarupplevelse. Resultatet vi fick fram resulterade i en modell vilken förklarar sambanden mellan interaktionsdesignsprinciperna och hur de ska samspela för att resetjänster i ett internetbaserat system ska skapa positiv användarupplevelse med fokus på användbarhet. Vi ser att vår studie kan vara intressant för interaktionsdesigners och andra vilka är intresserade av områdena interaktionsdesign och användarupplevelse.