<p>Today’s information systems engineering involves large number of stakeholders, wide geographical distribution and wide range of tools. Success in system engi-neering depends on effective human communication. Early understanding and modelling of the problem domain is a key to manage large scale systems and pro-jects. This requires stakeholders to reach a certain level of shared interpretation of the domain referred throughout the development</p><p>We propose a method for semantics driven change impact assessment. In our method, first a collaborative problem analysis is conducted. The problem analysis results in an agreed and committed common understanding of the prob-lem domain, expressed in a conceptual domain model. The constructed concep-tual domain-specific model is then actively used as a communication medium, e.g., to abstract development objects from representation format in order to expli-cate their semantics. Stakeholders browse the domain model and interactively as-sociate to product fragments by selecting concept clusters that best describe the contents (intended meaning) of the product fragments.</p><p>Associations of the development objects with concepts from domain model, as well as the domain model itself constitute the basis for change impact assess-ment throughout the development. Every revision of a development object in-vokes change impact notifications that are either confirmed or rejected. Accumu-lated statistics are used to refine associations via the domain model to the direct dependency links among development objects.</p><p>The method has been implemented in a prototype system CO2SY and has been evaluated in an experiment, where a set of test users has been provided with a problem domain description including a domain model and a set of develop-ment objects. The experiment was based on two real world cases. Users were asked to perform tasks using the prototype and two comparative tools. The method and prototype have been evaluated with respect to actual performance and users perceptions. The result shows actual effectiveness, perceived ease of use and usefulness comparing to other tools used in the experiment, as well as intention of the subjects to use the method in future.</p><p>A discussion of future research directions and possible revisions of the method concludes the thesis.</p>

<p>To encode, query and present the semantic content of digital video precisely and flexibly is very useful for many kinds of knowledge work: system analysis and evaluation, documentation and education, to name a few. However, that kind of video management is not a trivial matter. The traditional stratified annotation model has quite poor facilities for specifying the meaning – the structure and relationships – of the strata. Because of this, it may also be troublesome to present the annotations to the users in a clear and flexible manner.</p><p>This thesis presents <i>OntoLog</i>, a system for managing the semantic content of video. It extends the stratified annotation model by defining the <i>strata as objects and classes in ontologies</i>, thereby making their semantic meaning more explicit and relating them to each other in a semantic network. The same ontologies are also used to define properties and objects for describing both the strata, individual video intervals and entire videos. This constitutes a very customisable, expressive and precise description model, without sacrificing simplicity and conceptual integrity.</p><p>Arranging the annotation strata in a near-hierarchical network with specified semantics (classes, subclasses and instances) also enables reasoning about the annotations during query and browsing. In particular, it enables <i>visual aggregation of traditional timeline-based strata graphics</i>. Using this to create compact content visualisations, the OntoLog system is able to present tens of videos on screen at the same time, thus providing<i> inter-video browsing</i>. By judiciously disaggregating selected parts of the strata hierarchy, users can focus on relevant strata at their preferred level of detail – <i>overview-and-zoom</i> functionality for semantic annotations, in other words.</p><p>The OntoLog system has been implemented in the form of six Java applications and web services – together covering annotation editing, browsing, analysis, search, query and presentation with various approaches – built on top of an RDF database founded on SQL. The system has been tested under realistic conditions in several real-world projects, with good results. A novel information gathering interface for OntoLog data, Savanta, has been created. This is based on an iterative interaction paradigm featuring inter-video browsing, filtering, navigation and context-sensitive temporal analysis of the annotations. In a comparative usability evaluation, <i>Savanta</i> is shown to outperform more traditional user interfaces for video search/browsing with regard to expressive power, straightforwardness and user satisfaction.</p>

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<p>Inom Ammenäs området i Uddevalla kommun förekommer det spänningar/skillnader mellan fastigheternas gränspunkter som ligger i kommunens databas, och de gränspunktskoordinater som man får när man mäter med GNSS-utrustning, (detta trots det att båda systemen är i RT90 7.5 gon V).</p><p>Databasens koordinater har tidigare transformerats från Uddevallas lokala system U38, till RT90 7.5 gon V, och i GNSS-utrustningen används också RT90 7.5 gon V.</p><p>För att få ett homogent och överensstämmande koordinatsystem måste dagens stomnät och gränspunkter transformeras om till det system som GNSS-utrustningen använder (RT90 7.5 gon V).</p><p>Jag har provat ett antal olika transformationssamband för att komma fram till vilken metod som ger bäst resultat.</p><p>När det är så stora spänningar som i detta fall är den bästa metoden för att få ett bra resultat, att mäta flera mindre områden och transformera dem var för sig.</p><p>När man har fått fram en acceptabel noggrannhet på gränspunkterna, kan man utföra kommunala mätningsuppdrag med koordinater som kommer från GNSS-utrustningen, vilket var syftet med examensarbetet.</p> / <p>In the Ammenäs area within Uddevalla municipality there are some tensions/deviation between real estate boundaries that lies in the municipality database, and the boundary coordinates that are given from the GNSS-measure equipment, (despite that both systems are in RT90 7.5 gon V).</p><p>The real estate boundaries that lies in the database has previously been translated from Uddevalla local system U38, to RT90 7.5 gon V, and the GNSS-equipment also uses</p><p>RT90 7.5 gon V.</p><p>To get a homogeneous and concordant coordinate system, control points and the real estate boundaries has to be transformed to the system that the GNSS-system uses (RT90 7.5 gon V).</p><p>To get to the best result from a transformation method, I have tried a couple of transformation methods.</p><p>When there are such big tensions as in this case the best way to get to a good result is to transform smaller areas instead of the whole area at once.</p><p>When you have reached an acceptable accuracy in the boundary coordinates you can perform municipality measurement assignments with coordinates from the GNSS-equipment, which was the purpose with this examination.</p>

<p>Designing computer systems that effectively support the user is the major goal within human-computer interaction. To achieve this, we must understand and master several tasks. This process must initially deal with the question of knowing what to develop and later, with the question of knowing how to design and develop the system. This view might seem off-target at first, since it does not explicitly mention the goals or functions of the system. However, more often than not, there is no objective goal to aim for that can be formally specified and used as a target criterion that will signal when we have designed an appropriate system. Instead, there is a large set of vague goals – some of which may last through the entire project and some that will not. It is therefore somewhat confounding that most of the current methods of systems development require that these goals are explicitly laid out, in order to steer development. </p><p>For researchers in Human-Computer Interaction, the existence of many varying – and possibly conflicting goals – presents is a great challenge. The constructive main focus on producing usable systems is a matter of understanding this complex situation and knowing how to proceed from there.</p><p>There are many existing approaches that can be used to carry out this complex development process. This thesis presents one approach, based on the notion that the elements that constitute a successful system are also a part of the solution. </p><p>This thesis presents this approach as it is applied to the development of systems for computer-supported work in health care. The projected solution suggests that we need to focus more intently on active user involvement in iterative development that is significantly long-term. The traditional, rather narrow circle of focus that encompasses design, development and evaluation is not sufficient.</p>

This dissertation is devoted to a perspective from which IT-based information systems are conceived as information technological artefacts intended for business action and communication. The perspective has been made concrete through the concept of information systems actability, which is the main concept under scrutiny. The research contributions of the dissertation exist at various levels of abstration. First of all, the dissertation contributes to the understanding of information systems from a social action perspective. Based on identified weaknesses in contemporary conceptualizations of information systems, the concept of information systems actability is developed. This contribution consists of a reconciliation of various views on information system usage quality with its roots in a linguistic tradition including elements from organizational semiotics and the language/action perspective. At a more concrete level, this understanding, and the concept as such, have consequences for the development and evaluation of information systems. Such consequences have been the foundation for a proposed information systems design method, which thus constitutes a further contribution. Another contribution is the outlining of an information systems actability. As a further means of obtaining empirical experience of working with this concept, a descriptive analytic framework has been developed, which constitutes yet another contribution. These three operationalizations, the design method, the evaluation method and the analytic framework, have been developed and empirically grounded through a qualitative case study appproach involving four cases of information systems requirements specification, four evaluations of existing information systems, and two cases of description and characterization of information systems related phenomena from the perspective of actability. The latter two cases imply how further contributions at an even more concrete level, constituted by characterizations of Internet-based information systems and the local electronic marketplace, seen in the light of information systems actability.

Over the last decades computer based tools have been introduced to facilitate systems engineering processes. There are computer based tools for assisting engineers in virtually every aspect of the systems engineering process from requirement elicitation and analysis, over functional analysis, synthesis, implementation and verification. It is not uncommon for a tool to provide many services covering more than one aspect of systems engineering. There exist numerous situations where information exchanges across tool boundaries are valuable, e.g., exchange of specifications between organisations using heterogeneous tool sets, exchange of specifications from legacy to modern tools, exchange of pecifications to tools that provide more advanced modelling or analysis capabilities than the originating tool or storage of specification data in a neutral format such that multiple tools can operate on the data. The focus in this thesis is on the analysis, design and implementation of a method and tool neutral information model for enabling systems engineering tool data exchange. The information model includes support for representation of requirements, system functional architecture and physical architecture, and verification and validation data. There is also support for definition of multiple system viewpoints, representation of system architecture, traceability information and version and configuration management. The applicability of the information model for data exchange hasbeen validated through implementation of tool interfaces to COTS and proprietary systems engineering tools, and exchange of real specifications in different scenarios. The results obtained from the validation activities indicate that systems engineering tool data exchange may decrease the time spent for exchanging specifications between partners developing complex systems and that the information model approach described in the thesis is a compelling alternative to tool specific interfaces.

Bakgrund: Upphandlingen av affärssystem har stadigt ökat och trenden väntas fortsätta i takt med att de uppgifter systemen kan utföra utvidgas. Ett affärssystem kan ses som en strategisk resurs och ”livsnerv” för företaget. Trots detta misslyckas en stor del av alla investeringar i affärssystem. Syfte: Att med utgångspunkt i upphandlingsförfarandet av affärssystem ge en bild av den bakomliggande beslutsprocessen och bidra till förståelsen av vilka krafter som påverkar den. Avgränsningar: Studien omfattar endast ledningsgruppen i små och medelstora företag inom svensk verkstadsindustri. Undersökningen kommer att sträcka sig t o m beslutet om köp, vi kommer inte att behandla implementeringsfasen. Genomförande: Studien har genomförts i form av intervjuer med tre verkstadsindustriföretag i Linköping med omgivning. Resultat: Alla företag har följt ett likartat mönster i upphandlingen. De faktorer som påverkat beslutsprocessen har varit dels interna, dels externa. Företagsledningens roll har främst varit att genomföra de önskemål användarna uttryckt. Vissa nyckelpersoner i ledningsposition har dock spelat en nyckelroll i kraft av sin kunskap och vana av IT.

This work is about supporting user interface design by means of explicit design representations, in particular models. We take as a starting point two different development traditions: the formal, analytic, topdown engineering approach and the informal, synthetic, bottom-up designer approach. Both are based on specific design representations tailored to the respective approaches, and are found to have strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that different representations should be used during user interface design, based on their specific qualities and the needs of the design process. To better understand the use of design representations a framework for classifying them is developed. A design representation may be classified along three dimensions: the perspective (problem- or solution-oriented) of the representation, the granularity of the objects described and the degree of formality of the representation and its language. Any design approach must provide representation languages that cover the whole classification space to be considered complete. In addition, the transitions between different representations within the representation space must be supported, like moving between task-based and interaction- oriented representations or up and down a hierarchic model. Movements between representations with different degrees of formality are particularly important when combining user-centered design with a model-based approach. The design representation classification framework has guided the development of diagrambased modelling languages for the three main perspectives of user interface design, tasks, abstract dialogue and concrete interaction. The framework has also been used for evaluating the languges. A set-based conceptual modelling language is used for domain modelling within all these perspectives. The task modelling language is designed as a hybrid of floworiented process languages and traditional hierarchical sequence-oriented task languages. Key features are tight integration with the domain modelling language, expressive and flexible notation and support for classification of task structures. The language for modelling abstract dialogue is based on the interactor abstraction for expressing composition and information flow, and the Statecharts language for activation and sequencing. Parameterized interactors are supported, to provide means of expressing generic and reusable dialogue structures. Modelling of concrete interaction is supported by a combination of the dialogue and domain modelling languages, where the former captures the functionality and behavior and the latter covers concepts that are specific for the chosen interaction style. The use of the languages in design is demonstrated in a case study, where models for tasks, dialogue and concrete interaction are developed. The case study shows that the languages support movements along the perspective, granularity and formality dimensions.

We have, within the last years, witnessed horrifying tragedies within the transportation domain. Planes fall down, trains crash, boats sink, and car accidents are one of the most frequent causes of death throughout the world. What is more, technology seems also to fail in settings that are more mundane. In his book "the trouble with computers: Usefulness, usability, and productivity", T.K. Landauer shows that the productivity has, within the western world, decreased by about 50% from the period 1950-1973 to the period from 1973 to 1993, and claims that this effect is mostly due to the introduction of technology. Even closer to home, technology is still anxiety provoking for most people. One of many everyday observations to support this fact can be seen at the airports. Have you wondered why most people line up, even for hours, without daring to go near the automatic check-in machines? What has become of the grandiose promises from the heydays of artificial intelligence? What happened to the mind-machines of Newell and Simon? Where is HAL 9000? The distance between the massive technology positivism observed in the west, and the contemporary role of technology in the society, is, I believe, one of the largest paradoxes of our time. What is particularly interesting to note, is that the parody of the AI of the 60s, seems to be recycled every now and again, both within entertainment, the financial world, and within academia. At the turn of the century, we have seen the popularity of movies like The Matrix, we have seen high hopes become sober reality at NASDAQ, and the reductionism of Newell and Simon is alive and well, in disguise of the magic buzzword connectionism. Universities around the world are now buying MRI – scanners on the thousands. We are, yet again (!), on the verge of discovering the mysteries of the mind. The slogan "Vorsprung Durch Technic" used by Audi displays something that lies deep within the western mind, namely the tendency to define ourselves and our culture in terms the inherent qualities of technology; precision, logic, rationality, reliability, punctuality, determination and power. Technology is, in many respects, the totem of the western culture. Maybe this thesis should have been about Techno-Totemism. But it is not. This thesis, on the other hand, attempts to explore what technology might have looked like, had it not been for techno-totemism, i.e. the prevailing idea within western culture and sciences, that humans are literally machines. This notion makes engineers design technological products as if humans actually were machines, or worse imperfect machines. The imperfect machine metaphor leads directly to the notion of "human error", which is often used in a particularly stupid fashion. In this work I lean, on the contrary, on aspects of human cognition that are not machine-like whatsoever, and advocate a change in design focus, from an emphasis on technology to an emphasis on ecology. I have attempted to present my programme positively; that is, to give indications on how, in practical, real life settings, such an approach might be carried out. At certain points, however, it has been necessary to point out the difference of my approach from the traditional cognitive-based Human Factors tradition, to make my points explicit. I apologize to cognitivists and human factors specialists for occasionally making a straw man of their theory. There are many excellent contributions made by these traditions, which are not reflected in this thesis.