The purpose of this study is to evaluate and give suggestions for interaction improvements to a user interface in a Personal Video Recorder. The study will focus on user learnability, user satisfaction, usability problems from the user interaction with the product and to make a set of interaction improvements. The participants performed a set of predefined tasks involving the recorder functionality and channel lists. The study involved three trials with seven tasks in each trial.   The study showed that the time difference for Learnability – Time-on-Task between all trials were statistical significant for the user interface. The study also revealed a set of usability problems that were classified into different severity ratings. The study also showed that the participants were partly satisfied with the user interface. / Uppsatsen är egentligen på 18hp, var tvungen att fylla i 16hp då rätt alternativ inte fanns att tillgå.

This thesis aimed to evaluate the user interaction with a Personal Video Recorder software in development by Zenterio. The evaluation focus was on learnability, satisfaction, identification of usability issues and proposing redesign to solve them. A user test with eleven participants was carried out, measuring task success, completion time, lostness, post-task satisfaction and post-session satisfaction across three trials. The seven user tasks concerned mainly channel lists and recording functionality; the former is examined closer in this paper. The results showed that the channel lists were somewhat difficult to manage initially but fairly quickly learned. The satisfaction was lower in the beginning and high after three trials. The results across all tasks followed similar learnability patterns and the overall satisfaction with the interface interaction pointed at the need of improvements. Nine usability issues were discovered concerning channel lists and navigation; they were rated by severity and redesign proposals were given. The issue with the strongest impact on the success of the interaction was the difficulty to find out how to open the submenus.

Human-computer interaction problems have been approached by design practitioners and researchers for a few decades now. Usability is an established quality attribute that is used to assess how easy user interfaces are to use. Websites have been determined to benefit from such assessment, and responsive web design (RWD) is a fairly new approach to web design where usability problems have been recognised, and where usability focused research has been carried out. While usability testing can be used to determine how easy a RWD website is to use, it does not provide a detailed psychological model that tells the designer how to design RWD websites that are easy to use. Discoverability is a psychological model within the field of design in general, that can be implemented by designers who want to achieve a good design. No previous research has been carried out with the purpose of exploring how discoverability can be used to improve the usability of a RWD website, and the author of this thesis suggests that there is value in conducting such research, because it has the potential to provide new insight into how RWD websites can be designed in way that makes them easier to use. This thesis approaches the question by conducting a usability test on a RWD website, and uses the results of the test as a foundation for a suggested discoverability focused approach to improving the usability of the RWD website.

The aim of this thesis is to build a web application to teach students programming in Python through code puzzles that do not require them to write any code, to answer the research question How should a quiz application for introduction to Python programming be developed to be useful? The web application's utility and usability are evaluated through the learnability metric relative user efficiency. Data was collected and analyzed using Google Analytics and BigQuery. The study found that users were successfully aided with theoretical sections pertaining to the puzzles and even if programming is mainly a desktop activity there is still an interest for mobile access. Although evaluation of relative user efficiency did not serve as a sufficient learnability measure for this type of application, conclusions from the data analysis still gave insights into the utility of the web application.

Despite the apparent benefits of IoT systems, designing them is challenging due to many technical aspects that need to be considered and their mutual interference. The aspects of latency, longevity, and interoperability influence the usability of the final product. Such design and implementation processes are even more challenging to those not experienced in the IoT field, such as beginning designers or product managers. Here, the author investigates a decision support tool – the IoT Solution Advisor, which aims to help IoT beginners to create a model of IoT system and help them to match its requirements with a compatible technology stack. This publication describes the IoT Solution Advisor’s design process by gathering insights via interviews and Research through Design approach. Except for the prototype, the outcome from the study is the list of features and characteristics necessary to make the tool utilitarian and learnable. The project was conducted in cooperation with Ericsson company. / Trots de uppenbara fördelarna med IoT-system (Internet of Things) är det svårt att utforma dem på grund av många tekniska aspekter som måste övervägas och deras ömsesidiga interferens. Aspekterna av latens, livslängd och interoperabilitet påverkar slutproduktens användbarhet. Sådana design- och implementeringsprocesser är ännu mer utmanande för dem som inte har erfarenhet av IoT-fältet, till exempel nybörjare eller produktchefer. Denna studie undersöker ett beslutsstödverktyg - IoT Solution Advisor, som syftar till att hjälpa IoT-nybörjare att skapa en modell av IoT-system och hjälpa dem att matcha dess krav med en kompatibel teknikstack. Denna publikation beskriver IoT-lösningsrådgivarens designprocess genom att samla insikter via intervjuer och forskning genom design. Resultatet från studien är en lista över funktioner och egenskaper som är nödvändiga för att göra verktyget nyttigt och lärbart.

An essential part of combating climate change is to reduce energy consumption. As the industrial sector was accountable for approximately a third of the total global carbon dioxide equivalents in 2019, it is crucial for industries to manage their energy usage. Research within the field of eco-feedback shows that visualising energy data can inspire energy reductions and promote knowledge. The thesis investigates how a dashboard for energy data visualisations for the industrial sector can be designed to be usable and to inspire behavioural change for its end users. Usability is researched in terms of initial learnability and subjective satisfaction. Perceived behavioural change is studied through changes in users' awareness and attitude towards energy management.  A prototype of a dashboard for energy data visualisations is developed through three iterations of the HCD process. During the first iteration, a paper prototype is developed, and evaluated through a workshop. During the second iteration, the paper prototype is translated into a digital prototype, which is then translated into a software prototype. The software prototype is evaluated through end-user tests at the end of the second iteration. During the third iteration, the software prototype is improved, based on the input from the previous evaluation, and then evaluated through end-user tests. The usability of the software prototype is evaluated through the think-aloud method and a SUS questionnaire. Perceived behavioural change is evaluated by interviewing the test users about their change in attitude and awareness after using the dashboard.  The thesis finds that the dashboard prototype was easy to use and interpret. The following design choices were concluded to contribute to the usability in terms of initial learnability and subjective satisfaction: visually separating information, information adjacency, adding explanatory texts, using colour as a visual encoding, using a colour scheme that provides contrast and consistency, filtering data through multi-select, providing different options for visualisation, using interactivity for further data exploration, giving the user response to actions, considering chart junk and the data-ink ratio, and using unambiguous icons. In addition, the thesis concludes that the dashboard inspired changes in both the user's awareness and attitude towards energy management. The design choices that were proven to affect the user's awareness and attitude were: letting the user choose their preferred unit to represent the data, presenting the user with tips, providing internal and external data comparisons, visualising multiple energy-related key figures, allowing for historic comparison, reminding the user of upcoming activities, presenting a list of scheduled measures and providing feedback of a prognosticated proposed measure in terms of its intended effects.

The learnability principle relates to improving usability of software, performance and productivity. It was formulated mainly for the adult user group. Children represent an important user group, but fewer guidelines exist for their educational and entertainment applications. This study compares these groups, addressing the question: “Does learnability of software interfaces have a different meaning for children and adults?”. A literature survey conducted on learnability and learning processes considered the meaning of learnability across generations. Users learning software systems were observed in a usability laboratory where eye tracking data could also be recorded. Insights emerged, from data analysis, showing different tactics when children and adults approached unfamiliar software and revealing aspects of interfaces they approached differently. The findings will help designers distinguish varying needs of users and improve learnability. An additional subprinciple of learnability, „engageability‟, is proposed. Factors that make products engaging for children are different from those engaging adults. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Software applications for design and creation typically contain hundreds or thousands of commands, which collectively give users enormous expressive power. Unfortunately, rich feature sets also take a toll on usability. Current interfaces to feature-rich software address this dilemma by adopting menus, toolbars, and other hierarchical schemes to organize functionality—approaches that enable efficient navigation to specific commands and features, but do little to reveal how to perform unfamiliar tasks. We present an alternative task-centric user interface design that explicitly supports users in performing unfamiliar tasks. A task-centric interface is able to quickly adapt itself to the user’s intended goal, presenting relevant functionality and required procedures in task-specific customized interfaces. To achieve this, task-centric interfaces (1) represent tasks as first-class objects in the interface; (2) allow the user to declare their intended goal (or infer it from the user’s actions); (3) restructure the interface to provide step-by-step scaffolding for the current goal; and (4) provide additional knowledge and guidance within the application’s interface. Our inspiration for task-centric interfaces comes from a study we conducted, which revealed that a valid use case for feature-rich software is to perform short, targeted tasks that use a small fraction of the application’s full functionality. Task-centric interfaces provide explicit support for this use. We developed and tested our task-centric interface approach by creating AdaptableGIMP, a modified version of the GIMP image editor, and Workflows, an iteration on AdaptableGIMP’s design based on insights from a semi-structured interview study and a think-aloud study. Based on a two-session study of Workflows, we show that task-centric interfaces can successfully support a guided-and-constrained problem solving strategy for performing unfamiliar tasks, which enables faster task completion and reduced cognitive load as compared to current practices. We also provide evidence that task-centric interfaces can enable a higher-level form of application learning, in which the user associates tasks with relevant keywords, as opposed to low-level commands and procedures. This keyword learning has potential benefits for memorability, because the keywords themselves are descriptive of the task being learned, and scalability, because a few keywords can map to an arbitrarily complex set of commands and procedures. Finally, our findings suggest a range of different ways that the idea of task-centric interfaces could be further developed.

The learnability principle relates to improving usability of software, performance and productivity. It was formulated mainly for the adult user group. Children represent an important user group, but fewer guidelines exist for their educational and entertainment applications. This study compares these groups, addressing the question: “Does learnability of software interfaces have a different meaning for children and adults?”. A literature survey conducted on learnability and learning processes considered the meaning of learnability across generations. Users learning software systems were observed in a usability laboratory where eye tracking data could also be recorded. Insights emerged, from data analysis, showing different tactics when children and adults approached unfamiliar software and revealing aspects of interfaces they approached differently. The findings will help designers distinguish varying needs of users and improve learnability. An additional subprinciple of learnability, „engageability‟, is proposed. Factors that make products engaging for children are different from those engaging adults. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Usability studies are important in today’s context. However, the increased security level of authentication systems is reducing the usability level. Thus, to provide secured but yet usable authentication systems is a challenge for researchers to solve till now. Learnability and human errors are influential factors of the usability of authentication systems. There are not many specific studies on the learnability and human errors concentrating on authentication systems. The authors’ aim of this study is to explore the human errors and the learnability situation of authentication systems to contribute to the development of more usable authentication systems. The authors investigated through observations and interviews to achieve the aim of this study. A minimalist portable test lab was developed in order to conduct the observation process in a controlled environment. At the end of the study, the authors showed the list of identified human errors and learnability issues, and provided recommendations, which the authors believe will help researchers to improve the overall usability of authentication systems. To achieve the aim of the study, the authors started with a systematic literature review to gain knowledge on the state of art. For the user study, a direct investigation, in form of observations and interviews was then applied to gather more data. The collected data was then analyzed and interpreted to identify and assess the human errors and the learnability issues. / This study addressed the usability experiences of users by exploring the human errors and the learnability situation of the authentication systems. Authors conducted a case study to explore the situation of human errors and learnability of authentication systems. Observation and interviews were adapted to gather data. Then analysis through SHERPA (to evaluate human errors) and Grossman et al. learnability metric (to evaluate learnability) had been conducted. First, the authors identified the human errors and learnability issues on the authentication systems from user’s perspective, from the gathered raw data. Then further analysis had been conducted on the summary of the data to identify the features of the authentication systems which are affecting the human errors and learnability issues. The authors then compared the two different categories of authentication systems, such as the 1-factor and the multi-factor authentication systems, from the gathered information through analysis. Finally, the authors argued the possible updates of the SHERPA’s human error metric and additional measurable learnability issues comparing to Grossman et al. learnability metrics. The studied authentication systems are not human errors free. The authors identified eight human errors associated with the studied authentication systems and three features of the authentication systems which are influencing the human errors. These errors occurred while the participants in this study took too long time locating the login menu or button or selecting the correct login method, and eventually took too long time to login. Errors also occurred when the participants failed to operate the code generating devices, or failed to retrieve information from errors messages or supporting documents, and/or eventually failed to login. As these human errors are identifiable and predictable through the SHERPA, they can be solved as well. The authors also found the studied authentication systems have learnability issues and identified nine learnability issues associated with them. These issues were identified when very few users could complete the task optimally, or completed without any help from the documentation. Issues were also identified while analyzing the participants’ task completion time after reviewing documentations, operations on code generating devices, and average errors while performing the task. These learnability issues were identified through Grossman et al. learnability metric, and the authors believe more study on the identified learnability issues can improve the learnability of the authentication systems. Overall, the authors believe more studies should be conducted on the identified human errors and learnability issues to improve the overall human errors and learnability situation of the studied authentication systems at presence. Moreover, these issues also should be taken into consideration while developing future authentication systems. The authors believe, in future, the outcome of this study will also help researchers to propose more usable, but yet secured authentication systems for future growth. Finally, authors proposed some potential research ares, which they believe will have important contribution to the current knowledge. In this study, the authors used the SHERPA to identify the human errors. Though the SHERPA (and its metrics) is arguably one of the best methods to evaluate human errors, the authors believe there are scopes of improvements in the SHERPA’s metrics. Human’s perception and knowledge is getting changed, and to meet the challenge, the SHERPA’s human error metrics can be updated as well. Grossman et al. learnability metrics had been used in this study to identify learnability issues. The authors believe improving the current and adding new metrics may identify more learnability issues. Evaluation of learnability issues may have improved if researchers could have agreed upon a single learnability definition. The authors believe more studies should be conducted on the definition of learnability in order to achieve more acceptable definition of the learnability for further research. Finally, more studies should be conducted on the remedial strategies of the identified human errors, and improvement on the identified learnability issues, which the authors believe will help researchers to propose more usable, but yet secured authentication systems for the future growth. / 30/1, Shideshwari Lane, Shantinagar, Ramna, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Post Code 1217. Contact: +88017130 16973