Building complex games like Grand Strategy Games for both PC and console is a costly endeavour. Normally, two different platforms imply two different User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) designs, even though it is the same game. If the game’s UI could have similar designs for both platforms, this costly obstacle could be overcome. This study aimed to take the first steps to look at “one UI to rule them all”. Due to the lack of existing research on this topic, this study had to begin from scratch. This led to a focus on existing strategy games on consoles, and an evaluation of the User Experience (UX) of these games. Considering the lack of Grand Strategy Games on consoles, eleven existing strategy games on console similar to Grand Strategy Games were chosen to be investigated further with the aim to find possible best practices and/or the most important aspects of the player’s experience in these games. Through discussion with game industry experts (experienced and senior UX designers), the UI and UX of strategy games on console were broken down and grouped as specific game interactions, with emphasis on the similarity to Grand Strategy Games. By using the defined game interactions, a quantitative survey was carried out to pinpoint the game interactions with the biggest impact on the player’s experience. The analysis of the results from the 864 respondents in the quantitative survey showed the importance of console first. It could be determined by looking at how well the only console first game of the survey did. Halo Wars 2 had the overall best-perceived experience in five out of the eight defined game interactions. Yet the participants preferred playing Halo Wars 2 on PC to an equal extent as they preferred to play it on consoles, concluding that console first seems to be the design approach to use when a game studio wants to ship a game simultaneously to both PC and consoles since it gives the overall best player experience. Furthermore, the pace, meaning the speed with which the player can execute specific in-game actions and reach their goals, was found to be a major factor in the player’s experience of the chosen strategy games on console. This led to a further developed definition of the pace through discussion and workshops with industry experts. Research then continued with remote and unmoderated playtests (qualitative usability testing) of two of the chosen games being most similar to Grand Strategy Games; Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. These playtests aimed to find what are the most important aspects of the pace and how the pace affects the player's experience. When the participants were asked to rank what they thought has the biggest impact on the pace in the game, game mechanical aspects were ranked higher than UI and UX aspects of the pace. This shows the game mechanics to be more important than the UI and UX aspects of the pace when designing the pace in a game like Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

In this paper, I begin the first steps towards developing more ethical methods for designing for users with ADHD by investigating what needs stakeholders have when interacting with technology. Current interaction design projects concerned with ADHD are largely focused on children—ignoring adults with ADHD. Their aims and methods are problematic, potentially harmful, and erase experiences of those with ADHD by excluding them from the design process. These projects treat the ADHD community as a list of symptoms to be fixed by training behaviors—a practice that has been demonstrated to cause harm. Influenced by the Crip Technoscience, Neurodiversity, and Self-Advocacy movements and utilizing participatory/co-design methods I investigate the needs of users with ADHD by engaging with them throughout the process, ultimately leading to the development of preliminary guidelines for designing for ADHD accessibility which are presented in this paper alongside design examples and discussion of possible future work.

Zeals är en mobil applikation där användaren tillåts att kollaborativt uppleva förväntan och erinran inför och efter en händelse. Genom att användaren bidrar med media som hon själv definerat som relevant för händelsen kan mobiltelefonen fungera som ett medium där kopplingar och relevans är upp till användaren. Parallellt har ett designverktyg för användarjämförelser tagits fram - Persona Activity Framework. PAF syftar till att genom ett scenario visa skillnader och likheter mellan tilltänkta användare. / This master thesis in interaction design deals with two major scopes. First, it will describe how a design concept regarding events is initiated. Second, and parallel, a practical tool for user representations will be formed and used to illustrate a foundation for design. By providing examples of projects related to how anticipation and recollection can be experienced we highlight our work area. In addition to this, we present tools that we consider beneficial regarding user insights. Out of these two fields we describe a process where a mobile phone application is created situated within industrial borders. The result of this process consequently consist of two parts each depending on the other. The application, Zeals, demonstrates both how anticipation and recollection can be experienced. The second part of the end result, PAF, demonstrates how we have represented users and concludes that it can be used in other projects as well. Hence, our final result needs to be interpreted depending on design approach and it’s nature.

Användbarhet är en term som används för att bedöma kvaliteten hos ett gränssnitt. God användbarhet är viktig då den ger en ökad produktivitet och andra affärsfördelar i form av färre misstag och bättre kvalitet på slutprodukten. Användbarhet är en viktig designprincip men är en svår egenskap att uppfylla hos applikationer. Studien behandlar användbarhet ur olika perspektiv, dels det teoretiska genom litteraturgenomgång, dels det praktiska genom intervjuer och observationer. Syftet var att förklara vad användbarhet är, hur det bedöms och vad man kan göra för att bygga in egenskapen i applikationer man utvecklar. För att exemplifiera och finna verklig förankring har jag valt att observera hur användare interagerar med ett existerande gränssnitt för bibliotek, Horizon. Slutsatser kring studien är att Horizon inte används till allt den var tänkt att användas till, vilket i princip är ett dåligt betyg för en applikation. Samtidigt är detta inget större problem då den negativa verkan på verksamheten kan i det här fallet vara en definitionsfråga: är studenternas produktivitet när det gäller att söka och beställa litteratur kritisk? När det gäller användbarhet i utvecklingsskedet kan man konstatera att även om intentionerna varit goda så har användbarhetsarbetet kring Horizon inte infriat förväntningarna. Vad som gått fel är varken sensationellt eller ovanligt; det har handlat om avsaknaden av slutanvändarens perspektiv, organisatoriska problem och möjligen också bristande kunskap om användbarhet i en eller annan form. En betydelsefull insikt som inte nämns i litteraturen men som togs upp är att beakta leverantörens marknadsställning när man ska köpa ett system. Trots bristerna, som ofta relaterar till brott mot designkonventioner, upplevs Horizon som ett bra och ändamålsenligt verktyg av sina användare. / Usability denotes the quality of a user interface. Even though usability is an important design principle, efforts to incorporate this quality in applications often fail. In this paper I study usability from a theoretical and a practical perspective. The goal is to explain usability and how to incorporate usability in applications. In order to exemplify, I study usability within the context of the library application Horizon. This study shows that Horizon is only partially utilized by its users which in principle is a bad grade for an application. Partial use is however in this case, not a serious problem since the negative effects partial use imply could very well be a matter of definition: is the productivity of students, when it comes to searching and ordering library material, critical for the organization? When it comes to usability in the development phases of a project, once again one can conclude that good intentions exist but efforts fail all the same and Horizon is no exception. This time we can attribute failure to the lack of the end users’ perspective, organizational problems and perhaps also unsufficient knowledge of usability in one form or another. An important conclusion, which has not been mentioned in the literature, is the importance of considering the market position of a presumptive vendor when buying a generic system. Despite the flaws (often related to violations of well established design principles) presented in this paper, Horizon is considered a good, effective and efficient application by its users.

This study aims to evaluate the preferences of drivers in Sweden, in regard to incar digital media players. As interfaces in cars, to some extent, are taking over thefunctionality of physical buttons and knobs, it is increasingly important for carmanufacturers to better understand what their users prefer.Through an analysis of current trends and measurements of user preferences, wehave identified areas for improvement and further development of these mediaplayer interfaces. These suggested improvements are as follows: • Using the screen real estate for important items • Emphasizing important elements by more efficient use of spacing andsizing • Removing or hiding menu items that are used sparingly • Using the concept of familiarity to create more user-friendly interfaces

This diploma Thesis deals with problematics of web design in civil engineering. Specifically, it focuses on the web design of a projective construction office. The basic concepts relevant to the problematics are defined in the theoretical part of this Thesis. The practical part begins with initial analysis which consists of an opening workshop with a client, a survey and competition research. Based on the analysis findings, target group and project direction are set. Following these steps, the web design is created. It consists of several parts – generation of ideas and possible solutions, information architecture, sketching, prototyping, prototype testing and graphic design itselfs, which is output of this diploma Thesis.

The use of the Internet and digital services has increased significantly during recent years, and as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field keeps on expanding, it is influencing aspects of our daily lives, though not always for the better. Researchers and practitioners, including a small number of designers, are addressing the growing concerns about the Internet’s environmental impact, such as electronic waste, increased energy use, resource depletion, and carbon footprint, which have emerged in recent years, and are calling for a more environment-friendly approach to web and app design. However, it is still a relatively new area of concern. This study evaluates existing guidelines for designing low-impact user interfaces in the mobile food delivery sector. First, the study investigates users’ food delivery habits and their impressions of low-impact interfaces. The findings from this section are then used to design a low-impact food delivery application (FDA) prototype and are tested with users to see how to make low-impact interfaces attractive for a possible change in user behaviors. This thesis builds on previous research about sustainable web design, but the focus area of this study is to investigate whether applied guidelines and low-impact design features are desired by users on mobile screens as well. The research reveals that low-impact features are indeed useful on smaller screens as well and users are generally open-minded and acceptive of front-end changes that have a more positive impact on the environment. However, it is crucial to communicate clearly about any low-impact modifications made to an application, due to the current low level of user awareness and knowledge in this field.

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