Usability is one of the most important aspects of software. A multitude of methods and techniques intended to support the development of usable systems has been provided, but the impact on industrial software development has been limited. One of the reasons for this limited success is the gap between traditional academic theory generation and commercial practice. Another reason is the gap between usability engineering and established requirements engineering practice. This thesis is based on empirical research and puts a usability focus on three important aspects of requirements engineering: elicitation, specification and release planning. There are two main themes of investigation. The first is concerned with the development and introduction of a usability-oriented method for elicitation and specification of requirements, with an explicit focus on utilizing the skills of technical communicators. This longitudinal, qualitative study, performed in an industrial setting in the first half of the nineties, provides ample evidence in favor of a closer collaboration between technical communicators and system developers. It also provides support for the benefits of a task-oriented approach to requirements elicitation. The results are also reflected upon in a retrospective paper, and the experiences point in the direction of an increased focus on the specification part, in order to bridge the gap between usability engineering and established requirements management practice. The second represents a usability-oriented approach to understanding and supporting release planning in software product development. Release planning is an increasingly important part of requirements engineering, and it is complicated by intricate dependencies between requirements. A survey performed at five different companies gave an understanding of the nature and frequency of these interdependencies. This knowledge was then turned into the design and implementation of a support tool, with the purpose of provoking a deeper understanding of the release planning task. This was done through a series of cooperative evaluation sessions with release planning experts. The results indicate that, although the tool was considered useful by the experts, the initial understanding of the task was overly simplistic. As a result, a number of design implications are proposed. / On the day of the public defence the status of article VI was: Submitted.

The relationship between the perceived usability of a beautiful interface and of an ugly interface is analyzed in this study. This study correlates the visual aesthetics of the website with perceived usability. This research is performed to know the significance of visual aesthetics on perceived usability. A website is designed with two interfaces. One interface is designed by following design guidelines with respect to usability and the other interface is designed without following guidelines. To measure the aesthetic value of these website interfaces, visual aspect questionnaire is used in classical aesthetic sense. After drawing a conclusion on aesthetic values i.e. beautiful interface and of an ugly interface, a survey performed using System Usability Scale (SUS scale) to measure the perceived usability of the beautiful interface and an ugly interface of the website. From the results we found that perceived usability of the beautiful interface is significantly higher than the ugly interface. System Usability Scale turns out sensitive to measure the beauty of the website. Results also show that the design principles have some overlapping with the visual aesthetic of the website.

Abstract This thesis explores whether usability cost-benefit analysis is helpful when applied to commercial and open source software (OSS) development contexts. First, the thesis examines the differences and commonalities among the existing usability cost-benefit analysis models. The results indicate that there are considerable variations in the usability cost-benefit analysis literature in how the different categories of usability costs and benefits are identified and documented. Second, the thesis examines how well the existing usability cost-benefit considerations fit into practice in closed source software development. The results indicate that there are considerable risks of failure when using usability cost-benefit considerations in the commercial development context, when the inherent costs of usability activities become apparent, concrete, and measurable. Conversely, the potential benefits of better usability remain vague, uncertain, and unconvincing to the management. In order to build better usability cost-benefit models and minimize the potential that the models have unforeseen inherent risks, as outlined in this thesis, researchers should focus strongly on bringing forward the possible benefits of usability instead of focusing on the costs of designing and implementing user interfaces that would be realized in any case, regardless of the usability activities. Third, the thesis identifies the parallels and differences between open source software development and closed source software development in order to identify how usability costs and benefits fit into OSS development. The usability costs and benefits specific to OSS development are reflected in the experiences of bringing usability into the OSS development context. The results indicate that it is possible to fit usability cost-benefit considerations into the OSS development context, even though there are no apparent financial or resource factors to be considered. Furthermore, to fit usability cost-benefit considerations into the OSS development context, the philosophy, principles, hierarchical structure, community structure, and characteristics of OSS development must be considered. Usability cost-benefit considerations that fit into the OSS development context might help convince core developers that usability activities are important and should be integrated into the project roadmap. / Tiivistelmä Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -analyysin soveltamista kaupalliseen ja avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistojen (OSS) ohjelmistokehitykseen. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan ensin käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -analyysimallien eroja ja yhteisiä piirteitä. Tulokset osoittavat käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -analyysimalleissa olevan huomattavia eroja siinä, miten eri käytettävyyden kustannuksia ja hyötyjä on tunnistettu. Toiseksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan miten hyvin nykyiset käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -analyysimallit sopivat käytännössä kaupallisten ohjelmistojen kehittämisessä. Tulokset osoittavat, että on olemassa huomattavia epäonnistumisen riskejä käytettäessä käytettävyyden kustannus-hyötynäkökohtia käytettävyystoimien oikeuttamiseen. Käytettävyyden kustannukset voivat tulla yrityksen johdon näkökulmasta konkreettisiksi ja mitattaviksi, kun taas mahdolliset paremman käytettävyyden hyödyt voivat jäädä epämääräisiksi, epävarmoiksi ja epäuskottaviksi. Parempien käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty –mallien kehittämiseksi ja odottamattomien riskien minimoimiseksi mallien suunnittelussa tulisi keskittyä erityisesti paremman käytettävyyden tuomiin mahdollisiin etuihin, koska osa kustannuksista toteutuisi joka tapauksessa käytettävyystoimista riippumatta. Kolmanneksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan eroja ja yhtäläisyyksiä avoimen lähdekoodin ohjelmistojen kehittämisessä ja kaupallisessa suljetun lähdekoodin ohjelmistojen kehittämisessä, sekä miten käytettävyyden kustannukset ja hyödyt soveltuvat OSS kehityksessä käytettävyystoimien oikeuttamiseen. Käytettävyyden kustannuksia ja hyötyjä OSS -kehityksessä heijastetaan suhteessa kokemuksiin käytettävyystoimista OSS -projekteissa. Tulokset osoittavat, että on mahdollista soveltaa käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -näkökulmia OSS kehityksessä, vaikka OSS kehityksessä ei olekaan ilmeisiä huomioitavia taloudellisia tai resurssitekijöitä. Käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty -näkökulmien soveltaminen OSS kehityksessä edellyttää OSS kehityksen filosofian, periaatteiden, hierarkkisen rakenteen, yhteisön rakenteen sekä OSS kehityksen ominaispiirteiden ottamista huomioon. OSS -kehitykseen paremmin soveltuvien käytettävyyden kustannus-hyöty –näkökulmien avulla voidaan vakuuttaa OSS -projektin pääkehittäjiä ja yhteisöä käytettävyystoimien tärkeydestä ja nämä toimet voidaan saada osaksi projektin ohjelmistokehitystä.

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En produkt är användbar när användaren kan göra precis som den vill utan att tveka, stöta på problem eller att användaren ska behöva ifrågasätta produkten. Användaren ska uppnå sitt mål om en produkt är användbar (Rubin & Chisnell, 2008). Användarvänlighet ska se till att möta våra behov och krav som vi kan ställa på produkter. Vår tillfredställelse med upplevelsen av produkten kan då påverka användbarheten (Reiss, 2012). Forskningsgruppen Educational Technology Group hade utvecklat ett digitalt läromedel där en kunskapslucka inom interaktionsdesign behövde fyllas. Denna studie gjordes i syfte av att utvärdera användbarhetsupplevelsen i ett digitalt läromedel kallat Historiens Väktare för barn i årskurs 4 med hjälp av tänka högt-protokoll, intervjuer och enkäter. Studien resulterade i en problemidentifiering i interaktionen, att vissa moment i spelet upplevdes som komplicerade och behövde ses över. I analysen gavs det förslag på förbättringar som kan appliceras på läromedlet för att ge en positivare användarupplevelse. / Educational Technology Group

Usability guidelines for user interface (UI) design formulated by Nielsen and other authorities were used to redesign the web interface for a web based distance education course. The website's original UI, as judged by a group of web design professionals, violated standard guidelines for usability, readability, learnability, consistency, efficiency of use and flexibility. The original and redesigned UIs were tested using thinking aloud testing, a user satisfaction survey, and usability inspection. The results of user testing and heuristic evaluation suggest that the use of these guidelines in website redesign had a positive impact on user performance. A more conclusive result would have required a larger sample size and a redesigned testing protocol that varied the order in which participants worked with the old and redesigned interfaces.

Content Management Systems (CMS) can support the creation and maintenance of an e-commerce website and its content. Together with the advance of mobile technology and Internet, it is now possible for business owners to manage their online store using their mobile touchscreen devices. This thesis aims to define the usability problems of the existing CMSs when they are used on mobile touchscreen devices. Heuristic evaluation was performed in three CMSs in order to gain a better understanding of how CMS on touchscreen works and what are the major issues that could downgrade usability. Based on the results of the evaluation, a prototype was implemented and evaluated in order to find out if the design characteristics of the prototype can enhance usability. The impact of the prototype is discussed in terms of efficiency and heuristics violations. Moreover, design guidelines are suggested and uncovered usability problems for further research are provided. / Innehållshanteringssystem (från engelskans Content Management System, CMS) kan stödja skapandet ochunderhållet av en e-handelswebbplats och dess innehåll. Utvecklingen av mobilteknik och internet har gjort detmöjligt för företagare att hantera sin webbutik med hjälp av sina mobila enheter. Denna studie syftar till attdefiniera användbarhetsproblemen hos befintliga CMS när de används på mobila enheter. En heuristiskutvärdering av tre CMS utfördes för att få en bättre förståelse av hur CMS fungerar på en pekskärm, samt för attidentifiera de största problem som kan minska användbarheten. Baserat på resultaten av utvärderingenutvecklades och utvärderades en prototyp för att ta reda på om prototypens designegenskaper kunde förbättraanvändbarheten. Prototypens inverkan diskuteras med avseende på effektivitet och heuristiska oegentligheter. Designriktlinjer föreslås och funna användbarhetsproblem presenteras för vidare forskning.

Crises are spontaneous and highly variable events that lead to life threatening and urgent situations. As such, crisis and emergency notification systems need to be both flexible and highly optimized to quickly communicate to users. Implementing the fastest methods, however, is only half of the battle. The use of geospatial location is missing from alert systems utilized at university campuses across the United States. Our research included the design and implementation of a mobile application addition to our campus notification system. This addition is complete with optimizations including an increase in the speed of delivery, message differentiation to enhance message relevance to the user, and usability studies to enhance user trust and understanding. Another advantage is that our application performs all location data computations on the user device with no external storage to protect user location privacy. However, ensuring the adoption of a mobile application that requests location data permissions and relating privacy measures to users is not a trivial matter. We conducted a campus-wide survey and interviews to understand mobile device usage patterns and obtain opinions of a representative portion of the campus population. These findings guided the development of this mobile application and can provide valuable insights which may be helpful for future application releases. Our addition of a mobile application with geospatial location awareness will send users relevant alerts at speeds faster than those of the current campus notification system while still guarding user location privacy, increasing message relevance, and enhancing the probability of adoption and use. / Master of Science

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka användbarheten hos ikonbiblioteket Font Awesome samt hur sammanhanget påverkar användares uppfattning av en ikon. Frågeformulär och intervjuer har besvarats av 20 testpersoner för att undersöka hur internetanvändare uppfattar användningen av 35 utvalda ikoner och hur dessa ikoner bör presenteras för att bidra till hög användbarhet på webbplatser och i applikationer. Resultatet från frågeformuläret påvisar att flertalet ikoner kräver tillhörande text eller tydliga sammanhang för att vara användbara. Resultatet från intervjuerna påvisar att sammanhanget där en ikon presenteras har stor betydelse för hur användarna uppfattar ikonens representation. / This research is aimed to investigate the usability of the icon library Font Awesome and how context affects the user’s perception of an icon. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted by 20 respondents in order to examine how users perceive the use of 35 selected icons and how the icons should be presented for achieving good usability on web sites and in applications. The results of the questionnaire indicate that the majority of icons require accompanying text or clear context to demonstrate usability. The results of the interviews demonstrate that the context in which an icon is presented is of great importance for how users perceive the intention behind the application of the icon.

The combination of graphical user interface (GUI) and usability evaluation presents an advantage to mastering every piece of software and ensuring perfect quality of work. The increasing demand for online learning is becoming more important, both individually and academically. This thesis introduces and describes an empirical study to investigate and compare how vocabulary can be learned by using different interactive approaches; specifically, a static learning website (with straightforward words and meanings), an adaptable learning website (allowing the user to choose a learning method), an adaptive learning website (a system-chosen way of learning), and a mixed-initiative (mixing approaches and techniques). The purpose of this study is to explore and determine the effects of these approaches in learning vocabu-lary achievement to enhance vocabulary learning for non-English speakers. The par-ticipants were Arabic speakers. The three levels of vocabulary learning activities were categorised as easy, medium, and hard. The independent variables (IVs) were controlled during the experiment to ensure consistency and were as follows: tasks, learning effects, and time. The dependent variables (DVs) were learning vocabulary achievements and scores. Two aims were explored in relation to the effects of these approaches to achievement. The first related to learning vocabularies for non-English speakers tackling the difficulties of the English language and the second related to studying system usability of learning English vocabulary in terms of usability measures (efficiency, frequency of error occurrence, effectiveness, and satisfaction). For this purpose, a vocabulary-learning language website was designed, implement-ed, and tested empirically. To fulfill these requirements, it was first necessary to measure two usability components (efficiency and effectiveness) with a within-subject design of n = 24 subjects recruited and, for users’ satisfaction, a between-subject design of n = 99 subjects recruited, while investigating satisfaction with a system usability scale (SUS) survey. The results and data analysis were described. Overall, the results shown were all satisfactory.