This thesis reports on a study undertaken at the Dixson Library, University of New England. The purpose of the study was to develop an understanding of users of online public access catalogues (OPACs). The understanding gained from the study will assist in the development of improvements to the Library's OPAC, and increase user ability to access information from the OPAC. The study replicated the user questionnaire of the Online Patron Access Project, sponsored by the Council on Library Resources (CLR) in 1981/83. The questionnaire was modified slightly to suit conditions at the Dixson Library. The study addressed nine research questions relating to the users, their reactions, attitudes, experiences and problems. The user task and their suggestions for improvement were also addressed. The study formally tested three propositions between the variables user task, success and attitudes in relation to OPAC users. The findings show the analysis of the responses for the population as a whole, and, where relevant, for eight groups of student respondents based on their academic affiliation. The student population was of particular importance because of the preponderance of external students at the University of New England. The differences in the findings between the groups of students were discussed, and where possible, explained. The three formal propositions were tested by carrying out Chi square tests for the values of each variable. Nine significant relationships were found. Comparisons were made between the Dixson Library findings and those of the CLR study. Recommendations and conclusions were drawn from the study, including areas for further research.

The Usability of a website can be evaluated using various methods. One of the methods is usability testing, which is widely used and employed by the usability tester due to its low cost and user friendliness. The results of usability testing can be affected positively or negatively by several factors such as evaluator’s role, number of users, test environment, tasks, usability problem report, usability measures, and other factors. For more than a decade, the number of users plays a key role in usability testing. Previously done study [12], has shown that correlation exists between the number of user tasks and the number of issues found. As an extension and follow-up of the recent studies, the current work was carried out on task design, task number, and task coverage. Two types of task designs were proposed namely, guided tasks and unguided tasks. Considering the task as a key factor, the remaining factors were also considered while employing the usability test.

Aim of the study was to discuss and identify individual differences that influence the user performance during usability tests of consumer products that are known to prevent researchers to conduct systematic studies. The rationale behind the study was developing a tool for sampling in order to handle experiential factors as a variable rather than a source of error. The study made it possible to define and elaborate on constructs general interaction expertise (GIE) and general interaction self efficacy (GISE), and to devise a measurement scheme based on performance observation and attitude measurement. Both perspectives were evaluated with preliminary validity studies and it was possible to provide evidence on predictive validity of the tool developed. Furthermore, opportunities of utilizing the results in design and qualitative research settings were also explored.

This thesis presents the development and evaluation of a computerized physician-parent decision support tool for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), known as Physician and Parent Decision Support (PPADS). The NICU is a specialized hospital unit that treats very-ill neonates. Many difficult care decisions are made daily for this vulnerable population. The PPADS tool aims to augment current NICU decision-making by helping parents and physicians make more informed decisions, improving physician-parent communication, increasing parent decision-making satisfaction, decreasing conflict, and increasing decision efficiency. The development of the PPADS tool followed a five-step methodology: assessing the clinical environment, establishing the design criteria, developing the system design, implementing the system, and performing usability testing. Usability testing of the PPADS tool was performed on neonatologists and on parents of neonates who have graduated (survived) from a tertiary level NICU. The usability testing demonstrated the usefulness and ease of use of the tool.

In today’s society there are problems with how women look at themselves and their appearance, not least the appearance of their genitals. There are norms that say that genitals should look in a certain way. To prevent these problems, young persons need to learn in school how much variation there may be on the appearance of the genitalia. Therefore, this study aimed to create a design proposal on a digital teaching material which was based on the questions that young boys and girls have about the appearance of women’s genitals, and also what information today’s educational books contain. The result showed that girls have questions regarding, among other things, labia, pubic hairs and operations. The educational books which was analysed contained information restrained to a picture of the female genitalia, or a few sentences. The design proposal presented was a website where the user can see different looks on the female genitalia, read and answer questions that young girls have, as well as discuss issues with classmates. / Är jag normal?

The topic of this thesis is usability control of smart homes. The thesis conducted user research for understanding the end-users of smart homes. It is also conducted user testing of today's mobile applications, of smart homes. Gained knowledge from testing are used to create custom user interface prototype mobile application for smart home. Created prototype is conducted user testing.

Esta dissertação trata da importância e influência da usabilidade na procura e decisão de compra de livros em livrarias online. A pesquisa baseia-se em estudos e teorias de pesquisadores renomados internacionalmente no assunto (Preece, Nielsen, Maurer, Haubl e outros), bem como resultados coletados através de enquetes e testes de usabilidade com direcionamento no design centrado no usuário. Os testes descritos e utilizados na dissertação resumem-se em questionário online e entrevista aberta com usuários, Think-aloud Protocol, direcionado ao comércio eletrônico e procura de livros de nicho, Matriz de Prioridade, Observação Fluxo-Tarefa nas livrarias físicas e Avaliação Heurística com especialistas em usabilidade. Resultados observados de cada etapa determinaram direcionamento de testes sequenciais e possibilitou comparativo entre ramificação física e online do negócio livreiro com teorias de marketing, rituais de compra, ambientação e flaneurismo. Recomendação automática de livros e possibilidade de manusear digitalmente como elementos para ampliar a possibilidade de compra são assuntos complementares também discutidos e testados na dissertação que se mostram com relevância para usabilidade e expectativas do usuário.

Food waste is considered to be a big problem worldwide. Different research projects have been done within this area in order to find ways that can help reduce this problem. This thesis addresses the problem of food waste in the supermarkets of Kosovo, by identifying the amounts of food waste in 3 supermarkets of this region. In addition, it explores the possibility of connection between supermarkets and charity organizations by using a developed prototype that corresponds to the field of web technologies. The prototype is implemented based on the feedback of supermarket workers. Interviews with open-ended questions were realized with supermarket workers and charity organization workers in order to identify the best medium that can be used to connect them. The prototype is realized using Wordpress, and evaluated first using the SUS questionnaire. Furthermore, it is also evaluated by performing usability test with supermarket and charity organization workers. The participants were asked to perform different tasks during the evaluation. The study shows that the use of the developed prototype reduces the amount of food waste in supermarkets. Furthermore, it successfully connects charity organizations with supermarkets. In addition, it provides a new way of controlling expiry dates of items resulting in reduction of waste inside supermarkets.

Esta dissertação trata da importância e influência da usabilidade na procura e decisão de compra de livros em livrarias online. A pesquisa baseia-se em estudos e teorias de pesquisadores renomados internacionalmente no assunto (Preece, Nielsen, Maurer, Haubl e outros), bem como resultados coletados através de enquetes e testes de usabilidade com direcionamento no design centrado no usuário. Os testes descritos e utilizados na dissertação resumem-se em questionário online e entrevista aberta com usuários, Think-aloud Protocol, direcionado ao comércio eletrônico e procura de livros de nicho, Matriz de Prioridade, Observação Fluxo-Tarefa nas livrarias físicas e Avaliação Heurística com especialistas em usabilidade. Resultados observados de cada etapa determinaram direcionamento de testes sequenciais e possibilitou comparativo entre ramificação física e online do negócio livreiro com teorias de marketing, rituais de compra, ambientação e flaneurismo. Recomendação automática de livros e possibilidade de manusear digitalmente como elementos para ampliar a possibilidade de compra são assuntos complementares também discutidos e testados na dissertação que se mostram com relevância para usabilidade e expectativas do usuário.

Medius is a software company which provides IT-solutions that streamlines and automates business processes. The purpose with this thesis was to investigate the possibility to integrate usability evaluation in the development process of Medius software MediusFlow. How such integration would be done, and which usability evaluation methods could be used. To be able to provide a suggestion, a prestudy was conducted, this in order to get a good overview of Medius as a company as well as the development process of MediusFlow. With the prestudy as a basis, the main study was conducted, and four different usability evaluation methods were chosen. In this study, the four chosen methods were Cognitive Walkthrough, Coaching Method, Consistency Inspection and Question-Asking protocol. These usability evaluation methods were carried out, evaluated and analyzed.  Based on the studies and the literature, a suggestion regarding integration of usability evaluations was made.  The result from this case study was presented as a process chart, where the different phases in Medius software development process are matched together with suiting usability evaluation methods. The relevant phases and their suggested methods: Preparation phase - Cognitive Walkthrough and Coaching Method in combination with Thinking-Aloud and Interviews Hardening phase - Coaching Method in combination with Thinking-Aloud and Interviews, as well as Consistency Inspection Maintenance - Field observation This result is a part of the overall work towards a more user-centered design of the software.