Systematically involving users in product development is considered as a successful strategy and makes companies more competitive. User involvement in various organizational settings, activities or situations can clearly contribute to product development. In order to understand how, dimensions of user involvement and interdependencies between them are in this report identified and investigated. The result shows that the four dimensions of When, Who, Where and How are the most important to consider when involving users. These can each be broken down into a number of aspects that should be used when assessing and comparing sources of user knowledge. With the framework presented in the report, sources of user knowledge can be linked to one or more user involvement situations, meaning when and how to utilize it. The other way around, if a development process enters a certain phase, these aspects could be used to state what requirements there are regarding the users and the context. A source that is to be utilized must hence fulfill these requirements if the user involvement should be appropriate and effective. Additionally, the empirical study showed that apart from the theoretical aspects above, there could be several more aspects to consider when involving users. These are company-specific and should be identified for each company that wants to implicate user involvement. This study shows that there are clearly interdependencies between the dimensions of user involvement. These interdependencies make many types of user knowledge sources suitable only for the Strategy and idea generation phase, and it’s evidently difficult to identify, locate and utilize sources that fulfill the requirements of user involvement in the later phases of a product development process. The empirics showed that the interdependencies between the aspects of user involvement are neglected in many cases, resulting in user knowledge sources being utilized in a phase where they’re not appropriate to be utilized. To overcome this, many different sources are required in order to achieve proper user involvement, and combinations of various sources should be involved to “cover” the whole development process. The models presented and implemented in this study could be utilized in order to pinpoint aspects of existing sources of user knowledge. It could also be employed in order to investigate requirements on a source of user knowledge in relation to a current development phase of a project. This way, companies could specify which type of sources that are missing in their product development process and in a more efficient way work towards filling those gaps.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A. and McKnight, C. (1990) Towards a classification of text types: a repertory grid approach. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 33, 623-636. Abstract: The advent of hypertext brings with it associated problems of how best to present non-linear texts. As yet, knowledge of readers' models of texts and their uses is limited. Repertory grid analysis offers an insightful method of examining these issues and gaining an understanding of the type of texts that exist in the readers' worlds. The present study investigates six researchers' perceptions of texts in terms of their use, content and structure. Results indicate that individuals construe texts in terms of three broad attributes: why read them, what type of information they contain, and how they are read. When applied to a variety of texts these attributes facilitate a classificatory system incorporating both individual and task differences and provide guidance on how their electronic versions could be designed.

This paper reviews the literature on reading continuous text from VDUs. The focus is on the reported nature, and potential causes, of reading differences between paper and screens. The first section outlines the scope of the present review. Section 2 discusses the nature of the reported differences between reading from either presentation medium. Five broad differences have been identified suggesting that reading from VDUs is slower, less accurate, more fatiguing, decreases comprehension and is rated inferior by readers. Evidence for the existence of each of these differences is reviewed and conclusions are drawn. In Section 3, ten variables which have been proposed as potential causes of reading differences between paper and screen are reviewed. These include screen dynamics, display polarity, orientation, viewing angle and user characteristics. Recent evidence by Gould et al.11 is presented which suggests that the image quality of the screen display is the crucial factor and indicate that positive presentation, high resolution and anti-aliasing interactively affect performance by enhancing the quality of the displayed image. The implications of this work for screen presentation of text are presented.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A., Richardson, J. and McKnight, C. (1990) The effect of display size and paragraph splitting on reading lengthy text from screen. Behaviour and Information Technology, 9(3), 215-227. Abstract: The present paper reports on an experimental investigation of reader performance and preferences with a screen-presented journal article. The effects of display size (20 lines and 60 lines) and sentence splitting on readers' manipulation, comprehension and subjective impressions are assessed. The results indicate that neither variable significantly affects comprehension but adjusted manipulation levels are significantly higher in the small window condition. Splitting sentences across screens also caused readers to return to the previous page to re-read text significantly more. Subjective data reveal a preference for larger screens and high awareness of text format. Implications for future work are discussed.

Editor's note: This is a preprint of the paper "Towards the design of a full text, searchable database: implications from a study of journal usage" published in the British Journal of Academic Librarianship. The preprint title is slightly different. Abstract: The present paper reports on a study of journal usage amongst professional researchers. The aim of the study was to shed light on how journals are used with a view to making recommendations about the development of a full-text, searchable database that would support such usage. The results indicate that levels of usage vary over time, the range of journals covered is small and readers overlook a large proportion of the contents of articles. Furthermore, three reading strategies are observed which indicate that the structure of journal articles is not ideally suited to their uses. The implications of these findings for developing suitable computer-based applications are discussed.

A study of OPAC usability in regard to how user age, computer skills, and education affect searching success.

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The objective of this thesis is to provide guidance for Canadian municipal public administrators concerning the economic and legal criteria in the policy design and implementation of user fees. User fees are levies charged for a particular good or service, as compared to a tax, which is charged generally and not specifically allocated. The focus on municipalities is as a result of the unique revenue limitations faced by municipal governments. The thesis is based on a public administration framework that establishes four stages of public policy analysis: problem definition, design, implementation, and evaluation. With a focus on the design and implementation stages, this thesis clarifies the economic literature and jurisprudence in their respective disciplines and sets out design and implementation stage criteria that integrate both disciplines with a view to improving Canadian municipal user fee design and implementation. / Graduate

<p>Uppkomsten av dagens Web 2.0 har skapat möjligheter till större interaktivitet hos användarna. Denna utveckling har även följts av en möjlighet att skapa användargenererat innehåll, ett fenomen som benämns User Generated Content (UGC). En av de viktigaste aspekterna inom UGC är att det måste uppnå en god användbarhet, men likväl måste tjänsterna också erbjuda en rik subjektiv upplevelse. Denna subjektiva upplevelse benämns som User Experience och är ett uttryck för den upplevelse och tillfredställelse en användare känner då den ställs inför ett interaktivt gränssnitt. Syftet med uppsatsen var att identifiera User Experience av UGC-tjänster. Uppsatsen karaktäriseras av en kvalitativ ansats och grundar sig i en explorativ undersökning med loggböcker och intervjuer, där nio respondenters upplevelser ligger till grund för uppsatsens resultat. Uppsatsen bidrar med en modell över User Experience mål för UGC-tjänster. Modellen bidrar till en ökad förståelse för vad som utgör en god User Experience av en UGC-tjänst och kan på så vis vara vägledande för de som designar dessa typer av tjänster.</p>

Uppkomsten av dagens Web 2.0 har skapat möjligheter till större interaktivitet hos användarna. Denna utveckling har även följts av en möjlighet att skapa användargenererat innehåll, ett fenomen som benämns User Generated Content (UGC). En av de viktigaste aspekterna inom UGC är att det måste uppnå en god användbarhet, men likväl måste tjänsterna också erbjuda en rik subjektiv upplevelse. Denna subjektiva upplevelse benämns som User Experience och är ett uttryck för den upplevelse och tillfredställelse en användare känner då den ställs inför ett interaktivt gränssnitt. Syftet med uppsatsen var att identifiera User Experience av UGC-tjänster. Uppsatsen karaktäriseras av en kvalitativ ansats och grundar sig i en explorativ undersökning med loggböcker och intervjuer, där nio respondenters upplevelser ligger till grund för uppsatsens resultat. Uppsatsen bidrar med en modell över User Experience mål för UGC-tjänster. Modellen bidrar till en ökad förståelse för vad som utgör en god User Experience av en UGC-tjänst och kan på så vis vara vägledande för de som designar dessa typer av tjänster.