This study examines how a user-centered approach can influence product design to reduce physical discomfort when using in-ear true wireless. The given study is a collaboration with the consumer electronics company Zound Industries. The purpose has been to understand the origins of why physical discomfort can arise when using in-ear true wireless headphones and to what extent the user behaviour plays in it all. Previous studies have shown how physical discomfort in the form of eczema, itching and soreness has been caused by the use of in-ear true wireless. Based on user-centered methods such as expert interviews, cultural probes, user interviews, focus groups, this study has been able to identify not only how, but why physical discomfort can occur when using in-ear true wireless. Furthermore, the study has also been able to identify behavioural patterns among users that reveal how headphones are used for purposes other than what they are intended for. It has been possible to show how users use their headphones like an earplug without music to block out sound in order to be able focus or to communicate they don’t want to be disturbed to avoid social interactions. The conducted knowledge and insights provide a better understanding of how design can be used to enhance the experience of using in-ear true wireless headphones. Applying design strategies within design for behavioural change, an adjustable headphone has been developed that allows the user to use the headphone according to the needs of the user. The study provides a basis for how design can be better utilised in future in-ear true wireless headphones.

Att gå på en gynekologisk cellprovtagning är något flera kvinnor tycker är obekvämt. Det upplevs som ett oroligt och obehagligt möte. Studien undersöker därför följande frågeställning; Hur kan produktdesign stötta en stressad/oroad patient i ett väntrum inför en cellprovtagning? Syftet för studien är att förbättra kvinnors väntrums-upplevelser inom kvinnlig vård samt undersöka hur designmetoder och produktdesign kan bidra till framtagandet av en produkt som lindrar användarens stress och orosnivåer i väntrummet inför cellprovtagning. Studien förhåller sig till ett användarcentrerat förhållningssätt som riktar sig till att designa för användaren. Även co-design tillämpas där användaren och designern samarbetar under delar av designprocessen. Denna studies användare är kvinnor i åldern 23–30 år som gör sina första cellprovsbesök.  För att undersöka studiens frågeställning samlades kvalitativ information genom en expertintervju, intervjuer med användaren och workshops med användaren. Dessa metoder analyserades och resulterade i önskemål på fysiska attribut i produkten. Delar av önskemålen togs med i beslut senare i designprocessen. Användarnas problem definierades i metoden Problem Definition. De problem som användarna angav i Problem Definition var att komforten i väntrummet är bristande, väntetiden är oviss samt rastlöshet i väntrummet. Metoden Problem Definition blir studiens grundställning i designprocessen där beslut tas utifrån att lösa de nyssnämnda problemen. Designprocessen bestod främst utav brainstorming, brainwriting och två delar av skissande och prototypande där slutkonceptet framställdes. Studiens frågeställning besvaras genom framtagandet av en interaktiv stol. Stolen syftar till att höja komforten i väntrummet samt uppmuntra till interaktion med användaren och därmed bidra till minskad stress och oro. Interaktionen sker genom att användaren gungar eller vaggar upp och ner när den sitter ner och lutar sig bakåt i möbeln. Slutsatsen är att produktdesign kan stötta en stressad och oroad patient genom att göra denne bekväm, skapa komfort och distrahera från väntetiden i väntrummet. Slutprodukten kom fram till det ovan beskrivna, men fortsatta användartester, funktionstester etc krävs för att framta en stol fullt fungerande för sitt syfte. / Going for a gynecological pap smear is something many women find uncomfortable. It is experienced as an uneasy and unpleasant meeting. The study therefore examines the following question; How can product design support a stressed/anxious patient in a waiting room before a Pap test? The purpose of the study is to improve women’s waiting room experiences in women’s health care and to investigate how design methods and product design can contribute to the development of a product that relieves the user’s stress and anxiety levels in the waiting room before a Pap test. The study relates to a user-centered approach, which focuses on the user’s needs in the design process. Co-design is also applied where the user and the designer collaborate during parts of the design process. The users of this study are women aged 23–30, i.e., women who are attending their first pap smear test appointment. In order to investigate the study's question, qualitative information was gathered through an expert interview, interviews with the user and workshops with the user. These methods were analyzed and resulted in requests for physical attributes in the product. Parts of the requests were included in decisions later in the design process. The users’ problems were defined in the method Problem Definition. The problems that the users indicated during this method were; a lack of comfort in the waiting rooms, unclear waiting times, and restlessness in the waiting room. The Problem Definition method becomes the basis of the study in the design process where decisions are made based on solving the problems just mentioned. The design process mainly consisted of brainstorming, brainwriting and two parts of sketching and prototyping where the final concept was produced. The study’s question is answered through an interactive piece of furniture. The chair aims to increase comfort in the waiting room and encourage interaction with the user, thus reducing stress and anxiety. The interaction takes place by the user rocking the chair up and down while sitting down and leaning back in the chair.  The conclusion is that product design can support a stressed and anxious patient by making them comfortable, creating comfort and distracting from the waiting time in the waiting room. The final product resulted in what was described above, but further user tests, functional tests, etc. are required to produce a chair fully functional for its purpose.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) nowadays is constantly evolving and drastically impacting different fields of human activity, such as higher education. University education, due to ICT, was able to move from the traditional teaching and learning practices to e-Learning. That is, delivering education to the learner regardless of place and time via leveraging technology, such as computer-mediated platforms, based on synchronous video conferencing. The next generation of computer-mediated communication tools is ready to facilitate synchronous holographic communication among users. However, such tools have not been designed specifically for the field of university education and have not been taken into consideration the design requirements and needs of users to be successfully integrated to the e-Learning model.     Hence, this master’s thesis study explores the perceptions of higher education teachers and students about the potential use of holographic ICT tools in the context of e-Learning, as well as their desired characteristics in regard to the design of such tools. For this, an interpretive qualitative ethnographic research was conducted. Data was collected through passive observations and focus group discussions with purposively selected university teachers and students, and by leveraging the method of Thinking Aloud. The collected data was subjected to thematic analysis to conclude to seven themes, which represent the findings of this study. These research findings were discussed in relation to the research aim, research questions and the theoretical framework including the approach of User-Centered Design.     The research findings showed that university teachers and students acknowledge the potential of the holographic ICT tools and have an interest to try them out in the context of e-Learning activities. The potential use of holographic ICT tools was described as improving the quality of communication between teachers and students when on distance; delivering education globally and making it more accessible; lifting the current technological limitations and enriching the e-Learning practices. Some concerns, though, in regard to the use of such tools were expressed in terms of complexity and disturbances. The research findings also showed the university teachers’ and students’ desired characteristics in regard to the design of such tools, which include interoperability with the other systems used in e-Learning activities; high quality of human and non-human holographic representations; and indicators in holographs of the participants’ status, along with additional interactive features. In addition, the university teachers and students suggested the holographic ICT tools to be designed as a pair of comfortable augmented reality (AR) glasses, which can be easy to control and can be connected to personal devices. Finally, it was suggested to include main tools of teaching and learning activities -such as whiteboard, screensharing, slides presentation-; and multiple modes that can be used depending on the users’ teaching and learning needs.  Thus, the research outcome contributes theoretically to the research field of informatics by providing insights and new knowledge about the potential use of novel holographic ICT tools for e-Learning. The research outcome also contributes practically to designers, developers, technology companies, and other interested stakeholders as it shortens the knowledge gap regarding the design principles of holographic ICT tools and their use cases within the context of education, and provides suggestions regarding their design from a user-centered approach.

This paper deals with the difficulties of applying user-centered design practices as an independent developer, based on the visualization of a game concept in the form of a prototype. The aim is to evaluate the usability of user-centered design practices, specifically in the field of games development. Throughout this paper, I will give an account of the methods used for testing, as well as a review of previous research done in this field of study. Finally, I will end with a discussion regarding the pros and cons of user-centered design, as well as some thoughts about its importance in similar projects.

Det har länge dividerats om hur den teknologiska utvecklingen påverkar oss. Marshall McLuhan och Alvin Toffler ifrågasatte vårt beteende och berättade om hur teknikens utveckling kommer att påverka oss redan på 1960-talet. Det har också myntats uttryck som information overload och infobesity som uttrycker den stress människor upplever när de inte längre kan bearbeta den information de konstant tar del av. Sociala medier är en stor bidragande faktor till det rådande tillståndet av information overload. Det råder inte heller några tvivel om att vår användning av sociala medier mer eller mindre påverkar våra medvetna beslut och vår kommunikation.Information overload är inget nytt begrepp, och i dagens informationssamhälle är det inte bara massmedia som står för den informationsspridning som sköljer över befolkningen utan de är själva delaktiga i att skapa den enorma mängd information och kommunikation de tar del av varje dag. Medierad kommunikation är under ständig utveckling och tar en stor plats i vårt vardagsliv. Det är inte enbart den klassiska masskommunikationen som fångar användarnas uppmärksamhet utan det är möjligheten att själva vara med och bidra till kommunikation och information som är intressant för användaren.Det är av vår uppfattning att de moderna kommunikationsverktygen påverkar vårt varande, både i den digitala och den verkliga världen, och det är denna påverkan som är i fokus för denna studie. / Today’s interactive media invites users to take part in a massive exchange of information and the idea and desire to filter information has always been in question. This thesis will discuss the problems with information overload and the effects it has on users of social media. With critical design as a point of view we aim to point out some of these effects in an attempt to create a debate within the interaction design community. The first chapter will discuss the theories underlying mediated communication, information overload, user centered design and critical design. The following chapters will discuss methodology and implementation of these methods. Bodystorming and user studies will function as our main methods to map out the behavioural changes that come from information overload. The result of our user studies indicates that the communication often becomes impersonal and that the activity itself becomes more important than the content of the message. Our final results will not present a solution to the problem area but will give an example on how to focus design work to avoid creating unpleasant user experiences of social and interactive media.

This thesis project identifies an issue of limited interaction options with cell phones and considers it to be a design opening and opportunity, rather than a problem. The design opportunity presented in this work is for shaping of future cell phone interactions by allowing users to design their own cell phones. To explore this provocative yet complex design opportunity a programmatic design research approach is used. The design program in this thesis is referred to as the ‘Design-It-Together cell phone’, or the DIT cell phone, design program and can be described as a design research effort into how users working together to design and make their own cell phones could offer a new set of perspectives and possibilities in shaping future interaction options with cell phones in contrast to an industry lead cell phone design and development process. Furthermore, the motivation for this thesis is not problem-based but rather exploratory, where the intention is not to build an ideal phone but rather to explore the opportunities and challenges faced by the design program, and what that can mean for shaping the future of cell phone interactions. A comprehensive exploration of this design space was done in nine main explorations or nine main experiments. Each experiment was formulated to challenge a perspective of the design program. The results of the explorations generated a repertoire of examples relating to understanding the current situations and predictions for future possibilities for cell phone interactions. Interpretation of the design program was done by analyzing this repertoire of examples from the perspective of n nine specified dimensions of the design program. The dimensions acted as a guide in thinking about possible futures of cell phone interactions within the design space of the program. Interpretation of the design program in this way allowed for comprehensive scenarios to be created of what the future of cell phone interactions could be like, as well as gaps and bigger picture impacts of the design program. The overall results and contribution of this work adhered to what is expected from a programmatic design research approach and is stated here as knowledge generated from explorations and interpretation of the DIT cell phone design program, based on the generated repertoire of examples, which helps shape possible futures for cell phone interactions.

The societal problem of pediatric obesity is growing in Sweden with more patients receiving pediatric treatment while the treatment measures have not improved to match the increase. This exploratory study examines a mobile application aiming to improve treatment for pediatric obesity. The study will evaluate the current application through the lens of HCI with a focus on self-care and will be based on digital behavior change intervention (DBCI), persuasive systems, and playful user-centered design (UCD), with design recommendations stated based on the evaluation. User-centered design is a design process involving end-users in the design process, the users were involved through semi-structured interviews. User-centered design is a large part of the study with user input laying the foundation for new design recommendations. Users thought that the application would benefit from having more short-term goals to boost motivation. Furthermore, a heuristic analysis was done to get an expert view on the user interface. The results were promising and indicated some potential improvements for the application, one suggested improvement was to provide more positive feedback to boost motivation. The thesis discusses how more visualization of data might have the potential to both boost motivation and result in a more playful user experience. / Samhällsproblemet med barnfetma växer i Sverige med fler patienter som får pediatrisk behandling samtidigt som behandlings åtgärderna inte har förbättrats för att matcha ökningen. Denna explorativa studie undersöker en mobilapplikation som syftar till att förbättra behandlingen av barnfetma. Studien utvärderar den aktuella applikationen och är baserad på digital beteendeförändringsintervention (DBCI), persuasive systems och lekfull användarcentrerad design (UCD), med designrekommendationer angivna baserat på utvärdering samt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Användarcentrerad design är en stor del av studien med användarinput som lägger grunden för nya design rekommendationer. Intervjuerna lyfte fram att applikationen skulle tjäna på att ha fler kortsiktiga mål för att öka motivationen. Resultaten indikerade potentiella förbättringar för applikationen, exempelvis att ge mer positiv feedback. Slutligen diskuteras hur en mer genomarbetad visualisering av data kan leda dels till ökad motivation och dels till mer lekfull interaktion.

Dieser Beitrag beschreibt informatische Herausforderungen im Kontext eines Digital Humanities-Projekts zur Erschließung und Analyse historischer Wetteraufzeichnungen im Zeitraum 1774 - 1827. Bei der Erschließung der handschriftlichen Aufzeichnungen, die Besonderheiten wie numerische Messwerte in Tabellenstruktur und überlagernde Notizen enthalten, soll langfristig ein entsprechend trainierter OCR-Ansatz (optical character recognition) zum Einsatz kommen. Für die Erstellung entsprechender Trainingsdaten sowie für die manuelle Korrektur der automatisch erkannten Daten ergeben sich zunächst softwareergonomische Herausforderungen aus Perspektive der Medieninformatik. Der Fokus dieses Beitrags liegt daher auf der Erstellung von Tools unter Berücksichtigung von Prinzipien des usability engineering und des user-centered design (UCD) für geisteswissenschaftliche Forschungsvorhaben.

Der zunehmenden Verwendung computergestützter Methoden in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung im Sinne der „Digital Humanities“ steht häufig eine vernachlässigte Usability der digitalen Tools gegenüber. So trägt der mangelnde Einsatz etablierter Praktiken des Usability Engineering entscheidend dazu bei, dass Erst- und Gelegenheitsnutzer_Innen davon abgehalten werden, digitale Ressourcen und komplexe Softwarewerkzeuge in der eigenen Forschung zu nutzen. Dies bestätigen die in diesem Beitrag präsentierten Ergebnisse einer Usability- Studie, die exemplarisch anhand der weitverbreiteten OCR-Software Transkribus durchgeführt wurde. Die Evaluationsergebnisse offenbaren teils erhebliche Usability-Probleme der Software, die durch einen nutzerzentrierten Entwicklungsprozess verhindert werden hätten können. Die Studie zeigt, dass iterative Usability-Tests ein unverzichtbares Werkzeug darstellen, um ein Tool mit hoher Benutzerfreundlichkeit zu erstellen und dessen Verwendung damit auch einer breiten Nutzerschaft aus geistes- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Domänen zu ermöglichen.

Designing for sustainability is a complex process that requires to reduce the perceived risk of designing out of the traditional method, to prioritize the end-users' needs and preferences in the design, while considering the product-service dual-nature of infrastructure systems. To address such complexities, this research looks into prototyping from design thinking. Prototyping is a feedback mechanism that enriches the design process by emphasizing user experience and removing designers' fear of failure. This critical step is often absent during the design of physical infrastructure (e.g., transportation systems, water systems), in part, because of the size and complexity of these socio-technical systems. This research aims to understand how civil engineers can adopt prototyping design for large-scale and complex urban infrastructure systems and how prototyping influence design cognition among infrastructure stakeholder groups. To measure the effect of physical prototypes on users and designers, the researchers conducted nineteen interviews with community members, engineers, planners, and city officials in two prototyped projects: a road network in Macon, Georgia and a re-designed city block in Akron, Ohio. The researchers coded the interviews for evidence of how prototyping enhanced citizen engagement and how the design team was willing to adopt unconventional designs after prototyping. Improved understanding of prototyping as a design methodology for infrastructure can lead to more user-centered and innovative solutions. This research provides tools to manage design decisions in engineering and urban planning better, and new approaches for urban infrastructure problem-solving. Future research can compare how this process may inform design if immersive virtual experiences are used to prototype. / Doctor of Philosophy / Designing sustainable infrastructure is a complex process that requires designers and engineers to ‘think out of the box’ and to increase the considerations of the users’ needs and preferences in the design. The inclusion of users’ needs and preferences in the design is challenging because designers restrict themselves to come up with non-traditional ideas due to the high risks that are in play when developing infrastructure. This research looks into adapting the prototyping process of design thinking into the planning, design, and construction of infrastructure systems because of its user-centered and innovate design characteristics. Particularly, this research studied the cases of an urban transit design in Macon, Georgia and an urban revitalization design in North Hill, Akron, Ohio. Overall, the researchers conducted nineteen interviews among the design team members, project promoters, city officials, and users such as neighborhood residents, property and business owners, and community advocating groups. The interviews questioned how prototyping enhanced citizen engagement and how designers were willing to adopt unconventional designs after prototyping. This study aims to contribute to the development of more user-centered and innovative solutions in the design of infrastructure. Engineering and urban planning problem-solving practices can use the decision-making tools this study provides. Future studies can use the fast-growing technology of virtual and augmented reality to enrich the prototyping process to deliver more sustainable infrastructure systems.