This thesis aims to elaborate the concept of responsibilty in design towards user in a critical manner. It investigates the perspectives of the professional design organizations through their design definitions and ethical guidelines, and analyzes the approaches to the issue of responsibility towards user in the design literature. The study sekks to understand the concept of user -the subject and object of design- through the concept of &quot / other&quot / borrowed from philosophy, and offers a different conceptualization of responsibility towards user together with its ethical implications.

User Experience (UX) design is the process of creating products that adequately meet users’ needs and result in user satisfaction. In the context of software development, the application of UX design practices has been linked to increased profitability in organisations. Despite the financial benefit organisations stand to gain by adopting UX design practices, previous studies have revealed a low rate of adoption. One key source of resistance to the adoption UX design practices is the perception that adding new steps to an organisation’s software development process would prolong delivery timelines unnecessarily. Such resistance is compounded by the fact that a high proportion of software development projects already exceed their planned durations. The question therefore arises on how the UX design process can be optimised so that it has the least amount of impact on the speed of delivering software. It is this very question that this study answers. In this study, the UX design processes from four case study organisations and six prominent international UX design approaches were reviewed and analysed. From these analyses, commonalities and optimisation opportunities were identified for each process, then synthesised into a proposed framework. This study’s contribution to the Human-Computer Interaction body of knowledge is the proposed Graduated UX Design Adoption (gUXa) framework. The Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT) was used to explain the ability of the gUXa framework to reduce the barrier to UX process adoption due to its potential to optimise the design process for timeous systems development. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Informatics / MCom / Unrestricted

Companies are increasingly drawing on their user communities to generate promising ideas for new products, which are then marketed as "user-designed" products to the broader consumer market. We demonstrate that nonparticipating, observing consumers prefer to buy from user-rather than designer-driven firms because of an enhanced identification with the firm that has adopted this user-driven philosophy. Three experimental studies validate a newly proposed social identification account underlying this effect. Because consumers are also users, their social identities connect to the user-designers, and they feel empowerment by vicariously being involved in the design process. This formed connection leads to preference for the firm's products. Importantly, this social identification account also effectively predicts when the effect does not materialize. First, we find that if consumers feel dissimilar to participating users, the effects are attenuated. We demonstrate that this happens when the community differs from consumers along important demographics (i.e., gender) or when consumers are nonexperts in the focal domain (i.e., they feel that they do not belong to the social group of participating users). Second, the effects are attenuated if the user-driven firm is only selectively rather than fully open to participation from all users (observing consumers do not feel socially included). These findings advance the emerging theory on user involvement and offer practical implications for firms interested in pursuing a user-driven philosophy. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1999. (authors' abstract)

We test our hypotheses on 186 participants designing their own scarves with an MC toolkit. After completing the process, they submitted binding bids for "their" products in Vickrey auctions. We therefore observe real buying behavior, not merely stated intentions. We find that the subjective value of a self-designed product (i.e., one's bid in the course of the auction) is indeed not only impacted by the preference fit the customer expects it to deliver, but also by (1) the process enjoyment the customer reports, (2) the interaction of preference fit and process enjoyment, and (3) the interaction of preference fit and perceived process effort. In addition to its main effect, we interpret preference fit as a moderator of the valuegenerating effect of process evaluation: In cases where the outcome of the process is perceived as positive (high preference fit), the customer also interprets process effort as a positive accomplishment, and this positive affect adds (further) value to the product. It appears that the perception of the self-design process as a good or bad experience is partly constructed on the basis of the outcome of the process. In the opposite case (low preference fit), effort creates a negative affect which further reduces the subjective value of the product. Likewise, process enjoyment is amplified by preference fit, although enjoyment also has a significant main effect, which means that regardless of the outcome, customers attribute higher value to a self-designed product if they enjoy the process. The importance of the self-design process found in this study bears clear relevance for companies which offer or plan to offer MC systems. It is not sufficient to design MC toolkits in such a way that they allow customers to design products according to their preferences. The affect caused by this process is also highly important. Toolkits should therefore stimulate positive affective reactions and at the same time keep negative affect to a minimum. (authors' abstract)

A lot of people like gambling. Even though it brings excitement, it has its dark sides as well. Problem gambling is a disease that destroys lives every day. As gambling are entering the digital domain, phenomenon such as E-sport has made it easier than ever to gamble. Therefore it is important to minimize the risk of gambling addiction among the users. At present time, as an attempt to make this possible, legislators have started to implement different rules on how companies need to deal with responsible gambling. A trend, that has become a problem, is that gamblers tend to not read warning messages that they get when they have been playing for a long period of time. This thesis is about producing recommendations for how to design these modal windows so that users actually take the time to read the information they receive. The methods used in this thesis are connected to the 6 phases of the design thinking process produced by Nielsen Norman Group and they were literature studies, interviews, prototyping and user testing. It was found that people with a previous gambling addiction wanted to see information about how much money they had spent in total on their account. That could also show more clearly how serious one's playing habits are. One cannot stop everyone from developing a gambling addiction, but one can give everyone a chance to become healthy.

De nouveaux produits et services jouissent aujourd'hui d'un succès surprenant, alors qu'ils ne s'intègrent pas dans les canons traditionnels de l'innovation. Sans proposer de ruptures technologiques ni d'usages clairement identifiés, ces biens suscitent toutefois une large exploration d'usages nouveaux et inconnus, à l'image du service web Twitter ou du téléphone iPhone qui viennent bouleverser les pratiques quotidiennes de leurs usagers dans de nombreux domaines, y compris professionnels.La littérature apporte des réponses partielles aux enjeux soulevés par cette classe de biens, mais semble limitée par une vision des biens comme systèmes de découplages de la conception d'usages : celle-ci aurait lieu au sein de la firme par des approches de type analyse d'usage ou bien auprès d'usagers-concepteurs très compétents.Nous proposons ici une théorie qui veut intégrer ces différents apports tout en soulevant les hypothèses que nous jugeons trop restrictives sur les usagers, les biens et leurs rapports à la conception d'usage. Ce projet nous amène à rediscuter la notion de biens pour les considérer comme des espaces de conception d'usages, à destination d'acteurs à la fois usagers et concepteurs.Ce nouveau paradigme suppose en revanche de réinterroger le rôle de la firme dans l'organisation de cette action collective de conception d'usages. La confrontation de notre modèle théorique à trois études de cas révèle que les succès que l'on connait aujourd'hui reposent sur une organisation sophistiquée des relations entre la firme et ses usagers concepteurs, ainsi qu'une ingénierie spécifique de dispositifs de conception, de formation et de coordination. / De nouveaux produits et services jouissent aujourd'hui d'un succès surprenant, alors qu'ils ne s'intègrent pas dans les canons traditionnels de l'innovation. Sans proposer de ruptures technologiques ni d'usages clairement identifiés, ces biens suscitent toutefois une large exploration d'usages nouveaux et inconnus, à l'image du service web Twitter ou du téléphone iPhone qui viennent bouleverser les pratiques quotidiennes de leurs usagers dans de nombreux domaines, y compris professionnels.La littérature apporte des réponses partielles aux enjeux soulevés par cette classe de biens, mais semble limitée par une vision des biens comme systèmes de découplages de la conception d'usages : celle-ci aurait lieu au sein de la firme par des approches de type analyse d'usage ou bien auprès d'usagers-concepteurs très compétents.Nous proposons ici une théorie qui veut intégrer ces différents apports tout en soulevant les hypothèses que nous jugeons trop restrictives sur les usagers, les biens et leurs rapports à la conception d'usage. Ce projet nous amène à rediscuter de la notion de biens pour les considérer comme des espaces de conception d'usages, à destination d'acteurs à la fois usagers et concepteurs.Ce nouveau paradigme suppose en revanche de réinterroger le rôle de la firme dans l'organisation de cette action collective de conception d'usages. La confrontation de notre modèle théorique à trois études de cas révèle que les succès que l'on connait aujourd'hui reposent sur une organisation sophistiquée des relations entre la firme et ses usagers concepteurs, ainsi qu'une ingénierie spécifique de dispositifs de conception, de formation et de coordination.

Information and the way of perceiving it are important for people, especially people with lower cognitive capabilities. According to previous studies, animation has the power of communicating and delivering the required message to different cognitive levels in simple and realistic methods. This qualitative study investigates the animation's role in alleviating information overload for people with lower cognitive skills, and explores the possibilities of using the animation as an alternative tool to the current methods of overload such as pictures and text. Data was collected through conducting interviews with caretakers, testing a prototype, and the second round of interviews. The findings indicated that animation in this field was positive and could surely be used as a future tool for providing information in their context. However, some considerations should be taken into account regarding how animation should be tailored to the users, such as the cognitive level differences and customizing the animation for instance.

Online marketplaces exist in many different industries and are a part of daily life for a vast number of people, taking up their time and energy, and affecting their mood. The real estate market has an abundance of marketplaces and each of these have a significant number of users. Amongst these the primary user is most often a potential buyer or seller, but there are also users who use these marketplaces in unexpected and unplanned-for ways. How then should real estate marketplaces consider and design for these non-conventional users in order to generate value for both the users and the business? The goal was to help designers, developers and commercial professionals better understand howtheir platforms are being used, and what can be done to align the business goals of the marketplaces with the user experiences of non-conventional users. The problem was tackled mainly by the use of semi-structured interviews with users and employees of the Swedish real estate platform Hemnet. The main result was in the form of seven recommendations; with the most important being the importance of having a definition of non-conventional users, to make sure they are included in strategy work and that employees have an understanding of this type of behaviour. This project opens up for further research on non-conventional users of marketplaces and indicates a value for academia and industry. Based on these results, marketplaces can now understand non-conventional users as important contributors in meeting business goals. This project was also a concrete case showing how the concept of the user and use is a complex issue and that simply dividing users into groups is not always the answer. / Onlinemarknader finns inom många områden och fastighetsmarknaden har ett stort antal sådana. Den primära användaren för fastighetsportaler är oftast en potentiel säljare eller köpare, men det finns också användare som är varken eller och ibland använder dessa marknadsplatser på oväntade och nya sätt. Hur ska fastighetsportaler ta hänsyn till och designa för icke-konventionella användare för att generera värde för både användare och företaget? Detta är vad denna rapport undersöker. Målet var att hjälpa både designers, utvecklare och kommerciella ledare att bättre förstå hur deras plattformar används och vad som kan göras för att matcha affärsmålen de har med användarupplevelsen för icke-konventionella användare. Problemet utforskades främst genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med användare och anställda hos den svenska fastighetsplattformen Hemnet. Huvudresultatet var sju rekommendationer, där den viktigaste var vikten av att ha en definition av denna form av beteende, för att på så sätt säkerställa att dessa användare inkluderas i strategiarbetet. Detta projekt öppnar upp för vidare, mer djupgående, arbete inom detta område och visar att det finns värde för både den akademiska sidan och industrin i att fokusera på denna användargrupp. Baserat på resultaten från detta arbete kan marknadsplatser nu förstå att icke-konventionella användare är inte bara paranteser vid sidan av när man ska försöka uppnå affärsmål, utan kan vara viktiga bidragsfaktorer. Detta projekt har också visat i ett konkret case att konceptet användare och användning är en komplex fråga, och att bara dela upp användare i olika, separata, grupper är inte alltid svaret.

Missile Combat Crew members are officers in the United States Air Force responsible for operating nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. They undergo on-the-job training as part of the curriculum necessary to progress in their careers and achieve higher levels of job responsibility. The curriculum they use is created and maintained by 20th Air Force Test and Training Section. This product is known as the Missile Combat Crew Commander Upgrade program, and it has received criticisms from stakeholders who use it for being out of date and failing to capture the necessary topics for ensuring adequate on the job training is being conducted. This project seeks to examine these critiques, break down the curriculum produced by 20th AF into stages (creation, implementation, and feedback) for evaluation, uses principles of user-oriented design drawing on design anthropology to suggest alternative methods for curriculum creation, and utilizes the results of a diagnostic survey to provide data-driven recommendations to 20th AF for future rewrites of their product based on feedback from the crew members who use their product in the field.