User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system success. The goal of this dissertation is to extend the line of inquiry into user participation during information system development by providing information systems researchers and IS practitioners with both a valid theoretical and practical investigation of a successful IS solution. This investigation organizes the study within a descriptive model that emerges from the different traditions of prior research and uncovers the approach to user participation in a successful IS solution. This user participation approach (UPA) model becomes the structure for the systematic arrangement of user participation approaches into a four-fold typology according to criteria or extrinsic information attributed to them in the research literature. A case study analysis and social network analysis of a successful IS solution will be used to describe, map and measure the relationships, activities, processes, and flows between participants, thus providing a descriptive and visual analysis of the relational structure that emerges. Indeed, these methodological approaches conceptualize the attributes and the relations of user participation during information system development and give insightful perspectives on how a successful IS solution is developed and implemented. The resulting outcome is a description of a successful approach to user participation and some practical recommendations on how to increase the chance of success in a system solution.

The purpose of this research is to critically inquire into the appropriateness of the current human computer interaction (HCI) practices in Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) system design given the contextual constraints and challenges found in developing country contexts. Despite user participation in system design being a buzzword of HCI the form of this participation varies with the different disciplinary perspectives and paradigms and their different methods for engaging users and identifying users' needs. Moreover, a majority of these dominant HCI perspectives are not only rooted in the developed countries context they also mainly focus on organisational management information systems (MIS) and less on information systems (IS) that place emphasis on the socio-economic context of developing countries. Literature review reveal that limited studies focus on the differences brought about by the western influenced methodologies and principles when applied in different contexts and how they affect the user participation process as well as the outcome. Building on past research, this research argues that HCI for ICTD needs to develop new contextualised participatory methods and strategies that consider the broader and complex contexts of the ICTD users. However, shifting the focus to localised forms of HCI in ICTD system design requires a better appreciation of the challenges and constraints encountered when applying the traditional HCI methods and strategies. Based on this argument the research conceptually explores and reflects on the underlying contextual factors and mechanisms present in participatory ICTD system design and the presumed relationships among them. Drawing on this conceptual framework, the research conducts semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations with three mobile money system design projects in Kenya that engaged the users during the design process to highlight how current HCI practices respond to the multifaceted nature of ICTD system design which present challenges that include social, technical, cultural and infrastructural issues. Findings from this qualitative study provide significant new insights that support the call for contextualised participatory methods and strategies. The findings suggest that there is tension between the underlying assumptions inherent in western HCI methods and strategies and the local context thus justifying the call for the appropriation of the design process. Drawing on the conceptual framework it was found that bias formed from factors such as power relations, diversity in interests for participation and cross-cultural differences moderate the design process and ultimately the participatory outcome. From the knowledge perspective, this research provides an in-depth understanding of the developing country contextual factors that mediate user participation process in ICTD system design. Furthermore, the research extends the knowledge with regards to participatory interventions in the development of IS in Africa. The research also presents a theoretical framework that makes explicit the contextual assumptions and constraints embedded in participatory ICTD system design interventions and how they shape the design process and the participatory outcome. Finally, the recommendations formulated from this research provide HCI designers and practitioners actionable knowledge in regards to reflecting on their current traditional HCI tools and techniques to ensure better localised design processes.

Usability is a hip word today in our society of Information Technology, but what does it really mean? In this report we want to emphasie key words like usability, design, users and their participation in the design process. This thesis involves a human centered way to think in software developing. We have evaluated the usability in a system. The result from our evaluation and the methods we used are described in this thesis. Our contribution is motivated design suggestions. We hope you will enjoy your reading! / Användbarhet är ett populärt ord i dagens IT-samhälle, men vad innebär det egentligen? I kandidatrapporten vill vi betona begrepp som användbarhet, design, användare och användarnas deltagande i design processen. Kandidatrapporten har ett människo-centrerat synsätt i utveckling av program. Vi har utvärderat användbarheten i ett system. I kandidatrapport finns resultat från vår utvärdering och metoderna vi tillämpat. Vårt bidrag är motiverade designförslag. Vi hoppas ni uppskattar läsningen! / Martina Holmquist Lotsgatan 27B 374 34 KARLSHAMN, 0454-88188 Ann-Marie Pettersson Lurevägen 285-30 374 91 ASARUM, 0454-326176

Trots att användarmedverkan borde vara ”best practice” för att skapa ömsesidigt värde för både beställare och användare inom kravfångst är detta inte fallet. Eftersom Service Design betraktas vara bra för ömsesidigt värdeskapande undersöker rapporten vilka tre Service Designverktyg som kan vara ett alternativ för att fånga krav som speglar ömsesidigt värde. Genom en litteraturstudie visar rapporten att Customer journey maps, personas och shadowing är de tre vanligaste verktygen; av dessa tre anser systemutvecklare att Customer journey maps lämpar sig bäst för kravfångst på grund av förmågan att belysa problem hos både användare och beställare. Detta verktyg tillämpas tillsammans med serviceleverantör och användare i tre workshops och utifrån dessa redogörs egna praktiska erfarenheter och hur dessa upplevdes av deltagande serviceleverantör och användare. Rapporten visar att Customer journey maps är ett bra alternativ för ömsesidigt värdeskapande inom kravfångst och att shadowing och personas fokuserar mer på användaren än beställaren av ett system. / In order to create co-value for both clients and users in requirements elicitation, user participation should be best practice – but research shows that it is not. In this thesis, Service Design is seen as an enabler for co-value creation between clients and users. The thesis examines if the three most common Service Design tools can be an alternative to capture requirements that reflect co-value for both the client and the users. Through a literature review this thesis reveals that customer journey maps, personas and shadowing are the three most common tools and that system developers believes that the Customer journey maps are best suited for requirements elicitation due to the ability to highlight problems of both users and clients. This tool is applied together with the service provider and the user in three workshops and based on these, the thesis outlines practical experiences and how this tool is experienced by participating service provider and user. The report reveals that Customer journey maps is a viable option for co-value creation in requirements elicitation whereas shadowing and personas are more focused on the users of a system than the client of a system.

The term transmedia storytelling describes an interactive narrative that exists in multiple platforms. This phenomenon allows active audience participation as a part of the narrative creation process. Part of the prior research on transmedia focuses on how to create a transmedia narrative. However there is a dearth of literature examining the merit that transmedia narratives create in Marketing. In order to answer the research question “How can transmedia storytelling be used to create value in marketing?” we conducted a multiple case study research in which we examined four marketing campaigns to reveal the transmedia elements in them. Using the approach of qualitative content analysis we applied a structured method according which we collected and ­­analysed the data from these campaigns. Our findings suggest that creating audience participation through transmedia storytelling in marketing campaigns for movies, products and services can be beneficial. By using different media, platforms and stimulating user participation, concepts such as brand extension and brand awareness are introduced to the audience with an alternative way. The aim of this thesis is to illustrate several ways of how transmedia can be a valuable asset to a marketing campaign through storytelling.

Abstract The thesis critically examines discursive construction of ‘organizational culture’ and ‘user involvement’ in academia and in the information technology (IT) artifact product development industry. IT artifacts are perceived as texts that are written by the writer-designers and afterwards read by the reader-users. User involvement explored is indirect; ‘user surrogates’ labeled as usability specialists ‘represent the users’ in the development. Their work is labeled as ‘usability work.’ However, this work has proven to be challenging, especially in the product development context. Culture is an influential factor affecting the successes and failures of organizational change efforts. However, there is a clear lack of culture studies carried out in relation to user involvement, especially in the challenging product development context. Both ‘organizational culture’ and ‘user involvement’ are versatile concepts, and there are controversies in defining them. Therefore, this thesis first analyzes discourses on ‘organizational culture’ and ‘user involvement’ in academia. The thesis examines within what kind of discourses organizational culture has been studied, and suggested discourses within which it could be studied. Five discourses are identified. Furthermore, the thesis analyzes discursive construction of user involvement in academia. First, literature advocating indirect user involvement is reviewed. Afterwards, alternative notions of user involvement are introduced. Three academic discourses on user involvement are identified and contrasted with the discourses on organizational culture to highlight their similarities and to identify unexplored paths for future work. Finally, user involvement and its cultural context are empirically analyzed in IT artifact product development organizations by utilizing a discourse selected based on previous analysis. First, four ‘cultures of usability work’ are identified. Then, two ways usability work has been encultured in two product development organizations are outlined. In addition, five discourses on usability work are identified, and contrasted with the academic discourses on user involvement. Finally, the construction of the notions of ‘we’ and ‘the other’ is explored in the case organizations, concentrating specifically on the discourses of the ‘usability specialists’ and ‘the other.’ Some of the discourses are criticized for ‘silencing the users’ instead of ‘giving them a voice,’ and even representing ‘misuses of user involvement.’

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka personalens perspektiv på brukarinflytandet inom daglig verksamhet enligt LSS. Studien ska utforska och belysa hur personal resonerar kring brukarinflytandet samt kring deras uppfattningar kring eventuella, organisatoriska barriärer och hinder i förhållande till det brukarinflytande som finns. De frågeställningarna som har behandlats har varit vilka tänkbara barriärer kan det finnas enligt personalen för brukarinflytande, hur arbetar personalstyrkan för att förebygga dessa. samt hur uppfattar personalen brukarinflytandet utifrån de organisatoriska förutsättningar som finns i verksamheten. Studien har genomförts utifrån en kvalitativ metod där sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts. Intervjupersonerna representerar sex olika dagliga verksamheter, från tre olika enheter inom en förvaltning i Malmö stad.Resultaten har analyserats genom tidigare forskning samt genom teorin maktteori. Resultatet av undersökningen visar på att intervjupersonerna upplever att det finns ett antal barriärer eller hinder för främjandet av brukarinflytande inom de dagliga verksamheterna samt att2personalen upplever att de har strategier för att förebygga dessa. Intervjupersonerna uppfattar vidare att brukarinflytandet är högt och positivt, utifrån de organisatoriska förutsättningarna som finns i verksamheten. / This study aims to investigate the staff's perspective on user participation in daily activities according to LSS. The study explores and sheds light on how staff reason about user participation, as well as their perceptions of possible organizational barriers and obstacles regarding user participation. The research questions addressed in this study were: What possible barriers do staff see for user participation, how does the staff work to prevent these barriers, and how does staff perceive user participation based on the organizational conditions in the activity. The study was conducted using a qualitative method, where six semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviewees represent six different daily activities, from three different units within one administration in Malmö city. The results were analyzed through previous research and the power theory. The results of the study show that the interviewees perceive that there are a number of barriers or obstacles to promoting user participation in the daily activities, and that the staff have strategies to prevent these barriers. The interviewees also perceive that user participation is high and positive based on the organizational conditions that exist in the activity.

I Sverige styrs välfärdsstaten av politiken. Det är det politiska styret som sätter ramar och regler för de offentliga verksamheterna. De professionellas arbetsuppgifter påverkas av verksamhetens ramar och regler som i sin tur påverkar brukare. Målet med att förskriva ett hjälpmedel är bland annat att möjliggöra för brukare att ha ett självständigt liv, att kunna vara delaktig på lika villkor i samhället som alla andra samt att öka möjligheten till ett aktivit liv för brukaren. Det ställs stora krav teoretiskt sätt på att brukaren ska vara delaktig och ha inflytande under förskrivningsprocessen av hjälpmedel.  Vikten av brukardelaktighet beskrivs vara central i forskning samt under förskrivning av hjälpmedel, samtidigt som en avsaknad av mätmetoder av upplevelsen lyfts fram. Syftet med studien är att undersöka de professionellas arbetssätt och metoder för att främja brukares delaktighet, inflytande och självbestämmande under processen kring hjälpmedelsförskrivning. Brukardelaktighetens komplexitet exemplifieras utifrån de professionellas perspektiv på brukardelaktighet. Arbetet bygger på en kvalitativ studie med utgångspunkt i teorin om gräsrotsbyråkration och Goffmans teori om stigma. Tidigare forskning visar att brukardelaktighet och inflytande påverkas av organisationers utformning samt prioriteringar. Forskning visar även att de professionellas arbete är komplext och präglas av en balansakt i det att de ska både kunna förhålla sig till brukares behov samt säkerställa att man förhåller sig till de ramar och riktlinjer som finns inom organisationen.  Resultatet av undersökningen belyser möjligheter och begränsningar samt understryker behovet av framtida forskning inom området. Främst ur de professionellas perspektiv då det upplevs saknas idag. / In Sweden, the welfare state is governed by politics. It is the political government that sets the framework and rules for public activities. The tasks of professionals are affected by the framwork and rules of operations, which in turn affect users. The goal of prescribing an aid is, among other things, to enable users to have an independent life, to be able to participate on equal terms in society as everyone else and to increase the possibility of an active life for the user. In theory, great demands are made on the user to be involved and have an influence during the prescribing process of an aid.  The importance of user participation is described as central in research and during the prescribing of aids, at the same time is a lack of mesurement method of the experience is highlighted. The purpose of the study is to investigate the professionals´ working methods and methods for promoting user participation, influence and self-determination during the process of prescribing assistive technology. The complexity of user participation is exemplified from the professionals´ perspective on users participation. The work is based on a qualitative study based on the theory of grassroots bureaucracy and Goffman´s theory of stigma. Previous reaserch shows that user participation and influence are affected by the design of organisations and priorities. Reaserch also shows that the work of professionals is complex and characterized by a blancing act in that they must both be able to relate to users´ needs and ensure that they relate to the frameworks and guidelines that exist within the organization.  The results of the survey highlight the opportunities and limitations and underline the need for future research in the field. Mainly from the professionals´ perspective as it is percived to be lacking today.

User involvement is becoming more prevalent in system development as it has been shown to improve user satisfaction, usability, and the overall quality of the finished system. However, users have often been only minimally involved in traditional development methods. This study examines the impact of user involvement on work processes within companies that adopt this approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in a N-study of several companies. The results provide a deeper understanding of how companies can involve users in their projects, and how this affects their work processes, as well as the study shows which methods are currently used for user participation. Additionally, the study discusses both the positive and negative aspects of user involvement. An interesting aspect that emerges in the study is that many companies do not use formal methods or guidelines when involving users in system development. / Användarmedverkan blir allt vanligare inom systemutveckling då det kan förbättra användarnöjdhet, användbarhet och kvaliteten på det färdiga systemet. Trots detta involveras användare ofta endast i begränsad omfattning i traditionella utvecklingsmetoder.  Denna studie undersöker vilken påverkan användarmedverkan har på arbetsprocessen inom företag som tillämpar detta tillvägagångssätt. Flera företag har jämförts i en N-studie, där data samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet ger en djupare förståelse av hur företag kan involvera användare i sina projekt, och hur detta påverkar deras arbetsprocess, samt visar vilka metoder som används vid användarmedverkan idag. I studien diskuteras också de positiva och negativa aspekterna av användarmedverkan. En intressant aspekt som framkommer i studien är att många företag inte använder formella metoder eller riktlinjer när de involverar användare i systemutvecklingen.

Denna studie har undersökt hur lärare involveras i utvecklingen av IT-system som de förväntas använda i sitt arbete samt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar de finner i ämnet. Sveriges regering har satt som mål att bli det ledande landet i världen inom digitalisering i skolan. Detta har haft till följd att kommuner runtom i Sverige köpt in IT-system från Edtech-företag för att nå dessa mål. Följande har lett till starka reaktioner från lärare då dessa IT-system inte medför enbart positiva ting. Studien har utförts utifrån lärarnas perspektiv. För att göra detta arrangerades fem interjuver med lärare i varierande undervisningsnivåer, skolor och kommuner vilka ansågs kunna ge riklig och god information. Resultatet har för avsikt att lyfta fram den nuvarande situationen för involvering av lärare i utvecklingen av IT-system samt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar detta för med sig. Studien förväntas ge värde till lärare, skolor, kommuner och Edtech-företag. Vidare anses den även vara relevant för investerare, entreprenörer och politiker som även dem arbetar för att på ett bättre sätt digitalisera den svenska skolan. Resultatet visar att användarinvolvering i utvecklingen av IT-systemen är undermålig. Det finns dock goda möjligheter att involvera lärare i form av vilja att involveras, även genom att upprätta en stadigare och rakare kommunikation från Edtech-företagen. Vidare visar resultatet på att det finns utmaningar i form av att ett större deltagande från lärare i utvecklingen av IT-systemen kan krävas, eftersom läraryrket är brett och komplext. Slutligen talar även studien för att tid behöver avsättas i syfte att involvera lärare mer, och att kommuner behöver se över sin roll i att göra vägen mellan lärare och utvecklare kortare. / This study has researched how teachers are involved in the development of IT systems they expect to use in their work and what opportunities and challenges they find in the subject. The Swedish government has set a goal to becoming the leading country in the world within digitalization in school. This has resulted in municipalities around Sweden have bought IT-systems from Edtech companies to be able to reach those goals. Which has led to strong reactions from teachers since these IT systems does not always entail positive things. The study has been carried out from the teachers’ perspective. To achieve this, 5 interviews were arranged with 5 teachers in varying level of education, schools and municipalities which were considered to provide rich and good information. The result of the study is intended to highlight the current situation for the involvement of teachers in the development of IT systems and what opportunities and challenges the situation presents. The study is expected to give value to teachers, schools, municipalities and Edtech companies. Furthermore, it is considered relevant to investors, entrepreneurs and politicians who also work to digitize the Swedish school in a better way. The result shows that the involvement of teachers in developing IT systems is poor. But there are good opportunities in involving teachers in the form of willingness to be involved, also opportunities by establish a firmer and more straightforward communication from Edtech companies. The result shows that greater participation in developing the IT systems is needed, since the teacher profession is broad and complex. The study also shows that more time needs to be set aside with purpose to involve the teachers more, and that municipalities needs to look over their role in the situation and make the path between teachers and developers shorter.