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.

The aim of this study is to get a deeper understanding about user tests as well as answer the question about if testing for users is necessary at all times. I've done a comparison between what the literature says, and what a company says, about testing. The tests that's been in focus in this study is prototyping and card sorting tests. Prototyping aims to give the developer feedback about the design and check if there are any obvious problems with the design. A card sorting test can be used to get input about how information architecture should be constructed. Information architecture is how the links are related in a navigation system. The company doesn't think that testing is as important as the literature. The company doesn't usually test but for the current situation they did it since the interface is crucial for their clients business. The conclusion of this study is that testing is rather important. For a designer who hasn’t got that much experience, user testing can be a way to get feedback about his designs. A more experienced designer might not need to test as much but he should be aware of testing as a possible design tool.

The rapid growth of centralised social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has raised concerns about privacy and the concentration of power held by the companies behind these services. In response, decentralised social media platforms have emerged as alternatives, forming federations of various instances without a single owner. However, these decentralised platforms have faced challenges with centralisation, as users tend to gather on larger instances. This paper examines Mastodon, one of the most popular decentralised platforms, to explore whether its onboarding flow and website design can be modified to encourage less centralisation. The study maps Mastodon's onboarding flow and identifies potential modifications to mitigate centralisation. Additionally, a new design for the official website is proposed. User tests involving five participants were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of these changes. The results indicate that modifying the design can influence users to choose smaller servers. One effective modification is randomising the order in which servers are presented, eliminating the advantage of larger servers. Another proposed change is to improve user awareness about how feeds and interactions on Mastodon spans servers, enabling users to interact beyond their own server and removing a motivation for choosing a larger one. But the impact of this information on user behaviour remains inconclusive in the user tests. Overall, this research suggests that through design modifications, Mastodon can encourage users to select smaller servers and foster a more decentralised social media environment. / Den snabba tillväxten av centraliserade sociala medieplattformar som Twitter och Facebook har väckt oro över personlig integritet och koncentrationen av makt hos företagen bakom dessa tjänster. Som svar har decentraliserade sociala medieplattformar dykt upp, där plattformen består av en federation av olika instanser utan en enda ägare. Dessa decentraliserade plattformar har dock stött på utmaningar med centralisering eftersom användare tenderar att samlas på större instanser. Den här rapporten undersöker Mastodon, en av de mest populära decentraliserade plattformarna, för att undersöka om dess onboardingflöde och designen av deras webbplats kan modifieras för att uppmuntra mindre centralisering. Studien kartlägger Mastodons nuvarande onboardingflöde och identifierar potentiella ändringar som kan mildra centraliseringen. Dessutom föreslås en ny design för den officiella webbplatsen. Användartester med fem deltagare genomfördes för att utvärdera effektiviteten av dessa förändringar. Resultaten indikerar att den modifierade designen kan påverka användare och få dem att välja mindre servrar. En effektiv förändring är att randomisera ordningen i vilken servrar presenteras, vilket eliminerar fördelen större servrar har i hur synliga de är. En annan föreslagen förändring är att förbättra användarnas medvetenhet om att flöden och interaktioner på Mastodon sträcker sig över servrar, vilket gör det möjligt för användare att interagera utanför sin egen server och tar bort ett av motiven användare har för att välja en större server. Vilken effekt det här har på användarnas beteende när det gäller deras val av server var dock oklart i användartesterna som utfördes. Sammantaget tyder denna undersökning på att Mastodon genom designändringar potentiellt kan uppmuntra användare att välja mindre servrar och främja en mer decentraliserad miljö för sociala media.

<p>The aim of this study is to get a deeper understanding about user tests as well as answer the question about if testing for users is necessary at all times. I've done a comparison between what the literature says, and what a company says, about testing. The tests that's been in focus in this study is prototyping and card sorting tests. Prototyping aims to give the developer feedback about the design and check if there are any obvious problems with the design. A card sorting test can be used to get input about how information architecture should be constructed. Information architecture is how the links are related in a navigation system. The company doesn't think that testing is as important as the literature. The company doesn't usually test but for the current situation they did it since the interface is crucial for their clients business. The conclusion of this study is that testing is rather important. For a designer who hasn’t got that much experience, user testing can be a way to get feedback about his designs. A more experienced designer might not need to test as much but he should be aware of testing as a possible design tool.</p>

This investigation is carried out with the desire to create a framework for digital learning tools in the region of Guanajuato, Mexico aimed towards primary schools in rural parts of the area. The framework is meant to be an aid in the implementation of technological equipments, especially tablets, and shed light on the most important aspects to take into consideration when designing and creating applications for those. In order to gather data, interviews and user tests were carried out with primary school students as well as with principals and teachers of primary schools in the mentioned area. The results show that clear feedback, intuitive graphics and appropriate levels of difficulty is of importance, as well as adaptability to users. No preference was noted regarding motions or amount of text. Norman’s design principles were additionally confirmed to be one of the vital parts to take into consideration. The challenges that come into the picture when implementing digital tools into classrooms seem to circulate around socio-economic aspects and insufficient resources such as wifi, power supply and personnel. However, these challenges may be worth taking upon, as implementing EdTech can benefit both students and teachers in many aspects and establish learning more in line with the trends in society where technology is on a constant rise. / Denna utredning genomförs med strävan att skapa ett ramverk för digitala lärverktyg i regionen Guanajuato, Mexico riktat mot grundskolor på landsbygden i området. Ramverket är tänkt att vara ett hjälpmedel vid implementering av teknisk utrustning, särskilt surfplattor, och belysa de viktigaste aspekterna att ta hänsyn till när man designar och skapar applikationer för dessa. För att samla in data har intervjuer och användartest genomförts med såväl grundskoleelever som med rektorer och lärare på grundskolor inom nämnda området. Resultaten visar att tydlig feedback, intuitiv grafik och svårighetsgrad är av betydelse, liksom anpassning till användaren. Ingen preferens noterades beträffande rörelser eller mängden text. Normans designprinciper bekräftades dessutom att vara en av de viktiga delarna att ta hänsyn till. De utmaningar som kommer in i bilden när man implementerar digitala verktyg i klassrummet verkar cirkulera kring socioekonomiska aspekter och otillräckliga resurser såsom wifi, strömförsörjning och personal. Men dessa utmaningar kan vara värda att ta sig an eftersom en inkorporering av EdTech kan gynna både elever och lärare i många aspekter och etablera lärande mer i linje med trenderna i samhället där tekniken är på ständig uppgång.

Two different focus groups in primary schools in Uganda participated in this study to investigate critical aspects of usability comparing two different educational mobile applications. The first group was already familiar with both applications, while the second group had no previous experiences of the applications. Furthermore, interviews were performed with a head teacher as well as two CEOs and founders of two start ups developing educational mobile applications for children, in order to investigate challenges with implementation of mobile learning in schools in Uganda. The results showed that one of the applications was not fully compatible with the devices used by the target group and that swiping was perceived less natural than clicking. Regarding organizational factors of implementation in schools, financial limitations and insufficient computer literacy among employees were revealed as critical obstacles. Moreover, improvements of the method used during the user tests with children in foreign contexts are discussed. / I denna studie deltog två fokusgrupper med barn från två olika grundskolor i Uganda för att undersöka kritiska aspekter gällande användarvänlighet genom att jämföra två mobilapplikationer som används i utbildningssammanhang. Den första gruppen var redan bekant med båda applikationerna, medan den andra gruppen var obekant med applikationerna. Vidare undersöktes utmaningar med implementation av mobile learning i grundskolor i Uganda genom intervjuer med en rektor från en ugandiansk grundskola samt två VDs tillika grundare från två ugandianska edTech-start-ups. Resultaten visade att en av applikationerna inte var fullständigt kompatibel med de enheter som användes av målgruppen i Uganda samt att "swipea" uppfattades mindre naturligt än att klicka. Gällande organisatoriska faktorer av implementering i skolorna visades finansiella begränsningar och anställdas otillräckliga datakunskap vara kritiska hinder. Utöver resultaten som ämnar svara på de definierade frågeställningarna diskuteras förbättringar av metoden som användes för användartesterna, i syfte att ge riktlinjer till framtida projekt i liknande sammanhang.