Unsurprisingly the National Health Service (NHS) has harnessed the prolific growth in Internet access to alleviate the increasing burden incurred due to rising healthcare costs. Healthcare interventions focus on the promotion of good behaviours; prevention of bad behaviours; provision of support for shared decision making; increasing knowledge and improving monitoring. Healthcare researchers typically rely on professional software developers in the creation of Internet interventions. Although varying in nomenclature Internet interventions typically consist of the same underlying components, such as navigation, logic and response capture. The LifeGuide Authoring Tool provides a potential solution to reduce this reliance of researchers on software developers in the creation of interventions. However the logic creation command line interface provided by LifeGuide is identified as a potential barrier for adoption, by nonprogrammers, due to their lack of experience with the strict programming style syntax it requires. Through the adoption of user-centred design techniques; early and continuous user involvement; rapid prototyping and interface design principles, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed, with the potential to lower this barrier for researchers with no previous programming experience. A jigsaw metaphor was adopted in the design of the interface, utilising templates and pre-populated fields, with the aim of reducing errors and lowering the cognitive load experienced by users. A task-based evaluation compared the existing LifeGuide interface, with the new GUI, in the creation of commonly used logic. Higher results were reported over the five main usability measures: effectiveness; engagement; efficiency; ease of learning and error tolerability in favour of the GUI, in the creation of intervention logic. Continuing requests to the author to develop healthcare Internet Interventions supports the research, that there is still a heavy reliance of researchers on software developers. A further application for this approach was identified in the development of a tool to support healthcare researchers in the creation of mobile phone messaging interventions.

Formal approaches to software development require that we correctly describe (or specify) systems in order to prove properties about our proposed solution prior to building it. We must then follow a rigorous process to transform our specification into an implementation to ensure that the properties we have proved are retained. When we design and build the user interfaces of our systems we are similarly keen to ensure that they have certain properties before we build them. For example, do they satisfy the requirements of the user? Are they designed with known good design principles and usability considerations in mind? User-centred design approaches, which incorporate many different techniques which we may consider as informal, seek to consider these issues so that the UIs we build are designed around the needs and capabilities of real users. Both formal methods and user-centred design are important and beneficial in the development of underlying system functionality and user interfaces respectively. Given this we would like to be able to use both approaches in one integrated software development process. Their differences, however, make this a challenging objective. In this thesis we present a solution this problem by describing models and techniques which provide a bridge between the existing work of user-centred design practitioners and formal methods practitioners enabling us to incorporate (representations of) informal design artefacts into a formal software development process. We then use these models as the basis for a refinement theory for user interfaces which allows interface designers to retain their informal design methods whilst providing an underlying theory grounded in the trace refinement theory of the Microcharts language.

For over two decades user-centric methods and techniques have been proposed to assist the production of usable, useful, and desirable software products. Despite these approaches, usability problems are still identified in finished software products creating problems at systems acceptance, rework and impacting end user experience. Part of the reason for these continuing problems is that user-centric approaches are not part of the traditional software engineering process. The literature review shows that software engineering and human-computer interaction are largely different communities. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the incorporation of user modelling and usability modelling into software requirements specifications would improve design quality and usability of software products. This research study used a Design Science dominant mixed research methodology consisting of case study and action research for creating, analysing and evaluating artefacts for improving the effectiveness of user-centred design and usability of software artefacts. Using the functional specification of an existing system in a government agency, ten designers created screen and interaction designs. The specification was then enhanced with usability specifications and the designers redeveloped their designs in the light of the enhanced specification. Both designs were subject to pre-defined usability tests and designers described their design experience as they worked. The results of the research demonstrated that enhancing traditional software requirements specifications with additional specifications of user modelling and usability modelling made a positive difference to both designer perception as well as design quality of user interface artefacts. The theoretical and practical values of these findings are explored.

The objective of this thesis is to obtain knowledge regarding how effective user centred evaluation methods are and how user centred evaluations are conducted by IT professionals. This will be achieved by exploring user centred evaluation in experimental and practical settings. The knowledge gained in these studies should inspire suggestions for further research and suggestions for improvements on the user centred evaluation activity. Two experimental studies were conducted. One compares the results from using three user centred evaluation methods, and the other examines two factors while conducting heuristic evaluation. The results show that the think-aloud evaluation method was the most effective method in finding realistic usability problems of the three methods. The number of critical problems found during think-aloud evaluation increases, if heuristic evaluation is conducted prior to the think-aloud evaluations. Further, two studies of user centred evaluation in practical settings were performed. The IT professionals participating in those studies were using the software development process Scrum to plan their work. The results show that user centred evaluation is infrequently conducted in Scrum projects, compared to testing activities like acceptance testing. The main type of evaluation is qualitative. Few participants measure user performance or use surveys to gather quantitative results on the usability and the user experience. IT professionals get feedback from users in an informal way and gather informal feedback from peers. Many participants use a mixture of methods for gathering feedback on their work. The outcome of this thesis shows that IT professionals should be encouraged to include users whenever possible when evaluating software, for example by using the think-aloud method. Using heuristic evaluation prior to conducting think-aloud evaluations is also recommended. In addition, IT professionals are encouraged to evaluate their software in an informal way frequently, rather than waiting for the right time to conduct a thorough quantitative evaluation. To advance this field further, researchers who want to improve the evaluation activity for the IT professionals should study how user centred evaluation methods could be combined in an efficient way and how the use of qualitative evaluation methods could be made more effective. / QC 20120522

This thesis focuses on the different aspects of role-play as an approach for user-centred design of mobile information technology (IT). This is done through development of a sequence of workshops and reflecting on the outcome. The motivation for the thesis has been to develop an understanding of the important conditions for involving end-users in the process of understanding user needs and exploring requirements for mobile IT. The need for new methods to understand mobile IT and the focus on user involvement in the traditions of participatory design and user-centred design established the background for the work. Most of the workshops were carried out in a hospital context. The overall research approach has been to work iteratively by carrying out a set of smaller studies, so-called workshops. The research design was flexible, characterized by a design that evolves, develops and unfolds, as the research proceeds. The current state of the knowledge on role-play called for a qualitative approach with a focus on understanding important issues concerning user role-plays. The overall research subject of this thesis is: Develop understanding of key premises for using role-play with low-fidelity prototyping to involve end-users in exploring user needs and requirements for mobile IT. This research subject was further divided into three specific research questions: What are the important issues related to planning and running of role-play design workshops with end-users? What do system developers perceive as the strengths and limitations of such role-play workshops as a system development method? What is the role of the workshop facilitators in such role-play work­shops? Five categories of issues of importance for planning and running of role-play workshops with end-users were identified: practicalities, user role-playing, idea generation, workshop resources and roles in the workshop. The system developers regarded the approach as useful for several reasons including enhancing user involvement, helping developers understand the context of use, and creating a focus in a project. The developers also called attentions to limitations of using role-play; such as a narrow user view on the system that does not take system development premises into account. One of the issues that emerged as a particularly important factor in the workshops was the role-play facilitator’s skills in leading the role-play part and the idea generation process. A framework developed by Yardley-Matwiejcsuk proved useful for understanding how to develop and rehearse these kinds of role-play. The thesis contributes with an understanding of different aspects regarding role-play workshops with end users in the field of Human-Computer Interaction.

The goal of this thesis was to explore the usability of on-foot sensors for ambulatory gait analysis. Using a human factors engineering approach, two different ambulatory gait analysis prototypes were assessed in two separate studies. The first study was conducted with student participants in a university setting and the second study was conducted in-situ with neurorehabilitation patients at Bridgepoint Hospital. The usability and patient experience of the prototypes were assessed, and based on these findings a set of recommendations was developed. These issues and recommendations are detailed in this thesis and are expected to inform the design of future iterations of the prototypes.

The goal of this thesis was to explore the usability of on-foot sensors for ambulatory gait analysis. Using a human factors engineering approach, two different ambulatory gait analysis prototypes were assessed in two separate studies. The first study was conducted with student participants in a university setting and the second study was conducted in-situ with neurorehabilitation patients at Bridgepoint Hospital. The usability and patient experience of the prototypes were assessed, and based on these findings a set of recommendations was developed. These issues and recommendations are detailed in this thesis and are expected to inform the design of future iterations of the prototypes.

In this study, a user-centred design approach was used to develop a mobile health application designed to support adult T1DM patients with their self-management routine. In the requirements gathering phase, an observational study of a diabetes clinic and patient interviews were conducted. An analysis of the data collected from this phase helped identify the functional design requirements used to guide the design. Using a rapid prototyping approach, data visualizations, game-based elements, carb-counting and social networking features were explored. The final prototype developed in this research was evaluated for its ease of use and perceived usefulness. The design was found to be generally easy to use. With respect to data visualizations, participants preferred the scatter plot view of their blood glucose readings to a bar chart. In addition, it was found that all participants wanted a way to track their HbA1c on a regular basis.

In this study, a user-centred design approach was used to develop a mobile health application designed to support adult T1DM patients with their self-management routine. In the requirements gathering phase, an observational study of a diabetes clinic and patient interviews were conducted. An analysis of the data collected from this phase helped identify the functional design requirements used to guide the design. Using a rapid prototyping approach, data visualizations, game-based elements, carb-counting and social networking features were explored. The final prototype developed in this research was evaluated for its ease of use and perceived usefulness. The design was found to be generally easy to use. With respect to data visualizations, participants preferred the scatter plot view of their blood glucose readings to a bar chart. In addition, it was found that all participants wanted a way to track their HbA1c on a regular basis.

Abstract The main difficulty in the usability evaluation of a product concept or a prototype is that it is very difficult to take reliably into account many different characteristics or attributes, which cannot be measured with the same unit, scale or instrument. Secondly, evaluation always involves some uncertainty. One can never be really sure that all the essential aspects that affect the final user emphasis are taken into consideration. This uncertainty can be decreased by involving diverse people in the evaluation process during R&D or, before the final decision, by elaborating the best ideas to a level at which they can be really used on a pilot scale in the field. Most often, though, the latter takes too much time and would result in many other problems. Evaluation can possibly be best enhanced by using enough involved people, i.e. various experts and especially end-users, who need or use the product in question. A key ingredient to the success of product development, in addition to ergonomic knowledge, is often thought to be active involvement of the intended product users by (1) measuring user-product interaction and (2) participation in design decisions. When a potential end-user experiments with the product, both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods can be used. This thesis shows some methodological possibilities of evaluation, especially through simulation. It also describes in detail the practical phases of the experiments. For example, a lot of development was needed to find out how to communicate product alternatives and their concepts to (elderly) users. And most importantly, this thesis aims to give evidence of how the procedure called experimental ergonomic evaluation (EEE) should be feasibly implemented and statistically confirmed for significance and consistency. A special focus in the experiments was placed on elderly end-users. Since the number of elderly citizens is increasing, there is a need for products to help the elderly live independently at their homes. Studying and understanding how users accomplish their tasks helps to identify their needs and to formulate implications for the design of technology to satisfy those needs. Thus, user studies conducted before beginning to design a new technology provide a proactive way of involving users in the design process. The first prototypes then enable usability studies, such as user trials. With an emphasis on usability engineering, trials can be developed into more feasible EEE procedures for industrial companies. All the developed and applied EEE procedures were based on a user-centred approach with different user trial types (N = 15). The users as subjects (N = 264) performed as real tasks as possible and, based on their perceptions during the trials, gave their preferences or scored certain variables. The subjects were also observed and measured by the researcher. The products or other technologies in the trials comprised a total of 9 cases, ranging from "low-tech" steps and chairs to "high-tech" information and communication technology (ICT) applications. The perceived preference and observed performance measures were then combined. Different methods are needed simultaneously to make the results more accurate. The present EEE procedures proved to be cost-effective, efficient and sufficiently valid at least in a research context. The EEE procedures ranged from subjective estimations, such as rating and ranking, to more complex multi-criteria methods that can be used to facilitate decision-making, such as conjoint analysis, Mitchell's paired comparison and use-value analysis. Objective evaluation was also used, including measurement of products and users as well various observations. Both experts and end-users (subjects) had their own important roles in the experiment. Based on this study, EEE procedures are easy to implement in industry for routine usability testing in the course of product development. EEE with its wide coverage yields more universal and absolute usability values, not only ones based on direct benchmarking.