The outset of this thesis is to raise questions on how we design for the mobile context and the capabilities of smartphones. Not only the presentation but also the use of input and interaction between a service and a user.This work evolves around sign up forms and answers the question: How does the sign up process affect the holistic perspective of a digital service regarding usability and user experience?This thesis consists of a case studies, and design experiments conducted on Twitter, Instagram and Randos sign up processes to explore if and how the usability, and the user experience could be affected and im- proved.This concluded some important aspects to be considered when designing sign up forms for a digital service.The usability, and the user experience is not only affected by user interaction, and the choice of input method but it’s also affected by which data the service is requesting, and more important; if that data is motivated to request by the service.

This thesis project, conducted in collaboration with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), investigates how safety-critical internal systems can be designed to enhance usability and user experience through an examination of the Aerodrome Approval system at SAS. Employing a research-through-design approach and utilizing heuristic evaluations, semi-structured interviews, contextual inquiries, and a redesign process, several guidelines for improving usability and user experience have been identified. Key insights reveal that optimizing login functionalities can enhance security and role-specific access, thereby reducing errors and improving the user experience. Consistency in design elements and adherence to standards play a critical role in usability, aiding in error prevention and improving system navigation efficiency. Additionally, effective strategies for error prevention, such as contextual warnings tailored to specific conflicts, help maintain workflow efficiency and prevent user fatigue, whereas ensuring a balanced and timely presentation of information is essential to prevent information overload while still ensuring access to critical data. The project illustrates how multiple usability principles are interconnected yet sometimes conflicting and emphasizes the need to further investigate safety-critical internal systems to a broader extent to be able to identify more generalizable design guidelines in the future.

[pt] Com a incorporação de recursos computacionais aos elementos físicos, a computação evolui para a ubiquidade e está presente nos elementos do ambiente físico. Casas, móveis e objetos do dia-a-dia, isto é, o ambiente que nos cerca, são as novas interfaces com as quais as pessoas interagem para colaborar e se informar. Essas novas interfaces implicam em um novo paradigma de interação, ainda pouco conhecido e explorado, como é o caso das Interfaces Tangíveis (Tangible User Interfaces - TUIs), que usam artefatos físicos para representação e controle de informações digitais. Desenvolver Interfaces Tangíveis requer combinar o trabalho voltado para o concreto (forma) com a abstração característica do desenvolvimento de software (comportamento). Este trabalho propõe um método denominado Prototipação Colaborativa de Tangíveis Baseada na Engenharia Semiótica, que combina as abordagens de prototipação e da Engenharia Semiótica no projeto de interfaces tangíveis. Ao combinar estas abordagens, o método agrega os benefícios da experimentação continuada de forma estruturada proporcionada pela prototipação com as vantagens do foco na comunicabilidade da Engenharia Semiótica no projeto de tangíveis. Um estudo de caso é conduzido a fim de investigar a contribuição do método proposto para incorporação da perspectiva da Engenharia Semiótica ao projeto de interfaces tangíveis. / [en] With the embedding of computing resources into physical elements, computing is moving toward ubiquity (or pervasiveness) and is present throughout the physical environment. Homes, furniture, and everyday life objects are the interfaces with which people now interact. Such new interfaces harbinger a new interaction paradigm that is little known and exploited to date, such as Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) that use physical artefacts for representing and manipulating digital information. Developing TUIs means acknowledging both concrete (form) and abstract (behavior) aspects of an interface. This work proposes a method called Collaborative Tangible Prototyping Based on Semiotics Engineering that combines prototyping and Semiotic Engineering approaches to tangible interfaces design. By combining these approaches, the method brings together the benefits of continued structured experimentation provided by prototyping with the advantages of a focus on communicability from Semiotic Engineering for designing tangibles. A case study is conducted to investigate whether the proposed method contributes to incorporate the Semiotic Engineering perspective in the design of tangible user interfaces.

The growing popularity of smartphones in recent years has led to an increase in mobile application development and use. However, a large number of mobile applications are only used once before being removed. For companies and organizations to spend time and money on application development only to achieve low user retention rates is unsustainable. During their first interaction with a mobile application it is crucial that users find functionality and value quickly to avoid discontinuation of use. User onboarding is often implemented in mobile applications to aid in first time interaction, making onboarding processes subject of investigation for effect on user attitude towards continued use of mobile applications. The study examined mobile onboarding processes and their effect on user attitude towards continued use of applications as well as the difference between onboarding processes effect on user attitude towards continued use of applications. The study was conducted within-subjects through a survey consisting of interaction with two prototypes with different onboarding processes and a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model in order to investigate the variables of interest. The results of the survey were analyzed to measure the effects of the onboarding processes on the factors of the technology acceptance model and to investigate the differences between the onboarding processes. The results showed that user onboarding has a positive influence on perceived usefulness, attitude towards use and intention to use. There was no significant difference between the different types of onboarding patterns effect on attitude towards continued use. The positive effects on attitude and intention to use confirmed that implementing onboarding processes in mobile applications could be beneficial for value proposition and user retention. The perceived usefulness proved to be the determining factor on attitude and intention to use.

<p>he focus of this research is to establish whether there is a difference in the way the genders perceive the visualization of mathematics, with specific reference to set theory. The influence of the computing experience of students on their perceptions was also investigated. Interfaces were created for the teaching of set theory for learners in the first class of secondary school. Since the mother tongue of most the pupils is Dari the interface was made available in both Dari and English. The interfaces were used to gather the data for the researc</p>

<p>he focus of this research is to establish whether there is a difference in the way the genders perceive the visualization of mathematics, with specific reference to set theory. The influence of the computing experience of students on their perceptions was also investigated. Interfaces were created for the teaching of set theory for learners in the first class of secondary school. Since the mother tongue of most the pupils is Dari the interface was made available in both Dari and English. The interfaces were used to gather the data for the researc</p>

This research concerns the information design and visual design of graphical user interfaces (GUI) in the condition monitoring and condition-based maintenance (CBM) of production equipment. It also concerns various communicative aspects of a GUI, which is used to monitor the condition of assets. It applies to one Swedish vendor and its intentions to design information. In addition, it applies to the interaction between the GUI and its individual visual elements, as well as the communication between the GUI and the users (in four Swedish paper mills). The research is performed as a single case study. Interviews and observations have been the main methods for data collection. Empirical data is analyzed with methods inferred to semiotics, rhetoric and narratology. Theories in information science and regarding remediation are used to interpret the user interface design. The key conclusion is that there are no less than five different forms of information, all important when determining the conditions of assets. These information forms include the words, images and shapes in the GUI, the machine components and peripherals equipment, the information that takes form when personnel communicate machine conditions, the personnel’s subjective associations, and the information forms that relate to the personnel's actions and interactions. Preventive technicians interpret the GUI-information individually and collectively in relation to these information forms, which influence their interpretation and understanding of the GUI information. Social media in the GUI makes it possible to represent essential information that takes form when employees communicate a machine’s condition. Photographs may represent information forms as a machine’s components, peripherals, and local environment change over time. Moreover, preventative technicians may use diagrams and photographs in the GUI to change attitudes among the personnel at the mills and convince them, for example, of a machine’s condition or the effectiveness of CBM as maintenance policy.

The venerable desktop metaphor is beginning to show signs of strain in supporting modern knowledge work. Traditional desktop systems were not designed to support the sheer number of simultaneous windows, information resources, and collaborative contexts that have become commonplace in contemporary knowledge work. Even though the desktop has been slow to evolve, knowledge workers still consistently manage multiple tasks, collaborate effectively among colleagues or clients, and manipulate information most relevant to their current task by leveraging the spatial organization of their work area. The potential exists for desktop workspaces to better support these knowledge work practices by leveraging the unifying construct of activity. Semantically-meaningful activities, conceptualized as a collection of tools (applications, documents, and other resources) within a social and organizational context, offer an alternative orientation for the desktop experience that more closely corresponds to knowledge workers' objectives and goals. In this research, I unpack some of the foundational assumptions of desktop interface design and propose an activity-centered model for organizing the desktop interface based on empirical observations of real-world knowledge work practice, theoretical understandings of cognition and activity, and my own experiences in developing two prototype systems for extending the desktop to support knowledge work. I formalize this analysis in a series of key challenges for the research and development of activity-based systems. In response to these challenges, I present the design and implementation of a third research prototype, the Giornata system, that emphasizes activity as a primary organizing principle in GUI-based interaction, information organization, and collaboration. I conclude with two evaluations of the system. First, I present findings from a longitudinal deployment of the system among a small group of representative knowledge workers; this deployment constitutes one of the first studies of how activity-based systems are adopted and appropriated in a real-world context. Second, I provide an assessment of the technologies that enable and those that pose barriers to the development of activity-based computing systems.

Interface colour scheme design is complex, but important. Most software allows users to choose the colours of single items individually and out of context, but does not acknowledge colour schemes or aid in their design. Creating colour schemes by picking individual colours can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating, and the results are often mediocre, especially for those without colour design skills. Further, as colour harmony arises from the interactions between all of the coloured elements, anticipating the overall eff ect of changing the colour of any single element can be difficult. This research explores the feasibility of extending artistic colour harmony models to include factors pertinent to user interface design. An extended colour harmony model is proposed and used as the basis for an objective function that can algorithmically assess the colour relationships in an interface colour scheme. Its assessments have been found to agree well with human evaluations and have been used as part of a process to automatically create harmonious and usable interface colour schemes. A three stage process for the design of interface colour schemes is described. In the fi rst stage, the designer speci es, in broad terms and without requiring colour design expertise, colouring constraints such as grouping and distinguishability that are needed to ensure that the colouring of interface elements reflects their semantics. The second stage is an optimisation process that chooses colour relationships to satisfy the competing requirements of harmonious colour usage, any designer-specified constraints, and readability. It produces sets of coordinates that constitute abstract colour schemes: they de fine only relationships between coloured items, not real colours. In the third and fi nal stage, a user interactively maps an abstract scheme to one or more real colour schemes. The colours can be fi ne-tuned as a set (but not altered individually), to allow for such "soft" factors as personal, contextual and cultural considerations, while preserving the integrity of the design embodied in the abstract scheme. The colours in the displayed interface are updated continuously, so users can interactively explore a large number of colour schemes, all of which have readable text, distinguishable controls, and conform to the principles of colour harmony. Experimental trials using a proof-of-concept implementation called the Colour Harmoniser have been used to evaluate a method of holistic colour adjustment and the resulting colour schemes. The results indicate that the holistic controls are easy to understand and eff ective, and that the automatically produced colour schemes, prior to fi ne-tuning, are comparable in quality to many manually created schemes, and after fi ne-tuning, are generally better. By designing schemes that incorporate colouring constraints specifi ed by the user prior to scheme creation, and enabling the user to interactively fi ne-tune the schemes after creation, there is no need to specify or incorporate the subtle and not well understood factors that determine whether any particular set of colours is "suitable". Instead, the approach used produces broadly harmonious schemes, and defers to the developer in the choice of the fi nal colours.

Syfte – Att se hur olika processer vid framtagningen av ett gränssnitt kan påverka kvaliteten på ett gränssnitts användarvänlighet. Metod – Fallstudie med intervjuer och kontextuella observationer och en designprocess som använder flera iterationer av prototyper. Slutligen en analys där arbetsprocessen vid gränssnittens utveckling tolkas och gränssnittens kvalitet utvärderas utifrån ett antal definierade faktorer. Resultat – Studien visar att en designprocess med ett fokus på användarvänlighet kräver mycket förarbete och tar längre tid för att få fram ett resultat medan en designprocess där användarvänlighet ej är i fokus ger ett snabbare resultat men som ger problem i efterhand på grund av lägre kvalitet på gränssnittets användarvänlighet Implikationer – Studien visar att även om en process som fokuserar på användarvänlighet kräver extra arbete och resurser i början, i slutändan ger ett betydligt högre resultat som sparar framtida arbete. Studien bekräftar därmed andra teorier om hur användarvänlighet i gränssnitt kan och bör tas fram. Begränsningar – Studien saknade möjlighet till tester i gränssnittets slutliga miljö och baseras därför på teorier framtagna utifrån ISOs definition av Quality in use istället för användartester som skulle kunnat ge en trovärdigare kvalitetsuppskattning. Studien studerar endast två olika processer för framtagning av ett gränssnitt. / Purpose – To see how different processes during the development of a User Interface affect the quality of its user-friendliness. Method – Case study with interviews and contextual observations and a design process where several iterations of prototypes was used. Lastly an analys where the process used during the development is studied and the quality of the User Interface is valued from a number of defined factors. Findings – The study shows that a design process with a focus on user-friendliness requires a lot of work beforehand and takes longer before an actual result kan be achieved while a process where user-friendliness is not a focus gives faster results but creates problems in the future because of a lower quality on the user-friendliness of the User Interface. Implications – The study shows that a while process with a focus on user-friendliness takes more resources and time in the beginning it produces a higher quality of work which saves time and resources in the future. The study therefor other studies of how a user-friendly User Interface can and should be developed. Limitations – The study lacked an opportunity to do testing in the User Interface’s real environment and is instead based on theories based on ISO’s definition of Quality in use instead of user tests which could have given a more credible result. The study also only studies two different processes and their result.