Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces: A Design Science Research Study

Digital transformation\u27s scope evolves from being limited to the organizational level to inter-organizational collaboration in supply chain networks and business ecosystems. Blockchain-enabled marketplaces have the potential to transform business networks by eliminating intermediaries. To investigate the interface design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, we employed a design science methodology and synthesized knowledge from literature, practice, and qualitative expert interviews. Our research provides (1) theoretically grounded and prescriptive knowledge expressed in meta-requirements and design principles inspired by effective use theory, and (2) presents concrete design features and an expository prototype instantiation. The prototype is evaluated through focus group workshops and interviews with experts and potential users. Our work contributes to recent calls to investigate the design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, advances research on blockchain applications in B2B contexts, and expands the literature on information system design for marketplace-oriented transformations

E-Marketplace as a tool for the revitalization of Portuguese caft industry: the design process in the development of an online platform

The craft trade in Portugal faces challenges that compromise its productive and economic sustainability and may result in the disappearance of millenary techniques, traditions, and industrial practices of high symbolic and historical value. The growing incompatibility of these traditional activities with digital technologies, the lack of resources, and a growing age gap are among the main problems identified. This situation made worse by various restrictions pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic points towards the possibility of extinction of this type of manual arts. The goal of this research is to demonstrate how the design process of an e-marketplace platform, throughout its different phases, may contribute to the revitalization of traditional industries. The methodologies adopted in the framework consisted in the study of UX and UI best design practices, including wireframe design, user flows, definition of personas, development of prototypes, and style guides. The results of the conducted usability tests to the prototype allowed a gradual improvement of the solution, culminating in the confirmation of its effectiveness. The study concluded that digital technology, namely a designed e-marketplace solution, could potentially bring buyers and sellers closer together, thus being a tool with high potential for the dissemination and sustainability of the craft industry.The Anti-Amnesia Project (POCI-01-0145-ERDF-029022) is co-funded by the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI), by Portugal 2020 and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by national funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology

The effect of multi-device design on website efficiency and user preference

Modern websites must accommodate many different devices with varying screen size without decreasing user experience or losing relevant features or content. In this thesis, three different multi-device design approaches, adaptive, responsive and mobile-dedicated, were researched on desktop, tablet and smartphone devices to ascertain whether one approach is superior to the others in terms of user preference and website simplicity and efficiency. A total of eight mock websites were created to represent the approaches on each device. The mock websites were first evaluated with an expert analysis, wherein the indi-vidual page load times and aesthetic values of the sites were calculated. Then, a user study was performed, where 10 participants performed search tasks on each mock website, evaluating each site after completing the tasks. Additionally, a semi-structured interview was conducted after each study session and eye tracking data was collected during the study to identify possible differences in gaze behavior between the mock sites. The results showed that no single approach was superior, as the results were very similar. However, it was discovered that participants disliked the mobile layout on the desktop device, even though it produced the highest efficiency. The results additionally suggested that mobile devices are preferred for their ease of use and accessibility, in-stead of for the layout design. Finally, a behavior where participants let their eyes rest while using the device to browse through a site was observed. Further study is suggested for the behavior, dubbed restful browsing, as it could have a strong influence on mobile web use