Web Site\u27s Findability and Company\u27s Image

It the mid 1990s many corporate executives realised that websites might influence companies’ image immensely. Nowadays it is evident that in e-business environment this influence is becoming more visible. Furthermore, the companies’ perceptions of the importance of the customers’ impressions of web sites play a vital role in a company’s success. In this paper we investigate the change of the perceptions of company’s image after visiting and evaluating their web sites; and the influence of particular features of a web site such as the intuitive URL, intuitive keywords, use of Meta tags and frames, etc., on a company’s image

Bridging gaps between ergonomics and creative design: a pedagogical experiment

peer reviewedIn this paper, we describe a large-scale pedagogical setting involving groups of students from different profiles gathered around a real-scale design project (re-shaping the waiting room of a mental health center). Ergonomics students’ main task is to analyze the needs and real activities of end-users; high school students’ task is to propose inspiring design tracks; interior architecture students’ task is to produce the design project; industrial drafting students’ task is to realize execution plans while construction students’ task is to implement the project on site. This communication more precisely focuses on the role of ergonomists in the setup, describing their intervention and the practical and pedagogical innovations put in place to help them face the various challenges encountered during the project, namely dealing with the temporal constraints of the intervention, documenting and observing a sensitive situation and involving end-users to make them heart of the design process. The paper concludes with feedback gathered from the different stakeholders

What Does it Mean to Design? A Qualitative Investigation of Design Professionals' Experiences

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95041/1/j.2168-9830.2012.tb00048.x.pd

Toward Strategic Usability - User Knowledge as a Basis for New Service Development

Tämä työ tehtiin Elisa Oyj:ssä tuotekehitysprojektin lomassa syksyn 2007 ja kevään 2008 aikana. Tavoitteena oli tutustua strategisen käytettävyyden käsitteeseen ja selvittää, kuinka sitä voitaisiin hyödyntää luotaessa uuden tyyppisiä palveluita uusille markkinoille. Perinteisesti käytettävyyssuunnittelun roolina on ollut varmistaa, että kehitettävät tuotteet ovat tarkoituksenmukaisia ja helppoja käyttää sekä tarjoavat miellyttävän elämyksen. Strategisessa käytettävyydessä syvällistä käyttäjäymmärrystä hyödynnetään jo aiemmassa vaiheessa: päätettäessä, millaisia tuotteita aletaan ylipäänsä kehittää . Työn empiirinen osa koostuu kahdesta kokonaisuudesta. Käytettävyystyön roolia Elisalla tutkittiin kvalitatiivisen haastattelututkimuksen avulla. 13 päällikkö- ja johtajatason edustajan kanssa käytyjen keskustelujen pohjalta luotiin käsitys käytettävyyden roolista Elisan tuotteiden elinkaarimallissa. Toinen empiirinen kokonaisuus esittelee tuotekehitysprojektista saatuja kokemuksia. Hankkeessa kehitettiin Pelihylly-nimisen web-palvelun konsepti. Alkuperäisenä kimmokkeena projektille oli Elisan syksyllä 2006 toteuttama etnografinen Asiakaspäivätutkimus, jossa Elisan työntekijät jalkautuivat päiväksi asiakkaiden pariin selvittämään näiden arjessa kohtaamia ongelmia. Pelihyllyn suunnittelussa seurattiin tiiviin käyttäjäkeskeistä lähestymistapaa, ja käyttökokemus oli merkittävässä osassa palvelun suunnittelussa. Diplomityössä havaittiin, että vaikka Elisa suhtautuu kunnianhimoisesti uusien mahdollisuuksien tunnistamiseen ja haluaa hintakilpailun sijaan toimia palvelujohtajana, varsinaiset prosessit eivät aina sovellu iteratiiviseen käyttäjäkeskeiseen suunnitteluun. Myöskään käytettävyyden roolia ei ole varsinaisesti määritelty päätöksentekoprosessissa. Tämän vuoksi lopulliset tuotteet eivät usein vastaa alkuperäiseen tarpeeseen niin hyvin kuin olisi mahdollista. Pelihyllyä ei ole toteutettu valmiiksi tuotteeksi asti, mutta suunnitteluprosessi havainnollisti, kuinka alkuvaiheen tarkkaavaisella käyttäjien ymmärtämisellä kyettiin kehittämään palvelukonsepti, joka ratkaisi olemassa olevien kilpailijoiden ongelmia. Lisäksi se oli hyödyksi tunnistettaessa tarpeita, joita aiemmat palvelut eivät olleet huomioineet lainkaan.This thesis was written in conjunction with a service development project at the communications service company Elisa between the fall 2007 and spring 2008. The goal was to investigate the concept of strategic usability and find out how usability work could contribute to the process of creating new kind of services to new markets. Traditionally user-centered design has been used to ensuring that the developed products are both useful and easy and pleasant to operate. Strategic usability utilizes the profound user knowledge already at an earlier stage, when deciding what to develop. The empirical part of the thesis comprises of two components. A qualitative study was conducted to find out the current state of usability work at Elisa. Based on the discussions with 13 project and business managers, a general view of the role of usability in the product life-cycle model was formed. The other empirical component presents the experience gained from a service design project where a concept for the web-service Game Shelf was created. The roots of the project lie in the ethnographic Customer day study, in which Elisa employees spent a day observing the life of the customers. The approach to the design was highly user-centric and user experience was specifically considered throughout the process. In the thesis it was noticed that even though Elisa is ambitious about discovering new business opportunities and becoming the service leader instead of competing with prices, the existing processes are not always suitable for iterative, user-centered design. Moreover, usability lacks an official role in the decision-making process. This is why the final products often do not meet the original needs as well as they could. The Game Shelf service has not been realized but the design process demonstrated how early focus on users was helpful when designing a service concept that would solve the problems of the existing competitors. The approach was also beneficial for recognizing needs that had not been addressed at all by the earlier services

Hybrid Approach for Website Quality Evaluation: Linear Weightage Model and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process

In rece~t years, many people have devoted their efforts to the issue of quality of website. The ',concept of quality is consisting of many criteria: quality of service ' perspective, a user perspective, a content perspective or indeed ,a usability perspective. The very spec,ial nature of the web applications and website' pose unique software testing challen'g es. Webmasters, Web applications developers, and Website quality assurance managers need tools and methods that can match up to the new needs. The result of this study confirmed that criteria of website quality consist of eleven criteria I (load time, response time, page rank, frequency of update, traffic,;, design optimization, size, nu mber of ite\ns, accessibility error, markup validation, and broken link). Online diagnostic tools 'provided in the internet can be used to measure V)'ebsite quality related with criteria that' was determined in this research. This decreases the economic and noneconomic cost for conducting website evaluation. Online diagn9stics tools allow the website designer or researcher to evaluate many websites and to detect potential problems as well' as actual problems. This research conducts some tests to measure the ' quality website of Asian countries via web diagnostic tools on.line. The researcher proposes a methqdology for determining and evaluating the best e-government, Asian ' airlines, and Malaysian universities sites based on many criteria, of website quality. Applying Hybrid model between LWM and F AHP approach for website evaluation has resulted in significant acceleration of implementation, raised the overall effectiveness ' with respect to the underlying methodology and ultimately enabled more efficient procedure. The result of this study confirmed most of Asian web~ites are neglecting performance and airlines websites have the best quality performancre based on Hybrid Model Evaluation. According to the results of the evaluation process, Airlines sector has ' the highest average. score compare to e-govemment and university. Keywords:-performance, quality, website, Hybrid model.In compliance with the terms of the Copyright Act 1987 and the IP Policy of the university, the copyright of this thesis has been reassigned by the author to the legal entity of the university, Institute of Technology PETRONAS Sdn Bhd. Due acknowledgement shall always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. © Handaru Jati, 2010 Institute of Technology PETRONAS Sdn Bhd All rights reserved. vi

Investigation of a design performance measurement tool for improving collaborative design during a design process

With rapid growth of global competition, the design process is becoming more and more complex due largely to cross-functional team collaboration, dynamic design processes, and unpredictable design outcomes. Thus, it is becoming progressively more difficult to support and improve design activities effectively during a design process, especially from a collaboration perspective. Although a great deal of research pays attention to the support and improvement of design collaboration from multi-perspectives, little research attention has been directed at improving collaborative design by a performance measurement approach. In addition, many studies have demonstrated that performance measurement can improve design effectiveness significantly. Therefore, this PhD research focused on investigating ‘How to improve collaborative design via a performance measurement approach?’ A Design Performance Measurement (DPM) tool, which enables design managers and designers to measure and improve design collaboration during a design process, has been developed. The DPM tool can support the design team members in learning from performance measurement and, in turn, drive the design project towards the achievement of strategic objectives, and goes beyond monitoring and controlling them during the project development process. It is, thus, a motivating tool as well as a support tool for the development of product design. The proposed DPM tool has three novel components: • A DPM operation model, which integrates a hierarchical design team structure with a multi-feedback interaction performance measurement approach to support DPM operation in a design project team. • A DPM matrix, which enables collaborative design performance to be measured during a design process. • A DPM weighting application model to improve flexibility of the DPM tool by integrating DPM with the design project’s strategies, stage-based design objectives, and design staff’s job focuses and responsibilities. This tool has been positively evaluated through two industry case studies and a software-based simulation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The quantum of control : toward a theory of interaction design

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Meanings and practices of customer experience managment.

The notion of creating a superior customer experience is increasingly determining business focus and shaping marketing practice. The strategic role of customer experience management (CEM) is evidenced in the central role customer experience has in mission statements of prominent companies and the addition of customer-dedicated teams and senior-ranking roles. The use of the term “experience” both signifies and imposes a shift in marketing management thinking and practice because an experience, unlike a product or service, by definition, is always from the point of view of the person doing the ‘experiencing’ (e.g. the customer). Despite its prominence and popularity in practice, it is unclear what customer experience management (CEM) as an overall business focus means or entails. This research comprises a doctoral thesis presented in ‘paper format’, presenting the work in the form of four papers in journal paper style rather than in the style of a monograph. The research is conducted in three phases ((1) a systematic literature review of the field, (2) longitudinal multi-informant case studies and (3) new multidimensional scale development) with the aim of answering the overall research question of, what are the meanings and practices of customer experience management? The thesis contributes to CEM literature and theory and provides several contributions to practice. Key contributions of this research are (1) systematically identifying a comprehensive and integrative body of CEM literature, (2) developing a grounded-theory firm-side conceptualization of CEM practice and organizational values, (3) demarcating CEM from market orientation (i.e. a prevalent firm-wide marketing management approach) and proposing an updated and distinctive orientation relabelled customer experience orientation (CXO) and (4) developing a scale for measuring CEM organizational values and exploring their associations with performance outcomes. The thesis concludes with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research.PhD in Leadership and Managemen

Framework conceitual para ambiente virtual colaboratico das comunidades virtuais de prática nas universidades no contexto de e-Gov

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2013.A evolução da mídia Internet tem favorecido a reunião de pessoas com interesses comuns na aprendizagem situada e coletiva, facilitando a formação, comunicação e colaboração entre as Comunidades Virtuais de Prática (VCoPs) por meio da interface digital interativa. As VCoPs tornam-se mais visíveis a partir do uso das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs), tais recursos disponibilizados pela mídia Internet ampliam a condição da Rede no contexto das aplicações de Governo Eletrônico (e-Gov), especificamente as Universidades. Ressalta-se que a Rede promovem as tecnologias colaborativas e, por conseguinte formas de comunicação adequadas ao perfil e conhecimento específico das VCoPs. O Ambiente Virtual Colaborativo é chamado de espaço Ba onde se estabelece as interações e a criação, organização, aquisição, disseminação, acesso, compartilhamento do conhecimento novo, por conseguinte, as melhores práticas colaborativas das VCoPs. Entretanto, pouco se investiga como formalizar e representar os processos estruturantes- formação, comunicação e colaboração- das VCoPs nas Universidades e sua contribuição efetiva na interação com o Governo. Esta Tese tem como objetivo propor um framework conceitual do Ambiente Virtual Colaborativo para formalizar e representar os processos estruturantes das VCoPs, e assim especificar uma metodologia projetual da interface digital interativa, na promoção do acesso e compartilhamento do conhecimento entre as VCoPs as Universidades. As abordagens utilizadas nesta pesquisa são Interação Humano-Computador (IHC) e Design Centrado no Usuário (DCU) e apóia-se na convergência interdisciplinar de vários modelos teóricos das VCoPs, Colaboração 2.0, Comunicação em Rede e Criação do Conhecimento, expandindo assim a Teoria da Cognição Situada. Respondendo questões referentes aos aspectos comunidade, ambiente e conhecimento como conceitos-chave gerados a partir da inter-relação e integração conceitual destes modelos. O entendimento destes aspectos contribuiu para elaborar e verificar os requisitos-orientações que dão suporte à metodologia projetual na concepção da interface digital interativa. Para isso apresenta-se as telas da interface digital do Ambiente Virtual Colaborativo. Abstract : The evolution of Internet media has favored for bringing people together with common interests in situated learning and collective, facilitating the formation, communication and collaboration between the Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs) through the interactive digital interface. The VCoPs become more visible with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), these resources made available by the Internet media amplify the condition of the network in the context of applications of Electronic Government (e-Gov), specifically the Universities. It is emphasized that the network promotes collaborative technologies and therefore forms of communication appropriate to the profile and expertise the VCoPs. The Collaborative Virtual Environment is named the Ba space which establishes the interactions and the creation, organization, acquisition, dissemination, access, sharing new knowledge, therefore, best practices collaborative of VCoPs. However, do not is researched as formalized and represent the processes structural- training, communication and collaboration- VCoPs of the Universities their effective contribution in interacting with the Government. This thesis aims to propose a conceptual framework of the Collaborative Virtual Environment to formalize and represent the processes of structuring of the VCoPs, and thus specify a methodology projetual interactive digital interface, in promoting access and sharing of knowledge between VCoPs Universities. The approaches used are the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Centered Design (DCU), and is based on the interdisciplinary convergence of various theoretical models, providing the formalization and representation of the conceptual framework as from the interrelation and integration of conceptual the models of VCoPs, Collaboration 2.0, Communication under Network and Knowledge Creation, thereby expanding the Theory of Situated Cognition. Answering questions pertaining to community aspects, environment and knowledge as the key concepts generated from the interrelation and integration conceptual of these models.The understanding of these aspects has contributed to elaborate and verify requirements-guidelines that give support to the project methodology in the design of interactive digital interface. For that is presented the wireframe of the digital interface Collaborative Virtual Environment