A Case Study on Participatory Approach to Support Shift to Experience Design of Work Tools in B2B Context

To support the shift from technology-driven to experience-driven design in a company developing work tools (materials handling equipment), we developed and applied a participatory approach to increase awareness and buy-in of experience design and related methods at the company. We 1) present user experience (UX) design guidelines developed for both designers and managers based on the participatory process, 2) report evaluation of the guidelines with designers, developers, and selected internal and external stakeholders, and 3) present a participatory approach to create personas and experience journey maps covering the product life-cycle. SWOT analysis of the guidelines revealed that guidelines need to be understandable without expert UX knowledge, managerial support is needed that was aimed to be supported by the guidelines developed for managers, and representative user participation is needed. Participants experienced positively the applied participatory approach, and the mindset change is proceeding in the case company

The current state of measuring return on investment in user experience design

Incorporating user experience (UX) design into system development processes can give an organisation a competitive advantage over its rivals. Embedding UX design into system development processes requires investment in skilled professionals, who in turn, follow a methodical process to make UX design an integral part of the organisation. Despite the value that can be added by UX design, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) in UX design remains a perennial challenge because of the difficulty associated with explicitly linking UX design with good ROI, to the exclusion of other system development processes. This paper reports on the emerging perspectives on measuring ROI in UX design in a selection of South African organisations. Interviews were conducted with 33 UX professionals from four organisations to get insight into how ROI in UX design is measured in their respective organisations. The results showed that some participants were aware of the metrics that could be used to measure ROI in UX design. However, none of the four organisations were specifically calculating ROI in UX. Rather, ROI was being calculated on an entire project.http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.zaInformatic

Yksinyrittäjien taloushallintokäytännöt sähköisen taloushallinnon kontekstissa

Self-employment has been growing steadily in Finland, meaning that individual entrepreneurs have become an important customer segment for many service providers. Thus it is becoming a more significant user group for software companies who design and develop accounting-related software as well. This thesis studies the accounting-related practices of Finnish individual entrepreneurs, especially in the context of electronic accounting, or E-accounting. Specific focus is placed on entrepreneurs who utilize the services of external accounting firms, meaning that they have outsourced at least some of their accounting-related tasks. The objective of the research is to conclude insights of this particular user group, which could later be applied in the design phase of accounting software. The research was conducted with a qualitative approach using such methods as semi-structured interview as well as contextual inquiry. Furthermore, user feedback by individual entrepreneurs regarding a particular accounting software (Finago Procountor) was collected and analyzed. The results indicate that individual entrepreneurs have varying professional and educational backgrounds, which also makes their accounting-related skills and practices highly variable. Regardless of their background, typical work-related challenges faced by entrepreneurs include financial instability and time management. This makes it vital to design accounting software with user-centered design methods; by providing an optimal user experience and usability, the entrepreneurs can perform relevant accounting-related tasks effortlessly and also consider the software worth its costs. While individual entrepreneurs have varying skills and backgrounds, they tend to outsource the same accounting-related tasks to their accountants, leaving the entrepreneurs themselves with such tasks as invoicing, receipt handling and monitoring of their financial status. Therefore when designing an accounting software specifically for such entrepreneurial users, these tasks should be placed under more focus. Furthermore, the results indicate that the perceived complexity of current E-accounting solutions together with the experienced lack of time leads to the entrepreneurs handling their accounting-related tasks separately from their core business activities, meaning that accounting-related tasks are not well integrated into the everyday work of entrepreneurs.Itsensä työllistäminen on yleistynyt tasaisesti Suomessa, minkä vuoksi yksinyrittäjistä on tullut tärkeä asiakassegmentti monelle palveluntarjoajalle. Näin ollen yksinyrittäjien merkitys on kasvanut myös käyttäjäryhmänä yrityksille, jotka suunnittelevat ja kehittävät taloushallinnon ohjelmistoja. Tämä diplomityö tutkii suomalaisten yksinyrittäjien taloushallintokäytäntöjä, erityisesti sähköisen taloushallinnon kontekstissa. Varsinainen painoarvo on niissä yrittäjissä, jotka käyttävät ulkoisten tilitoimistojen palveluita ja ovat täten ulkoistaneet ainakin osan taloushallintoon liittyvistä toimenpiteistään. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on kerätä tähän käyttäjäryhmään liittyviä havaintoja, joita voitaisiin myöhemmin hyödyntää taloushallinto-ohjelmiston suunnitteluvaiheessa. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisella lähestymistavalla hyödyntäen tutkimusmenetelminä esimerkiksi haastatteluja ja kontekstuaalista havainnointia. Lisäksi yksinyrittäjiltä kerättiin ja analysoitiin käyttäjäpalautetta eräästä taloushallinnon ohjelmistosta (Finago Procountor). Tulokset osoittavat, että yksinyrittäjien monimuotoinen ammatillinen sekä koulutuksellinen tausta tekevät myös heidän taloushallintokäytännöistään ja siihen liittyvistä taidoistaan vaihtelevia. Taustastaan riippumattomasti yksinyrittäjien työssään kohtaamat vaikeudet tyypillisesti liittyvät epävakaaseen talouteen ja ajanhallintaan. Tästä syystä taloushallinto-ohjelmiston suunnittelu käyttäjälähtöisin menetelmin on erityisen tärkeää; ohjelmiston tarjotessa optimaalisen käytettävyyden ja käyttäjäkokemuksen yrittäjät pystyvät hoitamaan taloushallintoon liittyvät tehtävänsä vaivattomasti, ja täten pitää ohjelmistoa kustannustensa arvoisena. Vaikka yksinyrittäjien taidot ja taustat vaihtelevat, heillä on tapana ulkoistaa samankaltaisesti taloushallintoon liittyviä toimenpiteitä kirjanpitäjilleen, jättäen yrittäjille itselleen vastuualueiksi esim. laskutuksen, kuittien käsittelyn ja taloudellisen tilanteensa seuraamisen. Siksi taloushallinto- ohjelmistoa suunnitellessa näihin osa-alueisiin tulisi kiinnittää erityistä huomiota. Lisäksi tulokset osoittavat, että nykyisten taloushallinto-ohjelmistojen koettu monimutkaisuus yhdessä koetun ajanpuutteen kanssa johtavat siihen, että yrittäjät hoitavat taloushallintoon liittyvät tehtävänsä erillään muusta työstään, jolloin taloushallinnon hoitaminen ei ole täydellisesti integroitunut yksinyrittäjän arkeen

Integrating User eXperience Principles and Practices into Software Development Organizations: An Empirical Investigation

Background: To be effective, User eXperience (UX) principles and practices need to be integrated into development processes and organizations, what we refer to as UX integration. However, software companies often face various challenges that hinder a successful UX integration. Objective: The aim of this thesis is to facilitate and improve the current state of UX integration in the software industry. To that end, we present an empirical investigation of current UX integration challenges and success factors and analyze them in relation to other software quality characteristics, in particular, usability. Method: We performed a series of studies, mainly in the Swedish software industry and applied a variety of methods including interviews, observations, and workshops. We used Grounded Theory (GT) and thematic analysis to drive our data gathering and to analyze our data. Results: We showed that UX integration challenges and success factors are both technical and organizational, however, they mainly belong to the latter category. We found that various decisions that are made outside the authority of UX practitioners have an inevitable impact on enabling or prohibiting UX integration and that the integration is influenced by various changes that organizations undergo over time as well as planned UX initiatives. Our findings underline the similarities between UX integration and organizational change, in general, and Software Process Improvement (SPI) in particular. We also found that the known unique characteristics of UX (subjective, holistic, dynamic, context-dependent, and worthwhile) have implications not only for the day-to-day work of practitioners but also for UX integration. Based on our findings, we propose various UX integration principles and practices to help software companies in their integration efforts. Conclusion: We argue that to prevent a lopsided focus on the pragmatic aspect of UX in the software industry, software practitioners and researchers should explicitly differentiate between UX and other software quality characteristics, in particular, usability and address the unique characteristics of UX in their work. In addition, they should apply the existing body of knowledge in the two fields of organizational change and SPI especially to address the organizational issues concerning UX integration. Although our focus has been on UX, our findings also may shed light on integrating other multidisciplinary and emerging concepts into the complex context of software organizations

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

Improving usability outcomes in IS projects: the views of usability practitioners

What are the key aspects to achieving acceptable usability outcomes for information systems being developed? The changing technologies and increased usage across the general population, the impacts of this in our everyday lives, at work and at leisure are exponentially increasing. The interfaces and interaction styles presented as part of these technologies have been challenged to be more intuitive, contextually sensitive, location aware, human centred and aimed at a larger community of stakeholders. Performing usability activities is an increasingly important part of the development of new technologies, applications and websites. This study examined, for Information System projects, what were the key aspects that impacted on the usability outcome of developing Information Systems. This study presents a theory that describes how projects can improve their usability outcomes. This has emerged from interviews with experienced usability practitioners currently working in the usability industry. The transcripts from the qualitative interviews were analysed using a grounded theory methodology, which was an inductive and interpretive process in nature. The result of this analysis produced twenty-seven key concepts. These concepts were compared and contrasted against the literature. The theory that emerged consists of four major themes that included: usability mindset, collaborative approach, project constraints and usability practice. The key contribution to knowledge is the relationship concept between these themes. This is the nurturing of the usability mindset for the project stakeholders through involvement in usability activities throughout the project lifecycle. This engagement provides opportunities to elicit, understand and concord the usability goals, project constraints and the technological limitations with project stakeholders. The involvement of all project stakeholders promotes usability value and acceptance, which ideally progresses to a shared usability vision for the project and ultimately a usability mindset that can be utilised beyond a specific project and across an organisation

Introducing User-Centred Design: a Longitudinal Study of a Healthcare Informatics Organisation

Information System designers report increasing difficulties applying User-Centred Design (UCD) techniques effectively due to the growing complexity of the domains in which they work and the techniques’ prescriptive nature. The rapid growth of “Big Data” and associated analytical tools thus demands closer investigation of UCD activities and processes within the complex and rapidly-changing work domains in which they are designed, developed and used. This thesis reports a longitudinal case study from inside a commercial organisation, through a six-year Action Research collaboration to introduce and embed UCD techniques in the design of health informatics tools in the UK. An assessment of the initial modus operandi is followed by the development of personas with data from interviews, user-generated screen captures and database server log files; these informed the redesign, evaluation and testing of the organisation’s flagship product. Finally, stakeholder interviews explore the wider impact of UCD techniques. In so doing, this thesis shows the value of auto-ethnographic documentation, based on being embedded in a design team and collaborative reflection, for practice-led research; it found the organisation’s culture around UCD was dynamic and design practices can change this culture through, for example, training opportunities and fostering customer relations. Individuals and extrinsic factors played strikingly key roles in reshaping the organisation’s culture; the commitment and resilience of individuals was important for sustaining UCD activities across several reorganisations and changes in business strategy. Finally, this thesis comprehensively presents and evaluates an innovative approach for grounding personas in database server and user-generated content. These findings concern both research and practice by informing the scope of the designer’s role, educational programmes and Action Research collaborations. They call for further attention on the compatibility of design and development processes and suggest that design practice can not only be tailored to organisations, but organisations can be fitted to design practice with the reassessment of the value of some UCD activities. Finally, this thesis can inform approaches to practice-led research, and more effective and efficient strategies for the introduction of UCD techniques to other organisations from the base of their hierarchy