Ordinary user experiences at work: a study of greenhouse growers

We investigate professional greenhouse growers’ user experience (UX) when using climate-management systems in their daily work. We build on the literature on UX, in particular UX at work, and extend it to ordinary UX at work. In a ten-day diary study, we collected data with a general UX instrument (AttrakDiff), a domain-specific instrument, and interviews. We find that AttrakDiff is valid at work; its three-factor structure of pragmatic quality, hedonic identification quality, and hedonic stimulation quality is recognizable in the growers’ responses. In this paper, UX at work is understood as interactions among technology, tasks, structure, and actors. Our data support the recent proposal for the ordinariness of UX at work. We find that during continued use UX at work is middle-of-the-scale, remains largely constant over time, and varies little across use situations. For example, the largest slope of the four AttrakDiff constructs when regressed over the ten days was as small as 0.04. The findings contrast existing assumptions and findings in UX research, which is mainly about extraordinary and positive experiences. In this way, the present study contributes to UX research by calling attention to the mundane, unremarkable, and ordinary user experiences at work

Modélisation synthétique quantitative de plusieurs années d’activité. Quelle articulation entre signification en situation et complexité longitudinale ?

Un problème récurrent des recherches longitudinales sur l’activité humaine est leur absence d’articulation entre modèle analytique qualitatif et modèle synthétique quantitatif d’évolution dynamique. Cette absence engendre des difficultés dans la justification des choix d’analyse et de synthèse et empêche d’aboutir à une démarche déductive sur les dynamiques longitudinales. Dans le cadre d’une recherche empirique et technologique longitudinale de 3 ans sur l’appropriation, cet article discute des conditions de production et de l’utilité d’une modélisation synthétique quantitative de la complexité longitudinale de l’activité individuelle, en articulation avec une méthode analytique qualitative. Plus que la mobilisation d’un modèle seul et pré-donné, le travail de modélisation relève d’une articulation active entre méthodes-modèles analytiques (classiques en analyse d’activité) et méthodes-modèles synthétiques. Cette articulation offre des perspectives d’amélioration des études longitudinales centrées sur l’activité humaine et fournit des supports visuels utiles en projet de conception. Nous discutons des apports et limites de ce travail vis-à-vis de l’analyse de l’activité en ergonomie de langue française et des sciences de la complexité plus souvent mobilisées dans les facteurs humains.One recurring problem in longitudinal research on human activity is the lack of articulation between qualitative analytical models and quantitative synthetic models of the dynamic evolution. This absence makes it difficult to justify analysis and synthesis choices and prevents a deductive approach to longitudinal dynamics. Within the framework of a 3-year longitudinal empirical and technological research on appropriation, this article discusses the conditions of production and the usefulness of a quantitative synthetic model of the longitudinal complexity of individual activity, in conjunction with a qualitative analytical method. More than the mobilization of a single, pre-data model, the modelling work involves an active articulation between analytical model-methods (classical in activity analysis) and synthetic model-methods. This linkage offers prospects for improving longitudinal studies centred on human activity and provides useful visual support for design projects. We discuss the contributions and limits of this work with respect to activity analysis in French-language ergonomics and the complexity sciences most often mobilized in human factors

Lab Testing Beyond Usability: Challenges and Recommendations for Assessing User Experiences

In the “third wave” of human-computer interaction (HCI), the advent of the conceptual approach of UX broadens and changes the HCI landscape. Methods approved before, mainly within the conceptual approach of usability, are still widely used, and yet their adequacy for UX evaluation remains uncertain in many applications. Laboratory testing is undoubtedly the most prominent example of such a method. Hence, in this study, we investigated how the more comprehensive and emotional scope of UX can be assessed by laboratory testing. In this paper, we report on a use case study involving 70 participants. They first took part in user/laboratory tests and then were asked to evaluate their experience with the two systems (perceived UX) by filling out an AttrakDiff scale and a UX needs fulfillment questionnaire. We conducted post-test interviews to better understand participants’ experiences. We analyzed how the participants’ perceived UX depends on quantitative (e.g., task completion time, task sequence, level of familiarity with the system) and qualitative aspects (think aloud, debriefing interviews) within the laboratory context. Results indicate that the laboratory setting has a strong impact on the participants’ perceived UX, and support a discussion of the quality and limitations of laboratory evaluations regarding UX assessment. In this paper, we have identified concrete challenges and have provided solutions and tips useful for both practitioners and researchers who seek to account for the subjective, situated, and temporal nature of the UX in their assessments

Modelação sintética quantitativa de vários anos de atividade: qual é a relação entre significado na situação e complexidade longitudinal?

Um problema recorrente na investigação longitudinal sobre a atividade humana é a falta de articulação entre modelos analíticos qualitativos e modelos sintéticos quantitativos de evolução dinâmica. Esta ausência cria dificuldades na justificação das escolhas de análise e síntese e impede uma abordagem dedutiva das dinâmicas longitudinais. No âmbito de uma investigação empírica e tecnológica longitudinal de 3 anos sobre apropriação, este artigo discute as condições de produção e a utilidade de um modelo sintético quantitativo da complexidade longitudinal da atividade individual, em articulação com um método analítico qualitativo. Mais do que a mobilização de um modelo único de dados prévios, o trabalho de modelação envolve uma articulação ativa entre modelos-métodos analíticos (clássicos na análise de atividade) e modelos-métodos sintéticos. Discutimos as contribuições e limites deste trabalho no que diz respeito à análise da atividade na ergonomia de língua francesa e as ciências da complexidade mais frequentemente mobilizadas em fatores humanos.Un problema recurrente en la investigación longitudinal sobre la actividad humana es la falta de articulación entre los modelos analíticos cualitativos y los modelos sintéticos cuantitativos de la evolución dinámica. Esta ausencia crea dificultades para justificar las opciones de análisis y síntesis e impide un enfoque deductivo de la dinámica longitudinal. En el marco de una investigación empírica y tecnológica longitudinal de tres años sobre la apropiación, este artículo analiza las condiciones de producción y la utilidad de un modelo sintético cuantitativo de la complejidad longitudinal de la actividad individual, junto con un método analítico cualitativo. Más que la movilización de un único modelo de datos previo, la labor de modelización supone una articulación activa entre los métodos de modelos analíticos (clásicos en el análisis de actividades) y los métodos de modelos sintéticos. Discutimos las contribuciones y los límites del presente trabajo con respecto al análisis de la actividad efectuado por la ergonomía de lengua francesa y a las ciencias de la complejidad que se movilizan más a menudo en los factores humanos.Un problème récurrent des recherches longitudinales sur l’activité humaine est leur absence d’articulation entre modèle analytique qualitatif et modèle synthétique quantitatif d’évolution dynamique. Cette absence engendre des difficultés dans la justification des choix d’analyse et de synthèse et empêche d’aboutir à une démarche déductive sur les dynamiques longitudinales. Dans le cadre d’une recherche empirique et technologique longitudinale de 3 ans sur l’appropriation, cet article discute des conditions de production et de l’utilité d’une modélisation synthétique quantitative de la complexité longitudinale de l’activité individuelle, en articulation avec une méthode analytique qualitative. Plus que la mobilisation d’un modèle seul et pré-donné, le travail de modélisation relève d’une articulation active entre méthodes-modèles analytiques (classiques en analyse d’activité) et méthodes-modèles synthétiques. Nous discutons des apports et limites de ce travail vis-à-vis de l’analyse de l’activité en ergonomie de langue française et des sciences de la complexité plus souvent mobilisées dans les facteurs humains.A recurring problem in longitudinal research on human activity is the lack of articulation between qualitative analytical models and quantitative synthetic models of the dynamic evolution. This absence creates difficulties in justifying the choices of analysis and synthesis and prevents a deductive approach to longitudinal dynamics. Within the framework of a 3-year longitudinal empirical and technological research on appropriation, this paper discusses the conditions of production and the usefulness of a quantitative synthetic model of the longitudinal complexity of individual activity, in conjunction with a qualitative analytical method. More than the mobilization of a single, pre-data model, the modeling work involves an active articulation between analytical model-methods (classical in activity analysis) and synthetic model-methods. We discuss the contributions and limits of this work with respect to activity analysis in French-language ergonomics and the complexity sciences more often mobilized in human factors

Web-based survey tool and its evaluation

Retrospektiivisessä pitkän aikavälin käyttäjäkokemustutkimuksessa ollaan kiinnostuneita tuotteen tai palvelun käyttöön liittyvistä muistikuvista. Eräs tapa kerätä retrospektiivistä käyttäjäkokemustietoa on käyränpiirtotehtävä, jossa vastaaja piirtää käyttäjäkokemuksensa laadusta kuvaajan. Tässä työssä jatkokehitettiin ja arvioitiin käyränpiirtotehtäviin perustuvaa web-kyselytyökalua, jolla voi toteuttaa retrospektiivisiä pitkän aikavälin käyttäjäkokemuksen etätutkimuksia. Jatkokehitykseen kuului lukuisia ominaisuuksia ja näkymiä, joista tärkeimmät ovat vastausten tarkasteluun kehitetty näkymä, mobiilivastausnäkymä ja pitkittäistutkimuksia tukeva kyselytyyppi. Järjestelmä kehitettiin PHP-kielellä CodeIgniter-kehyksen avulla. Kuvaajat toteutettiin Highcharts-kirjastolla. Työssä myös toteutettiin järjestelmän nykyisen toteutuksen arviointi. Arvioinnissa toteutusta verrattiin järjestelmälle asetettuihin vaatimuksiin, joista rakennettiin laatukriteeripuu. Arvioinnissa huomioitiin järjestelmän sopivuus käyttöön, tehokkuus ja ylläpidettävyys. Arvioinnin pohjalta järjestelmän havaittiin olevan ominaisuusvalikoimaltaan kattava, mutta joidenkin näkymien käytettävyydessä on vielä puutteita. Teknologiavalinnat ja perusarkkitehtuuri todettiin onnistuneiksi. Eräästä näkymästä löytyi merkittävä tehokkuusongelma. Ylläpidettävyysarvioinnissa kooditiedostojen pituus ja rakenne havaittiin ongelmalliseksi. Tehokkuuteen ja ylläpidettävyyteen vaikuttivat negatiivisesti myös eräät monimutkaiset syötteenkäsittely- ja kommunikointisekvenssit. Lisäksi kehitysprosessissa itsessään oli puutteita erityisesti testauksen ja dokumentoinnin suhteen. Työssä saatiin järjestelmään onnistuneesti kehitettyä lähes kaikki projektin aikana toteutettaviksi suunnitellut ominaisuudet. Lisäksi arvioinnissa saatiin kattava käsitys toteutuksen vahvuuksista ja ongelmakohdista. Lopuksi muodostettiin lista parannus- ja jatkokehityssuosituksista. Suosituksista olennaisimmat ovat järjestelmän kattava testaaminen, tulosten tarkastelunäkymän suorituskyvyn parantaminen käyräobjektien laiskalla alustamisella, syötteenkäsittelyn erottaminen omaksi kerroksekseen ja joidenkin epäideaalien sekvenssien uudelleensuunnittelu

Televisão interativa (ITV) e dispositivos second-screen: características de uma aplicação de disponibilização de cupões

O aparecimento das tecnologias, nomeadamente aplicações para dispositivos móveis tem facilitado, em diversos aspetos, o quotidiano das pessoas. Face a isto, diversos setores do mercado fazem questão de acompanhar esta evolução e garantir que os seus clientes acedam a produtos, informações e suas vantagens à distância de um clique. Esta dissertação incide nas funcionalidades e características essenciais para uma aplicação móvel de disponibilização de descontos direcionada para qualquer indivíduo com mais de dezoito anos. A investigadora em conjunto com a equipa Smartly e a alticeLabs conceptualizaram e desenvolveram uma aplicação móvel com esse objetivo. Concluído o protótipo da aplicação e, com o propósito de priorizar as necessidades reais dos consumidores, foram realizados testes de usabilidade e experiência de utilizador com vinte e três indivíduos. Primeiramente, foi feito um inquérito de hábitos de consumo de televisão, dispositivos móveis e cupões de desconto. De seguida, e após a interação com a aplicação, foi realizado um inquérito de avaliação da mesma e, para terminar, uma entrevista para obter informações mais detalhadas. Esta fase, permitiu avaliar a pertinência da utilização de aplicações de cupões de desconto assim como, perceber se o produto desenvolvido obedece às expetativas dos utilizadores. Em suma, o objetivo deste projeto foi compreender a importância dos elementos visuais, funcionais e de interação que devem fazer parte de uma aplicação móvel de disponibilização de descontos, de modo a destacar a sua experiência de utilização por parte dos seus utilizadores.Technology emergence, in particular apps for mobile devices have facilitated, in various aspects, people’s everyday life. This being so, several market sectors insist on following this evolution and guarantee that their clientes access all the products, informations and benefits at a click’s distance. This dissertation focuses on essential funcionalities and characteristics for a mobile app that provides discounts for any user over 18 years old. The investigator, along with team Smartly and alticeLabs conceptualized and developed a mobile app for that purpose. Completed the app’s prototype and, with the purpose of prioritizing the consumer’s real needs, usability and user experience tests were made with twenty three individuals. Firstly, a survey was made for the television’s , mobile devices’ and discount coupons’ consumer habits. Thereafter, and after interacting with the app, a survey was made to evaluate it, followed by an interview to obtain more detailed information. This phase allowed to evaluate the applicability of discount coupon’s apps relevance, as well as understand if the developed product follows the user’s expectations. In conclusion, this project’s goal was to comprehend the importance of visual, functional and interaction elements that should be a part of a mobile app that provides discounts in order to highlight it’s use experience by the users.Mestrado em Comunicação Multimédi

Emotions in archetypal media content

Emotion is an intriguing and mysterious psychological phenomenon. While everyone seems to know what it is, researchers have not yet come to consensus on its definition, and many questions still remain unanswered. While the nature of emotion is yet to discover, the design community has noticed is importance, and poses the challenge of how emotion could inform design. We see the necessity to follow the state of the art in psychology and initiate the undertaking by exploring the emotional qualities in various types of media content. The first part of this thesis aims at constructing a theoretical framework. Recent years have seen empirical studies suggest that emotion could be unconscious. While this is to be further justified, scientists are motivated to reconsider current theories of emotion to account for this phenomenon. In light of this, we integrate these studies about unconscious emotion into our literature review. An overview from theory to practice is illustrated to provide a reference for viewing the current states in application domains, such as affective computing and emotional design. This review offers a holistic understanding about emotion from various perspectives, which allow us to look for new directions in future studies. Based on our review, we see a promising direction by applying psychoanalysis methods to analyze the media content as affective stimuli, and these stimuli can be evaluated by using quantitative measures to investigate the connection between the content and the corresponding emotions. The analysis on the media content is based on a psychoanalysis theory¿the theory of archetypes¿proposed by Carl Jung. He argues that there exists a universal pattern in humans¿ unconscious thoughts, which can be manifested as symbolic content in various forms of narratives, such as myth and fairy tales. Today, this archetypal symbolic content can be seen in modern media, particularly in movies. By applying the Jungian approach, we analyzed the symbolic meaning in movie scenes and edit these feature scenes into a collection of archetypal media content, which serve as the experimental materials for later explorations. In the second part of this thesis, we present three experimental studies that aim at determining if archetypal media content can be differentiated based on emotional responses. We adopted the psychoanalytical approach described earlier to collect feature scenes in movies as archetypal media content. Meanwhile, affective stimuli of explicit emotions are also included as benchmarks for comparison, such as sadness and joy. Self-reports and physiological signals are both adopted for measuring emotional responses. These three studies follow similar experimental design: presenting stimuli and measuring emotion concurrently. The results of these studies confirm that emotions induced by archetypal content are different from explicit emotions, and the statistical analysis further indicate that the predictive model obtained from physiological signals outperforms the model generated from self-reports while viewing archetypal media content. These results, however, are opposite to the results gained from affective stimuli of explicit emotions, leading us to the conclusion that archetypal media content might induce unconscious emotions, and physiological signals are more effective than self-reports for recognizing emotions induced by archetypal media content.La emoción es un fenómeno psicológico intrigante y misterioso. Aunque todo el mundo parece saber lo que es, los investigadores aún no han llegado a un consenso sobre su definición, y todavía quedan muchas preguntas sin respuesta. Si bien la naturaleza de las emociones está aún por descubrir, la comunidad de profesionales del diseño ha entendido su importancia, y se plantea el desafío de interrelacionar ambos mundos, explorando de las cualidades emocionales en diversos tipos de contenido en medios de comunicación. La primera parte de esta tesis tiene como objetivo la construcción de un marco teórico. Recientemente se han realizado estudios empíricos que sugieren que las emociones puede ser inconscientes. Si bien esto debe justificarse mejor, los científicos están motivados a reconsiderar las teorías actuales de la emoción para explicar este fenómeno. En vista de ello, integramos estos estudios sobre las emociones inconscientes en nuestra revisión de referencias bibliográficas incluyendo dominios de aplicación recientes, tales como la Computación Afectiva y el Diseño Emocional. Una dirección prometedora de investigación se basa en la aplicación de métodos del psicoanálisis para analizar contenidos multimedia como estímulos afectivos, y estos estímulos pueden ser evaluados mediante el uso de medidas cuantitativas para investigar la conexión entre el contenido y las emociones correspondientes. Este análisis se basa en la teoría de los arquetipos propuesto por el psicólogo Carl Jung. El autor sostiene que existe una patrón universal en los pensamientos inconscientes de los personas, que puede manifestarse como un símbolo contenido en las diversas formas de narrativas, como en los mitos y los cuentos de hadas. Hoy en día, estos arquetipos de contenido simbólico se puede ver frecuentemente en los contenidos multimedia modernos, sobre todo en las películas. Mediante la aplicación del enfoque de Jung, analizamos el significado simbólico en escenas de películas seleccionando las correspondientes a diversos arquetipos, que servirá como material experimental para exploraciones posteriores. En la segunda parte de esta tesis, se presentan tres estudios experimentales que apuntan a determinar si el contenido multimedia arquetípico puede diferenciarse en base a respuestas emocionales. Con el enfoque psicoanalítico descrito anteriormente para los arquetipos, también se incluye los estímulos afectivos de emociones explícitas son como puntos de referencia para la comparación, como la tristeza y la alegría. Se realizan auto-informes y se miden señales fisiológicas para la determinación de las respuestas emocionales en todos los experimentos realizados. Los resultados de estos estudios confirman que las emociones inducidas por arquetipos son diferentes de las emociones explícitas, y el análisis estadístico indica además que el modelo predictivo obtenido a partir de señales fisiológicas supera el modelo generado por los auto-informes durante la visualización de contenidos multimedia arquetípicos. Estos resultados, sin embargo, son opuestos a los resultados obtenidos a partir de los estímulos afectivos de emociones explícitas, llevándonos a la conclusión de que los contenidos de los medios arquetípicos podría inducir emociones inconscientes, y que las señales fisiológicas son más eficaces que los auto informes para el reconocimiento de las emociones inducidas por el contenido de medios arquetípico. En la tercera parte de esta tesis, exploramos cómo los contenidos arquetípicos podrían utilizarse para diseñar contenido multimedia mediante "mood boards". Se realizaron dos estudios con diseñadores para responder a la pregunta de investigación de si es posible generar contenido emocionalmente rico a través de la generación automática de contenido arquetípico por "mood boards" en comparación con el contenido multimedia no arquetípico

License to Supervise:Influence of Driving Automation on Driver Licensing

To use highly automated vehicles while a driver remains responsible for safe driving, places new – yet demanding, requirements on the human operator. This is because the automation creates a gap between drivers’ responsibility and the human capabilities to take responsibility, especially for unexpected or time-critical transitions of control. This gap is not being addressed by current practises of driver licensing. Based on literature review, this research collects drivers’ requirements to enable safe transitions in control attuned to human capabilities. This knowledge is intended to help system developers and authorities to identify the requirements on human operators to (re)take responsibility for safe driving after automation

Eliciting User Experience Information in Early Design Phases. The CARE Approach to In-Vehicle UX

Experience-rich input in early phases of a design process can offer valuable information and inspiration to designers. However, there are methodological challenges linked with efforts to understand future user experiences. Experience encompasses multi-layered and tacit data, such as emotions and value, that are important for commercial success but are difficult to elicit from users for existing products, and even more so for concepts in early design phases. At early design phases, the inevitably incomplete representations of product and use context influences the outcomes. It is typically easier to elicit usability-related aspects, meaning that other aspects of experience may be insufficiently addressed. The contribution of this thesis is an approach for eliciting rich user experience (UX) data in early design phases, building on six studies. This thesis employs in-vehicle user experience as a study case, but results are however presented on a methodological level that can also be of use to other interactive products. The overall research questions are: What signifies in-vehicle UX? How can UX data be elicited for input to novel in-vehicle concepts in early design phases?Firstly, the analysis phase of the design process was addressed, where a multi-method approach was employed to study current in-vehicle UX. UX is an umbrella term that has proven difficult to describe and conceptualise in studies. Therefore, the aim of the first study was to better understand what signifies the specific case of in-vehicle UX. Secondly, how to approach and understand user expectations on future autonomous cars was address in the two following studies, in order to address prospective research of novel systems. A method addressing research on user expectations was developed – Setting the Stage for Autonomous Cars. Thirdly, ideation was addressed in a series of workshops, containing generative and creative efforts for ideating future interactive in-vehicle systems. Methods such as enactment, small-scale scenarios, Wizard of Oz, a lo-fi driving simulator and the developed Setting the Stage for Autonomous Cars method were used. The final studies address concept evaluation, and comparatively explore the effects of choosing different product representations (storyboard and interactive prototype) and study contexts (Virtual Reality and in the field) in early UX evaluation. Based on the outcomes of the studies, an approach is proposed – the CARE approach – for enabling richer and more in-depth UX data in early design phases. This approach suggests that there is a need to Contextualise the researched experience (conveying the intended use situation and sentisising the participants to experience), enabling the participant to Act (enabling interaction even at the stages of very lo-fi concepts), supporting Reflection on the experience (enhanced by generative elements in the methods, such as drawing concepts and enacting use) and enabling the participant to Express the experience (in more ways than by just relying on words). Furthermore, the thesis presents findings regarding what signifies in-vehicle UX, for example whole-body, multi-sensory interactions, the importance of the temporal stage of use, the social and multi-device context, and the changing relationship between user and car with increased automation. The results emphasise the importance of addressing the multisensory use situation in each design phase and for participants to express experiences, not only in words but also through enactment and generative techniques