User data spectrum theory: Collecting, interpreting, and implementing user data in organizations

Organizations interested in increasing their user experience (UX) capacity lack the tools they need to know how to do so. This dissertation addresses this challenge via three major research efforts: 1) the creation of User Data Spectrum theory and a User Data Spectrum survey for helping organizations better invest resources to grow their UX capacity, 2) a new UX method and model for organizations that want to capitalize on spoken words from end users called Rapid Meaningful Scenarios (RMS), and 3) a recommendation for UX education in response to the current ACM SIGCHI education Living Curriculum initiative. The User Data Spectrum work is based on 30 interviews and 110 survey responses from UX stakeholders across 120 companies. These data informed the theory as well as a factor analysis performed to identify the most relevant items in the User Data Spectrum survey. The Rapid Meaningful Scenarios methodology was developed based on iterative UX experience with a real-world organization and refined to aid UX professionals in creating structured results based on end users\u27 words. The UX education recommendation integrates experience with the HCI curriculum at Iowa State University and curriculum discussions within the SIGCHI community over the past 5 years. The overall contribution of this research is a set of tools that will enable UX professionals and organizations to better strategize how to increase their UX capacity

Aging-related technologies: A multiple case study of innovation processes

Introduction: As part of a Canadian research network focused on aging and technology – Aging Gracefully across Environments using technology to support Wellness, Engagement, and Long Life (AGE-WELL) – this thesis explored how technologies currently being developed to support older adults and their caregivers fare through the processes of innovation. This included an exploration of the factors that might facilitate or constrain these new technologies from their initial development to implementation, as well as any policy, regulatory and/or health system issues that may be relevant. Methods: A multiple case study was conducted of four AGE-WELL technology projects. For each, data were collected through: interviews with project members and key stakeholders (n=20); surveys (n=4); ethnographic observations at each project site (n=4); and document reviews. Data were analyzed using directed coding, guided by the ADOPT (Accelerating Diffusion of Proven Technologies for Older Adults) framework (Wang et al., 2010). The results were compared across sites using a cross-case analysis. Results: Challenges related to the initial stages of the work included obtaining ethics clearance, recruitment of study participants, and getting small-scale studies completed. Challenges were also experienced in creating business models – including uncertainties around who might benefit from or pay for the technologies. Facilitators included collaboration among stakeholders (e.g. clinicians, industry, end-users) and support from the AGE-WELL network to form partnerships. Conclusions: Technologies have the potential to help older adults maintain their independence, health and quality of life. Understanding the factors that facilitate or constrain the development and implementation of these types of technologies can help promote their diffusion and adoption

Usability-enhanced coordination design of geovisualisations to communicate coastal flood risk information

For at least two millennia and probably much longer, the traditional vehicle for communicating geographical information to end-users has been the map. With the advent of computers, the means of both producing and consuming maps have radically been transformed, while the inherent nature of the information product has also expanded and diversified rapidly. This has given rise in recent years to the new concept of geovisualisation (GVIS), which draws on the skills of the traditional cartographer, but extends them into three spatial dimensions and may also add temporality, photorealistic representations and/or interactivity. Demand for GVIS technologies and their applications has increased significantly in recent years, driven by the need to study complex geographical events and in particular their associated consequences and to communicate the results of these studies to a diversity of audiences and stakeholder groups. GVIS has data integration, multi-dimensional spatial display advanced modelling techniques, dynamic design and development environments and field-specific application needs. To meet with these needs, GVIS tools should be both powerful and inherently usable, in order to facilitate their role in helping interpret and communicate geographic problems. However no framework currently exists for ensuring this usability. The research presented here seeks to fill this gap, by addressing the challenges of incorporating user requirements in GVIS tool design. It starts from the premise that usability in GVIS should be incorporated and implemented throughout the whole design and development process. To facilitate this, Subject Technology Matching (STM) is proposed as a new approach to assessing and interpreting user requirements. Based on STM, a new design framework called Usability Enhanced Coordination Design (UECD) is ten presented with the purpose of leveraging overall usability of the design outputs. UECD places GVIS experts in a new key role in the design process, to form a more coordinated and integrated workflow and a more focused and interactive usability testing. To prove the concept, these theoretical elements of the framework have been implemented in two test projects: one is the creation of a coastal inundation simulation for Whitegate, Cork, Ireland; the other is a flooding mapping tool for Zhushan Town, Jiangsu, China. The two case studies successfully demonstrated the potential merits of the UECD approach when GVIS techniques are applied to geographic problem solving and decision making. The thesis delivers a comprehensive understanding of the development and challenges of GVIS technology, its usability concerns, usability and associated UCD; it explores the possibility of putting UCD framework in GVIS design; it constructs a new theoretical design framework called UECD which aims to make the whole design process usability driven; it develops the key concept of STM into a template set to improve the performance of a GVIS design. These key conceptual and procedural foundations can be built on future research, aimed at further refining and developing UECD as a useful design methodology for GVIS scholars and practitioners