911,211 research outputs found
Designing a smooth service experience: Finding the balance between online and offline service
Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, kuinka digitaalisen ja analogisen palvelun voi paremmin
yhdistää kokonaispalveluksi niin, että asiakas saa mahdollisimman sujuvan palvelukokemuksen.
Tutkimuksen aihe nousee Tunteesta arvoa palvelulle –hankkeesta, jossa
toteutettiin palvelumuotoilun kehitysprojekteja yhdessä viiden yrityksen kanssa. Niistä
useammassa konseptien osana oli digitaalinen palvelu, mutta haasteeksi nousi digitaalisen
kanavan yhdistäminen analogiseen, eli fyysisessä tilassa tapahtuvaan palveluun.
Nykypäivänä digitaalisten palveluiden yleisyys on kasvanut ja ihmiset ovat yhä tottuneempia
käyttämään digitaalisia kanavia osana palvelukokonaisuutta. Toisaalta käyttäjät ovat
myös tietoisia digitaalisten kanavien tarjoamista mahdollisuuksista ja siten heidän odotuksensa
ja vaatimuksensa palvelua kohtaan kasvavat. Eri palvelukanavien välillä on kuitenkin
havaittavissa eroavaisuuksia ja siten yhtenäisen ja sujuvan palvelukokemuksen syntyminen
asiakkaalle on vaikeaa. Asiakkaan tarpeiden ja odotusten sekä yrityksen tavoitteiden
huomioiden palvelupolun luomisessa mahdollistavat palvelun sujuvan etenemisen palvelukanavien
välillä.
Tässä on laadullisessa tutkimuksessa tutkimusaineisto on kerätty puolistrukturoituina
teemahaastatteluina. Tutkimusaineisto on analysoitu teemoittelemalla ja tutkimuksen
löydökset vastaavat kysymyksiin, miten sujuva palvelukokemus muotoillaan palvelumuotoilun
menetelmin, ja miten digitaalisia ja analogisia palvelukanavia tasapainotetaan palvelupolussa.
Tutkimuksen tuloksen muodostaa seitsemästä osasta koostuva työkalu, jonka
tarkoituksena on toimia palvelun muotoilun ja kehittämisen tukena.While working as a research assistant in Value through Emotion research project at University
of Lapland and doing service design projects with several companies, I noticed that there
is a challenge in designing a service that combines online and offline service channels.
Nowadays the trend is to have an online service, such as service application, as a part of the
overall service path, but there is often a gap between the online and offline elements of the
service in regards of the communication and the quality of service delivery.
The customers are more and more used to digital service channels and they are aware of the
possibilities that online channels can provide. Therefore the customers have high expectations
about the service delivery. Designing a service that keeps the continuity throughout
the service despite the form of delivery channel would be a solution for providing the customer
a smooth service experience.
In this research I study how a smooth service experience can be built using service design
methods. I also study how the balance between online and offline service channels can be
found in the overall service path. The research data of partly structured theme interviews
are analysed by qualitative research methods. As a result for this case study I present a toolkit
with seven templates that can be used as a guideline and support in the service design
process when combining online and offline service elements as a smooth service experience
What May Visualization Processes Optimize?
In this paper, we present an abstract model of visualization and inference
processes and describe an information-theoretic measure for optimizing such
processes. In order to obtain such an abstraction, we first examined six
classes of workflows in data analysis and visualization, and identified four
levels of typical visualization components, namely disseminative,
observational, analytical and model-developmental visualization. We noticed a
common phenomenon at different levels of visualization, that is, the
transformation of data spaces (referred to as alphabets) usually corresponds to
the reduction of maximal entropy along a workflow. Based on this observation,
we establish an information-theoretic measure of cost-benefit ratio that may be
used as a cost function for optimizing a data visualization process. To
demonstrate the validity of this measure, we examined a number of successful
visualization processes in the literature, and showed that the
information-theoretic measure can mathematically explain the advantages of such
processes over possible alternatives.Comment: 10 page
The Cooperative Participatory Evaluation of Renewable Technologies on Ecosystem Services (CORPORATES)
Publisher PD
Vulnerable Users’ Perceptions of Transport Technologies
As the global population continues to grow, age and urbanize, it is vital to provide accessible transport so that neither ageing nor disability constitute barriers to social inclusion. While technology can enhance urban access, there is a need to study the ways by which transport technologies - real-time information, pedestrian navigation, surveillance, and road pricing - could be more effectively adopted by users. The reason for this is that some people, and particularly vulnerable populations, are still likely to reluctantly use (or even avoid using) technologies perceived as 'unknown' and 'complicated'. Based on evidence from British and Swedish case studies on older people's perceptions of the aforementioned transport technologies, as well as on a Swedish case study of visually impaired people's perceptions, this article makes the case that technology is only one tool in a complex socio-technical system, and one which brings challenges. The authors also suggest that although vulnerable populations are not homogeneous when expressing attitudes towards transport technologies, their assessment criteria tend to be 'pro-social' as they usually consider that the societal benefits outweigh the personal benefits. Emphasising aspects linked to the technologies' pro-social potential or relevance to the individual user could increase acceptance
Wisdom at Work: Retaining Experienced RNs and Their Knowledge: Case Studies of Top Performing Organizations
Presents seven case studies of top organizations in the healthcare sector and beyond and their proven and innovative strategies for retaining experienced workers. Identifies elements of success, best practices, and lessons for the nursing field overall
The Responsibility Quantification (ResQu) Model of Human Interaction with Automation
Intelligent systems and advanced automation are involved in information
collection and evaluation, in decision-making and in the implementation of
chosen actions. In such systems, human responsibility becomes equivocal.
Understanding human casual responsibility is particularly important when
intelligent autonomous systems can harm people, as with autonomous vehicles or,
most notably, with autonomous weapon systems (AWS). Using Information Theory,
we develop a responsibility quantification (ResQu) model of human involvement
in intelligent automated systems and demonstrate its applications on decisions
regarding AWS. The analysis reveals that human comparative responsibility to
outcomes is often low, even when major functions are allocated to the human.
Thus, broadly stated policies of keeping humans in the loop and having
meaningful human control are misleading and cannot truly direct decisions on
how to involve humans in intelligent systems and advanced automation. The
current model is an initial step in the complex goal to create a comprehensive
responsibility model, that will enable quantification of human causal
responsibility. It assumes stationarity, full knowledge regarding the
characteristic of the human and automation and ignores temporal aspects.
Despite these limitations, it can aid in the analysis of systems designs
alternatives and policy decisions regarding human responsibility in intelligent
systems and advanced automation
Considering the User in the Wireless World
The near future promises significant advances in communication capabilities, but one of the keys to success is the capability understanding of the people with regards to its value and usage. In considering the role of the user in the wireless world of the future, the Human Perspective Working Group (WG1) of the Wireless World Research Forum has gathered input and developed positions in four important areas: methods, processes, and best practices for user-centered research and design; reference frameworks for modeling user needs within the context of wireless systems; user scenario creation and analysis; and user interaction technologies. This article provides an overview of WG1's work in these areas that are critical to ensuring that the future wireless world meets and exceeds the expectations of people in the coming decades
Usable Security: Why Do We Need It? How Do We Get It?
Security experts frequently refer to people as “the weakest link in the chain” of system
security. Famed hacker Kevin Mitnick revealed that he hardly ever cracked a password,
because it “was easier to dupe people into revealing it” by employing a range of social
engineering techniques. Often, such failures are attributed to users’ carelessness and
ignorance. However, more enlightened researchers have pointed out that current security
tools are simply too complex for many users, and they have made efforts to improve
user interfaces to security tools. In this chapter, we aim to broaden the current perspective,
focusing on the usability of security tools (or products) and the process of designing
secure systems for the real-world context (the panorama) in which they have to operate.
Here we demonstrate how current human factors knowledge and user-centered design
principles can help security designers produce security solutions that are effective in practice
Society-in-the-Loop: Programming the Algorithmic Social Contract
Recent rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
have raised many questions about the regulatory and governance mechanisms for
autonomous machines. Many commentators, scholars, and policy-makers now call
for ensuring that algorithms governing our lives are transparent, fair, and
accountable. Here, I propose a conceptual framework for the regulation of AI
and algorithmic systems. I argue that we need tools to program, debug and
maintain an algorithmic social contract, a pact between various human
stakeholders, mediated by machines. To achieve this, we can adapt the concept
of human-in-the-loop (HITL) from the fields of modeling and simulation, and
interactive machine learning. In particular, I propose an agenda I call
society-in-the-loop (SITL), which combines the HITL control paradigm with
mechanisms for negotiating the values of various stakeholders affected by AI
systems, and monitoring compliance with the agreement. In short, `SITL = HITL +
Social Contract.'Comment: (in press), Ethics of Information Technology, 201
Evaluating the social and cultural implications of the internet
Since the Internet's breakthrough as a mass medium, it has become a topic of discussion because of its implications for society. At one extreme, one finds those who only see great benefits and consider the Internet a tool for freedom, commerce, connectivity, and other societal benefits. At the other extreme, one finds those who lament the harms and disadvantages of the Internet, and who consider it a grave danger to existing social structures and institutions, to culture, morality and human relations. In between one finds the majority, those who recognize both benefits and harms in the Internet as it currently exists and who recognize its usefulness while worrying about some of its negative impacts.As an example of a positive appraisal of the Internet, consider what Esther Dyson, one of the early enthusiasts for the Internet, states in her book Release 2.0. There, she claims: "The Net offers us a chance to take charge of our own lives and to redefine our role as citizens of local communities and of a global society. It also hands us the responsibility to govern ourselves, to think for ourselves, to educate our children, to do business honestly, and to work with fellow citizens to design rules we want to live by." (Dyson, 1997). Dyson argues that the Internet offers us the chance to build exciting communities of likeminded individuals, enables people to redefine their work as they see fit, fosters truth-telling and information disclosure, helps build trust between people, and can function for people as a second home.For a negative appraisal, consider the opinion of the Council of Torah Sages, a group of leading orthodox rabbis in Israel who in 2000 issued a ruling banning the Internet from Jewish homes. The Council claimed that the Internet is "1,000 times more dangerous than television" (which they banned thirty years earlier). The Council described the Internet as "the world's leading cause of temptation" and "a deadly poison which burns souls" that "incites and encourages sin and abomination of the worst kind." The Council explained that it recognized benefits in the Internet, but saw no way of balancing these with the potential cost, which they defined as exposure to "moral pollution" and possible addiction to Internet use that could quash the motivation to learn Torah, especially among children. ( See Ha'aretz, January 7, 2000.)Even the greatest critics of the Internet, like the Council of Torah Sages, see benefits in the technology, and even the greatest advocates recognize that there are drawbacks to the medium. People have different opinions on what the benefits and disadvantages are and also differ in the way in which they balance them against each other. Underlying these different assessments of the Internet are different value systems. Esther Dyson holds a libertarian value system in which the maximization of individual freedom, property rights and free market capitalism are central values. Her positive assessment of the Internet is based on the potential she sees in this technology to promote these values. In contrast, the values Council of Torah Sages are values of Hareidi, a variety of orthodox Judaism, according to which the highest good is obedience to God's law as laid out in the Torah, and they concluded, based on these values, that the Internet is harmful.Yet, it is not just differences in value systems that determine one's appraisal of a technology like the Internet. Such an appraisal is also determined by one's empirical understanding of how the technology works and what its consequences or implications are. People often come to unduly positive or negative appraisals of technology because they assess its consequences wrongly. For instance, some people believe that Internet use increases the likelihood of social isolation, but empirical research could conceivably show that in fact the opposite is the case. Disagreements about the positive and negative aspects of the internet may therefore be either normative disagreements (disagreements about values) or empirical disagreements (disagreements about facts). Of course, it is not always easy to disentangle values and empirical facts, as these are often strongly interwoven.Next to contested benefits and harms of the Internet, there are also perceived harms and benefits that are fairly broadly acknowledged. For instance, nearly everyone agrees that the Internet has the benefit of making a large amount of useful information easily available, and nearly everyone agrees that the Internet can also be harmful by making dangerous, libelous and hateful information available. People have shared values and shared empirical beliefs by which they can come to such collective assessments.My purpose in this essay is to contribute to a better understanding of existing positive and negative appraisals of the Internet, as a first step towards a more methodical assessment of Internet technology. My focus will be on the appraisal of social and cultural implications of the Internet. Whether we like it or not, policy towards the Internet is guided by beliefs about its social and cultural benefits and harms. It is desirable, therefore, to have methods for making such beliefs explicit in order to analyze the values and empirical claims that are presupposed in them.In the next two sections (2 and 3), I will catalogue major perceived social and cultural benefits and harms of the Internet, that have been mentioned frequently in public discussions and academic studies. I will focus on perceived benefits and harms that do not seem to rest on idiosyncratic values, meaning that they seem to rest on values that are shared by most people. For instance, most people believe that individual autonomy is good, so if it can be shown that a technology enhances individual autonomy, most people would agree that this technology has this benefit. Notice, however, that even when they share this value, people may disagree on the benefits of the technology in question, because they may have different empirical beliefs on whether the technology actually enhanced individual autonomy.Cataloguing such perceived cultural benefits and harms is, I believe, an important first step towards a social and cultural technology assessment of the Internet and its various uses. An overview of perceived benefits and harms may provide a broader perspective on the Internet that could be to the benefit of both friends and foes, and can contribute to a better mutual understanding between them. More importantly, it provides a potential starting point for a reasoned and methodical analysis of benefits and harms. Ideas on how such an analysis may be possible, in light of the already mentioned facts that assessments are based on different value systems, will be developed in section 4. In a concluding section, I sketch the prospects for a future social and cultural technology assessment of the Internet
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