Developing human-centred framework and guidelines for disc golf application design

Abstract. Disc golf is an increasingly popular sport, especially in Finland and the USA. The disc golf industry and Professional Disc Golf Association have proceeded in the digital transformation; therefore, disc golf applications have penetrated the markets. There is a need for evaluating and developing the current quality of disc golf application design and looking for general guidelines for designing comprehensive applications. This thesis aims to study what kind of framework is hidden behind the disc golf application design from a human-centred perspective when also several stakeholders are concerned. The study is based on theoretical and empirical research. Theoretical research is conducted by literary review of existing disc golf application design guidelines, together with human-centred design, user-centred design, and stakeholder-centred design theory and methodologies in general. Nevertheless, a research gap is found as far as disc golf, golf, and sports application design are concerned. Thus, the review expands to study field practitioners and mobile health context. The literary review also examines disc golf as a sport and in numbers, together with current disc golf applications. Empirical research adapts human-centred design methods by studying users’ expectations, needs, and wishes in the mean of questionnaires, and interviews. Also, the context of use is identified and visited, user requirements are mapped, disc golf personas are created, and the disc golf application’s stakeholders are identified. Then, the method adapted from service-dominant logic is used for preparing value proposals for all disc golf application users, and other stakeholders. By adapting the design guidelines from the literature and empirical findings, the human-centred guidelines for disc golf application design (HGDG) framework is presented as the first main finding of the thesis. The HGDG framework can be used for disc golf application design and ensuring the usage of the human-centred approach. The second main finding, 15 design guidelines and instructions for disc golf application design reinforces the HGDG framework. The third main finding suggests using 15 design guidelines as a metric for evaluating if the designed application achieves an ideal win-win-…-win situation between of application provider, users, and other stakeholders

A cross-cultural study of the relation between users´ cognitive style, context of use, and information architecture of local websites

Increasing globalization and technological development has led companies and people across the globe to connect through the global internet community. However, people with different cultural backgrounds may perceive the same information in different ways. One of the hurdles to use websites efficiently is the indifferent structures of information on website, and their relation with the characteristics of intended users and the context of use for the websites. The purpose of this dissertation is to assist HumanNComputer Interaction (HCI) practitioners and researchers with better design of website structures for user groups with different cultural backgrounds. This dissertation looks into issues related to website user experience (UX) and focus on how the structuring of information is seen from local users’ perspectives. In particular, it attempts to look into the alignment between websites’ information architecture (IA) and users’ views of website information structure, by applying a crossNcultural and context of use perspective on the UX of websites in three countries: Pakistan, Malaysia, and Denmark. The researcher investigates to what degree users’ cognitive styles and contexts of use are aligned with local websites’ information architecture, and how this (lack of) alignment shapes the resulting UX

Unity-pelimoottorin lähestyttävyys pelinkehityksessä

Nykypäivän näyttävät videopelit ja niiden suuret markkinat luovat kiinnostavan pohjan pelimoottoreiden lähestyttävyyden tarkempaan tutkimiseen pelinkehityksessä. Tämä tutkielma käsittelee Unity-pelimoottorin lähestyttävyyttä pelinkehityksessä aloittelevan pelinkehittäjän näkökulmasta. Tutkielmassa tutustutaan myös muihin suosituimpiin pelimoottoreihin, joihin Unityä verrataan. Tutkielman tavoitteena on auttaa aloittelevia pelinkehittäjiä päättämään, onko Unity sopiva heille. Motivaationa työn tekemiseen on kirjoittajan oma kokemus videopeleistä sekä kiinnostus pelimoottoreita ja pelinkehitystä kohtaan. Lähestyttävyydelle ei ole olemassa vain yhtä ja tiettyä määritelmää. Tässä tutkielmassa se on määritelty tämän tutkielman tarkoitusperien pohjalta käyttäen valmiita kehittäjä- ja käyttäjäkokemuksen mittareita. Tutkielmassa lähestyttävyydellä tarkoitetaan ohjelmointiympäristön käyttäjäkokemuksen mittausta arvioimalla Unityn houkuttelevuutta, helppokäyttöisyyttä, hyödyllisyyttä sekä käyttöastetta. Lähestyttävyyttä tutkitaan olemassa olevan kirjallisuuden sekä käytännön esimerkin pohjalta. Tutkielma sisältää kirjallisuuskatsauksena luodun teoriaosuuden sekä käytännön esimerkin pelinkehityksestä. Teoriaosuus alkaa taustoittamalla aihetta pelinkehityksen prosessilla ja jatkuu tarkastelemalla syvemmin yleisempien pelimoottoreiden ominaisuuksia sekä lähestyttävyyttä. Pelimoottoreista Unity on valittu lähestyttävyyden tutkimisen keskiöön, sillä se on pelimoottoreista suosituin ja siitä on löydettävissä riittävästi tietoa kirjallisuuskatsauksen tekemiseen. Tutkielman lopussa käytännön esimerkissä luodaan pieni videopeli seuraamalla opetusvideoita, ja arvioidaan Unityn lähestyttävyyttä saatujen kokemusten perusteella. Olemassa oleva kirjallisuus osoittaa, että Unityn lähestyttävyys on hyvällä tasolla ja se on lähestyttävyydeltään paras suosituimmista pelimoottoreista. Tähän vaikuttaa suurelta osin käyttäjäystävällinen käyttöympäristö sekä laaja dokumentaatio ja suuri yhteisö, joka auttaa käyttäjiä ongelmatilanteiden ratkomisessa. Unityn vaatima ohjelmointitaito vaikuttaa olevan ainoa tekijä, joka heikentää sen lähestyttävyyttä. Muun muassa Unrealissa käytettävä visuaalinen ohjelmointi ei väitteiden mukaan vaadi lainkaan ohjelmointitaitoa. Käytännön esimerkissä voidaan yhtyä olemassa olevan kirjallisuuden väitteisiin Unityn lähestyttävyydestä. Kokemusten perusteella Unity on helppokäyttöinen ja nopeasti opittava, mutta vaatii ohjelmointitaitoa käyttäjältään

Fighting the dark side:a scoping review of dark pattern mitigation

Abstract. As technology plays an ever-greater role in the everyday life of people, during the last decade there has been a rising concern about designers using their knowledge of human behaviour to design interfaces that trick users into doing things against their best interest. These design patterns are known as dark patterns, and the human-computer interaction and design communities have condemned their use. Informed by research, lawmakers have also started to form regulations against them. This thesis aimed to first introduce what the current state of dark pattern research is, and then answer the research question of how the usage of dark patterns could be mitigated. To answer the research question, a literature review in the form of scoping review was conducted. In scoping review, 28 articles that considered dark pattern mitigation were found to be relevant to the research question. Thematic analysis was used as a qualitative analysis method to identify common themes in articles. As a result, dark pattern mitigation tactics could be divided into seven different themes: company actions and economic value, regulating dark patterns, raising public awareness, tools for users, designing for the well-being of users, educating designers and developers, and enhancing dark pattern research. Mitigation tactics or propositions were then introduced in more detail under these themes. The results of the scoping review demonstrate that there is no one specific weapon to be used in the fight against dark patterns. On the contrary, different techniques from different fields need to be used together to effectively identify and mitigate dark patterns

Mobile app to support cancer patients:caregivers’ view

Abstract. Mobile healthcare systems that support patients’ treatments have become more common in recent years. The purpose of this study was to find out how health care professionals experience the use of the AforCP mobile application when monitoring the breast cancer patients’ wellbeing, the assessment of the symptoms, the side effects of the treatments, and how the implementation of the application was experienced. The AforCP is a mobile application that allows cancer patients to determine their own health status and independently monitor their symptoms. In addition, cancer clinics can monitor the well-being of their patients and evaluate how the symptoms of the patients are developing in real-time. The study was carried out at a Finnish university hospital, where the AforCP information system had been in pilot use for about nine months. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study and the research material was collected from the theme interviews made to five health professionals including doctors and nurses. The content analysis was used to analyse the content of the interviews. Earlier studies have, among other things, demonstrated that patient-reported outcome systems may help communication between the patients and healthcare professionals and they may even prolong the survival time of cancer patients. Additional research was needed to gain insight into how the healthcare professionals perceived the AforCP system when following the patients’ healthcare. Healthcare professionals experienced that the AforCP reduced phone calls from the patients and the side effects of the treatments were received earlier. The patients were able to record information about their wellbeing at a time appropriate for them. They did not have to remember all important things when visiting a doctor and using a completely new drug. The healthcare professionals believed that the system could give a better picture of possible side effects than if it had been run without this system. The implementation of the AforCP system turned out to be a challenge. The interviewed healthcare professionals felt that the pilot project did not go as it was originally planned. Due to the small number of patients as users of the application the staff did not reach sufficient routine in using it. Some of them would have needed more training in the introduction phase. The integration into the main patient information system however would have reduced double recordings and saved working time from them. It is important to pay attention to the planning and implementation of the pilot project in which patient’s well-being is monitored so that users’ attitudes towards the use of the system could be as positive as possible. Health care professionals are especially looking for systems that could offer them savings in work time and give them a clear picture of how their patients are doing.Tiivistelmä. Terveydenhuollon mobiilijärjestelmät ovat yleistyneet viimeisten vuosien aikana potilaiden hoidon tukena. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, miten terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset kokivat AforCP mobiilisovelluksen käytön potilaiden hoidon tukena heidän voinnin ja hoidon haittavaikutusten seurannassa. AforCP on mobiilijärjestelmä, jonka avulla syöpäpotilaat voivat itse määrittää terveydentilansa ja monitoroida itsenäisesti oireitaan. Lisäksi syöpäpotilaita hoitavat klinikat voivat seurata potilaidensa hyvinvointia ja arvioida potilaiden oireiden kehittymistä reaaliaikaisesti. Tutkimus toteutettiin suomalaisessa yliopistosairaalassa, jossa AforCP tietojärjestelmä oli ollut pilottikäytössä noin yhdeksän kuukauden ajan. Tutkimus tehtiin laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena ja tutkimusmateriaali kerättiin teemahaastatteluilla terveydenhuollon ammattilaisilta, lääkäreiltä ja sairaanhoitajilta. Haastateltavia terveydenhuollon ammattilaisia oli viisi. Haastattelujen sisällön analyysimenetelmänä käytettiin sisällönanalyysiä. Aikaisemmat tutkimukset ovat mm. osoittaneet itseraportointijärjestelmien parantavan potilaiden ja lääkärin kommunikaatiota ja jopa pidentävän syöpäpotilaiden elossaoloaikaa. Lisätutkimusta tarvittiin, jotta saatiin tietoa siitä, miten terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset kokivat AforCP-järjestelmän käytön potilaiden voinnin ja haittavaikutusten seurannassa. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli saada tietoa järjestelmän käyttöönotosta. Terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset kokivat, että AforCP vähensi puheluita potilailta. He saivat hoitojen sivuvaikutukset tietoonsa aikaisemmin. Potilaat pystyivät kirjaamaan vointinsa seurantaan liittyviä tietoja heille sopivana ajankohtana. Potilaiden ei tarvinnut muistaa asioita lääkärikäynnillä ja käyttäessään täysin uutta lääkettä, terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset olettivat, että järjestelmä voisi antaa paremmin kuvan mahdollisista sivuvaikutuksista, kuin jos olisi toimittu ilman järjestelmää. AfoCP-järjestelmän käyttöönotossa koettiin olleen kohtuullisen paljon haasteita. Haastatellut terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset kokivat, ettei pilottiprojekti sujunut alkuperäisten suunnitelmien mukaan. Koska potilasmäärä oli pieni, henkilökunnalle ei syntynyt riittävää rutiinia järjestelmän käyttöön. Osa heistä olisi toivonut saavansa enemmän koulutusta käyttöönottovaiheessa. Integraatio potilastietojärjestelmään olisi vähentänyt moninkertaista kirjaamista ja säästänyt työaikaa. Potilaiden voinnin seurantaan käytettävien mobiilijärjestelmien käyttöönottoprojektin suunnitteluun, resursointiin ja toteutukseen on tärkeää kiinnittää huomiota, jotta käyttäjien asenteet järjestelmän käyttöä kohtaan voisivat olla mahdollisimman positiiviset Terveydenhuollon ammattilaiset hakevat järjestelmiltä erityisesti työajansäästöä ja selkeää kuvaa potilaan voinnista

Kodinportti Mobile user interface usability research and redesign

Abstract. Usability is described as follows “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use”. Usability plays a crucial role in the success of interactive products and services. With good usability can be achieved an important competitive advantage in an ever-growing market if it is involved in software products development life cycle. User experience (UX) is based on people’s expectations and the following emotions and it involves extensively everything that happens outside the screen. UX design aims to emphasize features that are bringing pleasure in addition to practicality. Usability evaluation is easy and very cost-effective way to analyze user interface and find possible usability problems. In general, the empirical methods like heuristic evaluation and usability testing are the most used and principal means to evaluate user interfaces. This thesis focuses on exploring the usability of Kodinportti Mobile application. The motivation for the study is to improve its user interface (UI) more user-friendly using usability research methods that include heuristic evaluation, usability testing, and user experience research. The practical work in the study is responsible by the University of Oulu usability testing course student group and the group also reports the results of research. The goal of the study is to redesign the app’s UI. Kodinportti Mobile is designed to meet the needs of the residents of the housing association and serves as a supplement to the electronic bulletin board for the residents. Mobile application UI design applies the same basic guidelines as any other UI design process and in mobile application UI design, it is often recommended to keep it simple as possible and cut out as much as possible. The results of usability research revealed several flaws in the apps usability and user experience. In the final phase of the thesis, the concept plan of new UI was designed based on the research results. There was also a perception during the process that it would be recommendable that designers are involved in all stages of the process. That would improve the process and minimize the possibility of misunderstandings during the process, which will certainly have a positive impact on the result

User experience in cross-cultural contexts

This dissertation discusses how interdisciplinary UX teams can consider culturally sensitive design elements during the UX design process. It contributes a state-of-the-art meta review on UX evaluation methods, two software tool artifacts for cross-functional UX teams, and empirical insights in the differing usage behaviors of a website plug-in of French, German and Italian users, website design preferences of Vietnamese and German users, as well as learnings from a field trip that focused on studying privacy and personalization in Mumbai, India. Finally, based on these empirical insights, this work introduces the concept culturally sensitive design that goes beyond traditional cross-cultural design considerations in HCI that do not compare different approaches to consider culturally sensitive product aspects in user research

An empirical examination of interdisciplinary collaboration within the practice of localisation and development of international software

Acceptance on international markets is an important selling proposition for software products and a key to new markets. The adaptation of software products for specific markets is called software localisation. Practitioner reports and research suggests that activities of developers and translators do not mesh seamlessly, leading to problems such as disproportionate cost, lack of quality, and delayed product release. Yet, there is little research on localisation as a comprehensive activity and its human factors. This thesis examines how software localisation is handled in practice, how the localisation process is integrated into development, and how software developers and localisers work individually and collaboratively on international software. The research aims to understand how localisation issues around the above-mentioned classifications of cost, quality and time issues are caused. Qualitative and quantitative data is gathered through semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The interviews focused on the individual experiences of localisation and development professionals in a range of relevant roles. The online survey measured cultural competence, attitude towards and self-efficacy in localisation, and properties of localisation projects. Interviews were conducted and analysed following Straussian Grounded Theory. The survey was statistically analysed to test a number of hypotheses regarding differences between localisers and developers, as well as relationships between project properties and software quality. Results suggest gaps in knowledge, procedure and motivation between developers and translators, as well as a lack of cross-disciplinary knowledge and coordination. Further, a grounded theory of interdisciplinary collaboration in software localisation explains how collaboration strategies and conflicts reciprocally affect each other and are affected by external influences. A number of statistically significant differences between developers and localisers and the relevance of certain project properties to localisation were confirmed. The findings give new insights into interdisciplinary issues in the development of international software and suggest new ways to handle interdisciplinary collaboration in general