Virtuaaliympäristön soveltuvuus käytettävyystestaukseen

Virtuaalitodellisuusympäristöjen tekninen kehitys on laajentanut ympäristöjen soveltamisaluetta; yhtenä mahdollisena käyttökohteena on käytettävyystutkimus. Tässä pro gradu – tutkielmassa raportoidaan virtuaalilaboratoriossa suoritettu empiirinen tutkimus virtuaalitodellisuusympäristön soveltuvuudesta käytettävyystutkimukseen. Tutkimuksessa kerättiin tietoa mentaalisten representaatioiden muodostumisesta, läsnäolon kokemuksesta ja simulaattorisairauden tuntemuksista. Tutkimuksen tuloksena on, että virtuaalitodellisuusympäristössä raportoidut verbaaliset protokollat vastaavat riittävässä määrin oikeassa ympäristössä raportoituja, jotta käytettävyystestaus on perusteltua. Lisäksi todetaan, että virtuaaliympäristön teknisellä toteutuksella voidaan vaikuttaa läsnäolon kokemukseen ja simulaattorisairauden tuntemuksiin.Technical improvement of virtual reality environments has broadened their application; one possible application is usability study. This master’s thesis reports an empirical study performed together with industrial partner to validate if virtual reality environment is suitable for usability studies. Study was performed in partner’s virtual laboratory environment. In study data was collected about verbal protocols, sense of presence and simulator sickness. The results show that verbal protocols corresponded protocols reported in real environment enough to start plan usability studies in virtual reality environment, also evidence was found that the technical settings could effect to sense of presence and feelings of simulator sickness

Ilmaisun keskipituus (MLU) kielen oppimisen mittarina : empiirinen tutkimus

Tutkielmassa on esitelty lapsen kielen oppimiseen liittyvää käsitteistöä ja teorioita. Tutkielman tueksi on kerätty puheaineistoa

A quick review of ethics, design thinking, gender, and AI development

Ethics, artificial intelligence (AI), and design thinking are current buzz words. The threat of bias-riddled machine learning algorithms is represented media-wide. Research and development initiatives are endeavoring to ‘translate’ ethics into processes and machine logic and design thinking as a method is adopted to gauge the interests and values of a vast range of stakeholders. Gender, its framing, reflection, and critical evaluation in relation to design thinking as a means for developing ethical AI appear to be less represented in scholarly discourse. Against a background of critical theory and gender studies that describe and problematize gender, its construction and norms in socio-technological discourse, the authors of this article aim to generate insight into the current state of gender in design thinking research focused on ethics and AI. A review of scholarly articles revealed trends in popularity of concepts and prominence in the application of design thinking in specific fields (i.e., educational research). Repetition characterizes the more challenging topics or wicked problems. Provocation and investigation of gender from the perspectives of practitioners, creativity, and its influence in design thinking seem all but visible.peerReviewe

Evaluating the Authenticity of Virtual Environments: Comparison of Three Devices

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) have the potential to provide novel cost effective ways for evaluating not only new environments and usability scenarios, but also potential user experiences. To achieve this, VEs must be adequately realistic.The level of perceived authenticity can be ascertained by measuring the levels of immersion people experience in their VE interactions. In this paper the degree of authenticity is measured via an authenticity index in relation to three different immersive virtual environment devices. These devices include (1) a headband, (2) 3D glasses, and (3) a head-mounted display (HMD). A quick scale for measuring immersion, feeling of control, and simulator sickness was developed and tested. The HMD proved to be the most immersive device, although the headband was demonstrated as being a more stable environment causing the least simulator sickness. The results have design implication as they provide insight into specific factors which make experience in a VE seem more authentic to users. The paper emphasizes that, in addition to the quality of the VE, focus needs to be placed on ergonomic factors such as the weight of the devices, as these may compromise the quality of results obtained when examining studying human-technology interaction in a VE.peerReviewe