PHENOMENOGRAPHY: ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH FOR STUDYING THE DIVERSITY OF USERS\u27 UNDERSTANDINGS

This essay aims to introduce an alternative methodological approach, phenomenography, for studying users of information systems. Phenomenography can reveal the variation in users? views. We outline the use of phenomenography with the help of our hands-on experiences from two empirical studies: in the contexts of e-privacy and virtual product prototypes. We also discuss two common misinterpretations that we have encountered when using phenomenography. One misinterpretation is related to data collection and analysis, the other with the research result. The essay provides support for multidisciplinary methodological plurality in the information systems field by suggesting a research approach from a related field, namely that of education

Consumers’ Views on Privacy in E-Commerce

Information privacy protection and invasion of privacy in e-commerce have become important topics in both everyday activities and scientific discussions. The aim of this study is to understand how consumers regard privacy in business-to-consumer e-commerce. As this study focuses on consumers’ own interpretations of privacy, the research approach is empirical, rather than theoretical. Based on a phenomenographical analysis of consumer interviews, we identify different layers of understanding by focusing on the referential objects and the structural components of information privacy. The result includes 25 different privacy conceptions, showing that consumers’ view of privacy is situated and constantly under construction as the consumer gets new information or experiences

User Experience in Evaluating Virtual Product Prototypes

Experiential and emotional aspects have recently become central to understanding of interaction with technology. Understanding the building blocks of user experience helps in defining and designing better information systems and increasing market success of products. This paper focuses on user experience via users’ evaluations of virtual product prototypes. User experience being subjective, we analyse it through users’ own interpretations. The specific aim of this paper is to explain the alternative views on how consumers understand virtual product prototypes. We presented threedimensional prototypes of furniture to twenty test users and interviewed them afterwards. Phenomenography was used as a research approach for analyzing the descriptions, allowing us to outline, with the help of two layers, the differences in consumers’ understandings. The first layer contains the conceptions which consumers use when they describe virtual product prototypes. Based on the variations in the versatility of each test user’s description we constructed the second layer, which focuses on the forms of thinking. The three forms are: seeing I) a picture of a product via new technology, II) a separate product, and III) a product in its context. In our results, the user experience is understood as a unique combination of various elements, which extends over time

User Interpretations of Virtual Prototypes: Physical Place Matters

Abstract. Technology is known to affect users\u27 understanding of virtual products. We study whether also physical place in which the product images are presented affects our understanding. To study this, we conducted user tests with furniture prototypes that were presented in 3D virtual environments. We focused on user interpretations of virtual prototypes in two distinct physical places: in a fair and in a virtual environment laboratory. The results reveal that, in the laboratory, users broadly focus on technical features, whereas, in a fair, the users\u27 main focus is on product models. The implication of our study highlights the influence of the place in virtual prototype presentations

A CO-CREATION TOOL IN WALK-IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT: MAKING PROSPECTIVE WORK VISIBLE

The focus of this paper is on user participation in product design process. Ours is a human-centred approach in which users\u27 expertise is acknowledged and which addresses the development of future products, rather than the current situation in users\u27 work. This type of user participation applied to co-creation is possible when the users\u27 prospective work is made visible. This paper presents a tool with which product users can experiment working with the product under design. As the product designers can observe the users\u27 actions with the tool, their understanding of the users\u27 work practice increases and their discussions with the users improve. The tool, VIP2M, is a virtual environment for prototyping a mobile working machine and constructing it in a walk-in virtual environment. We built it following the tradition of design science research and evaluated it by user tests. The study shows that virtual environment is a useful base for constructing appropriate tools for product users\u27 participation in the product design