Value of Information Systems and Products: Understanding the Users’ Perspective and Values

Developers aim at providing value through their systems and products. However, value is not financial only, but depends on usage and users’ perceptions of value. In this paper, we clarify the concept of value from the users’ perspective and the role of user involvement in providing value. First, theories and approaches of psychology, marketing and human-computer interaction are reviewed. Secondly, the concept of ‘user values’ is suggested to clarify the concept of value from the user’s point of view and a category framework of user values is presented to make them more concrete and easier to identify. Thirdly, the activities and methods for adopting user values in development work are discussed. The analysis of the literature shows that value has been considered in multiple ways in development. However, users’ perspectives have received less attention. As a conclusion, we draw future research directions for value-centered design and propose that user involvement is essential in identifying user values, interpreting the practical meaning of the values and implementing them in development work

Identifying drivers and hindrances of social user experience in web services

ABSTRACT Social activity is becoming a central contributor to user experience (UX) in many modern Web services. The motivations, norms and rules of online communities have been widely researched, however, social activity and its UX in modern Web services is a less studied area. We conducted a four-week-long field study with three Web services -Facebook, Nokia Sports Tracker and Dopplrwhich all support social activity. The aim of this study was to identify the central drivers and hindrances of social UX, user experience of online social activity. Our results show that the main drivers of social UX include self-expression, reciprocity, learning and curiosity, whereas unsuitability of content and functionality, incompleteness of user networks and lack of trust and privacy are often experienced as hindrances for social UX. Our findings also reveal the pragmatic and hedonic nature of the drivers and hindrances. The results can be used to inform design and evaluation of social UX in Web services

The Implications of Mobile Notifications for User Experience of a Social Network Service

Smartphones enable an always-on connection to Social Network Services (SNS). A typical way of interacting with SNSs is to access them when the user has a suitable situation to check the status of her social networks or to write an update. One way to enhance the usage of SNSs is to have the service automatically push notifications about events to the smartphone user interface. However, there is no research on how users experience such SNS notifications. We present an explorative field study with 11 participants to assess how users experience mobile notifications compared to reading SNS content manually, initiated by the user. The participants first used Facebook for a month without notifications and then for a month with an application called Socially that sends frequent notifications about Facebook events to the userâ??s smartphone desktop. The participants who kept the notification feature on reported increased reading of Facebook. However, after a while, many were unwilling to receive the notifications, mainly because of lack of control. We report the qualitative findings on user experience, which reveal for example, that the use of mobile notifications decreases interest in Facebook. Notifications limit user control, and using Facebook feels more meaningful when accessed manually. Implications for design are discussed

UX work in startups : Current practices and future needs

Startups are creating innovative new products and services while seeking fast growth with little resources. The capability to produce software products with good user experience (UX) can help the startup to gain positive attention and revenue. Practices and needs for UX design in startups are not well understood. Research can provide insight on how to design UX with little resources as well as to gaps about what kind of better practices should be developed. In this paper we describe the results of an interview study with eight startups operating in Finland. Current UX practices, challenges and needs for the future were investigated. The results show that personal networks have a significant role in helping startups gain professional UX advice as well as user feedback when designing for UX. When scaling up startups expect usage data and analytics to guide them towards better UX design.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Face to face makes a difference : Recommendation Practices of Users of Mobile Services

The mobile app stores and markets provide companies,independent developers and researchers alike withpossibilities to distribute innovative designs for mobiledevices on a global scale. However, reaching a large numbersof users does not in itself ensure a large number of usersadopting the mobile application or service. Large-scaleadoption depends on additional factors such as novelty inservice design, ease of use, enjoyable interaction, built-inmechanisms for further distribution of the mobile service aswell as the practice of word-of-mouth recommendations. Inthis position paper we present the background andpreliminary findings from a study aimed at investigating themotivations and practices by which users recommend mobileapps and services among their acquaintances. We discuss ourperspective on distribution of mobile applications andservices on a large scale and end this paper by suggestingquestions for discussion and future research