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

An Augmented Reality Application for Personalised Diamond Shopping

This paper presents an Augmented Reality (AR) Application (App) developed for bespoke jewellery solutions. The App allows users to experience a visual representation of diamond rings through their mobile device. Customers could design and review bespoke jewellery without having to visit the jeweller’s shop and could communicate changes to the jeweller in real-time (saving time and money). The use of AR would allow customers to view their bespoke jewellery on their fingers to gain a better idea of how it would look once completed. Twenty seven participants evaluated the App by completing a questionnaire after using it. The application of Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted in four factors (compatibility, likeability, functionality and usability). Overall, the participants appreciated the AR App; regardless of their gender, age and experience

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

Case Study of the Experience Capturer Evaluation Tool in the Design Process of an Industrial HMI

In the absence of user experience evaluation tools for industrial human–machine interfaces (HMI), a specific tool called eXperience Capturer (XC) has been created. It is a multi-method user-centred tool that evaluates the pragmatic and experiential aspects of employees’ interaction with industrial HMIs during the three phases of experience. In this article, a case study is shown where the XC tool is used in an industrial HMI design process. The results show that evaluation using the XC tool facilitates the creation of a new design that improves the experience of employees during interaction, increasing their autonomy, competence, closeness to the system, safety and stimulation

How Could an Intranet be Like a Friend to Me?: Why Standardized UX Scales Don't Always Fit

"I hope that this survey is a joke because it made me laugh so much". This quote is just one example of many negative respondents' reactions gathered during a large-scale user experience (UX) study. Unfortunately, the survey was no joke, rather a well-constructed and validated standardized UX scale. This paper critically reflects on the use and relevance of standardized UX scales for the evaluation of UX in business contexts. We report on a real-world use case where the meCUE questionnaire has been used to assess employees' experience (N=263) with their organization's intranet. Strong users' reactions to the survey's items and statistical analyses both suggest that the scale is unsuitable for the evaluation of business-oriented systems. Drawing on the description of this inadequacy, we discuss the quality of academic UX tools, calling into question the relevance for practice of academic methods

Establishing usability heuristics for heuristics evaluation in a specific domain: is there a consensus?

Heuristics evaluation is frequently employed to evaluate usability. While general heuristics are suitable to evaluate most user interfaces, there is still a need to establish heuristics for specific domains to ensure that their specific usability issues are identified. This paper presents a comprehensive review of 70 studies related to usability heuristics for specific domains. The aim of this paper is to review the processes that were applied to establish heuristics in specific domains and identify gaps in order to provide recommendations for future research and area of improvements. The most urgent issue found is the deficiency of validation effort following heuristics proposition and the lack of robustness and rigour of validation method adopted. Whether domain specific heuristics perform better or worse than general ones is inconclusive due to lack of validation quality and clarity on how to assess the effectiveness of heuristics for specific domains. The lack of validation quality also affects effort in improving existing heuristics for specific domain as their weaknesses are not addressed

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