By examining how several organizations have gone through the process of procuring IT systems, we have seen that there is a great need for procurer organizations themselves to understand their role in systems development. What is their responsibility for the outcome of the acquisition process? What is their responsibility for the outcome of the system-in-use? Can they actually take responsibility for the usability of systems? This collection of papers is meant to be a starting point for procurer organizations to reflect on that responsibility, as well as on how they manage the acquisition process. The papers are informed by academic research and grounded in scientific studies, but they are also to be taken as practical efforts to describe the process. We hope they will nurture reflection, and encourage those who are taking a stand to make IT systems usable. Our assumption is that the sooner an organization comes to terms with how the future system will actually be used, the sooner it will be profitable or beneficial.

The activity of judging design alternatives is without doubt one of the key activities for successful design work, but the criteria used for judging goodness are often implicit. This article is about how to work with ‘use-qualities’ when judging the goodness of interactive media systems. Use-qualities denote the attributes of artefacts in use (e.g. effectiveness, safety, awkwardness). A theoretical background to the concept of use-qualities is given, as well as examples of how to create criteria for judgements based on use-qualities. The examples are drawn from the design case a novel multimedia platform for domestic leisure use. During the design process three prototypes were developed, 56 hours of situated interviews were made in eight homes, and tests were performed with 21 users. This formed the empirical material used to identify desirable use-qualities that could be utilized as criteria for judging the goodness of design alternatives. The desirable use-qualities were also hierarchically organized to clarify them as design objectives that can be shared and discussed in a design team and among stakeholders in a project. It is finally argued that working explicitly with desirable use-qualities has the potential to increase the self-consciousness of judgement in interactive media design and that it can open up for challenge, examination, specification and revision of operative criteria.

Traditional models of usability are not sufficient for software in the home, since they are built with office software in mind. Previous research suggest that social issues among other things, separate software in homes from software in offices. In order to explore that further, the use qualities to design for, in software for use in face-to-face meetings at home were contrasted to such systems at offices. They were studied using a pluralistic model of use quality with roots in socio-cultural theory, cognitive systems engineering, and architecture. The research approach was interpretative design cases. Observations, situated interviews, and workshops were conducted at a Swedish bank, and three interactive television appliances were designed and studied in simulated home environments. It is concluded that the use qualities to design for in infotainment services on interactive television are laidback interaction, togetherness among users, and entertainment. This is quite different from bank office software that usually is characterised by not only traditional usability criteria such as learnability, flexibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, but also professional face management and ante-use. Ante-use is the events and activities that precedes the actual use that will set the ground for whether the software will have quality in use or not. Furthermore, practices for how to work with use quality values, use quality objectives, and use quality criteria in the interaction design process are suggested. Finally, future research in design of software for several co-present users is proposed.

This paper contributes to a growing body of design patterns in interaction design for cooperative work, while also describing how to go from field studies to design patterns. It focuses on sociable face-to-face situations. The patterns are based on field studies and design work in three sociable settings, where desirable use qualities were identified and translated into forces in three design patterns for controlling information visibility. On the basis of the patterns, the design of a multiple-device multimedia platform is described. It is shown that desirable qualities of systems-in-use can be utilised as forces in patterns, which means that traditional qualitative research is highly valuable when documenting design knowledge in patterns. Three classes of interaction design patterns are identified: environments for interactions, means for interaction and interfaces for interaction. These classes describe types of patterns within a hierarchical model of interaction design.

Computers are used in sociable situations, for example during customer meetings. This is seldom recognized in design, which means that computers often become a hindrance in the meeting. Based on empirical studies and socio-cultural theory, this thesis provides perspectives on sociable use and identifies appropriate units of analysis that serve as critical tools for understanding and solving interaction design problems. Three sociable situations have been studied: customer meetings, design studios and domestic environments. In total, 49 informants were met with during 41 observation and interview sessions and 17 workshops; in addition, three multimedia platforms were also designed. The empirical results show that people need to perform individual actions while participating in joint action, in a spontaneous fashion and in consideration of each other. The consequence for design is that people must be able to use computers in different manners to control who has what information. Based on the empirical results, five design patterns were developed to guide interaction design for sociable use. The thesis demonstrates that field studies can be used to identify desirable use qualities that in turn can be used as design objectives and forces in design patterns. Re-considering instrumental, communicational, aesthetical, constructional and ethical aspects can furthermore enrich the understanding of identified use qualities. Witha foundation in the field studies, it is argued that the deliberation of ynamic characters and use qualities is an essential component of interaction design. Designers of interaction are required to work on three levels: the user interface, the mediating artefact and the activity of use. It is concluded that doing interaction design is to provide users with perspectives, resources and constraints on their space for actions; the complete design is not finalized until the users engage in action. This is where the fine distinctions and, what I call 'shades of use' appear.

At a company we’ll call “Q”, a set of personas were created and attempts were made to use them as a design tool, but we found they were not fully and effectively utilized. In this case study, we briefly describe what happened and provide some reasons for this outcome.

How do designers of interactive media work on the dynamic aspects of their designs? Previous research has emphasized the role of gestures to express what users and computers do. This paper contributes with a detailed analysis of interaction designers' enactments in terms of what they express using a model of interaction design based on five domains: design concept, functions and content, structure, interaction, and presentation. Two enactive means of expression are identified: interaction walkthrough and improvised role play. Gestures drive the interaction walkthrough and scenarios created on the spot drive the improvised role play. In terms of the suggested model of interaction design, interaction walkthroughs start out in the domain of interaction, and improvised role play starts out in the domain of design concept. From these domains the designer can then see consequences for the other domains of interaction design. The five domains of interaction design can be used as an analytical tool for thoughtful reflection, and interaction walkthroughs and improvised role play can be articulated as conscious means of expression.

How do designers of interactive media work on the dynamic aspects of their designs? Previous research has emphasised the role of gestures to express what users and computers do. This paper contributes with a detailed analysis of interaction design master students’ enactments. Two kinds of enactive means for expressing behaviour are identified: interaction walkthroughs and improvised role play.

This paper analyses how interaction designers act and think in two different studio settings in order to understand what potential each setting presents for the development of digital design competence. We first observed interaction design students working in a design studio and then in a computer augmented interactive space. In the studio, the students oscillated continuously between individual and cooperative work, while in the interactive space, the work was focused on shared displays. The results describe how students collaborate to develop digital design competence, which not only includes competence in using digital media, but also competence in envisioning and articulating someone else’s future use of digital media.

How can interaction design be used to advance information design, interactive services, and in the end increase the tourist attraction at nature reserves and national parks? Based on sketching, field studies and analysis of the experience of visiting nature reserves and national parks, 60 interaction design and media technology students at the advanced level have developed initial concepts and early prototypes for interactive services. Based on their design alternatives, we develop a categorization of different kinds of applications: guides, routes, events, games, installations, and websites. We finally discuss briefly the design ideas in terms of cross-platform applications, multiple platform applications, embodied multimodal experiences, user generated content, and location-based information.

Hälsans nya verktyg är en satsning på tillväxt i östgötaregionen, där planen är att successivt närma sig den växande världsmarknaden inom hälsa och vård. Fokuserade områden är sport och idrott, personlig hälsa, distribuerad vård och egenvård. Som ett led i tillväxtsatsningen identifieras intressanta marknads- och kundsegment, och för dessa segment gäller det att lära känna målgruppen som kommer att använda och beröras av olika tjänster och produkter. Ett sätt att åstadkomma detta är att ta fram personor och scenarios som kan användas som ett led i designarbetet.

Exemplars play an important role in applied service design but are largely overlooked in academic literature. So far; most design research in other fields has concerned how surface properties of exemplars are incorporated in the current design; but services are different from most other design disciplines in regard to material. To expand the understanding of how exemplars matter to service design; material from recordings and observations of design meetings have been analysed. We observed a pattern that exemplars; in this case; were introduced in communication in the format of micro-narratives that express emotional impact of service elements. This study shows that exemplars in the form of micro-narratives are retrieved in design discourse primarily from gathered data; common reference points; and personal experiences. They contribute to the collective understanding of the service concept and support the alignment of the service offering with customer expectations.

In this study, we argue that users participating in the design process will form the participation as a function of their professional role, but also as a function of their identity more or less independent from their role. In order to get the full potential of cooperative design the user identity in general and in this case their attitudes towards technology in particular should be incorporated into the design process. This case study consists of participatory design sessions with two different organizations, in the context of a media production tool development project. Facilitator skills, and workshop interventions to balance attitudes and to take them into account in design are discussed. Furthermore, we argue that attitudes will affect a subsequent implementation of a technical system, and that knowledge about stakeholder identity can be useful for further design activities and for planning system implementation. © 2006.

In November 2007, the Research platform M3 [man medium machine]/the School of Communication, Technology & Design at Södertörn University College arranged, in collaboration with the ITU, Oslo University, a two-day workshop on the theme Interaction Design in Pedagogical Practice. There were 15 position papers submitted to the workshop, representing 15 different universities from four countries. Out of these, we now have the privilege to publish four of them in this special issue of the Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, together with a debate article. They are, in their own respect, modest witnesses, of the need for this dialogue between interaction design and pedagogical practice.

If system design and development are to succeed, cooperation and participation from several different actors must be assured. Within a triad of roles consisting of user, developer and procurer, we focus on the role, influence and perspective of the procurer, especially considering use quality and usability. Through two case studies we discuss the complexity of relationships and boundaries between roles, the mediational aspects of the relationships, and the pivotal role an active procurer plays in providing an action space for user-centred design. We conclude that the competence of the procurer is an under-valued asset in setting the scene to develop systems that are highly usable.

E-förvaltning, dvs. offentliga e-tjänster, e-administration och e-demokrati, har kommit att bli ett vanligt inslag i kommuners, landstings, myndigheters och medborgares vardag. Trots att det i dag finns stor erfarenhet av och praktisk kompetens inom e-förvaltning, erbjuds emellertid inte så ofta möjlighet till reflektion och erfarenhetsutbyte eller till att utveckla en teoretisk referensram kring den pågående förändringsprocessen.

Förvaltning och medborgarskap i förändring bidrar till att upprätta en dialog mellan pågående forskning och etablerad praxis inom området e-förvaltning. Boken ger en översikt av aktuell forskning såväl som praktiska erfarenheter från en mängd sammanhang med exempel från kommuner, landsting och myndigheter.

Utifrån olika infallsvinklar och med skilda metodologiska angreppssätt analyseras utrymmet för design och styrning samt medborgarnas handlingsutrymme. Bland annat diskuteras medborgarnas möjligheter att påverka det pågående förändringsarbetet och hur e-tjänster kan designas för att möta olika medborgarperspektiv. Författarna väcker också frågan om vilka konsekvenser den pågående omvandlingen av offentlig förvaltning kan komma att få. Varje kapitel avslutas med ytterligare frågor för diskussion och reflektion.

Boken vänder sig till studenter inom ämnen som informatik, offentlig administration och företagsekonomi samt till yrkesverksamma med intresse för verksamhetsutveckling och IT-frågor i offentlig förvaltning.

When service design got its boost in 2003-2005, as design firms plunged into what seemed to be unchartered area, the possibilities and provisions for the design discipline was under explored. In this chapter we will trace one of the strands of development that have supported service design since then, and also point towards areas where service design might benefit from building on earlier developments. Digital interaction designers were starting to graduate in the 90’s, from our and other universities. Since then quite a few students have gone into different business sectors and established for themselves specific roles. Meeting them and starting to talk to these professional designers about service design and what service design is, a typical comment was “sure, that’s basically what we’ve been doing all along”. Strange as their laid back reaction seemed, I tried to figure out what was behind this. The obvious was of course that they were designing online services, mobile services, etc. And even though these might be regarded as service channels, in some cases they were the only service channel. Another reason seemed to be that, because some of the basic qualities of the design object are so similar between services in general and digital interaction design, the design techniques and methods, and the focus on user centered design, give them a vantage point on the design object that allows them to think in terms of services. Yet another reason was that the Scandinavian design traditions, such as cooperative design, made it possible for them to work with inclusive processes with several stakeholders with varying objectives.

The objective of this paper is to describe aspects of and provisions for industrial interaction design that influence approaches to design management within system and software development.Traditional product and service industries have developed design management systems over a long period oftime. Some of the effects of the work performed during the 80’s and 90’s can be seen in standards, such as the British Standards series, in classical texts (Gorb, 1990; Svengren, 1995; Ulrich & Eppinger, 2003), or in best practice books (Bruce & Bessant, 2002; Bruce & Jevnaker, 1998). Typically these assume a product development process where (re)production is separate from design. For the software and system development industries there have been little general work of similar kind. The kind of problems for design resemble the complexity describe by Sebastian (2005). As a background to the three cases we will review, the view of interaction design and design management that will be held throughout the paper will be presented.  

Design management systems in traditional product and service industries have developed over an extended period of time. (Felber, 1984; Sebastian, 2005). Typically these assume a product development process where value is created in a linear manner and production is separates from design. For the software and system development industries, where digital interaction design is the predominant design discipline (Löwgren & Stolterman, 2005) few studies have been done on design management. Studies on design management issues for digital interaction design have, e.g., identified problems for interaction designers to find a stronghold in organizations (Carlshamre & Rantzer, 2000), or characteristics of the software development context that is distinct for management of interaction design (Holmlid, 2006). As their point of departure these studies have taken organizations that develop IT-systems.

As a contrast, in this paper, we expand on the current literature by analyzing two studies of design management in an organization that uses software as part of their business process. We claim that for such organizations, design management of digital interaction design primarily is a concern for the operating core and the strategic apex, thus driving and directing the efforts made by support staff and technostructure.

In the discourse of service design; terms such as platforms; transformation and co-creation have become part of what seems to be an emergent lingua franca. In the participatory design discourse; and the surrounding design traditions; related terms and ideas were developed. The development of the discourse of participatory design; during the last three decades of the 20th century; influence the way we understand the provisions for and possibilities of service design. The analysis is performed along three themes collected from the development of participatory design; and examples of how the legacy of participatory design has been appropriated are given. We conclude that the two disciplines share a basic structure consisting of involvement techniques; cooperative approaches; and emancipatory objectives. Moreover; some areas of future research for service design are identified.

Design education is taking on new forms at many universities around the world, since many people see that a designer today works in many different contexts with many different materials. In Europe, the Bologna reform of higher education is therefore timely. It offers a possibility to reflect and restructure design curricula for the changing world of design. In this paper we outline the development of a Bologna style curriculum for a Master of Science (two years) with a Major in Design at Linköpings universitet in Sweden. The Master’s Programme in Design is multidisciplinary, and the guiding principle is that a designer of tomorrow will work less with specific materials and more within differing design contexts. A problem we faced with the studio classes was how to define progression. In order to structure the progression we identified a set of core competences for designers. These competences are used to define areas within which learning outcomes can be defined. The competence fields are; Vision & concept, Design methods, Tools & materials, User & actor perspective, Versatility, Design theory & research and Continuous competency development. Our conclusion is progression in studio classes can be structured in relation to these fields.

In design a lot of attention is given the material design object. In the traditional rhetoric of design where function meets form, it is often instrumental functionality and the form of the material/content that is referred to. In some design fields, such as graphic design, the material design object incorporates the white space, the space between the content. For graphics design white space has been appropriated as an important part of the design process, and can be used to as one factor to distinguish between genres of, e.g., newspapers. Implicitly graphic designers use white space to create readability, structure, as well as aesthetics to their designs. In service design, a concept similar to white space have not been acknowledged and used as an aspect of design. Service design comprises a set of methods supporting the modelling of service experiences, such as service-scape, service portraits, service interface, etc. These focus on the content of the service experience, without especially highlighting the importance of white space for designers. In this paper we suggest that white space can be used as a structuring principle in service design. We exemplify the concept and how white space is conveyed with service design modelling techniques. The case, a package delivery service, has undergone a change process where some parts of the delivery chain have been pushed towards self service, and simultaneously transformed into a more mass-customized genre of service. Moreover, the contact with delivery personnel has been even more limited than it is today. The new package delivery service thus restructures white space of the service, and highlights design aspects of the service. We conclude that white space can be used as a concept for service designers to use as a structuring principle in designing service experiences, and that the challenges for future research lie in finding relevant modelling and analytic techniques for designers to enable them to actively work with white space in their designs.

In this article we argue that a structured use of perspective descriptions can support a design process. A design perspective is a coherent set of values and aspects emphasized by the designer in a given design situation. We present a generic framework for describing 7 dimensions of perspectives concerning user, artifact, context, activities, communication, central relations, and use qualities that we argue are relevant in a design situation. Subsequently we use this metaperspective to describe four perspectives: tool, architectural, usability, and media perspective distilled from literature sources. By conducting two design workshops, we have evaluated the effects of using perspective descriptions to address the problem of idea generation in the early phases of design. Our analysis shows that the perspectives contain values that can have an important impact on the resulting artifact. By guiding the exploration of the design space, they influence both the artifact's conceptual idea and its use qualities. In our design example, a car game, the conceptual idea of the artifact varied from a goal-oriented tool to a media-based communication experience. Use qualities varied from a task-based flow of action to a format-dependent communication experience. The perspectives served as a synthesis of basic assumptions from the literature and as support to generate conceptually different design ideas. Based on the outcome of our study, we propose an approach for working with design perspectives in design practice, and education. We also present an agenda for research on design perspectives. Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

A media terminal box combines digital television and services on the World Wide Web. This device will be available in many homes and the interaction with it occurs via a remote control and a visual presentation. The problem is the navigation difficulties among the huge number of television channels. The aim of this study is to investigate whether spoken commands could solve the navigation problem. In this study two input techniques were tested: remote control and speech input. The results showed that speech input was more effective as steps to complete tasks were less and shortcuts were used more often in the speech condition. However, the subjective data showed that the subjects were more satisfied with the remote control input. In conclusion, we recommend multimodal interaction where of speech input to complement the remote control unit.

Analogical representations based on pictures of domain objects can be used in visual programming to provide a close mapping between the program and the resulting runtime display, which can make programming easier for children and other users. The use of graphical rewrite rules with before and after pictures is an example of this approach. Graphical rewrite rules have some similarities with comics strips, which also use picture sequences of graphical objects to describe dynamics in a static form. However, the visual language of comics is not used to its full potential in visual programming. We discuss how a semiotic analysis of comics can be used to address some of the limitations of graphical rewrite rules. We use a visual programming system we have designed to illustrate that comic strips can express more general computations and be more intuitive and flexible than traditional graphical rewrites. Our conclusion is that the visual language of comics has a strong potential for increasing the expressiveness and flexibility of visual programming with analogical representations of domain objects, while maintaining a direct mapping between the program representation and the runtime representation. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Usability issues are traditionally associated with user interfaces rather than with agent frameworks. We argue that the metaphors and models used in a framework will affect the thinking of the developer, and will influence the application design. Therefore, usability is of central importance for successful software development, and for reducing development and maintenance costs. We discuss the design and implementation of a lightweight agent framework for interactive multi-agent applications. A lightweight framework is advantageous for distributed interactive applications, for instance applications running on hand-held devices with limited memory. The design is based on minimalism and simplicity. We present the results from a usability study of the framework, where issues such as learnability and attitude have been evaluated. The study shows that minimalist design principles are useful for achieving understandable and navigable frameworks.

Among those involved in human–computer interaction (HCI) and user-centred design (UCD) the idea of co-design mainly applies to the software developer organisation and the users. In mainstream HCI research and in the literature only a few attend to the co-creation that occurs between IT acquirers and either users or software developers. Interaction design is central when it comes to designing a system that shows a high degree of use quality; often the interaction designer is working at the IT department and thus is ‘owned’ by the developers.

This paper describes a case study of how procurers and interaction designers view the procurement process, the intention being to inform and improve the way that co-design is performed among procurers and developers. The study is conducted in an organisation that chose to include the interaction design competence as part of the software acquisition organisation; we look at how different actors in the organisation view interaction design and how interaction design contributes to the software acquisition process.

The interaction designers wish to work with more experienced procurers who know what they want. The procurers, on the other hand, want more control over the initial process, but are worried about how to present their requirements to the IT developers.

This thesis describes and analyzes implications of going from hypertext news to hypermedia news through a process of design, involving users and producers. As in any product development, it is difficult to conceive design of a novel news format that does not relate to earlier genres, and thus to antecedent designs. The hypothesis is that this problem can be addressed by explicitly taking a genre perspective to guide interaction design. This thesis draws on genre theory, which has previously been used in rhetoric, literature, and information systems. It is also informed by theories from humancomputer interaction. The methodological approach is a case study of the ELIN project, in which new tools for online hypermedia newspaper production were developed and integrated. The study follows the project from concept design to interaction design and implementation of user interfaces, over three years. The thesis makes three contributions. Firstly, a genre perspective on interaction design is described, revealing broadly in what respects genre affects design. Secondly, the online newspaper genre is described. Based on a content analysis of online newspaper front-pages, and interviews with users and producers, genre specific design recommendations regarding hypertext news front-page design are given. A content analysis of Swedish online newspapers provides a basis for a design rationale of the context stream element, which is an important part of the news context on article pages. Regarding hypervideo news, design rationale is given for the presentation of hypervideo links, in the context of a hypermedia news site. The impact on news production in terms of dynamics of convergence is also discussed. Thirdly, the design processes in cooperative scenario building workshops are evaluated, regarding how the users and producers were able to contribute. It provides implications and lessons learned for the workshop phase model. A discourse analysis also reveals important facilitator skills and how participants relied on genre in the design process.

The importance of a skilled facilitator in design meetings with users is often emphasized, but less is said about how to improve the facilitation process. This paper reports experiences and lessons learned from facilitation of cardbased sessions in three design cases through an analysis of two sessions with users, and one session with professional designers. The analysis showed that many alternatives were not documented in the sessions with users who designed primarily by talking, compared to the professional designers who primarily designed by placing cards. We propose that facilitation, in cases similar to those presented here, could be improved by suggesting alternatives and possible consequences, prompt the participants to explore the consequences, and graphic facilitation.

How does information and communication technology (ICT), such as telephones and computers, create interruptions for people at work, and how can fragmentation be counteracted? Empirical material was collected during 17 observation and interview sessions, at two surgical wards and one reception. The results show that the most important factor for counteracting fragmented work is that someone takes responsibility for the full picture when developing ICT. A naive user-centered design can produce applications that work well on its own but don’t work well together.

A prerequisite for successful clinical use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is the selection of an appropriate imaging sequence. In this paper, 2D and 3D fMRI sequences were compared using different image quality assessment methods. Descriptive image measures, such as activation volume and temporal signal-to-noise ratio (TSNR), were compared with results from Visual Grading Characteristics (VGC) analysis of the fMRI results. It was found that significant differences in activation volume and TSNR were not directly reflected by differences in VGC scores. The results suggest that better performance on descriptive image measures is not always an indicator of improved diagnostic quality of the fMRI results. In conclusion, in addition to descriptive image measures, it is important to include measures of diagnostic quality when comparing different fMRI data acquisition methods.

Service design is a relatively new design field not explored in research as extensively as other design disciplines. One of the distinguishing practices is the extensive use of visualization techniques in early stages of the design process. This paper explores what service designers say about how and when visualizations are used in the user research phase of service design projects. Data was collected through 14 interviews with practicing service designers. It was found that all of the interviewees use visualization techniques in their work process, and that these are used extensively in the research phase of service design projects. Visualizations are used in the research phase as tools for translating raw data into insights and as a way to communicate insights. We conclude that service designers use visualization techniques to interpret user research, and that they highlight characteristics of a service-dominant logic.

Resilience Engineering is a new approach to safety and risk management. Whereas conventional approaches to system safety are dominated by hindsight and emphasize error tabulation and probabilistic risk analysis, Resilience Engineering emphasizes an organisations ability to adjust its functioning, prior to or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain operations even after a major mishap or in the presence of continuous stress.

A common description of a resilient system is a system that has:

• the ability to respond, quickly and efficiently, to regular disturbances and threats,
• the ability to monitor continuously for irregular disturbances and threats, and to revise the basis for monitoring when needed, and
• the ability to anticipate future changes in the environment that may affect the system’s ability to function, and the willingness to prepare against these changes even if the outcome is uncertain.

Resilience engineering provides the methods by which a system’s resilience can be gauged or measured, and the means by which a system’s resilience can be improved. Resilience has for many decades proven to be a useful construct in analyzing the persistence, stability and flexibility of ecological systems.

The Resilience Engineering workshop is organised by the Cognitive Systems Engineering Laboratory at the Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University. The workshop is an opportunity to discuss Resilience Engineering and its implications for research and practice in, among other disciplines, system safety, risk analysis, system design, and accident analysis