Student Projects

2015

Exploring modern opportunities for news media - Reaching the younger audience

Authors: Jennes De Schutter, Kristof Gabriels and Bjorn Ravers

This thesis gives a comprehensive view of the changing news media ecosystem. It explores how the young generation consumes news content and how different devices are integrated in their media use-patterns. Our research question is the following: How does a young audience prefer to stay informed and how can this knowledge be used for the mutual benefit of both the reader and the publisher?

The aim is to develop a prototype of a mobile app, which incorporates some techniques that have proven to be successful in the modern business world. Interaction, integration, personalization are the three theoretical concepts we use. We also explored interesting ways to integrate advertisements and other forms of generating revenue.

2014

Mobil betallösning för unga (MittMedia)

Authors: Nordström A. M., Christner, D., Angeniusoch, M. & Calming, V.

Vårt mål var att fokusera på en yngre målgrupp eftersom de är svåra att nå för tidningsindustrin i dagsläget. Uppdraget var tydligt men svårt: Att finna designlösningar som leder till försäljning av digitala nyheter till denna målgrupp. I vårt case ingick även att problematisera vem som egentligen är köparen i mobil kontext och om detta skiljer sig mot webbsidan för desktop.

2013

Världen med notifikationer - En studie om individers upplevda känslor kring notifikationer på sociala medier

Authors: Aggeland, C. & Olsson, S.

Sociala medier har ökat lavinartat sedan internet nådde människors hem under 90-talet. Enbart det sociala mediet Facebook har 243 miljoner användare i Europa. Sociala medier har även blivit ett primärt val för de flesta användare för interaktion med varandra. I en värld där informationsflödet och varje relation är konstant uppmärksammades en brist i hur sociala medier interagerar med användaren. För att undersöka hur individer upplever notifikationerna i sociala medier användes grundaffekterna av Silvan Tomkins som kompletterades via en litteraturstudie. Notifikationer på sociala medier undersöktes sedan kvalitativt med hjälp av tester och användare i fokusgruppsmiljö. Denna studie resulterade i ett antal definierade känslor som individer upplever av notifikationer samt åsikter kring redan befintlig funktionalitet och förslag till riktlinjer ur ett användarcentrerat perspektiv.

New(s) Delivery to Television

Author: Bronan, R.

Television as a medium is changing from its beginning. Analog television broadcasting was replaced by digital streaming (DVB) which lead to new possibilities of data delivery. Nowadays digital television is evolving to more interactive media introducing Smart and Hybrid TV devices. These devices are able to provide interactive user applications trough big TV screen. With these intelligent TV devices users can experience multimedia content in the center of their house – living room.

2011

Samband mellan motivationsfaktorer för UGC - vad motiverar en användare att skapa innehåll på internet?

Authors: Amnell, M. & Öhman, M.

Uppsatsen tar sin utgångspunkt från detta och vi studerar vilka motivationsfaktorer som ligger till grund för att användare skapar UGC samt om det finns några samband mellan dessa motivationsfaktorer. Studiens resultat kan hjälpa utvecklare att ge stöd för flera motivationsfaktorer i tjänster baserade på UGC. Den motivationsmatris och det resultat som presenteras kan även vara utgångspunkt för framtida
forskning.

Motivation - Participation and engagement in innovation processes

Authors: Caroline Johansson & Charlotte Pantzerheim (C-uppsats)

The purpose of this paper was; by a qualitative method and with a descriptive approach, study how develop-ers can motivate end-users to participation and devotion in innovation processes. This study was accomplished through a literature study, interview study and through a focus group study which resulted in the .ME-model, a proposal for how developers practical can work to moti-vate end-users to participation and devotion in innovation processes.

Heuristics for Social Games - A stufy of design and evaluation of social digital games

Authors: Hampus Ramstedt & Jari Thorup Palo (C-uppsats)

Social digital games have grown in popularity since the genre was established in 2007. Social games are an everyday reality for many people and can be found on- or around social networks such as Facebook. In order to create as qualitative social games as possible, clear directives can be used to know how these games should be designed and evaluated. This study highlights a lack of this type of directives in the form of fully developed heuristics for designing and evaluating social games. To examine how social games can be designed and evaluated initial heuristics were used and then supplemented by a literature review. These complementary heuristics were then examined qualitatively with help of game developers and players. This study resulted in developed heuristics for design and evaluation of social games with playability and sociability in focus.

2010

User Experience Goals for UGC services

Awarded best student paper in informatics 2010

Authors: Tobias Nilsson & Elias Tilander (C-uppsats)

The emergence of today's Web 2.0 has created opportunities for greater interaction among the users. This development has also been followed by an opportunity to create User Generated Content (UGC). One of the most important aspects of UGC is that it must achieve good usability, but they´s services must also offer a rich subjective experience. This subjective experience is referred to as User Experience and is an expression of the experience and satisfaction a user feels when confronted with an interactive interface. The purpose of this study was to identify the User Experience of UGC services. The essay is characterized by a qualitative approach and is based in an exploratory investigation performed thru logbooks and interviews. The thesis results are based in nine respondent’s experiences of UGC services. The study contributes to a model of User Experience goals for UGC services. The model contributes to a better understanding of what constitutes a good User Experience of a UGC-service and can thus be indicative of those who design these types of services.

User Generated Content in Local Newspapers

Author: Jan Nilsson (C-uppsats)

User Generated Content (UGC) has grown to become a natural part of the World Wide Web, for instance featured by discussion forums, blogs, wikis and online social networks. Local newspapers are one of many actors using UGC. They have a history of publishing user generated letters, and are presently looking forward to expand their usage of UGC. Some of the most tangible benefits with this approach are that they easily can increase the amount of content. At the same time, they are also able to benefit from an increased lifetime for their articles, by providing a democratic platform for the readers to use.

This thesis contributes to the LoCoMedia research project, conducted at Halmstad University, in co-operation with the seven Swedish local newspapers Bohusläningen, Helsingborgs Dagblad, Göteborgs Posten, Hallandsposten/Hallands Nyheter, Nerikes Allehanda, Sydsvenska Dagbladet and Vestmanlands Läns Tidning. An initial mapping was carried out with the purpose of finding the type and amount of UGC currently provided on newspaper websites. Afterwards, interviews took part with readers as well as newspaper representatives, in order to learn which aspects these two specific parts find to be valuable in UGC. The outcome is summarized by guidelines, describing how newspapers can provide UGC that their readers find valuable.

Personal Privacy and Security in Social Network Environments

Authors: Madeleine Holgersson & Henrik Smederöd (C-uppsats)

With Social Networks becoming a part of people’s everyday lives a lot of opportunities has opened up for interaction between friends, colleagues and online acquaintances. While the Social Networks bring a set of tools and forums for sharing ones everyday life and endeavours they might also entail that personal privacy and security is at risk. Some of these risks can easily be avoided if the users reflect over which choices to make, what agreements to accept but also what personal information is suitable to display to the public.

With this in mind a study of three social networks was conducted to identify what risks a user might be exposed to. Furthermore users of these networks filled in a survey with questions regarding what they think and what they actually do in given situations. The conclusion of these studies resulted in recommendations that can be given to users to improve their personal privacy and a more secure experience of social networks.

2009

Virtual Settings for Co-Creation in a Living Lab

Author: Esbjörn Ebbesson (D-uppsats)

The gap between what consumers want and what is actually developed has lead to a shift within parts of the ICT industry towards a co-creative innovation process. In response to this, the Living Lab emerged as a setting where all relevant stakeholders collaborate together throughout the whole innovation process to co-create and validate IT-products, the user is perceived as one of the Labs most important assets. However, it is still debated how to best include the user in the innovation process. Virtual settings supported by distributed tools have been suggested as a promising option to provide flexibility for both the developers and users.

This study is performed to investigate how a virtual setting compares to a traditional setting when using methods for idea and concept generation in a co-creative innovation process. In order to enable this comparison, observations is carried out at Halmstad Living Lab in both virtual and traditional settings. A literature study is also carried out to acquire a deeper understanding regarding the area of co-creative innovation processes and user involvement.

This master thesis concludes based on the observations that both the traditional and virtual setting has a lot to offer to a co-creational innovation process. Thus, it is suggested that the virtual setting should be considered as a complement to the traditional. If utilized in that manner, the virtual setting has the potential to both empower the user’s involvement while also strengthening the Living Labs innovation capabilities.

Living Lab - An arena for innovation

Authors: Cristoffer Andersson, Sebastian Christensson & Mikael Davidsson (C-uppsats)

Awarded best student paper in informatics 2009

Traditional ICT-development faces difficulties to meet the user needs since users rarely participate in the development process. User involvement in the innovation process extends the chance to meet the user needs. However, the integration of users remains a difficult task, for that reason a new innovation approach is developed to cope with this problem. Living lab is a user-centric research- and development environment in which innovations are co-created, tested and evaluated by users in a real life context. The aim of this study is to compile a value model which represents values generated from participation in user-centric activities. The empirical study based on interviews with four SME partners in Halmstad Living Lab is then analyzed based on this model, identifying values generated from participation in living lab activities from an SME perspective.

Success Factors for Web Sites with User Generated Content

Authors: Malin Jakobsson & Magnus Wecksell (C-uppsats)

In Web 2.0, the main focus is on new technologies, and the new ways that users are interacting. The user has evolved from being a passive consumer to an active producer of content. Several studies show that this phenomenon is increasing, and they point out the importance of more studies on how and why the user generated content is being developed. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate success factors for web sites with user generated content with a focus on motivation, trust, loyalty and design. We investigate two web pages and the users that visit these pages. By studying both the users and the company’s point of view on these issues, allows us to make a comparison of the two. This comparison leads to an exanimation of the success factors for a web page with user generated content.

2008

Repertory Grid Technique supported User Experience evaluations

Authors: Esbjörn Ebbensson & Tobias Grönberg (C-uppsats)

The purpose of this paper was to investigate if the Repertory Grid Technique would be a viable option when it comes to remote evaluation of User Experience (UX). This was made possible by a comparison of the constructs generated in a traditional supervised setting and a webbased version of the same evaluation. The outcome of the study showed that the users in the webbased evaluation often had problems generating proper constructs that could be used for further analysis of the products UX. The conclusion suggested a solution by means of a preliminary supervised RGT evaluation where the evaluators will be able to familiarize themselves with the users terminology in order to help them analyze the data from an upcoming, more extensive webbased RGT evaluation. As a secondary purpose, the study examined what aspects of UX the evaluations covered, all of which were categorized either as user or product related.

Adapting web-interfaces to users mental models while migrating between screens

Authors: Klas Johansson & Victor Thorsell (C-uppsats)

As mobile artifacts nowadays have the ability to synchronize content from the web, users expect access to internet from a wide range of devices. It is therefore of great importance to minimize user’s burden when interacting with interfaces that differs in size. By comparing the migration of three different web-based interfaces this paper focus on how to adapt migrated interfaces to users already established mental models. Our empirical study is based on an evaluation of three different migrated web-based interfaces where we examine which design-elements that are of importance to succeed in this adaptation. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate design-elements that in a migration are needed to adapt an interface to a users mental model, the purpose is also to investigate if these element differs between different interfaces.

Interface complexity – The design elements influence on the familiarity while migrating information

Authors: Frida Sundqvist, Ylva Thulin & Sara Virding (C-uppsats)

The usage of mobile artifacts combined with desktop computers is continuously increasing; it is therefore argued that it is of great importance to minimize the user’s burden to regain familiarity that was once experienced with the original appearance (apparatus?). In this paper we focus on the complexity of transferring information between artifacts regardless of screen size and we try to answer the question of which design elements affect familiarity while migrating information. The study is based upon the comparison of a theoretical framework with the results of a qualitative method, in the form of task based tests and personal interviews. The material is looking at the user’s response towards familiarity on interfaces.

2007

Does the WCAG guidelines guarantee usability for the disabled?

Author: Samuel Ahlström (C-uppsats)

Today approximately 1.2 million people in Sweden have some kind of disability, which makes it difficult to use computers and the Internet. To help these people to access the Internet, a group called Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has developed a set of guidelines (WCAG) for web-designers to use when creating web-sites for disabled users. This paper will select a number of University web-sites, one group of web-sites which has high compliance to these guidelines, whilst the other group of web-sites has a lower compliancy. I will then conduct user tests on these web-sites. I will on the one hand, use a group of disabled people with motor disabilities, which may include weakness, limitations of muscular control (such as involuntary movements, lack of coordination, or paralysis), and on the other hand a group of able-bodied people as a reference group. In this paper I hope to find out whether the WCAG guidelines can guarantee better usability for people with disabilities or not.
 

Leisure Time

Author: Rodrigo Fernández Fernández (B-projekt)

My assignment consists of developing one of the several subservices that an advanced project called "Real Life" can offer. The part I have to develop is a subservice which name is Leisure Time. As its name shows, it's about organising the leisure activities which can take place in a specific place. The service provides lots of different entertainments (nightclubs, discos, events or restaurants). It also delivers a kind of ranking system where users have the possibility to vote on the best places in the city as well as the worst. Leisure Time service is aimed at being developed for the web. From cell phones, PDA's to personal computers with Internet connection are likely to run this service.

Pre-adoption of a mobile information service from two different actors: the content provider and the end-user perspective

Authors: Mattias Karlsson & Mats Lantz (D-uppsats)

The purpose of this paper is to identify how different actors accept a mobile information service in a pre-adoption phase. These actors, the content providers and the end-users, are important to each other if the service is to be used in a nomadic, mobile environment; it's just a question of how and to what extent. To test this adoption process, we demonstrate a prototype of a mobile information service that consists of two separated platforms, a mobile application, which consist of a map and POI (points of interest), and a database platform for registering information in the mobile application.

Health Check

Authors: Frida Jantell, Jacob Wodzynski & Matija Prskalo (B-projekt)

This project was requested by Media IT. Our assignment was to develop one element of an advanced project known as “Real Life”. The part that we became engrossed with was a health check system. A health check is a combination of tools to help people organize their personal health. “The Health Check” combines diets, exercises and other aspects (medication, health supplements) into a personal schedule for the user, to gain a healthier lifestyle.
“The Health Check” is supposed to be a system developed for the web that will be reachable through browsers on personal computers and mobile devices with Internet connection.

DigiTouring

Author: Rasmus Nordström (B-projekt)

Digitouring Halmstad is a digital interactive program for city sightseeing. The system is designed to be easy to use and learn without the assistance from any sightseeing personnel. The guide is to be obtainable for download on the internet or for rent at a local museum. With the guide being free from complications as time based bookings and need for competent staff the city sightseeing can be a fun and easy managed way to experience fascinating sites. Digitouring Halmstad will in that way be a valuable supplement for the original city sightseeing’s available today.

2006

MAPI - mobile information guide changing information depending on the user

Authors: Mattias Karlsson, Mats Lantz, Joel Utgren, Simon Svedeman, Domante Olekaite & Egidija Charzevskyte (D-projekt)

The main goal of the project is to develop a mobile information guide application that is put to use as an interactive map where you could get information about the environment, this is the information that the mobile phone displays, and the information could be customized according to the user’s interest. To make it even more attractive we're making this information updateable so that the user will always see the latest information about the environment.

When the Internet becomes wireless
– which aspects are important to consider when we apply a profitable web service to a mobile context

Author: Jeanette Memberger (C-uppsats)

We live in a society today that is becoming more and more mobile. In everyday life people are getting used to using devices such as PDAs, laptops, pagers and mobile phones. As the technology develops these devices are becoming smaller and lighter to meet peoples demands, and the demand seems go towards anytime, anywhere and anyhow. Parallel to the mobile evolution we can see that Internet as well has become more or less self evident in our life. The web is today a platform for information, transactions, entertainment and commerce. So when the actors on this stage are looking for new ways to meet and explore people’s demands then mobility and especially mobile services are becoming interesting. This is still a field that is in it’s infancy and standards for design and functionality are still in under development. This research is an attempt to see which factors are important to consider when a profitable web service is applied to a mobile device, in this case as a mobile service to mobile phones. How should we develop such services so that the design and functions are satisfying to the end-users.

Usability aspects in design of mobile tourist services

Authors: Joel Utgren & Adam Wikström (C-uppsats)

Nominated as best student paper in informatics 2004

Mobility is everywhere in these days, in the tourism industry as well. It is more and more common to put tourist services together with mobile devices, with the aim to offer more entertaining mobile services for tourists. Although, to make it a really enjoyable piece of equipment we believe that some usability aspects must be taken into consideration when these services are designed. This research aims to come up with some design implications for mobile tourist services.

Crossword: a program for the e-newspaper

Author: Giel de Steur (B-project)

Within the DigiNews project much research is done on the electronic newspaper (e-newspaper). Though some specific services, which can be found in the newspaper on paper are not yet implemented. In this project I will design and build one of these services; a crossword puzzle. This crossword puzzle is being build for use on the e-reader device and should meet the user requirements of the readers from the e-newspaper.

To make a mole hill out of a mountain: challenges in designing a recognizable GUI for an e-newspaper service on small screen devices

Author: Giel de Steur (C-uppsats)

Mobility is becoming an important issue in our society. Information at anytime, anywhere, anyhow at any device seems to be the future. This information need is also noticeable in the newspaper branch, and already research is being conducted towards a digital newspaper (e-newspaper). To make this paper as portable as possible mobile devices (who mostly have a smaller screen) can be used. This research will come up with guidelines for (graphical) user interface design for an e-newspaper service that is aimed at use on multiple devices with heterogeneous screen sizes.

2005

Interaktionstekniker för navigering på e-papper
- en undersökning för framtidens nyhetstidning

Authors: Tobias Hanner, Rickard Eriksson and Johan Toresson (C-uppsats)

E-paper is a new mobile unit and thus it is difficult to know how the navigation should be developed to support the usability. We have chosen to focus on different ways to navigate in mobile units and how the navigation can be developed. On the basis of mobile unit evaluations we will develop and evaluate appropriate prototypes. The evaluations and tests made on the prototypes will answer ways of how users want to navigate and which functions are desirable or perhaps unnecessary in e-papers.

From Visions to Specification
Using user designed mock-ups for envisioning user requirements for the future e-newspaper

Authors: Kristin Wikström and Fredrik Ovesson (D-uppsats)

The purpose of this article is to develop design suggestions for the future e-newspaper. The study is based upon several prototypes made by analyses from future workshops with users and newspaper publishers. These prototypes will be evaluated from three different perspectives and will result in a useful design specification.

Genre based design patterns as a tool in the design process

Authors: Orvar Ehn and Niklas Dahlqvist (D-uppsats)

To be able to investigate if and how design patterns as a concept may support a design process, we are developing a system to use within the design work with design patterns within the DigiNews Project.

 E-newspaper Navigation
- Designing navigational aids for a new electronic medium

Awarded best master student paper in informatics 2005

Authors: Mats Lindqvist, Simon Henriksson and Martin Söderblom (D-uppsats)

Through the studies of current theories and previous collected material on the subject navigation, this paper outlines the use of “the thumb”, a touchscreen-controlled, centralized navigation tool, as a total solution for navigating e-newspapers. “The thumb” makes use of the fact that a traditional touchscreen is not an appropriate solution if you want to maintain the e-papers natural property of flexibility.

From paper to plastic.
A study of the newspaper’s characteristics, functionality and usage

Authors: Mattias Bengtsson, Mikael Gustafsson and Per Leino (C-uppsats)

This paper focuses on today’s use of paper-based newspapers. The factors characteristics, functionality and usage are examined in order to underlie the design of the future electronic newspaper.

2004

E-newspaper

Today science fiction - Tomorrow reality?

Awarded best student paper in informatics 2004 (1 of 2)

Authors: Christian Lindholm and Ronny Persson (C-uppsats) 

The paper will describe if the reader will accept or reject e-newspaper and its value-added services in the future. The purpose is to give a greater understanding which elements that will play a decisive role to make readers replace the traditional newspaper with the e-newspaper. The elements that will be discussed is distribution, payment and value-added services.

Effects of design and row-length for an e-newspaper.
- design guidelines for presenting news on a handheld computer

Authors: Fredrik Tornéus and Per Larsson (C-uppsats)

How shall information be presented for maximum results on a small screen device regarding reading comprehension and readability? We intend to research how row-length effects reading comprehension and readability as well as present design-guidelines for an e-newspaper presented on a handheld small screen device.  

Digital navigation

Authors: Mats Lindqvist, Simon Henriksson and Martin Söderblom (C-uppsats)

The dissertation is about studying navigation strategies that can be found in existing mobile units, such as PDA’s, Tablet-pc’s and mobile phones. This to be able to find conclusions for optimised strategies for the interface navigation on the e-newspaper.

E-paper services: Using workshops for exploring services and user value for future users

Authors: Sandra Eriksson and Helena Svensson (magisteruppsats)

Our interest lies in exploring new value and income giving services and belonging business models in the  the future newspaper called e-paper (electronic paper). What kind of services makes the e-paper interesting and what are the user willing to pay for these services? We are going to conduct future workshops with our target group, the reader, focusing on early adopters.

The E-newspaper attraction  on advertisers 
- a flirt or a beginning of a long term relationsship

Authors: Anna Bjällö and Anders Sigurdsson (C-uppsats)

We want to look into what kind of functions or services that would attract advertisers to the e-newspaper concept and if any parallells be made from experiences that were made when the printed media went online.

Media convergence  
- a new digital artifact in the world of newspapers

Awarded best student paper in informatics 2004 (1 of 2)

Authors: Jenny Szewczyk, Janina Hagström and Ina-Maja Bengtsson (C-uppsats)

The purpose with this dissertation is to identify what the user sees as the foremost strengths with Internet and paper based newspapers respectively. The identified strengths are put in relation to the e-newspaper. How can these strengths, and previous experiences, be used to create an acceptance of a new media? We intend to come up with recommendations which are to be taken in account in further development of the e-newspaper.

E-vision

Authors: Jenny Szewczyk, Janina Hagström and Ina-Maja Bengtsson (B-projekt)

The purpose with the project is to create a vision and introduction to the digital newspaper and visualize possible scenarios for usage. We are also going to design a user-interface based on user’s requirements. These requirements will be founded on the results from a future workshop. The end result is intended to function as a trigger in future user testing and development of the e-newspaper.

Wimage
- an e-newspaper optimized for a table-PC

Authors: Fredrik Tornéus and Per Larsson (B-projekt)

The purpose with our project is to create a prototype to test a possible solution for an e-newspaper design on an existing technology. With a table-PC we can simulate similar characteristic as a possible futuristic e-ink newspaper. With our prototype it is possible to examine the experience of reading the newspaper on an easy to move computer screen with wireless internet-access. Our prototype will automatically update the news so the news always will be up to date.

I-Nav

Authors: Mats Lindqvist, Simon Henriksson, Gabriele Sant and Martin Söderblom (B-projekt)

Our project is about creating navigation strategies that can be applied on the e-newspaper. With a prototype, which we have built and tested with focus on the user, we are going to present how the interface navigation could look like and act. To simulate the interface navigation on e-newspaper we are using a touch screen for presentation.