The aim of this study was to describe prerequisites for online collaboration for user participation in co-design of online digital services as perceived by people with impairments and to develop requirements for how online collaboration should be designed to be accessible for all participants. An exploratory study was conducted in parallel to activities in two co-design projects. Researchers, accessibility experts, designers and 31 members of disability organisations participated. All participants had lived experience of impairments. Data was co-analysed by all participants using a qualitative thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Sixty-three requirements for accessible online collaboration were identified pertaining to four themes: digital tools and accessibility; preparation of an online collaboration activity; performing and participating in an online collaboration activity; and documenting and evaluating an online collaboration activity. Conclusion: the co-design process can be strengthened by transition to online collaboration, owing to the possibility of having more frequent interaction, economising the participants’ energy and the design process being more transparent. Using accessible online tools, careful planning, and meeting preparation, and establishing a trustful and convivial atmosphere during each activity, are the cornerstones for accessible online collaboration. People with impairment can participate in online collaboration if the activities meet accessibility requirements.

Abstract Conversational agents are increasingly being introduced in healthcare to enhance access to healthcare and address limited healthcare resources. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of a conversational agent for symptom checking and triage tool assessing the urgency and appropriate level of care implemented in public healthcare from a cognitive accessibility perspective. With a Participatory Action Research approach, this study includes: (1) A Participatory Cognitive Barrier Walkthrough in workshops with people with cognitive impairment (n = 7), product owner representatives (n = 4), and researchers (n = 5), followed by a workshop for improvement suggestions; (2) a paired interview with healthcare system specialists (n = 2). The data from the study were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, resulting in five themes: ‘The design of the eHealth service created expectations that were not met during interaction’; ‘The eHealth service uses a difficult language’; ‘The eHealth service triggers negative emotions and reactions’; ‘The layout and graphic design of the eHealth service is difficult and sometimes misleading’; and ‘The eHealth service lacks in trustworthiness’. The findings show the importance of including people with lived experience of cognitive impairment, to expose and find solutions for cognitive accessibility issues.

Abstract Before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, work and education on the university campus were considered superior to equivalent activities conducted digitally or remotely. Despite being significantly digitally mature, many organizations did not consider or even permit digital or hybrid participation in meetings and education. In March 2020, the lockdown following the pandemic caused the transition of many organizations and most universities to online-only operation in record time. Often, this occurred while maintaining quality and production, even if some aspects relating to the user experience were lost. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how digitalization following the pandemic influenced and transformed the digital work environment in higher education. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, provided the experiences and data for this article. In conclusion we distinguished different phases of digital work and education before, during and after the pandemic: 1. The Pre-Pandemic Phase, 2. The Emergency Remote Phase, 3. The New Normal, 4. The Slow Acceptance Phase, and 5. The Dividing Phase, or what we refer to as The ‘New’ New Normal. In this phase it looks like it will be a battle between three perspectives; those who are looking to get back to the pre-pandemic conditions, those living in The New Normal, and those actively analyzing the lessons learned and aiming for The Thoughtful Blended Phase. Analyzing these five phases we discern that the implications for the future will be heavily dependent on the following aspects: management commitment and support; well-functioning technology and support organization; understanding the effects digitalization will have on culture, organization and well-being; increasing interest in participating in pedagogical development; new designs needed for hybrid work and education; the need to rethink structure and contents of meetings; and paying extra care and attention to the psychological well-being of staff and students.

One way to ensure good user experience of IT systems is to conduct user centred evaluation, aimed to provide feedback to IT professionals on their IT systems from the user perspective. The objective of this paper is to explore a conceptual framework, named RAMES that supports evaluators when planning, comparing and documenting user centred evaluations in a structured way. The framework structures the elements of an evaluation into five categories: Roles, Activities, Materials, Environments, and System. The framework was developed based on a theoretical analysis. Two explorative studies with 92 participants in total show that two thirds of the participants found it easy or rather easy to use the framework, and 33% find it likely that they would use the framework again. The conclusion of the studies is that frameworks such as RAMES enhance the implementation of user centred evaluations.

Persons with cognitive or mental disabilities have difficulties participating in or are excluded from IT development and assessments exercises due to the problems finding good ways to efficiently collaborate on equal terms. In this paper we describe how we worked closely together with persons that have mental and cognitive disabilities in order to test and develop methods for participation in assessments and in processes for developing, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services. More than 100 persons with mental and cognitive disabilities participated in the study (people with diagnoses such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolarity, and schizophrenia). To explore the conditions for a more equal and fair participation we have developed and elaborated a set of methods, tools and approaches. By combining scientific research methods with well-established methods for empowerment and participation we have developed methods that are cost effective and that easily can be incorporated in existing processes. We believe that our approach have taken steps to implement possibilities for persons with mental and cognitive disabilities to take part where user participation is needed in order not to discriminate or exclude but also to improve the overall quality of the end result. The results clearly show that it is possible to include persons with mental and cognitive disabilities. A mixed method -- mixed tool approach can increase the possibility for participation. The results also show that the quality of the analysis phase increases if the collaborative approach is extended to also embrace the data analysis phase.

Schools and education are of immense political importance, particularly for the upcoming election, both in the European union and for Sweden. The Pisa surveys show disappointing results for Sweden, and the Swedish Committee for Digitisation has analyzed IT education in the school sector and developed concrete proposals to provide the Swedish government with a basis for future educational policy making. This development also has a great impact on how higher education will need to evolve. Technology, in many ways, changes the playing field for education and life long learning, and thus the pedagogy and leadership upon which our education is based also needs to change. This talk discusses the current view of education and life long learning and brings provocative ideas to the table concerning the future of ICT in Education.

The main features of the Scrum process are intense communication between different stakeholders, and rapid feedback based on regular delivery of working software. The integration of traditional user-centred evaluation activities in this context is challenging. Hence, this paper presents an interview study of 21 informants, categorised in four different professional roles. The main contribution of the paper is an overview of the types of user-centred evaluation conducted by information technology professionals in various Scrum projects. Results show that various forms of feedback are indeed gathered on the usability and user experience of the software, system or service being developed. However, the user-centred evaluations conducted typically are informal with few users, gathering empirical qualitative data and performed during short unplanned sessions. Performance measurements gathering quantitative data are seldom used. The informants in the business specialist role merely ask users about their opinion, whereas the other roles use several user-centred evaluation activities to gather feedback on their design. Generally, feedback is gathered throughout the whole project, but often evaluation is conducted early in the project or even before the actual development starts. Finally, these results are discussed in relation to previous studies in the area.

This article summarises activities and results from the quality assessment project ‘Quality Assurance of IT Support at Work’ (ITQ) which has been performed by Swedish researchers in close cooperation with trade unions 1999–2005. The ITQ project is part of a network, UsersAward, which works for the goal to develop and implement a strategy for good software products on the work floor. A main result of the ITQ project is the first version of a software certification programme, User Certified 2002, which is described in some detail. The underlying theoretical arguments for its design and the performed pilot projects which have informed its implementation are also presented. The outcome of performed certifications is discussed in terms of stakeholder response; in terms of whether to certify artefact, processes, or both; and in terms of the relationship between software certification, standardisation, and public procurement agreements. One conclusion from the project is that a viable software certification programme has to cover the software's built-in features, its deployment process, and its actual situated usage. A second conclusion is that the buying organisation has to implement integrative processes in which its organisational development and its implementation of IT systems are coordinated. Conclusions are also drawn with respect to the set of organisational patterns underlying the UsersAward initiative – certifications, user panels, user surveys, user conferences and a yearly IT Prize contest. Finally, implications and plans for the future, especially international research and union cooperation activities, and further development of the certification process are described.

This paper reports on an evaluation of the usability designer role as applied in two Swedish systems development organisations. The role was initially defined by us, but evolved in these two organisations. We conducted interviews with usability designers, project managers and a user representative. Our main research question was whether or not the introduction of a usability designer has been successful in terms of changes in the systems development process and the impact the role has had on products, projects and organisations. To some extent, the role has met our expectations and intentions for instance, in helping the usability designers shift their focus towards design, and assume some kind of "users' advocate" role. But in other ways, the role "failed". The usability designers in our study are still facing the kind of problems and obstacles that usability professionals have always had to deal with.

The usability concept has now received such a wide recognition in information technology (IT) development that working with usability can be regarded as a profession in its own right. In recent research projects, we have surveyed and studied usability work on an individual level in a number of Swedish development organisations, including success factors and obstacles. What we have seen relates to the individual usability professional and her background and experiences, the organisation in which she operates, the development process, communication and communication means, and finally the attitudes and basic values held by the people involved. In this paper, we compile and reflect on selected findings from different studies on usability work in practical systems1 development in a number of Swedish organisations. We discuss our findings from a practical point of view and relate them to the research of others within the international HCI community. Finally, we discuss some issues we consider important for the future development of the practice of usability that we believe is of interest to the international community of usability professionals.

The concept of user-centred systems design (UCSD) has no agreed upon definition. Consequently, there is a great variety in the ways it is applied, which may lead to poor quality and poor usability in the resulting systems, as well as misconceptions about the effectiveness of UCSD. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of UCSD. We have identified 12 key principles for the adoption of a user-centred development process, principles that are based on existing theory, as well as research in and experiences from a large number of software development projects. The initial set of principles were applied and evaluated in a case study and modified accordingly. These principles can be used to communicate the nature of UCSD, evaluate a development process or develop systems development processes that support a user-centred approach. We also suggest activity lists and some tools for applying UCSD.

Work environment and occupational health problems of different nature are constantly increasing in computer supported work. Most efforts to improve the work environment are focused primarily on physical aspects, and to some extent on psychosocial aspects. Mental workload and cognitive problems are of a more complex nature, more difficult to measure and provide efficient solutions to, and are more seldom studied or solved. Solutions to work environment problems are usually applied to already existing work situations through improved equipment and work place design, health programmes, education, reorganizations, etc. The problems are seldom prevented by means of applying relevant methods early in the systems development process, before the artefacts have been designed and implemented. This paper, and the following papers of this special issue, will focus on the need to integrate different interdisciplinary methods at different phases in the development process of computerized support systems, with the ultimate goal to prevent work environment problems and decrease the health risks to the users.

The concept of design in the context of human-computer interaction is discussed based on definitions from industrial design to the very practical problem of achieving usability in industrial projects in practice. Design is an important quality of a product that today has not been receiving enough attention when it comes to computerized artifacts. Design is also a process of creating the user's experience of a system. This article focuses more on design as a creative process of communication than on a posteriori product quality aspects. The Scandinavian tradition has stressed the importance of users participating actively in a user-centered design process. The article defines and discusses user-centered design in light of the theories of communication as put forth by Herbert Clark (1996). Communication is identified as one of the key issues that needs to be addressed to achieve well-functioning user-centered design. The article discusses different terminology and gives examples from a theory on common ground. Finally, mock-ups, prototypes, and video are discussed as tools for facilitating communication and construction of common ground.

(2003). Editorial: Design Versus design: A Nordic Perspective. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-4.

The ADA-method is an attempt to integrate work environment issues into a usability evaluation method. The intention is to provide a method that can be used for the analysis of computer systems that are used by skilled professionals as a major part of their work. An ADA-analysis is performed as a semi-structured observation interview. The objectives of the ADA-method are (1) to identify usability and cognitive work environment problems in a computer supported work situation, and (2) to be a basis for further analysis and discussions concerning improvements of the system. The method was designed to suit the needs of occupational health specialists as a complement to their traditional methods for investigating physical and psychosocial work environments. However, the method has a more general applicability as it can be taught to any usability expert to facilitate work environment considerations in their analysis and evaluation work. Furthermore, the paper reports on the use of the method in several different settings and the results thereof.

Different professions adopt their own language such that the semantics involve elements very specific to their domain. System developers approaching users in a new domain often experience initial difficulties when trying to understand these semantics and associated work practices. Although most software developers also lack knowledge of human-computer interaction (HCI), means of transferring domain and HCI knowledge to developers in a convenient form are needed. A domain-specific style guide could be a worthy framework for the development of a high-level structure of interface elements and guidelines, including domain knowledge. Such a style guide is suggested as a practical form for packaging domain and HCI knowledge to aid developers. Anticipated benefits are enhanced application quality, usability, efficiency, and acceptance as the communication among software developers and intended users improves. The speed of application development could also increase. This article summarizes a project in which a medical style guide was developed and describes in more detail the work procedure utilized in the development of a corporate style guide for the tax-handling domain. Finally, suggestions on style guide development conditions are presented based on experiences from the establishment of the style guide in an organization.

Analysis of information utilization (AIU) is a method for describing and analyzing how information entities identified in information analysis are being used in the work situation. AIU aims at complementing existing methods for user interface design by identifying additional requirements for human-computer interaction. The method focuses on aspects, of computer-supported work, related to cognitive load, aspects of which end users often not are explicitly aware. For skilled workers in a professional work environment, the efficiency of the user interface is extremely important. We earlier stressed that important criteria for design of user interfaces deals with making the interface "obvious" to the users, by minimizing the cognitive load associated with the handling of it. AIU is performed through observation interviews in which human-computer experts interview representative users about their work situation and observe physical information-handling routines. The analysis identifies work tasks in terms of judgments and decision-making situations, requirements concerning the tasks that may have to be performed simultaneously, important features and priorities of the information, actions the user can initiate and so on. The method supports the interface designer with human-computer interaction requirements structured for a workspace-oriented design. It is integrated in user-centered development model and supports the simultaneous development of competence, organization, work activity, and information technology. This article describes the background and contents of the method and how the results of the analysis are documented and used in the design process. A number of application projects have shown that AIU makes it possible to capture aspects of human work and information processing that are important to the design of better interfaces. AIU is not a new method for system development but complements today methods for task and information analysis with more...

The use of graphical user interfaces in a computerized work environment is often considered to substantially improve the work situation. The outcome can, however, often be the opposite. Inappropriate use of windowing techniques, scrolling, and colors can result in tedious and confusing interaction with the computer. Today's standards and style guides define basic design principles but are insufficient for design of interfaces to end‐user applications. Here detailed domain knowledge is indeed essential. A domain‐specific style guide (DSSG) is an extension of today's standard with domain‐specific primitives, interface elements, and forms, together with domain‐specific guidelines. Careful dedicated analysis of information utilization in a domain is the development basis for a DSSG. The development is performed with an object‐oriented approach to facilitate the reuse of interface components and to support consistency and structure. Using a DSSG, the development of applications can be performed with a simplified information analysis. Therefore a more effective design process is possible, one in which end users can participate in the design using their own familiar domain‐related terminology. Time and costs for the development process can be drastically reduced if domain‐specific style guides, design guidelines, and development tools are used.