The role of user experience design within digital transformation : Insights from Sweden

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The role of user experience design

within digital transformation

Insights from Sweden

MASTER LEVEL

THESIS WITHIN: Major in Informatics NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30 ECTS

PROGRAMME OF STUDY: IT Management and

Innovation

AUTHOR: Aleksandar Panchev JÖNKÖPING June 2020

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Master Thesis Project in Informatics

Title: The role of user experience design within digital transformation: Insights from

Sweden

Authors: Aleksandar Panchev Tutor: Andrea Resmini Date: 07/06/2020

Key terms: digital transformation, user experience, user experience design

Abstract

While digital transformation occurring in public spaces and services through Sweden’s digital agenda, local governments have difficulties aligning their understanding with companies who provide solutions for what digital transformation is. Academic literature can be used to elaborate, but has gaps when it comes to “user experience design” in relation to “digital transformation”.

To address this challenge of lacking knowledge and understanding, this study looks into digital solution providers in Sweden and investigates how they understand both concepts and their relationship, shedding light on the subject. During the times of pandemic, adapted netnographic qualitative methods were used to capture and analyze the necessary data, which was later connected to several conceptual models and frameworks for digital transformation and user experience design.

Results show, that all studied companies comprehend digital transformation as a strategic change towards better operational performance, competitiveness, and exploiting opportunities, however differences take place when looked in further detail. Similar conclusions occurred when looking into user experience design and relating to academic literature, where companies identify it as a method to obtain end-user insights and applying them within product or service design concept, so that the developed solutions meets demands and provides value for the organization. On the subject of relationship between the terms, the research finds user experience design to be considered as a key success factor in succeeding with digital transformation. One organization even argues UX design as the issue, which causes organizations to undertake such transformations in general, while findings of another company showed no connection to exist between the terms.

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4. Empirical findings... 33 4.1. Organization 1... 33 4.2. Organization 2... 34 4.3. Organization 3... 36 4.4. Organization 4... 37 4.5. Organization 5... 38 5. Analysis... 40 5.1. Organization 1... 40 5.2. Organization 2... 41 5.3. Organization 3... 43 5.4. Organization 4... 44 5.5. Organization 5... 46 5.6. Comparison of results...48 6. Conclusion... 51 7. Discussion... 53 7.1. Academic contributions... 53 7.2. Practical implications... 55 7.3. Research limitations... 55

7.4. Suggestions for future research...56

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Acknowledgments

Many events transpired throughout the making of this paper, some of which deserving far more recognition than just a “Thanks!” in a simple conversation. As such, I would like to formally acknowledge the effort and support of my family, the encouragement from my colleagues at work, and my friends, who tried to turn my gloomy days in something brighter. All of you kept me from falling down a bad road, paved by the difficulties, that just seemed to keep piling up, without an end. Even though some will still remain disappointed by how things turned out, I would still like to say, that I would not have even reached this point in my life, had it not been for the privilege of having so many good folk in my life. To pass this milestone, however, would not have been possible without the help and assistance of my supervisor, Andrea Resmini, as well as all my peers from university, who opened my eyes to different perspectives. Your support over the months and years was invaluable and will never be forgotten!

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1. Introduction

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In this chapter, general information regarding the current “as-is” state of the ICT adoption and usage in Sweden is briefly presented, followed by a short discussion of a practical problem, which presents an opportunity for academic research.

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With the technological innovations over the past few decades, human reliance and interaction with information technology has increased significantly as internet access increased across Europe (Eurostat, 2020). This technological progress has led us to finding advanced computer chips outside of the “personal computer” system, which we remember from the last century. Today such chips can be seen almost everywhere, from the everyday personal devices which we interact with, such as tablets, smartphones, and, since recent years, smartwatches, to more sophisticated networks like the Internet of Things systems in public places, such as airports or even our homes. Complemented by the effectiveness of the technology’s architecture, the internet connectivity via information and communication technology (ICT) enables us to perform tasks partially and sometimes entirely from a remote location, instead from on-the-spot, traditional channels (SCB, 2016). As a result, more and more providers of products or services within developing or developed countries, such as Sweden, have been continuously embracing and investing in ICT in hopes of delivering increasing value to the end-users of services and products (SCB, 2018).

1.1. Sweden’s “ICT for Everyone”

Ranked at 5th_{place in the world in 2018, and 4}th_{in 2019 for ICT adoption and}

availability of the latest technologies, and 5th_{in regards to its capacity to innovate, with}

over 90% of the total population being active internet users (WEF, 2018; WEF, 2019), Sweden is among the few countries on the forefront with the capability of capitalizing on the opportunities, which digitalization opens. With more than 9 out of 10 households being active on the internet on a weekly basis last year (Statista, 2019), it is understandable why the country’s digital agenda, formed back in 2011, has been named “ICT for Everyone”, addressing the intent for a coherent strategy, when it comes to Sweden’s cyber policy. At its core, the strategy of “ICT for Everyone” has the goal of stimulating the creation of services which enable benefits for society, while increasing

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the expansion of information technology and opportunities, which digitalization offers to the population, businesses, and government entities. These objectives are pushed out across the different regions of the country and their municipalities partially through the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. With three overlapping goals of improving management support systems to enhance innovations, simplifying task execution of both businesses and individuals, and increasing the quality and efficiency of operations, SALAR has taken the initiative for passing onward to different regions of Sweden support which can help them develop or improve the welfare of society, which has been observed to increase its desire of performing tasks, such as purchasing through digital channels (SCB, 2016).

1.2. Demographic data and research potential

Located in Northern Europe, Sweden has high population density in its southern regions of the country, with increasing density, when looking closer at Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö. As of 2019, half of Sweden’s total population lives in 3 out of the 21 total counties, with Stockholm having over 2 300 000 people, Göteborg’s county with over 1 725 000, and Malmö‘s and its surroundings, with over 1 350 000 people (SCB, 2020). Due to the large three cities being centers of urban development and trade for their respective counties and country, on average, 20-25% of the county population consists of foreign-born men and women (SCB, 2020). With this much cultural diversity and population needs, the sheer number of start-ups and established companies over-shadow the other 18 regions, with the three having in total 473 962 registered companies as of March 2020, in comparison to 312 337 in the other counties combined (Amadeus, 2020a). With such population and business advantages, it makes sense why these three parts of Sweden are also the most developed ones, when looking at more complex, specific domains of interest, such as engagement in IT-specific services and overall technological activity – 22 352 versus 7759 in favor of Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö (Amadeus, 2020b). Having advantage in numbers doesn’t always mean better, however, as all counties share the same challenge of a having a unified understanding of specific phenomena and topics, tied with “ICT for Everyone” and before-mentioned Regional Digital Agenda. Moreover, each IT company, which provides digital solutions in Sweden, can have a different understanding of digital transformation, established

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throughout the recent years of practice, bringing further in the spotlight the issue of common concept comprehension.

1.3. Problem discussion

Despite the differences in size and scale of urban development and present populace, one thing remains equally sought across all regions of Sweden – the desire for digital transformation, capitalizing on the opportunities, carried by ICT, which citizens interact with. Given this, one of the general goals of the Regional Digital Agenda (ReDa) is identifying the local actors in the respective counties, which can provide these digital transformations. Although creating a basic list of which digital solution providers are out there and what they have been doing in the past may not be hard, given the existing data in the different databases of registered enterprises, identifying how these actors can help with in a complex ecosystem, that is each region of the country, when it comes to transformation of services, however, can pose a challenge for local governments. This is true, since there can be many assessment criteria to narrow down a list of capable organizations by – from diversity in experience, through specialization in one field of services, to specific critical success factors within work methodologies, as previous academic works have pointed out (Ahimbisibwe, Cavana, and Daellenbach,2015; Ahimbisibwe, Daellenbach, and Cavana, 2017). Each criterion can therefore present an opportunity for differentiating from a basic descriptive research of who can digitally transform public services in Sweden and studying what have they done and able to do in the future. Coincidentally, judging a company by specific criteria can be used in the assessment of these companies’ capability for providing the right solutions for the right problems.

The primary criterion, used for the later statements and arguments, provided in this paper, is the semantic understanding of what “digital transformation” means for digital solutions providers. If Sweden’s local governments aims for digital transformation, it needs to, at the very least, have a common understanding of what that term stands for those, who perform these transformations. Just looking into forming a common definition in the context of firms in Sweden, however, may not prove sufficient enough for the academic community, thus a second “criterion” will also be used throughout the study – the meaning of user experience design (UXD) in the context of a digital transformation. Although “user experience” (UX) seems like a basic term, it is actually

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hard to define, as pointed out byLaw, Roto, Vermeeren, Kort, and Hassezahl (2008) in the past. One common recognition of UX is as a consequence of a user’s internal state and the context, within which a person interacts with the characteristics of the designed system (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006). The method and overall process, by which it is designed by a digital solution provider, however, may vary from one firm to another, based on their capabilities and company practices and values. Ferreira, Sharp, and Robinson (2011), for example, point precisely towards the organization and its values, when observing the software development methodology within a company, and how UX designers coordinate their work with developers. In a sense, the methodology of development, while accommodating UXD, can thus make or break a digitally transformed service, when it comes to its usefulness and how the people, who interact with it, actually experience it. To observe to what extent that may be true, further study in the field of user experience design in the context of digital transformation may thus shed light on facts, which may not have been the specific target of academic attention before.

1.4. Purpose of the paper

Given the problem at hand, it becomes clear that the purpose of this paper can be looked at as investigating a gap, which may appear both practical and academic in nature. By practical, this refers to the standpoint of Regional Digital Agenda and assisting the interested parties in learning of the companies out there, who have both the understanding of what digital transformation is, and the capability and potential of successfully transforming public services to better provide welfare to the population in Sweden. By academic, on the other hand, refers to the gap of observing the phenomenon of digital transformation from a company’s point of view, as well as the extent, to which UXD is actually looked upon and its role in the transformation of the services by the software development firms.

Ultimately, the shape of this paper lies in the form of an exploratory study of the phenomenon of digital transformation from the point of view of digital solution providers in Sweden, and further investigate from the angle of user experience design. To shed light upon this subject, the following two research questions have been defined:

1. What does “digital transformation” mean to providers of digital solutions? 2. What does user experience design mean in the context of digital transformation?

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While the first question asks about the fundamental understanding of the concept “digital transformation”, the latter aims to observe the connection between UXD and digital transformation, questioning the extent, to which digital solution providers are aware of and address UXD within their design and development process in projects, which are categorized as digital transformation.

1.5. Research delimitations and assumptions

Since this paper’s topic of research address issues with minor ties to Sweden’s Regional Digital Agenda, geographic delimitations can therefore be argued to already in place, with no empirical data of firms outside of Sweden being sought after during the data gathering process of this thesis paper. As stated earlier, the three regions of Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö have a high concentration of firms and, as such, will be the primary targets to reach out to for the empirical findings within this paper. Furthermore, since competence of both digital transformation and user experience design were of research interest, the formulation of the initial list of companies to be studied is also limited to only those that:

1. have more than 20 employees

2. have worked on a “digitally transformed” service, which is in use by people

3. have a designated company websites

4. have at least one way, other than the website, to enter a dialog with society The rationale behind delimiting the research to firms, who fulfill the first criterion above, is based on the assumption, that company size and experience of releasing working solutions will bring forth the most accurate findings to serve the purpose of this paper. Another assumption was, that regions with higher population density, which have company offices in the region, can prove to have more experience in both digital transformation and UXD of such services due to the close proximity to a large amount of people with different “digital” needs and wants. Each company must also have a personal website, as well as more than one channel of communication with society, which will benefit the research in terms of data verification and triangulation. Further discussion of the delimitations in place can be observed in the method section of the paper, where the targets of study for obtaining the empirical findings are presented.

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1.6. Definitions

To prevent misinterpretation of some expressions and terms throughout the thesis paper, short semantic explanations of the most relevant terms can be observed in the tabular figure below. As the study aims to understand digital transformation and user experience design, no specific definition of the terms themselves can therefore be observed within the table, while the listed can be considered as generic definitions, assumed by researcher.

Table 1: Definitions of common terms

Term Definition

Ecosystem

A large system, consisting of multiple complex systems and actors, which interact with the surrounding environments in the larger ecosystem

Actor An entity, which performs activities, the end-goal being a certain desired outcome

Digital solution provider

A type of actor, which has the status of a domain expect when it comes to ICT and/or digital transformation

Customer A B2B-type client of a digital solution provider, which either _{uses the custom solution internally, or offers it on the market}

End-user A type of actor, which interacts with a product or service with _{the purpose of achieving a specific goal}

Website A compilation of multiple web pages, which contain content in_{some shape or form}

Web page A single page from a website, which contains specific _{information in some shape or form}

Web paragraph One or more sentences, visualized in a website through an HTML element

Social media channel An online-mediated communication medium, where an actor expresses an opinion or standpoint, facilitating a conversation Communication

medium

A website or platform, facilitating open communication on the internet

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2. Literature review

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The purpose of this chapter is to provide the theoretical background to the topic of research. The chapter is divided in two segments, each addressing academic literature domains. This literature is later used in the analysis of gathered empirical data and research conclusions chapters of this paper.

______________________________________________________________________ With research questions, aimed at concepts like digital transformation and user experience design on transforming services or products, there can be different ways of structuring the literature review. Although both concepts of digital transformation and user experience have been subject to research in past years and have literature review articles about them (Vermeeren, Law, Roto, Obrist, Hoonhout, & Väänänen 2010; Henriette, Feki, & Boughzala 2015), the literature review provided below does not clearly follow any major elaborate approach in its design, be that Webster and Watson’s matrix approach (2002), or Levy and Ellis’s (2006) proposed coherent system approach to studies within information systems domains. In contrast a simple application of thematic approach was conducted, where academic works and published books, tied with the two themes are looked at and assessed for relevance to the findings. Furthermore, as later discussed in the methodology chapter, given that the study was performed, following the principles of abductive research, the literature in this chapter was gathered during and after the empirical findings were observed and recorded to meet time constraints.

2.1. Digital transformation

When it comes to digital transformation, in order to understand its meaning, it is important to also inquire on the lenses, through which the concept is looked at during research. Berman (2012), for example, looking through the lenses of business strategy and innovation, identified digital transformation as a type of a strategic path to innovation through transformations, accompanied with opportunities for redefining the value proposition, operations, and business models for companies, since customer networks expand in parallel with their engagement and choice in products increases. While looking at how organizations manage to strive to capitalize upon digital technology and achieve competitive advantage in the digital economy, Liu, Chen, and Chou (2011) similarly assumed digital transformation as an organizational transformation, in which businesses blend digital technologies and business processes.

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By looking at a banking project during the early 2000s, Liu et al. (2011) propose a strategic fit of external and internal resources and capabilities, incorporating IT integration, configuration agility, collaboration and customization on the side of capability, with embedded trust, historical path of operations, dedicated liaison devices and highly authorized teams on the resource side. Presenting this framework, Liue et al. (2011) suggest, that awareness of both organization resources and external demands, as well as the preparedness of business for analysis are absolutely necessary for undergoing a successful digital transformation.

Westerman, Bonnet, and McAfee (2014) look at things slightly differently, more towards transforming customer experience to stimulate external demands, transforming operational processes to improve company performance, and transforming entire business models can facilitate capitalizing market benefits for organizations, so long as a strong leadership and vision exists during the transformation process. In the context of customer experience, Westerman et al. (2014) point out the need to look at customer touch points, which will facilitate understanding of the customers and will allow top-line growth after transformation. When it comes to transforming operational processes, Westerman et al. (2014) argue that process digitization can help reduce labor requirements, virtualization tools enable knowledge sharing and collaboration, and technology in general allows better decision-making on higher levels of management. Lastly, in terms of transforming business models, three building blocks of digital modifications, digital businesses, and digital globalization, each of which tying service transformation with reshaping business boundaries to remain locally responsive, while globally competitive (Westerman et al., 2014).

Matt, Hess, and Benlian (2015), also look from a strategic business perspective, identifying digital transformation as a business initiative to exploring and reaping the benefits of digital technologies, stating, that digital transformation strategies differentiate themselves from regular IT strategies, which focus simply on IT management and infrastructure. In their research, they present a digital transformation framework, which balances the four dimensions of (1) usage of technologies, or attitude towards new technologies and their exploitation, (2) changes in value creation, concerning the value chains and how the digital activities deviate from the classical core businesses, (3) structural changes, referring to the organizational setup in terms of the

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new digital activities, and (4) financial aspects, which addresses financial pressure to undertake a digital transformation endeavor.

Digital transformation has also been subject of discussion in books as well, one such book being Rogers’s Digital Transformation Playbook (2016), where he proposes, that digital transformation is not about technology and upgrading it per se, but rather the change of thought in regards to strategizing and way of leadership. Similar to Matt et al. (2015), he also derives several domains, which digital transformation is found to have ties with – the Customers, Competition, Data, Innovation, and Value itself (Rogers, 2016), a tabular representation of which can be seen below, alongside their respective themes.

Table 2: Domains of digital transformation (adapted from Rogers, 2016)

Domain Strategic theme

Customers Harness customer networks Competition Build platforms, not just products Data Turn data into assets

Innovation Innovate by rapid experimentation Value Adapt your value proposition

In the context of the customer domain, the playbook (Rogers, 2016) refers to the necessity for organizations to realize, that communication is no longer “one-way”, where a company addresses masses. In contrast, technology has transformed the customers to complex networks and information flows, capable of both sending and receiving information about their topics of discussion. As such, in terms of strategizing, digital transformation refers to the ways, in which an organization understands said complex networks, engages in the conversations within them, and taps into the resources that are in the form of said information flows going between customers, thus facilitating the support towards the end goal of identifying the organizational brand with the customers.

The competition domain of digital transformation, as argued by Rogers (2016), focuses on the idea, that simply building products is no longer enough for success. With technology as a facilitator, digital platforms have begun appearing, creating competition, as the “winner-takes-all due to network effects” (Rogers, 2016). Moreover,

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the four basic types of platforms, which Rogers discusses: exchange, transaction system, ad-supported media, and hardware/software standard, have proven, that digital transformation blurs the distinction between partners and rivals, and is responsible for competition across fluid industries. As for the points of differentiation, enabling competition among digital platforms, Rogers (2016) points out five areas of value: network-added value, platform-added value, open standards, interaction tools, and trust enables.

The third domain of digital transformation, the data, has its strategic theme emphasize the fact, that the expensive to generate in the past data, is now continuously generated everywhere (Rogers, 2016). With customer networks and information flows, enabled by technology, allows organizations to tap into unstructured data, which rivals structured after proper analysis. As such, the main challenge, identified in the playbook (Rogers, 2016), appears to be organizational – the process of transforming this unstructured data in a key asset, assisting existing business process data, specific product or service data, or customer data itself.

Innovation, as the fourth domain, puts weight on the idea, that digitalization has facilitated the ability to organizations to innovate continuously through rapid experimentation (Rogers, 2016). With today’s technology, Rogers (2016) argues, that testing ideas is no longer expensive, meaning that experiments, be that convergent or divergent, can be frequently conducted and learned from the outcome. Lastly, he highlights the need for the shift in mindset on “finished products”, and instead focus on the minimum viable prototypes and iterations after launch, making use of all the learned knowledge from experiments (Rogers, 2016).

In the last domain, the value proposition, with the already mentioned customer networks and unstructured data, Rogers (2016) raises the issues of existing practices, where the value proposition is defined by the industry and that change needs to be judged based only on how it affects the business activities. In the context of digital transformation, he argues that value proposition needs to be defined based on the change in the customer’s needs. In this regard, a value proposition roadmap is a must for any organization, as it will allow them to plan how to make use of the data in the customer networks, to look for the next opportunity, and evolve the market offering before the organization is left behind by competition.

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Digital transformation has also been looked at from different angles, term of what change it has made for society, rather than the businesses. Cherry (2016) presents digital transformation in relation to how technology has changed the employment systems through transformation of work processes, in turn making people change as well, emphasizing the modern focus on knowledge, training, and other various skills. The resulting shift in focus has facilitated in the development of not just the “digital employment system”, but also the creation of the crowdwork system for “crowdworkers”, which do smaller gigs, with both systems distinguishing themselves through a different structure of tasks, decision-making, remuneration and benefits. A different angle was presented during the ADIM conference proceedings by Resmini and Lindenfalk (2019), who were investigating digital transformation at a regional level, looking at the physical and digital environments. Adopting the European Commission’s definition of digital transformation as a fusion of technologies, and their integration of physical and digital systems, among other factors, resulting in the creation of smart products and services, Resmini and Lindenfalk (2019) look at a specific case in Southern Sweden, pointing out several interesting points on the subject. When undertaking digital transformation of an environment, it is important to consider an actor-centered approach, to ensure a correctly “blended” physical space with technology, so as to meet the system expectations. Most importantly, defining a separating line between in terms of “this is digital” and “this is physical” in a way of categorizing things within an environment can bring forth risks of designing a solution, which is more viable to disconnect people from achieving the expected results, rather then facilitating them (Resmini & Lindenfalk, 2019).

As previously mentioned, the subject of digital transformation has also been subject to academic literature reviews as well, one such example being the systematic literature review of Henriette et al. (2015), classifying multiple articles over the years in several distinct categories. Unfortunately, neither the categorized by digital capabilities and business models articles differentiate themselves enough from the already discussed literature above, nor do the classified by user experience articles appear viable for the current academic research of this paper, so that they can be included in the UXD segment of the literature review.

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All things considered, the common understanding of digital transformation, recorded within literature, be that in books, academic articles, case studies, or conference proceedings, is that digital transformation is primarily looked at from a high-level management business perspective, in relation of the success factors, which facilitate it, and the impact it has. In the context of Sweden, it is yet to be seen if the established digital solution providers share a similar understanding of the concept, and where the actual user experience design comes into play during the transformation of products or services process, if at all taken into consideration. That being said, the selected frameworks and angles of thought have been considered as strong enough to allow for accurate interpretation of the empirical findings.

2.2. User experience design

To understand the relationship between user experience design and digital transformation, it is also necessary to understand what UX design is. Since in terms of assessing UX alone, Vermeeren et al. (2010) have looked at over 90 different methods of evaluation, based on method of gathering data, types of application interaction, and so on, it is safe to say there is plenty of literature on the subject of assessing user experience and its design. Naturally, following each way of thought can therefore lead to a different conceptual view of the process for designing experiences. Since UX is is commonly seen as a consequence of a user’s internal state and the context, within which a person interacts with the characteristics of the designed system (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006), the literature used throughout the analysis will need to be relevant to either the user, his interaction with the design system, or the characteristics of the system itself. With this in mind, several frameworks and views of user experience and its design have been identified as beneficial to the study.

To address the “user” part of UXD, the first major framework belongs to Karapanos, Zimmerman, Forlizzi, and Martens (2009), who propose a conceptual model of the temporality of experience, pointing out three main forces: familiarity, functional dependency, and emotional attachment. With empirical data as evidence, Karapanos et al. (2009) propose, that in terms of a superior human-computer interaction, for the expected user experience to match the anticipated one, the product or service needs to be designed at the core in the general direction of meaningful mediation, daily rituals, and designing for the self. Meaningful mediation in this case can be achieved through

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enhanced usefulness, making the product or service both specific enough to address a single need, and flexible to be relevant in diverse contexts. Daily rituals refer to have the product or service be positioned in such a non-invasive way, that it can allow facilitate a place in the daily routine of the people it is designed for. Lastly the design for the self aspect, the framework points as the capability of the product or service to facilitate the self-identity, having the role of an instrument for self-expression on one hand, and on the other as a mean for differentiation from other people, while still having the capacity of a tool for integration the self as a part of a group (Karapanos et al., 2009). Taking this into consideration, from this research's perspective, this model servers the purpose greatly, as it is concerned with digital solutions, which digital solutions providers offer to end-users.

When designing technology-mediated user experiences, Hassenzahl (2011) proposes a simple three level conceptual model on experiences in general – the Why, What, and How. The “Why” begins from looking at the self, as seen in the figure below, and inquiring about the needs and emotions of the person, involved with a specific activity, interest, or desired goal – the experience he or she wants to experience.

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The “What” is the middle ground, giving shape to those needs and emotions, reflecting them as the core of a product or service – what a person can do by interacting with it. Lastly, the “How” level refers to the interaction itself, finalizing the vision of a product or service, giving the user an easily accessible and aesthetic way of achieving the sought out goals. Given the provided perspective of user, solution, and interaction, Hassenzahl’s (2011) model finds a place in this paper, enabling a general method of assessing the user experience design of the studied companies in the balance between their business and customer focus.

Another renown model in user experience design is the 5 planes framework by Garrett (2002), which offers a detailed look over the core elements of user experience design. As seen in the figure below, the model shows a line of dependence through an up and down axis, signifying that any change in one of the planes would require rethinking in design on lower or upper levels of the model. Furthermore, the plane are divided from the point of view of the product as a functionality on one side, while the other looks in terms of information.

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The amount of detail, invested into pointing out the various aspects of UXD makes Garrett’s (2002) framework facilitate great flexibility when analyzing user experience design process within a company, which should prove beneficial, as the empirical findings for each company need to address that very concept of UXD, and how it relates to digital transformation.

When it comes to the planes themselves, the Strategy plane refers to the overall objectives and business goals, which the organization assesses through success metrics to see how the brand’s identity is perceived on one hand, and the user segmentation, usability and user research, and compiling the results of the studies in the forms of user profiles on the other, both defining and pushing an organization in a specific long-term direction (Garrett, 2002). Above the Strategy plane, Garrett (2002) lays down the Scope plane, consisting of the functional specifications on one side, derived from the strategy in regards to what is necessary for the product to address user needs, and on the other side are the content requirements, which look the content types and overall information, which is to be expected in the product.

The Structure plane is the transition plane from abstract to concrete, where the development of a conceptual and effective structure is in effect (Garrett, 2002). While interaction design is responsible for describing the behavior of the users, and how the system would respond to said behavior through use of conceptual models and error handling activities, information architecture is responsible for reflecting on the designed product or service and how users would cognitively process information. Garrett also states (2002), that this is achieved through models, where the taxonomy between nodes defines the structure of the information, while organizing principles strive for maximum usability and ease of retrieval for the sought after information by users.

The Skeleton plane’s purpose is to refine the shape of the structure by focusing on interface, navigation, and information designs through wireframes (Garrett, 2002) with various visually recognizable components, such as fields and buttons for the interface, presentation of information spaces for the navigation, and the ways, in which the presented information would be communicated effectively to the users for the information design. Positioned at the top of the model, the Surface plane’s only focus is on the sensory design of a product or service, as Garrett (2002) argues, achieved through the use of specialized equipment and technology. The end result of the finalized

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product layout is polished as a visual mock-up, achieved through balance of contrast and uniformity, carrying both internal and external consistency in terms of color palettes and typography, and as such, is used in in guiding the development process of the product or service.

Similarly to Garrett’s (2002) framework, another accurate model of describing and analysis of the design process of an organization is the Design Council UK’s Double Diamond model (2005), which enables an easy overview of most project’s design. Using two diamonds side by side, totaling four quarters, the model incorporates the divergence and convergence of ideas from selecting an idea to refining and pushing it forward to development. The first quarter, Discovery, is a phase of divergence, representing the exploration for inspirations for a product or service, obtained through various methods of user or market research, while the second quarter of the model, referring to the Define phase, is where the identified needs are interpreted and converged upon as user problems, and are aligned with the business objectives, the end-result being an idea to commit to. Again, taking on a divergence approach, the third phase, Develop, begins, where the development of design-led solutions are thought of and continuously tested within the business. The last phase of the Double Diamond model (Design Council UK, 2005), Deliver, is where the tested and validated design receives final approval and is released after development in the targeted market. Although using this model can allow the study to map out UX design findings, relevant to formulate the concept’s understanding within a company, having only one practical model for design analysis may not facilitate sufficient conclusions to the study. As such, another model is also taken into consideration.

In more recent years, using a case study of a multinational software development company for evaluation, Guo (2016) has come forth with a conceptual model, which shares similarities with the model of the Design Council UK (2005) for user experience design, as it is also tightly connected to the design and development of products and services, however, it also differentiates itself by introducing a design lead in place to facilitate and guide the overall UXD process. As seen in the figure below, the Spiral UX Design model follows a cyclical process of design, much like the Spiral model of iterative software development, discussed by Boehm (1988) and, as such, is centered

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around the two axes of cumulative costs and commitment, with each iteration after the first displaying an increase in team commitment and overall cost.

Figure 3: Spiral UX design model (Guo, 2016)

Through exploration and definition of design ideas, at the early stage, a collaborative design is established, based on the refinement of user needs, done by every member of the team, leading to a consolidation in personas and user scenarios by the lead designer. The result is reviewed collectively and a low-fidelity prototype is constructed, applied in user research to assess and at later iterations evaluate the potential of the solution. After synthesizing the new findings, a new consolidation of user needs is done, resulting in one finalized design concept, reviewed collectively. At this stage of the model, Guo (2016) illustrates the opportunity of presenting the designed concept and opening up the design in the following iterations for user participation within the divergence and convergence stages of collaborative design.

When looking at the five presented models, Gou’s (2016) certainly does not stand out as in-depth with arguments and examples of what is important for designing a great user experience. In comparison, the model of Karapanos et al. (2009) shows greater focus of usefulness for self-identity and personal daily routines, while Hassenzahl’s (2011) emphasis is on the user needs, emotions, and the product features, both models allowing to elaborate about the key factors for designing good experiences. Garrett’s (2002) model, on the other hand, being discussed in a book format, shows in far greater focus on the detail of the key UX elements of digital products or services through a robust framework, while the Double Diamond (Design Council UK, 2005) has been around for

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years, allowing for an easy mapping of the design process, complemented with examples and explanations What makes Gou’s (2016) model useful for this research is the practical, systematic user experience design process it introduces, which can be seen as particularly useful when comparing how digital solution providers in Sweden view user experience design, as mentioned in the problem discussion of this paper.

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3. Research methodology

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the process, used in conducting the research study, recorded in this thesis paper, as well as provide rationale for selecting said process.

______________________________________________________________________ As different philosophies exist, driving researchers in their respective direction to formulate their research strategy design, so does this paper draw concrete connection to a school of thought and its research paradigm. The following segments of this chapter serve to describe step by step the methodology of the conducted process, by which this thesis project was conducted, beginning by first and foremost addressing the chosen philosophy and rationale for adopting it over the rest. At the end of the chapter, a simple graphical representation of the overall research process can be observed.

3.1. Research philosophy

While positivism as a research philosophy allows for greater replication or generalization of research through an objective and independent view of an environment, when it comes to studies of social actors and their roles in a system, the interpretivism research philosophy distinguishes itself from the rest (Saunders, Thornhill, & Lewis 2009). In comparison, the realism philosophy looks objectively in relation to objects and their independence of the human mind, whereas pragmatism is mainly adopted when a more flexible and practical approach is adopted, utilizing parts of other philosophies (Saunders et al., 2009).

Drawing upon the problem of common understanding of digital transformation, discussed in a previous chapter, it was therefore best to approach the topic of research, recorded in this paper, following an intepretivist’s point of view. Evidence for this exists in the formulated research questions and objectives, which they aim to address, highlighting the need of understanding and interpreting the way in which the digital solution providers make sense of digital transformation and looking at the users’ experiences, when interacting with a desired solution. Moreover, these arguments closely connect to what the strand of interpretivism, named phenomenology, is at its core, observing social phenomena as socially constructed and as such aims to draw forth meanings and insights to the studied phenomenon (Saunders et al., 2009). Proof for this phenomenon of lived experiences can be seen primarily behind the first research

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question, which inquires about the awareness and expression of meaning, and generate insights based on gathered empirical data about the specific phenomenon of digital transformation. As such, accepting phenomenology within the research methodology was therefore the correct course of action.

3.2. Research strategy

With research philosophy defined, given the research objectives of this thesis, the next layer to look at the study was the overall research strategy and approach throughout the study. While inductive research is more concerned with creating theory by looking at empirical observations for identifying patterns to develop theory, deductive studies aim to formalize hypothesis and research questions based on existing literature, test them, and report their outcomes for confirmation (Malhotra, 2017). Abductive research studies, on the other hand, tend to be a mixture of both inductive and deductive, and are often done by researchers, who follow an interpretivist’s point of view, aiming to describe and understand social life in terms of social actor’s meanings and motives (Malhotra, 2017). Taking this into consideration, the abductive research strategy was the perfect fit for the purpose of this paper.

With the global pandemic of 2020, caused by the commonly-refereed to “COVID-19” virus, the research approach had to be changed in the middle of the empirical gathering process. To perform at the optimum level an abductive research from an interpretivist’s standpoint, the original idea was to perform a case study through qualitative methods, as it was the best fit for “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context” (Yin, 2008). More specifically, from the four types of case study designs, which Yin (2008) defines, where depending on the number of cases used as units of analysis, there can be single holistic, single embedded, multiple holistic, and multiple embedded case studies, this research paper originally was planned to follow through with a multiple holistic case study. However, as businesses shifted to remote work as precautions against virus spread and infections, the ability to conducting meetings and interviews was impacted severely, as recorded in the following segments of this chapter. As such, to manage the research time limitations, a change of research strategy from case study towards netnography was made.

The netnographic research methodology, when compared to standard ethnography, allows for a more agile, economic and less invasive research, focused more on

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participant observation in a specific field of research interest (Kozinets, 2010). As such, netnography can be argued as relevant for studying business organizations, so long as several specific delimitations are accounted for, when looking at each company. Since dozens of people can work for any given company, it is necessary to accept a company as a single entity, which is communicating in some way within society about digital transformation and user experience design. With that decided upon, from the four typologies of netnographic (Morais, Santos, & Goncalves, 2020), this recorded research aligned the most with the symbolic netnography. Although primarily used in marketing for understanding consumers (Kozinets, 2010; Morais, Santos, & Goncalves, 2020), it can be adapted to study companies as a whole, retrieving information and interaction from social media sources to consolidate a portrait of an organization, elaborating on their values and practices, drawing a clear picture of the meaning behind specific terms, such as “digital transformation” and “user experience design”. The other three typologies of autonetnography, digital netnography, and humanistic netnography did not align with the planned type of data capturing and analysis, hence were disregarded as plausible alternatives to approach the study.

With a research strategy decided, the next step was to identify the initial list of companies. To achieve this, access to a database of existing companies and their contact information was sought out. For this reason, the Amadeus database was utilized for compiling the list, as it allows for flexible filtering based on desired basic criteria of status, location, number of employees, and types of sectors they operate in. This led to a final search result of 776 IT-related companies, as shown in table below, provided by the Amadeus platform’s export feature. Of the 776, 538 were from within the Stockholm region, 142 in Göteborg’s county, and 96 in Malmö and its surrounding.

Table 3: Amadeus database company search results

Filter Step result Search result

1. All active companies and companies with unknown situation 21 088 792 21 088 792 2. Region/Country/region in country: Skane (Sweden),

Stockholm (Sweden), Vastra Gotaland (Sweden) 502 040 473 962 3. NACE Rev. 2 (Primary codes only): 62 – Computer

programming, consultancy and related activities, 63 – Information services and activities

872 218 22 352

4. Number of employees: Last available year, min=20, exclusion

of companies with no recent financial data 1 169 874 776

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Having this very first list of companies defined, given the large amount of potential units for the netnographic study, the next step of the process was the application of a screening process, elaborated data collection segment below.

3.3. Primary data collection

As stated in the Research delimitations and assumptions segment in a previous chapter of this paper, the list of digital solution providers was refined via four criteria – size, development work of “digital transformation”, designated website, and channels for communication with society. While the size criterion was facilitated through the advanced filtering options of Amadeus, past and current project information was hard to obtain, as no company will openly discuss their work with external parties. Due to research limitations, not the entire list of organizations was screened through website observations. Sorted by largest revenue, after the first screening of over 100 of the 776 companies, with all factors included, the resulting list of potential interview targets unfortunately was severely shortened to 17 potential targets of data collection, which were reached out to by the end of the research for online-mediated interviews. However, with only 2 of 17 replying, and with a negative response for participation in interviews due to the pandemic circumstances, the 17 companies were screened a second time, so that only companies, which have a sufficient, online-available amount of data for analysis be included in the research, which led to a final count of 5 companies.

In order to observe the understanding of digital transformation and its connection with UXD within the selected digital solution providers in Sweden, a qualitative approach for primary data collection was conducted. The rationale for using qualitative methods is that, quantitative enables primarily for questionnaires, which generate numerical data, the analysis of which allows for hypothesis testing, or graphical representations and statistical conclusions by correlation between variables, which this study did not incorporate or relate to. In contrast, qualitative methods can allow for analysis of non-numerical data, which is the type of information this paper aimed for, facilitating insights, which can be overlooked by quantitative approaches (Saunders et al., 2009). Within this approach selected, a multi-method process of gathering data was executed, targeting the company website primarily, and communication mediums as secondary, complementary sources. Conversations on social media channels by the observed

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companies were welcome, but unfortunately did not provide much relevant data to contribute to the research forward. In the end, with no interviews performed, the total amount of data captured not exceeding 30 pages of double-spaced text, far less than Kozinets’s (2010) examples of 1000 to over 5000 pages. However, since this research aims at only finding out about a few specific terms and from a small group of observations, it was seen as sufficient enough to analyze. Since some companies’ website and social posts were in Swedish, translation was made through the online Google Translate tool from Swedish to English. Furthermore, as multinational companies have established offices in Sweden and hire experts from the locale, whenever both “global” and Sweden-specific posts were made on the subject of research, the Sweden-specific post was accepted for analysis.

The subject of “sampling” was also taken into consideration. Similar to quantitative researches, the term “sampling” can also be used in the context of qualitative studies when referring to the subjects, who have been chosen for the interviews, as well as rationale for relying on them (Patton 2002). As stated in the delimitation segment of this paper, several criteria were applied until the selected companies to contact were applied. This automatically classifies the sampling technique as purpose-driven, as the only included companies in this study, were the digital solution providers, which were deemed capable of providing insights of what digital transformation or user experience means to them. Taking all this into consideration, the paper was deemed good enough to provide a reliable view of the phenomenon (Patton, 2002), albeit arguably descriptive in nature.

3.4. Data saturation and content analysis

Originally, an interview design was prepared with open and semi-structured questions to gather the necessary data, adopting the 5 phase interview guidelines, described by Baxter, Courage, and Caine (2015), and analyze the data, using the conventional approach, highlighted by Hsieh and Shannon (2015) via the inductive content analysis process of Elo and Kyngäs (2008). With netnography being adopted mid-research, however, this lead to a restructuring of the content analysis approach. For one thing, according to Patton (2002), when a pattern of repetition of findings becomes evident, a decision can be called by the researcher, that data saturation has been reached on the subject. In the case of this research, however, as each digital solutions provider can

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provide various findings, and only few of the many firms were analyzed due to time constraints, a data saturation was not reached. It was more accurate to say, that once the semantic meaning behind the terms and their connection was found out for a single organization, a shift to the next organization was made, ending at only five. That being said, for some companies, to obtain the relevant empirical findings, the data capturing went back as much as months in the past, looking into communication mediums and blog articles, while for other it was unnecessary, as the data was obtained without much mining.

The data analysis process was generally following Kozinets’s (2010) guidelines. The first step was to organize the general amount of information, and categorize it, having “transformation” and “experience” as the codes to the netnographic data, since looking for exact textual matches of “digital transformation” and “user experience design” on the websites or social media channels may not have shown enough sufficient results for the research. These categorized findings were afterwards refined to only the web paragraphs, which were relevant to understanding the concepts’ meaning and connection, and as such, were used for sense-making of each company’s “statement” regarding the research questions. A tabular representation of the final count of web-paragraphs, reported in the findings chapter can be seen below. The paragraphs led to synthesized answers to the research questions for each company, which were in the end listed in a table together, concluding the content analysis phase of the study, and facilitating the transition to the conclusion chapter of the study.

Table 4: Data capture results Company Website paragraph

with “transformation”

Social media post with “transformation” Website paragraph with “experience” Social media post with “experience” Total count Organization 1 3 6 4 5 18 Organization 2 2 8 6 2 18 Organization 3 6 1 4 - 11 Organization 4 5 - 3 - 8 Organization 5 3 - 8 7 18

3.5. Secondary data collection

Given the nature of abductive research papers, the frame of reference for this study was formulated as the data gathering process was underway, as to compensate for the

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research limitations discussed later on in the paper. This secondary data, found throughout the study, refers to information in the form of existing theories and concepts from both academic and professional literature, as well as other publicly-available contextualized data. Several professional-literature books can be seen evident in the frame of reference, in addition of articles with empirical evidences. The academic articles were obtained through queries in specific search engines and digital libraries, such as Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ACM and other which have access various resources bases of academic literature. The queries consisted of either only the keywords “digital transformation”, “user experience”, “user experience design”, or a combination of them with the narrowing keyword of “Sweden”, to see if any relevant to Sweden study on the subject has been made. Furthermore, none of these search queries followed a limited time-frame approach to delimit the years, from which the articles or books were retrieved. In contrast, the information and data in the shape of statistical data, procured from sources such as the Statistics Sweden, World Economic form and other sites were limited to only the most recent years, so that information about demographics and organizations is considered relevant to support the purpose of the study. With this in mind, demographic information was obtained prior to the literature review, as it was necessary to get an objective view of the as-is state of Sweden, it’s “ICT for everyone” policy, and other facts, used throughout the Introduction chapter.

3.6. Research quality criteria

Research credibility is often found evident within an academic paper, when a clear, transparent, and consistent research methodology is present (Saunders et al., 2009). Following through the proper guidelines and methodological protocols, allowing for research repetition, however, are what define the overall reliability of an academic study (Saunders et al. 2009). Abiding by the guidelines for a netnographic study, proposed by Kozinets (2010), complemented by the provided comprehensive literature review and described data collection and analysis processes, which support the conclusion’s findings, the scientific characteristics of reliability and trustworthiness are deemed appropriate, given the turn of events with COVID-19 during the performed research. When it comes to generalizability, it has been pointed out in the past, that qualitative studies fail to provide good levels of external validity within other contexts due to a leading logic among researchers, where if studies do not use statistical sampling,

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selected through probability methods and represent populations, their transferability would be hard to justify, as representation of the population is ambiguous (Seale, Gobo, Gubrium, & Silverman, 2004). Although Lee and Baskerville (2003) had argued otherwise, that when it comes to generalizability in information system research, there are in fact four distinct types of generalization, Kozinets (2010) highlights the fact, that external validity concerns are not an issue in naturalistic inquiries such as netnographic studies, but rather the internal validity is important. In netnography, this validity can be confirmed for being evident, if the research paper covers ten netnographic criteria – coherence, rigour, literacy, groundedness, innovation, resonance, verisimilitude, reflexivity, praxis, and intermix (Kozinets, 2010). In this aspect, the research is coherent, as it recognizes different interpretations of the terms, allowing for a unified pattern, as it is also rigorous, as the paper recognizes and adheres to the procedural standards of netnography. Concerning the literacy criterion, the provided relevant literature review and previously discussed research approaches serve as evidence. Regarding other criteria, such as groundless, innovation, and resonance, the thesis study covers them by having the necessary theoretical representations supported by empirical data clearly, having a rather different, innovative take on performing netnography, which fosters comprehension within the reader about the observations, in this case – the companies.

In the context of verisimilitude, in the case of netnography, is tied with establishing the quality of the text, how it reflects reality through credible and convincing arguments, which this paper addresses through its research conclusions. Reflexivity is the extent, to which the netnographic text acknowledges the role of the researcher, and is open to alternative interpretations (Kozinets 2010) in regards to entry and exit of the study field. Since this study does not include the researcher actively in the community, being a single person, looking into groups of individuals, taking the form of a single entity, a firm, this criterion does not apply to this paper. Praxis as a criterion is assessed by how much potential the research has to stimulate social action for improving the society. This is strictly interpretative, one way being if this research can stimulate a follow-up study, when better global circumstances are present. Lastly, intermix as a criterion simply refers to accepting, that there are often “online” and “offline” versions of a culture mixing together, meaning what is posted online must be accepted as potentially not being accurate in an “offline” situation for a community, or in this case – an

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organization. This was understood from the beginning of the netnographic research, as individuals, working for the company may have point out a difference with the posted content, for which others within the firm are responsible, when formulating the paper’s academic conclusions, tied with the research questions.

3.7. Research ethics

When conducting research, it is always vital to recognize and abide by morally accepted research ethics. This paper is no exception, as it followed specific codes and consents, connected to both literature recognition, as well as the practical execution of the research method of data collection, handling, and reporting. Although non-disclosure agreements and interview consent papers were prepared for conducting online-mediated interviews during the empirical gathering stage of the research, they never saw use. In terms of performing a netnographic study and ethics, Kozinets (2010) points out several key aspects to be considered, some of which being fallacy, credibility, harm, legal consideration, and data referencing. Private and public fallacy are important to keep track of, especially when dealing with information, which can compromise credibility and introduce misinformation, or can influence negatively and harm the image of the organizations, therefore making data gathering and processing subject to legal consideration. To accommodate for an ethical netnographic study, citing and anonymizing the companies was kept at high levels importance throughout the research. As there have been no participants in the study through interviews, no human-associated pseudonyms have been in use, while the studied companies have simply been named as “Organization” and an incrementing digit/number. As the web-paragraphs could still be traced back to the website or source through search engines with “exact match” possible, to keep identify exposure to a minimal, no web paragraphs or explicit information of the companies researched is reported in the paper, other than the paraphrased sentences in the organization findings. This study recognized the risk taken by not having the names of the companies or their data as questioning the credibility of the research itself, however, if the steps of company list compilation, sampling of companies, and data gathering are followed, the same results for scientific interpretation. Furthermore, academically it is also accepted to not reveal such information, as Kozinets (2010) also discussed the degrees of concealment and maximum cloaked conditions, when a sensitive subject is studied or participant image needs to remain non-public to avoid causing harm.

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3.8. Research methodology model

To summarize the research methodology, after first defining the general topic of research interest and adopting a strategy and thinking approach to implement, a list of eligible research observations was created, from which a sample was selected. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a necessary shift from interviews to netnography was made for obtaining empirical findings. A choice of research environment to focus on was taken at this step, in this case – the internet, where only company website and social channels were subject to investigation, allowing the research to continue to the next step, data capture. The obtained information was structured systematically by applying the terms “transformation” or “experience” as basic metadata tags, allowing for easier categorizing and refinement of the relevant information concerning the specific concepts. These structured findings were studied in detail to interpret the general standpoint and understanding of the researched companies regarding the terms of digital transformation, user experience design, and their mutual connection. After the analysis results were synthesized, a meaningful answer to each research question was derived and reported in the Conclusions chapter of this paper. An overall systematic representation of the complete research process can be observed in the figure below.

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4. Empirical findings

______________________________________________________________________

The purpose of this chapter is to present the collected for the netnographic study data in an easy to navigate and comprehend way, facilitating the transition to the analysis chapter after it.

______________________________________________________________________

With no performed interviews, the collected data was obtained through studying the website of each company from the refined list of eligible companies, as well as the social media channels they use to reach out and communicate with other actors on the internet. For research ethic reason, all companies are recorded as “Organization” and an incremented digit, differentiation it from the other firms. Since there are multiple organizations studied, the following content below will be structured so that each organization has its own section. At the end of this segment, a tabular overview will be present, summarizing the official website findings.

4.1. Organization 1

This first company has a specific website variation, having a tailored version, responsible for Sweden, in Swedish, as well unique version for other countries, and a general global version. The main, landing page of the website does not discuss either digital transformation, or user experience design, however it has separate web pages, where multiple web paragraphs elaborate on the subject, as well as a website search feature, facilitating further access to the necessary information.

In the case of digital transformation, this company claims, that the rapid development of digitization presents opportunities, as citizen and end-customer expectations rise, and as such, they highlight the necessity to understand its customers’ (meaning B2B-type) strategic processes and functions, in order to create efficient and innovative solutions for better customer service and market competitiveness. As such, the company claims developed solutions for digital transformation must exploit new demands and opportunities, guiding its customers in terms of end-users, processes, and technology. Lastly, one interesting highlight from the website is the company’s “offering” to guide its clients in choosing the route to take, necessary infrastructure to handle, and complementary solutions, in order to increase the customer’s pace of digital transformation.

The role of user experience design within digital transformation : Insights from Sweden