UX Design of Augmented Reality House Configurator
Mobile AR Application and Web Administration Interface Design
Rebecka Skarin
Industrial Design Engineering, master's level 2020
Luleå University of Technology
Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences
CIVILINGENJÖR I TEKNISK DESIGN
Master of Science Thesis in Industrial Design Engineering UX Design of Augmented Reality House Configurator Mobile AR Application and Administration Interface
© Rebecka Skarin
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Luleå, 2020
Many of us find it difficult to make big decisions, building a house is one of them. It is perhaps the biggest investment and project that one takes on. During a house building project, there are many things that needs to come together, you have to find a plot, choose a house model and lastly all those other choices as for example the kitchen and bathroom details. It is in this decision process that it can be useful to be able to test different house models and materials before the final decision is made.
It is this process that is the focus of the thesis, or rather, a tool to facilitate decisions. There are existing solutions today where the user can change materials in houses online in virtual reality, this thesis explores how this functionality could be conceived in an AR (Aug- mented Reality) environment. With this, the user can see their house in real size on the site before the construction has even begun.
Neava AB has developed an application called Arvue where it is pos- sible to view an AR model of a house in real size. The houses Neava AB produce belong to their customers, who are house companies.
But as the team at Neava AB worked on developing customized con- figurators for virtual reality, some challenges began to emerge.
It takes a long time to agree with the customer which colour shade is correct and the communication between the two at this stage of production can sometimes take a long time. During which Neava has to wait for the customer’s reply before they can continue their work. The problem regarding to the colours is also connected to the customers brand identity as the house companies all have their own specific appearance and want both the interface and images to re- flect this as strongly as possible. This increases the communication between the two even further.
The aim of the thesis is to design a tool where the house company can administrate their own interface in the interactive AR configura- tor. The interface design is focused on user experience and evaluated by measuring the usability and user experience.
The work presented in this thesis applied a user centered design process, in which the most important part is to involve the users in the design and to base the decisions upon their needs and feedback in different ways. This work applied interviews, surveys, evaluations and user testing continuously to control how well the results were in line with the identified needs.
The thesis presents a proof of concept for how this tool for the house companies could be conceived by designing both the interface to ad- ministrate and the tool itself. By developing this tool Neava AB would both reduce the time they spend on communication but also have a progressive and innovative product service which could help reduce the environmental impact of building new houses. This is achieved by helping the users make better decisions and reduce the amount of re-buildt houses.
KEYWORDS: Industrial Design, Augmented Reality, Interface Design, User Experience, Usability, House Configurator, User Centered Design
ABSTRACT
För många människor är det svårt att ta stora beslut, att bygga hus är ett av dessa. Det är kanske den största investeringen och projekt som man tar sig an. I ett husbygge är det många saker som ska stäm- ma överrens, man ska hitta en tomt, välja en husmodell och till sist alla de där andra valen som till exempel köks- och badrumsdetaljer.
Det är i detta beslutskede som det kan vara skönt att kunna testa olika husmodeller och material innan det slutliga beslutet tas.
Det är denna process som är i fokus i detta examensarbete, eller rättare sagt ett vergtyg för att underlätta besluten. Det handlar näm- ligen om en AR-applikation för hus. AR står för augmented reality (förstärkt verklighet) och med hjälp av denna kan användaren se sitt hus i verklig storlek på tomten innan någonting är bestämt eller ens påbörjat.
Neava AB har utvecklat en applikation där det i dagsläget går att visa en AR-modell av ett hus i verklig storlek. Deras huvudsakliga kunder är husföretag som bygger modulära hus. Då teamet på Neava AB arbetat med att utveckla kundanpassade konfiguratorer för virtuell verklighet har några utmaningar börjat visa sig.
Det tar lång tid att komma överens om vilken färgnyans som är kor- rekt och kommunikationen i detta skede av produktionen tar ibland väldigt lång tid varvid Neava måste invänta kundens bedöming på deras modeller. Detta problem är också kopplat till kundernas graf- iska profil då kunderna alla har en specifik framtoning och vill att både gränssnitt och bilder ska återspegla denna så starkt som mö- jligt.
Målsättningen med arbetet är att utforska hur ett verktyg för hus- företagen att skapa sina egna gränssnitt skulle kunna se ut. Gräns- snittet designas med fokus på användbarhet och användarupplev- else och utvärderas kontinuerligt jäntemot dessa kriterier.
Projektet tillämpar en användarcentrerad designprocess där det centrala är att involvera användarna i designprocessen på olika sätt.
Detta arbete tillämpar intervjuer, enkäter, utvärderingar och använ- dartester genomgående för att kontrollera hur väl resultaten stäm-
mer överrens med de identifierade behoven. Designen tas fram med utgånspunkt i de identifierade utmaningar och problem som funnits med hjälp av dessa metoder.
Resultatet är ett koncept som illusterar hur detta verktyg skulle kun- na se ut och fungera. Både hur en konfigurator för AR men också för hur en administrativ tjänst för en huskonfigurator skulle kunna se ut.
Genom att designa gränssnittet för huskonfiguratorn i AR och med- följande administrativa tjänst så kunde ett förslag för detta verktyg presenteras. Om Neava skulle utveckla detta verktyg så skulle det både minska tiden som de lägger på kommunikation, men också ha tagit fram en innovativ och nytänkande produkt som kan bidra till att minska miljöpåverkan av nybyggnation genom säkrare beslut och minskad ombyggnation.
NYCKELORD: Teknisk Design, Augmented Reality, Gränssnittsdesign, Användbarhet, Användarupplevelse, Huskonfigurator, Användarcentrerad Design
SAMMANFATTNING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background 1
1.3 Objective and aims 2
1.4 Project scope 2
1.5 Thesis Outline 2
2. CONTEXT 3
2.1 Modular Houses 3
2.2 Online House Configurators 3
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 4
3.1 User Experience Design 5
3.2 User Centered Design 6
3.2.1 User research 6
Iterative User testing 6
3.3 Interaction Design 6
3.3.1 Complex Interaction 6
3.3.2 Usability 6
3.4 User Interface Design 8
3.4.1 Design Patterns 8
3.4.2 Navigation and Architecture 9
3.4.4 Brand Identity 9
3.5 Human Computer Interaction 10
3.5.1 Augmented Reality 10
3.5.2 Smartphone Interaction 10
3.6 Human Cognition 11
3.6.1 Cognition 11
4. METHOD 12
4.1 Project Plan 12
4.2 Process 12
4.3 Concieve 12
4.3.1 Literature Review 12
4.3.2 Industry and market research 12
4.3.3 User research 14
4.4 Analysis 15
4.4.1 Personas 15
4.4.2 Empathy maps 15
4.4.3 Customer Journey 15
4.4.4 SWOT-Analysis 15
4.4.5 Site maps 15
4.4.6 Group Evaluation 15
4.4.7 Product Design Specification 16
4.5 Ideation 16
4.5.1 Idea 16
4.5.2 Low Fidelity Prototyping 17 4.5.3 High Fidelity Prototyping 19
4.6 Implement 20
4.6.1 Redesign 20
4.6.4 Final Design 20
4.7 Method Discussion 21
5. RESULTS 22
5.1 Concieve Results 22
5.1.1 Industry and Market Research 22 5.1.2 User Research Results 22
5.2 Analysis 25
5.2.1 Personas 25
5.2.2 Empathy Maps 26
5.2.3 Customer Journey 28
5.2.4 SWOT-Analysis 28
5.2.6 Group Evaluation Results 29 5.2.7 Product Design Specification 30
5.3 Ideation Results 31
5.3.1 Idea results 31
5.3.2 Low Fidelity Prototyping Results 31 5.3.3 High Fidelity Prototyping Result 39
5.4 Implement Results 45
5.4.1 Redesign 45
5.4.3 Conclusions 51
5.4.4 Final Design 52
6. DISCUSSION 57
6.1 Positioning the Result 57
6.2.1 Thesis Scope 58
6.2.2 AR-Prototyping 58
6.2.3 Remote user Testing 58
6.3 Future Work 58
6.3.1 Application UI 58
6.3.2 Admin. UI 58
8. REFERENCES 60
APPENDICES 62
LIST OF APPENDICES
A.1 Project Plan
A.2 Transcript, Group interview A.3 Transcript, Phone interviews A.4 Transcript, Face to Face interview B.1 Survey Questions
B.2 Survey results
B.3 Neava Group evaluation responses, rating of user attributes B.4 Neava group evaluation, site maps
C.1 Early Paper Wireframing sketches C.2 Lo-Fi prototype evaluation survey D.1 Application ui test, questions and results D.2 Application UI Test, heat maps
D.3 Admin Ui Test, Questions and results D.4 Admin Ui Test, heat maps
LIST OF FIGURES
Picture 1.1: Application logo and illustration of Arvue Picture 2.1: Screenshot from Neava’s house configurator Picture 3.1: Illustration of Morvilles UX honeycomb Picture 3.2: Illustration of error prevention example
Picture 3.3: Screenshots from the AR application IKEA Place Pcture 3.4: Screenshots of the online house configurator by A-Hus Picture 4.1: Group evaluation at Neava AB, dot evaluation of sitemaps Picture 4.2: Workshop - Introduction to house configurators
Picture 4.3: Workshop - Clustering
Picture 4.4: Workshop - Braindrawing Sketch of brand identity Picture 4.5: Workshop - Paper Wireframing
Picture 4.6: Paper Prototyping Picture 4.7: Selection
Picture 4.8: Combining sketches of different functions to concepts Picture 4.9: High Fidelity Prototyping
Picture 4.10: High Fidelity Prototyping Picture 4.11: Flowchart Illustation Picture 4.12: Low Fidelity Prototyping Picture 4.13: High Fidelity Prototyping
Picture 5.1: Illustration of production flow at Neava AB Picture 5.2: Customer Journey
Picture 5.3: SWOT analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
This thesis is conducted as a part of my studies in Industrial Design Engineering at Luleå University of Technology. The thesis was performed in cooperation with Neava AB during the spring of 2020. The main field of the study is user experience and interaction design in both mobile augmented reality and website interaction. An interface for administrating a mobile AR house configurator is designed together with the AR application using a user centered design process. This section provides a short introduction to the thesis.
Picture 1.1: Application logo and illustration of Arvue
1.1 BACKGROUND
Neava AB has developed a product family for visualising houses and larger buildings in virtual reality and augmented reality. They provide on-demand-renders of houses in virtual reality. One of the products is called ‘Arvue’ and is a mobile application which show houses in AR.
The customers for Arvue are companies who sell modular homes and in turn their customers - private persons who want to buy a modular home. Modular homes are houses built in separate sec- tions (modules) in a factory and then transported to the building site where they are assembled. The project originated from a need to create a more sustainable product solution for Arvue in the means of time and customer flexibility. As Neava AB started to produce and deliver a similar product, they have noted that the communication of the product delivery and feedback takes up more time than expected.
This thesis will explore how a product concept for Arvue could look to enable a more efficient customer relation. The main criteria for the product concept was that it should aim to provide a high qual- ity user experience. At the end of the project a proof of concept is presented, this type of concept illustrates how the concept could be designed including the technical limitations and the usability of the product.
1.2 STAKEHOLDERS
The work affected three parties, Neava AB, modular house compa- nies and the end customer – private persons in the market to buy a house. The work affected Neava AB in the sense that they would have a more efficient production process.
The modular house companies would be able to manage and cus- tomize the service (Arvue) on their own initiative to a greater extent.
They could then use Arvue as a mean of product management and to apply their own brand image and attract more customers.
The end customer (private person) in turn will be able to use the tool to view the house from a more lifelike perspective. The augmented reality house configurator would give the end user a good perception of how the house will look once it is built. They could see the view from inside the house in different directions, investigate the light- flow through the house at different times of day and season, get the feeling of space and how colours will behaven and fit together. This could for example mean changing the colour of the roof or kitchen doors.
1.3 OBJECTIVE AND AIMS
The objective of the thesis was to deliver a proof of concept focused on the technical limitations and the user- and customer experience of the product Arvue.
The proof of concept will specify how an administrative website in- terface for this application could look. The aim is to create a proof of concept for Arvue that makes the production more flexible and efficient by enabling the house companies to administrate their own interface thus reducing the communication between Neava AB and the house companies.
1.4 PROJECT SCOPE
The project was conducted during the spring of 2020 in the scope of 800 hours (20 weeks). The progress of the thesis was overseen by two supervisors, one at Luleå University of Technology, and one supervisor at Neava AB. The project included the process of design- ing a proof of concept for an administrative interface to be used on a computer.
The project did not involve any programming of any kind, however, if programming development would have been necessary Neava AB had agreed to assist in the project.
1.5 THESIS OUTLINE
The thesis was initiated with a detailed project plan to visualise the thesis work and deadlines. The work then proceeded by collecting information of the industry and the three affected users. This pro- cess is described in the Conceive phase of the design process. The result showed that it would be necessary to design two interfaces parallel in the continued work to be able to validate the usability and user experience of the tool.
The work then continued with the Ideation phase which was initiat- ed with a workshop and then proceeded with developing prototype versions of both low fidelity and high fidelity for the two UI:s (user interfaces). These prototypes were all evaluated or tested with users in each iteration.
After the Ideation phase was finished three concept had been tested and/or evaluated for each of the two UI:s. In the Implement phase of the design process the result from the last user test was implement- ed and then tested once again. Lastly the result from this phase could be implemented and a final design for the two concepts and proof of concept could be presented.
Research Questions:
1.
How could a mobile AR house configurator application interface for Arvue be designed from a UX perspective?2.
How could an administrative interface for this house configurator application be designed from a UX perspective?3.
How can the administrative interface help the administrator to create an interface with good UX?2. CONTEXT
Neava AB is an IT-consulting company focusing on delivering high quality IT-solutions . At their head office in Luleå they are working with both managing the programming and content development for Arvue. They create both the houses that is shown in the AR view and the user interface of the application. This section presents the contex t relevant to the product Arvue; what house configurators are. The industry of modular houses and mobile AR in the house industry.
2.1 MODULAR HOUSES
Modular houses are houses that are built in sections in a factory and then assembled on the building site. As most other industries the house companies are in high competition for the customers. But as the industry is highly affected by the taxes in Sweden it is therefore difficult for them to compete by lowering the prices. The pressure on the market has forced many of the house companies to limit the customization of houses to a minimum to save time, if they offer any at all.
It is most common for smaller modular house firms or realtor’s to work as a franchise business for the larger companies in the market.
These usually have one head office or department which delegates information and marketing material to their regional offices or fran- chise offices. The executive decisions are made at the head office and the region offices will act accordingly.
2.2 ONLINE HOUSE CONFIGURATORS
Many of modular house companies have developed their own online house configurator where the customers can try different alterna- tives and combinations of materials and colours on different houses.
Below is a picture (2.1) showing the configurator produced by Neava AB. Beside from the colours a configurator also shows a price indi- cation on the house which alters as they change the materials. The most common configurators are two different varieties, one where it is possible to rotate the view of the house, and the other where the house stands still and the customer can choose between different angles.
These alternatives are usually only available on the outside of the house, when the customers start to design inside the house, the point of view is fixed at one point. This is due to the switching of materials and colour; the customer is given the illusion that the ma- terials change but in fact it is another picture from the exact same angle that replaces the former picture.
The configurators are created using different rendered pictures with all the available combinations. Each pictures is a 3D-render creat- ed by using software such as 3DStudioMax, Blender or equivalent.
Each picture costs between 5-10 000 Swedish crowns and is usually outsourced to media producers, as for example advertising agencies.
The cost of each image therefore makes a configurator a significant cost for the house company.
Picture 2.1: Screenshot from Neava’s house configurator, retrieved from: https://beta.design-studio.se/
nds/?env=neava&model=demo-house, [May 12th 2020]
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This theoretical framework was determined by the field and scope of the study conducted. It presents relevant theory for the study and how the theory is relevant to the thesis . The base for the theory is Industrial Design Engineering and user centered design.
G emser, G ., & Leenders, M. A . (2001) presents industrial design as the practice of implementing a strategic angle to the design of the product by investigating what the users want. In their study they can conclude that industrial design actually does improve the financial situation for companies in different ways, by strength- ening the company brand for ex ample. In the study they define Industrial Design as the methodology of eval- uating a product design in different ways . Two of these were to evaluate how a product design performs in regards to user friendliness and functional performance.
Luleå University of Technology describes Industrial Design Engineering as the combination of a design ap- proach to find and solve problems with the knowledge of mechanical engineering. This gives the designer a good foundation on which to produce and develop competitive products .
By these theories and definition of Industrial Design therefore a product is more likely to increase a company ’s financial standing by designing their products with the user needs in mind which is in line with the goals and aims of the thesis .
3.1 User Experience Design
Industrial Design Engineering
3.3 Interaction Design
Complex Interaction Usability
3.5 Human Computer Interaction
Augmented Reality Smartphone Interaction
3.6 Human Factors
Cognition
3.2 User Centered Design
User Research Iterative User Testing
3.4 User Interface Design
Design Patterns
Navigation and Architecture Layout
Brand Identity
3.1 USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
The aim of the thesis is to create a concept designed to give a high quality user experience.
- But what is User Experience?
In Industrial Design Engineering one way of looking at user expe- rience derive from how the users conceive the product (Morville, 2004). One example of a company that considers user experience is Apple. Apple gives every step that the customers experience equal amount of attention in the user experience design. It is equally satis- fying to pull the plastic off the package of the phone as it is to open the headphone-packaging. Every component is carefully thought out and designed to provide a great and satisfying customer experience.
Apple achieves this by including the users in the design process of their products. The users is allowed to test and give feedback on the products during the development of the design.
Therefore this thesis will also apply a high degree of user testing.
But how is user experience to be measured? Morville (2004) applies guidelines in the field of user experience.
Morville presents ways and methods to how the designer can in- clude this into the process. From years of work experience Morville (2004) has created the ”UX honeycomb” where he presents seven qualities to measure in user experience.
The seven qualities of the product he claims to influence the user experience are usable, useful, findable, accessible, desirable, credible and valuable.
Below you will find an illustration of the UX Honeycomb by Morville (2004).
USEFUL
USABLE
VALUE
FINDABLE
DESIRABLE CREDIBLE
ACCESSIBLE
Usable
is from a usability standpoint and refers to how useful it is in measurable data, it could for example refer to how many errors users make or how long it takes to perform a task.
Findable
means that users should be able to find what they need but Morville also continues to speak of search-engine optimization in the same sense, and how important it is that users can find the website.
Accessibility
in the terms of web- and mobile interaction design refers to developing products avail- able for as many as possible. This means adapting the interface for users with im- pairment such as for example blindness.
Usefulness
is a subjective attribute and depends on how the individual user defines what is useful.
Desirable
is used to include elements such as visual, brand and other emotional qualities.
Credibility
is about trust and how it is important to apply design elements that make it trustworthy and credible for users.
Valuable
is to define what the value for the intended customer is and how to achieve a sense of a valuable service and product, the value is different depending on the aim of the website and product.
Picture 3.1: Illustration of Morvilles UX honeycomb by Rebecka Skarin
3.2 USER CENTERED DESIGN
As presented above in user experience, the users of the product are an essential aspect of designing products with a high user satisfaction. It is also the core of industrial design Engineering.
In the design of the interfaces in this thesis the users to be considered and included in the process are the modular house companies, the employees at Neava and the end-customers of the house companies. This sections presents how the users are included in this design process and why.
3.2.1 USER RESEARCH
Google is one example of how user centered design can help to cre- ate a successful product. According to Au, Boardman, Jeffries, Larvie, Pavese, Riegelsberger, Rodden and Stevens (2008), Google Inc. ap- ply a bottom-up approach in their user experience design approach to incorporate a user centered design process and to engage engi- neers to include the users as a starting point for innovation, which is the core of user centered design.
To apply a bottom up approach in the user experience design pro- cess is to begin at the bottom by analysing the needs, system, use of the product and what the context is. The design approach focus on what the users really need and to design with the users, context and system functions as a starting point/base for the design process (Au et al., 2008).
According to Wong, Khong, and Thwaites, (2012) the user research aims to create a clear definition and outline for the design (Wong et al., 2012). This is done by creating strong user profiles and defining their problems and needs as truthfully as possible.
This is achieved by interviews and research of the market and the users for the product (Wong et al., 2012). After the needs are identi- fied they should be explored further in the terms of ’why do these needs appear?’
The designer is recommended to empathise with the users via the user profiles that was created from the research (Wong et al., 2012).
The why can then be turned into how the need can be satisfied and also solve the identified problem.
ITERATIVE USER TESTING
When the designer uses the research results as a starting point for the design the product will be continuously guided by the users indi- rectly. But the validity of the design needs to controlled through the design process to avoid that the designer does not loose the original aim of the design (Wong et al., 2012).
In user centered design it is common to include the intended users at an early stage of the process by testing and validating design ide- as and concepts to make the design process more efficient (Nielsen Norman Group, 2000). According to Nielsen (2000) it is sufficient to test with only 5 users, to reveal 80 % of the usability issues. To dis- cover all of the problems the needed number of users are 15, but to create an iterative and efficient process where the aim is to continu- ously improve the design, Nielsen (2000) claim that it is sufficient to discover 80 % of the problems in the design. The users should also be included as early as possible to verify that the identified needs
from the research phase are correct. The users can be included to verify needs, early paper prototypes and the final prototype (Gual- tieri, 2009).
The aim of usability testing and prototyping is to reduce the cost of writing code. This is much more expensive than to create prototypes on the interface that can be tested without writing any program- ming needed (Pernice, 2016). There are many ways to test a design with users but in this thesis the prototypes used for user testing are low fidelity prototypes and high fidelity prototypes. The result of the test can then be evaluated using usability metrics (these are present- ed in the usability section in this report).
3.3 INTERACTION DESIGN
The interaction between the user and artefact is a complex field in design as it regards the design in its entirety. This section explains a few aspects regarding interaction design and how to include the user interaction into the design.
3.3.1 COMPLEX INTERACTION
As the nature of the interfaces to be designed contain many aspects and uses complex technology the design must consider how to ap- proach the complex aspects of the interface. Janlert, L. E., & Stolter- man, E. (2008) suggest applying five strategies to decrease the in- formation overload that can be the consequence of interacting with a complex system: eliminating, make it simple, hiding, confining and diluting complexity. Eliminating unnecessary complexity is to remove things that is not essential for the interface to function. The second strategy is to make the interface simple. It is better to disre- gard some functionality to increase the usability of the interface. The third way to decrease the complexity is to hide complexity by dis- guising it to appear less complex. To confine the information in the interface to affect only the users whom it concerns. New users might not or should not be able to encounter the same complexity as the regular user or the owner of the interface. Diluting the complexity is to divide the complexity into smaller pieces or spreading it between different users or functions in the interface. This makes the interface seem less complex for user.
3.3.2 USABILITY
Usability is a central part of this thesis and in interaction design. The usability aspect of design is presented in two sections. One giving the principles to apply in the design of the artefact, and the other providing attributes or qualities to measure how usable the artefact actually is.
Usability principles
In the mid 1980’s Don Norman introduced 6 usability design prin- ciples, visibility, feedback, constraints, mapping, consistency and affordance. They are a general guide on how to design products around usability. The principles in interaction design usability are not all that different to these.
In 1994 Jakob Nielsen presented 10 Usability Heuristics aimed to guide the designer to create usable digital interfaces. These prin- ciples can be seen as Norman’s principles applied to the context of interface design.
This section presents the usability guidelines and principles applied to the context of interface design. In addition to Norman and Niels- en, Schneiderman’s eight golden rules (1987) and Krug (2014) is presented to provide a combined overview of applied usability prin- ciples.
Visibility - Norman (2002) means that the functions should be visible and therefore easier to use. Nielsen’s (1994) interpretation of this onto interface design is that the user should be informed about what the system is doing at any given time within a rea- sonable amount of time. In interface design the visibility of the system is also used as a way of reducing the memory load of the user, “recognition rather than recall”. The visibility of a system also means to provide feedback to the user, this is important to achieve an informative user experience.
In website interaction Krug (2014) presents the aspect of visibility adapted to how users read information on a website. Users do not read the information; they scan it in search of what they are looking for. He presents a strategy to design the website adapted to these scanning users. The information presented is more likely to catch attention with plenty of headlines, short paragraphs, bulleted lists and highlighted key terms.
Feedback - Norman (2002) give a few examples on how feedback can be provided to the user, it could be by audio, tactile, verbal or a combination of these. In the use of a digital interface, new needs of feedback have developed. There is no physical feedback to tell the user that something has happened or gone wrong. Nielsen (1994) presents a principle to include feedback via the user dia- logue, error messages and error handling. But at the same time the information provided must supply the user with substantial information. It should be short and efficient, or, as Schneiderman (2016) refers to it in his golden rules, informative feedback.
Mapping - The term “mapping” is often used to describe a sense of localising the environment in relation to context. In this case Norman uses it to describe how the controls in the product should relate to the effect they have in the real world. In Nielsen’s princi- ples we find mapping in interface as the match between the real world and the system. This refers to using terminology and logical order to things that make sense to the common user. Things that are related are usually in the same area.
Krug (2014) gives another example of how interface mapping can be enabled for the user by the hierarchical structure. The more im- portant the information is, the more visually prominent it should be.
User Control and Freedom - Schneiderman (2016) say that users like to feel that they are in control of the system that they are using, this view is also reflected in the flexibility that both Nielsen and Schneiderman suggest as a principle. The interface should be designed to be used by the user, it is not the user who is used by the interface, and this should also be reflected in the design.
Error Prevention - Nielsen suggests that it is better to design the system to prevent errors from being made. He suggests to “elim- inate error-prone conditions” and how the feedback provided to the user should guide the user from making mistakes.
Affordance - Norman (2002) defines affordance as providing the user with clues and means that the more affordances a product has, the easier it is to understand how to use it. Nielsen (1994) on the other hand refers to this as consistency and standards in the interface. In interface design the practical use could be to use con- ventions. Conventions are symbols, text or placements that are commonly or globally used in the same way. A common example of this is the stop-sign or the ‘save’-symbol. It has been a long time since we saved our data on a floppy disc and many do not even know what they are, but the symbol of a floppy disc is still used for ‘save’.
This view is shared by Krug (2014), where he in his book “Don’t make me Think!” state that if people are already used to one symbol meaning one thing, or a function to be in a specific place, it is best to keep it that way. He also say that it is important to provide clues in location or colour to show what is click-able or not.
Flexibility - Nielsen (1994) refers to flexibility in the sense that us- ers should be able to choose to go directly to what they are looking for, Schneiderman (1987) also applies this in his principles, only, he refers to it as short cuts. They both say that it is important to allow a user the freedom to use the interface as they want. He also adds the reversal of action as an important part of the interface and suggests that this gives users more courage to explore new functions and makes them less worried that they might make an error.
Design to yield closure - Schneiderman (1987) has found it im- portant to give users a sense of completion. The feeling of having completed a task gives relief and prepares the user to continue to the next set of actions.
Aesthetic and efficiency of use - Nielsen propose an aesthetic and minimalistic approach to the provided information. The designer should avoid giving too much information or to give information in a way that makes the information less prominent in relation to other information displayed in the interface at the same time.
This is also strengthened by Krug (2014) as he claim that it is im- portant to provide clearly defined areas to enable the users to deter- mine what area they are interested in and what is important or not.
He also promotes a minimalist design in the sense that information displayed as (or that can be perceived as) shouting, disorganizing or clutter are distracting for the user in different ways and state that everything that is not a part of the solution must go.
Help and documentation - In this context Nielsen (1994) sug- gests that the help and documentation provided to the users of the interface should be easy to search for and it should give an easy guide on how to solve a problem or provide the answer that The correlation the user is looking for in an efficient way. He also
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Picture 3.2: Illustration of error prevention example by Rebecka Skarin
suggests that the information is best presented to the user as a step-by-step guide.
Measuring Usability
As presented previously in this chapter it is important to evaluate your design with users to receive user feedback as soon as possible.
When defining what is usable design there exists a few important attributes that have been developed over time to evaluate concepts and products. This section presents the combined findings of major contributors to usability design from different perspectives.
Jakob Nielsen propose 5 factors to measure usability; learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction. However, Har- rison. R, Flood.D and Duce.D (2013) claim that these five attributes are no longer enough to measure the usability in mobile interfaces, they suggest including two more attributes, effectiveness and cog- nitive load. Thus, including effectiveness from ISO-standard 9241- 11 (Bevan, 2015) of usability and to include the context of use in the cognitive load.
Due to the scope of the thesis the study was unable to include how well the users could remember or learn the interface functionality as they could only test each interface once. Memorability and learnabil- ity was therefore disregarded in the test evaluations.
Efficiency - According to Harrison. R, Flood.D and Duce.D (2013) efficiency is how quickly a user can achieve their goal using the interface. They say that this can be measured in the number of clicks that has to be done to complete the goal. Nielsen suggests a similar interpretation as he defines efficiency in how quickly a regular user can perform a task. The task at hand is to achieve an interface that is perceived as efficient by defining just what the users want to use it for. This means that the users interests in using the interface must be kept close by as the design decisions are made along the way.
Errors - The amount of errors made by users are important to measure as they can tell the designer both where most errors will occur and where to allow the user easy correction of mistakes.
This is the definition by Nielsen (1994) as he suggests measuring the amount of errors, the significance of them and how the users are able to correct them. This information should be used to im- prove the interface further.
This is a very relevant attribute that absolutely should be imple- mented in the design and testing of the interface for the house companies as the interface is used to alter the appearance of their product directly to their customers. If they are not able to correct mistakes or are able to accidentally publish alterations to their users, the consequences could be significant.
Satisfaction - Nielsen (1994) defines this as a quality that is per- ceived by the user as it is dependent on how pleasant the use of the interface was experienced by the user. Harrison. R, Flood.D and Duce (2013) also defines this as a perceived attribute and sug- gests applying a subjective evaluation method in the form of a questionnaire to evaluate the users frame of mind.
Effectiveness - Both Harrison. R, Flood.D and Duce.D (2013) and Jeng (2005) define effectiveness as the ability of users to complete a task. Jeng (2005) One way of measuring this is in the number of correct answers given (Jeng, 2005), another way of measuring this presented by Harrison.R., et al (2013) is whether the user could complete tasks set in a certain environment. So the differ- ence between these are that according to Harrison the interface is usable if the users can perform a task as to Jeng who thinks that it is better to measure the amount of correct answers.
As the tests in this study cannot be held in a controlled manner due to Covid-19, a remote user test is used where the users are given a set of tasks to perform. The test measures the amount of correct answers and where the users dropped off or could not complete the task.
Cognitive Load - According to Harrison. R, Flood.D and Duce.D (2013) they claim that due to the nature of context use of a mobile application or a website on a mobile phone, the cognitive load has become a usability attribute that needs to be considered in the de- sign. Unlike using a website interface on a computer, the use of the website on a mobile phone does not necessarily mean that the user is sitting down and having a relatively high focus on the computer.
The mobile phone can be used at almost any time and does not need to be the primary task at hand, the user might be walking or driving a car at the same time.
As the interface for the house companies is designed to be mainly used on a computer by the administrators at the head offices of the companies, the context design and cognitive load might not be af- fected in the way described here. But, the interface for the mobile augmented reality for their customers is affected by this. Therefore the context must be taken into consideration in the design of this interface.
3.4 USER INTERFACE DESIGN
The complex interaction is one aspect of the interaction design to apply in these interfaces but another one that is most helpful to include is the theory in user interface design. As the target at hand is to design two connected interfaces this is a natural field to include in the theoretical framework. The theory presented in this section are guidelines on how the designer should de- sign the interface to yield a high user experience. A few of the guidelines are also ways on how to approach the complexity of the interfaces in practice.
3.4.1 DESIGN PATTERNS
According to Tidwell. J (2010) this means to create order in the in- formation provided in a space. To create effective interfaces, it is common to use patterns – things that are most often recognised.
The guidelines or patterns to take advantage of or have in mind dur- ing the design are;
Placement of user profile are usually at the top in the left or right corner of the website.
Clustering elements who belong together and having explanatory names to make it easy to know what it contains or does.
3.4.2 NAVIGATION AND ARCHITECTURE
It is important to guide the user towards their goal and to help them to find their way. A general recommendation by Tidwell.J (2010) is to keep the navigation close by at most times by trying to make 80%
accessible via one page of the user interface. The number of jumps, or clicks should be kept below two (Tidwell.J. 2010).
The interfaces designed in this thesis will both be for computer and mobile use. Thus the navigation will be highly dependant on the context and aim of the interface. Therefore the navigation of the interfaces is important to adapt to the users and the context of use.
A few navigation options used in the interface design in this study are:
Global Navigation - a navigational menu that goes where you go and is always close by. This in short means that the navigation is on every page that is opened.
Utility Navigation – This navigation also follows the user in the interface, but it displays information such as profile settings, sign in or equivalent information.
Associative and in-line navigation – content aware navigation that appear close to the content it is intended for.
3.4.3 LAYOUT
As the interfaces in this project should be designed for managing an interface for augmented house configurators, the users of the in- terface needs to be able to manoeuvre the interface with ease and to be sure that the changes made by them will not be seen by their customers until they want them to. The interface must therefore be very easy to use and also show the users what will happen if they press an element on the website. The interface to be used by their customers is to be used in augmented reality. Therefore the lay- out in this interface also needs to take this into consideration when designing the layout and appearance of the controls in this second interface. The design of the interfaces in this study uses these prin- ciples and guidelines as a base in order to create a intuitive and easy to read interface.
Hierarchy
The user of the interface should be able to derive the hierarchy of the information from the layout of the interface. It should contain headers and subtitles formed in a logical hierarchy (Tidwell, 2010).
To create a good hierarchy by using the layout the attributes to con- sider are: density, background colour, position, size and rhythm.
Density - Creating contrast by having a larger group of information assembled in one area, the information will create a contrast with the background colour.
Background colour - Is to have the information upon another col- our than the surrounding background.
Position and size - Can be used by placing information in the mid- dle or centred on the web-page. The information draws the attention of the user since the important information is usually placed in the centre of the screen.
Rhythm - Is when a structure is created using the white space be- tween the text. This can create an intriguing sensation and draws the eye’s attention.
Gestalt Laws
To create a coherent layout that is intuitive to read and look at there are four gestalt laws that are important to remember in layout de- sign (Tidwell, 2010); proximity, similarity, continuity and closure.
One interpretation of the gestalt laws is presented by Graham. L (2008). He gives an interpretation of the gestalt laws in the context of media design. Gestalt laws are principles based on psychological findings and tells us how humans process visual information to cre- ate patterns or configurations to make sense of what is seen.
Proximity - Objects close together becomes a group. According to Tidwell (2010) things that are close together also belong together and becomes related to each other. This is the way to group content in a UI.
Similarity - Object that look similar becomes a group or are asso- ciated together. If elements or objects in a UI look similar, they will also be associated with each other.
Continuity - Grouping elements that are aligned within an object.
According to Interaction Design Foundation this law is to “flow with”
lines. Tidwell (2010) say that humans form lines by aligning smaller objects.
Closure - The human mind fills in gaps to make sense of what is seen, for example gaps in a circle is still perceived as a circle even if it technically is just bent lines on a screen or paper.
3.4.4 BRAND IDENTITY
A brand identity consists of the visual elements that are developed by the company to have an identity for their customers. The visual elements consist of a logo, colours, typography, images and brand in- tegration (Mogaji, 2019). The need for Neava is for the customers to be able to apply their own brand identity onto the interface of their service. Therefore the parts of which the brand identity consists is important to investigate thoroughly as these decide the menu and alternatives in the tool.
A logo consists of two parts, a picture or symbol and the logotype.
The logo comes with specifications on how it can be used and in which sizes and by whom and when (Mogaji, 2019). It is common to have different sizes or combinations depending on the context or media the logo will be displayed on. The logo usually comes in black or a white version to fit the contrast of the background. Sometimes only the symbol is used and sometimes both the symbol and logo are used together.
Companies also use a decided colour palette to portray a coherent image across all media. The palette is specified using a colour system as for example Pantone, RGB or CMYK. RGB is used for digital use and CMYK is used for print. The colours are specified by creating specific names and colour codes to accompany the company brand.
(Mogaji, E. 2019).
The typography guidelines for a company is based on the format, purpose and function of the text it is used for. A company sometimes uses their own custom font (Cisco), and in that case the font can only be accessed through them (Mogaji, 2019).
The images for a company are usually specified in the regards of the quality, type and composition. Companies use images to tell a story and to portray their company image. The feeling or story that the image portray is very important as it needs to embody the spirit of the company. Some companies also provide illustrations and icons to be used in digital applications (Mogaji, 2019).
3.5 HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
In the field of computer technologies the thesis presents this as the technical interaction systems and devices that the software uses. The section presents an introduction to the technology of augmented reality and the interaction with a smart phone de- vice.
3.5.1 AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented and virtual reality both go under the name of immer- sive reality, they both create a hands-on interaction in real time. The technology allows the user to experience a situation or an object as if it was in the same room or a physical thing that the user can touch and feel, when in fact it is just an illusion. This is also explained in the name where you could describe augmented reality as heightened or reinforced reality, the function being to add something to the ex- isting reality or environment. The illusion is provided with a pair of glasses, mobile phones or touch pad. The needed technology to gen- erate the image are a processor, display, sensors and input devices.
An application that offer augmented reality view of products or houses rely on the sensors, the GPS and the camera in the device.
When the AR view is opened the user is asked to aim the device downwards for the phone to be able to map out where the floor is and place the item on it (Yun, C. T. J., & Fei, X. 2020).
According to Flavián et al., (2019) immersive technologies enhance the customer experience and adds value to the products. One com- pany that has made large investments and accomplishments in this area is IKEA, who has created an application where the customers can view the products in AR (picture 3.4). According to Li. A and Fessenden. T (2016) the technology of augmented reality has come a long way in just a few years and has great promise in reducing cognitive load, interaction costs and attention switching.
Augmented reality applications are defined by being a non command user interface as the augmented reality function should collect the necessary information on its own, thus reducing the cognitive load of the user. The meaning of interaction cost according to Li. A and Fessenden (2016) is the physical interaction of the user. This would also be reduced due to the non-command quality of augmented re- ality. In the interface of the augmented reality the user would be provided the necessary information all in one place, in the view of the user, this would mean that the attention can always be directed at completing the task.
As a house configurator is used to create a vision of a house, aug- mented reality has been used to create complete models of the house the customers is buying or considering. The point given by Fessend- en (2016) is that one advantage of AR is that it is a non-command technology, should be explored in more depth in the house configu- rator. This could also enhance the user experience and thus increase the product value for Arvue.
3.5.2 SMARTPHONE INTERACTION
In the use of a smart phone interface the sense of touch is used to perform almost every interaction. There are many different combi- nations of touch that can be implemented to perform different tasks.
Ingram. A et. al (2012) analyse the use of different touch commands in multi-touch interaction interfaces.
They say that a conclusion derived from several studies have shown that few gestures and minimal effort is preferred in interface use. In a study by Frisch. M et. al (2009) the results point to that two-hand- ed interaction is more intuitive for the functions of zooming and scaling objects as one-handed use was the first action when starting a new task. In the study they also notice a tendency that users want to drag an object off the screen to close it or exit the interaction.
A few of the gestures included in the study by Ingram. A. et. al (2012) one finger tap, one finger drag, and vertical hand position drag. The study investigates which interactions that are most intuitive. The conclusions that can be made in the study is that the most intui- tive gesture for selection is the one-finger touch, to move an object the one-finger drag is most intuitive. Their recommendations for increased user experience are;
“Implementing a limited number of multi-touch gestures re- served for the most important and frequently used interaction:
reserving the users’ cognitive load by using buttons and menus for abstract and infrequently used interactions: and using buttons to toggle menu states and reuse intuitive multi-touch
gestures for new interactions.”
(Frisch. M., et. al 2012, page 7) Picture 3.3: A screenshot from the AR application IKEA Place, by Rebecka Skarin
The design of the mobile interface will use different kinds of inter- actions made by the user as the intended device for the interface is to be used on a smart phone that uses a touch screen. Therefore the findings from this study will be used as a source for guidance in the decisions taken for the interaction in the interface.
Single Handed Interaction
Karlson, A. K. et. al (2006) investigate how users tend to move their thumb during the use of mobile touch screen phones. In their study they can conclude the impact that the positioning of applications and functions on the screen affect the user experience of the interface on the smart phone. If the function or button on the screen was difficult to reach this had a negative impact on the user experience.
The movement pattern of north-west to south-east was difficult for the users and Karlson. A. K et al (2006) recommends avoiding this pattern for data input. They conclude, as mentioned earlier, that the
“device regions affects both task performance and perceived dif- ficulty”.
The harder it was to reach the regions the more difficult the tasks were to complete. They suggest putting the region of interaction in the middle of the bottom of the screen, this will enable use for both right-handed and left-handed users and be less of a limitation in the use of larger devices.
3.6 HUMAN COGNITION
The human factors that affect our perception of our surround- ings in our everyday life. The factors are an important perspec- tive to include in the design as they affect our decisions and influence the user experience in every step of the interaction.
The section presents the human cognition.
3.6.1 COGNITION
The perception of the experienced presence is subjective and de- pends purely on how the individual conceive the situation. The con- ceived information is then processed into an emotional response by using the individuals frame of reference, this becomes the cognition.
Colour
The visual perception is dependent on how the person perceives and process what is seen into usable information to act on. Graham. L (2008) gives an interpretation of the gestalt laws in the context of media design. They are principles or laws based on psychological findings and tells us how humans process visual information to cre- ate patterns or configurations to make sense of what is being seen.
Association
According to Bonnardel et al., (2011) colours and cognition are linked together as the perception of colours affect the emotional response to an object, situation or environment. As cognition and emotions af- fect one another interaction design must consider the colour choices in the design process. Elliot et al., (2012) also strengthen the bond between emotion and colours but also state that the perception of colour is strongly dependant on context. In their article Tham et al., (2019) gives an example of this using the colour red. In the context of red on a person’s face, red could mean both excited and angry, it depends on the context.
Cultural Bias
How colours are perceived depends greatly on context, but cultural influence also has a role to play. Cultural influence on colour is given by Tham et al., (2019) where the example of the use of red on the stock market in China means that the price is increasing while green means decreasing price. This use of colour would be the opposite in America and therefore cultural biases are important to acknowledge.
Contrast
It is important to remember that colours tend to behave differently or be perceived differently depending on the colour or object that it is next to. This is called colour induction (Hazelius. F, 2013). Hazelius (2013) gives the example of green and red next to each other and how the edge where the colours meet is difficult to define. Another aspect, or perhaps the most important one when it comes to con- trasts, is to have in mind that a significant part of the population suf- fers from colour blindness. Which makes it more difficult to distin- guish objects on colour. There are different kinds of colour blindness but the most common, or most known, is the red and green colour blindness. Red text on a green background would be almost impos- sible to read for a person with this kind of colour-vision impairment.
A good example of this is a study by Jenny, B., & Kelso, N. V. (2007), where they design maps for colour blind users. In the study they present examples of how the colours look to people without impair- ment and compares the colours to the ones for a person with red and green colour-vision impairment. This shows how the red and green both have a yellow-black colour and look quite the same.
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4. METHOD
This section presents the methods that I used during the thesis . I first present the method and then describe how I implemented the method in my work . The methodology in the work process has been chosen as it is aligned with the aim of the thesis, to create a user interface prototype. The first step was to create an initial grasp of the project at hand to plan the work to the time scope of the thesis .
4.1 PROJECT PLAN
The first step in the thesis project was to create a detailed project plan to define the project regarding deadlines, deliveries, decisions, project scope and resources (appendix A.1). The aim of planning the project is to ensure that the project resources are being used in the best possible way (Wikberg-Nilsson et al., 2015). To decide the scope, decisions and resources beforehand saves valuable time during the project.
4.2 PROCESS
A design process is a way of conducting and structuring your work during the process. In this thesis I will develop a proof of concept for a digital product that utilises two interfaces. I have therefore chosen to apply a user centered design process (UCD) with a UX approach inspired by the Design Thinking Frame- work by Gibbson (2016) where the steps taken to adapt a design process to an agile UX process is presented. The core of a UCD process are the users. Wong, Khong, and Thwaites (2012), pre- sents how to apply this process in an interface design process.
In accordance with UCD they emphasise the importance of both knowing the users, and using an iterative process where the design is evaluated with the users continuously. In this section I present how I have applied this design to fit the aim of my thesis.
CONCIEVE
This step of the process is used to create an understanding of the current market and who the users are. It is also important to de- termine a ‘technical outline’ (Wong et al., 2012) for the project. I have investigated the industry of modular houses, how the product Arvue is produced and gathered information about the users and AR applications. This information was used to create an outline for the proof of concept I designed.
ANALYSIS
In a UCD process it is important to reflect and analyse the findings from the research. Wong et al., (2012) proposes to use this step to analyse the users and to create a user profile. I analysed the infor- mation from my user research and created personas whom embod- ied the user and stakeholder needs. The personas were then used to empathize with users and understanding their user experience. This analysis also includes a product and service analysis based on the research results.
IDEATION
When the designer has created a sufficient understanding of the user needs the next step is to use this information to create ideas and con- cepts focused on solving the problem at hand according to the design brief, keeping the user research close by at all times (Wong et al., 2012). They describe this phase as Concept and Idea Generation.
I chose a joined design phase using this concept but also included Evaluation and Feedback into the same phase to create a continu- ous cycle of design iterations with user testing and evaluation.
IMPLEMENT
The implementation phase of the design process takes place when the designer has reviewed the results and make a redesign of the products. In this project the redesign used the results from the user test of the prototypes in the previous phase. The redesign consisted of creating prototypes to evaluate once more before the final design for the proof of concept was chosen.
Implementation of the proof of concept in this project was to create one complete product concept. A proof of concept is a concept that illustrates how the product is thought to function and look in detail.
Therefore the implementation meant detailed development of a high fidelity concept and not an actual implementation with a fully func- tional product.
The final step was to evaluate how well the design brief was fulfilled in terms of user experience and usability. This was done by testing the concept functionality with users one last time.
4.3 CONCIEVE
In the aim to create a large understanding of the user and the user needs as presented in section 4.2.1, I have used certain methods to gather this information. In this section I present how and why I have chosen and used these methods and tools.
4.3.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
As a part of the research phase I conducted a theoretical review con- nected to the field of the thesis. The review used scientific articles, journals and books related to the project at hand. I created a mind map of the theoretical areas and linked the theory together to fit the aim of the thesis and Industrial Design Engineering.
According to Rowley and Slack (2004) a mind map is a good way of structuring the review on the subject. The review used both positive and critical material to create a range of theory in the area. The the- oretical framework was adjusted during the project to adapt it to the thesis progress. The review used the search engine Google Scholar to locate and retrieve articles. The keywords used to find relevant ar- ticles were; user centered design, industrial design engineering, us- ability, Augmented Reality, user experience and interaction design.
4.3.2 INDUSTRY AND MARKET RESEARCH
When developing a new product it is important to position the prod- uct on the market by searching for and comparing similar products and solutions to the problem that your design aims to solve (Wong
DESIGN PROCESS
CONCIEVE
ANALYSIS
IDEATION
PROTOTYPE TEST &
EVALUATE
IDEA
IMPLEMENT Market research
Interviews Survey
Personas Empathy maps Customer journey
SWOT-analysis
Lo-Fi prototyping Hi-Fi prototyping
(Adobe XD) Remote group evaluation
Remote user testing Workshop Paper prototyping
Sitemaps Creative methods
1.Low fidelity prototyping 2. High fidelity prototyping
ITERATIONS
Redesign
User testing of the redesign Detailed concept development Combining the results into one
Final concept prototype
et al., 2012). The aim of the research is to avoid creating something that already exists and to find unexploited opportunities. I re- searched two markets, the one of the house configurators and the mobile augmented reality market.
Online House Configurators
I compared the existing house configurators online by listing the alternatives they offered in their product, such as alternatives and categories they provided and what navigation they used. The infor- mation was used to guide design choices and functions to include in the augmented reality house configurator.
Mobile AR House Visualisation Applications
I used an iPhone to compare existing applications which offered dif- ferent applications of mobile AR. I tested applications within the furniture industry and the house industry. A few of the companies offering online VR house configurators also had an application for AR house visualisation.
4.3.3 USER RESEARCH
In the project planning of the thesis I had already mapped out three initial users. In this phase the aim was to learn what their needs were. The users were Neava AB, their customer (the house com- panies) and the end-customer (house buyers). I began by choosing an appropriate research method for each user to gain the relevant information for the future analysis in the next step.
Group Interview, Neava AB
I chose to arrange a group interview with a part of the production team at Neava to gather information about the steps they perform to produce Arvue. I chose the group interview as the team works parallel together on different aspects of the process. I also wanted to see how they discussed the process between one another.
I started the interview by describing the aim of the interview and what they were going to do. I documented the interview on my com- puter (appendix A.2) and took pictures of the layout on the table.
The group was asked to describe their work process by visualising it with post-its on a table in front of them.
I then asked what they defined as problems and when these occur in the production. After identifying the problems I wanted them to focus on how the ideal work flow scenario would be for them.
Unstructured Phone Interview, Customers
An unstructured interview is an interview where the interviewer has prepared questions before hand and have an aim and purpose of the interview. But during the interview the conversation is allowed to flow more freely between the questions.
The most important is to keep to the subject and aim of the inter- view. Before the interview I wrote down my questions and tested to record on my phone. During the interview I started by asking my prepared questions and continued the conversation as the subject moved over to areas that I had not anticipated before hand. This way I was able to learn more about the industry, their process and their end-customer.
The customers I wanted to interview in this stage were the local offices for house companies such as Trivselhus, Myresjöhus and Smålandsvillan. But when I was going to organise the interviews with the house companies it turned out that most of them were not on site in Luleå. An adequate solution to this problem was to use phone interviews instead. The aim of the interviews was to un- derstand how they work and what is most important to them. The phone interviews were transcribed at the time of the interviews (ap- pendix A.3).
Face to Face Unstructured Interview, Customers
I was able to have a face-to-face interview with the architect firm Stark Arkitekter, former Tirsén & Aili Arkitekter, whom had been a part of developing Arvue from the beginning. I documented the interview by recording it on my phone, I transcribed the recording after the interview (appendix A.4).
Survey, End-Customers
I chose to approach the end users by sharing a survey (Appendix 5) through social media. This is a good way of gaining both quantitative and qualitative information from a large quantity of users. The social media channels I used were Facebook, LinkedIn, different groups on Facebook for house interested people and one house forum, www.
byggahus.se.
The survey consisted of two sections, the first section was aimed to them who had built, were building or were interested in house de- sign and interior design. The aim for this section was to investigate how a wide range of people reason in this context and gain more insight into how most people experience the process.
The second section of the questionnaire was only available to them who had used an online house configurator. The questions were aimed to investigate how and why they had used the product. The questions in the questionnaire were both in the form of alternatives and complemented with text answers were they could describe their experience individually.
Pcture 3.4: Screenshot of the online house configurator by A-Hus. Taken by Rebecka Skarin
