Category: Interaction Design

When researching established workflows and user interface (UI) patterns, my assumptions are that familiarity often leads to same solutions. People often tend to stick to existing methods simply because they have become accustomed to them. The same appens with changing User Interfaces. This aversion to change something is a known phenomenon.

By investigating this further, I want to find out why certain approaches are been still used and if there are mor efficient alternatives. The basic questions that intersts me are: Why do we cling to established norms? Could there be a better way to accomplish tasks?

Moreover, this universal resistance to change, also in the context of UI modifications, adds another layer. The aversion to alterations in UIs and workflows might be a recognized aspect of human behavior. But, I think that this reluctance could bereduzed if the suggested changes are beneficial or more user-friendly. Similar to the adoption of innovations such as the social login feature.

My research is going to be mostly based on existing studies and will be pretty theoretical. Maybe I can have a more philosphical approach to it and approach and interviewing different types of users to understand what they think about specific UI patterns. To find out which patterns are known and what people think about them. To get some reliable data on a pattern it has to be tested and maybe compared with an alternative with a high amount of users to find out if the pattern is just useful because it is known or because it is realy intuitiv without explanation.

Recognizing that this study takes a highly theoretical stance, I plan to draw extensively from existing research while infusing a philosophical dimension to enrich the discourse. To gain a comprehensive understanding, I aim to conduct interviews with colleagues, power users, and individuals less experienced with the system. This approach should show the prevailing patterns, feelings and attitudes towards established UI norms.

To really understand a pattern, I’ll test it and maybe compare it to another approach with a lot of users. This will help me figure out if people like a pattern just because it’s familiar or if it’s genuinely easy to use without needing much explanation.

I’m not just interested in what UI patterns are out there, but I want to know why we use them and if there might be better ways of doing things. It’s all about understanding why things look the way they do on our screens and get a broader understanding of design pattern and user behavior.

Ontology:

If I reflect on the nature of reality as it pertains in my research topic I assume, that teenagers often don’t know what they want to become nor where their professional journey is heading. One reason for this is the lack of opportunities to gain insights into different professions. This is also been examined in a survey conducted by Zukunft.Lehre.Österreich.(1)

I definitely view this assumption as objective facts as they were asked and examine in a broader field.

Epistemology:

The primary sources for my study are mainly from the WKO (chamber of commerce) as they conduct studies and surveys every year about apprenticeships in Austria. As well as other institutions in Austria which work for the Ministry of Education, other job seeking platforms or have any relation to education and employment. Also personal experience and subjective experience from people in my surroundings play a major role and give insights into for instance the change over time. The understanding is mostly empirical based on data and observation throughout the years as well as the material which is provided by the WKO.

Possible limitations could be that I have already delved too deeply into the topic and do not see other relevant information or my own biased interpretation of certain aspects.

Source:

(1) https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1229681/umfrage/hinderungsgruende-fuer-eine-lehre-in-oesterreich/

As the start of my Master’s thesis is now getting closer and closer, I am now looking more closely at existing literature and studies in this area. I came across a very interesting paper that covers many of the areas relevant to my research. It also refers to many studies that support the statements and I intend to make a note of these for a more detailed analysis in the psychological field. This paper is therefore a good starting point and an overview of important points that need to be considered and examined in more detail.

It is about the growing challenges in the area of children’s and young people’s mental health. It emphasizes that the use of social media and online platforms could play a potential role in these problems. The paper emphasizes the long-term effects of children’s interactions with social media on mental and physical health. I think the parts that deal with neuroscientific principles, the behavior of children and adolescents in social media and the effects this has on brain development are particularly exciting. Various areas and features of social media are highlighted here and how they affect a teenager’s brain. This is definitely a very exciting point and my plan is to delve more into studies in this area so that I can use this data as the basis for my master’s thesis.

Testimony

APA article

This week I had a few more discussions about my approach to the Master’s thesis. I was able to take away some valuable points that I hadn’t really considered before. One important point is data protection. I will be working with children and teenagers and in this respect I have to pay attention to guidelines and, above all, parental consent. To do this, I need to carry out detailed research in advance, contact people who are familiar with this if necessary and ensure that I protect myself adequately. Another point, more related to the content, is literature research. There is still a lot that can be done here and existing data can be extracted. As my project is very extensive, this is definitely a valuable point, as I can save myself time by referring to existing studies and literature. In addition, it can be helpful to include the EU directives regarding the protection of minors and use these as a framework. Another point to consider is a gradual structure of the Instagram Youth version. This would mean that features would be activated for each age group and the platform would be adapted to the respective age group. This would mean that teenagers would not be thrown into the deep end of the “real” Instagram version when they reach the age of majority, but would be gradually guided there and introduced to age-appropriate features. With regard to my own studies, I was advised to distribute the questionnaires widely in order to obtain quantitative data. For qualitative data, I could consider a preliminary study with, for example, 5 teenagers to roughly define the project design and then ask targeted questions to the general public. Assuming that the app is divided into age groups, it would also be important to survey teenagers of different ages and see where there are differences between the age groups. This could serve as a good basis for defining the activation of various features.

All in all, I can say that the discussions only motivated me even more for my topic. I was also reminded that I have a lot planned and that it is important to have a well-thought-out schedule. I will draw this up over the next few weeks so that I can get straight to work at the official start of my Master’s thesis. It’s nice for me to see that my topic is also well received by the outside world, that the problem and my goal are immediately understood and that everyone is looking forward to the result. This confirms that I have chosen an important topic that relates to current social problems.

In October, I took an intensive week-long zerocoding course. We learned how to make a working application for mobile devices using the Glide software. The assignment was to create an app for tracking personal finances so that users could more easily control their daily expenses. I found this quite interesting, especially in the context of my topic, as it directly relates to new technologies and how they can make our lives easier. If the concept of zerocoding is developed further, application development will be ten times faster.

In the course we developed the application interface, several functions such as for example filtering and categorizing expenses, and worked with the database.

During the World Usability Congress 2023 I attended a talk by Ben Anyasodo, who is Principal Research Consultant of Redrock Consulting. the topic immediately interested me, as I am generally interested in AI and new technologies, namely how they can be implemented in classic areas of design, such as UX research. It should be noted at once that the topic is quite ambiguous, it conceals a lot of pitfalls: the ethical side of the issue, privacy issue and so on.

During his presentation, the speaker gave several different examples of AI implementation to conduct UX research in the field. I would like to dwell on one example in more detail. One coffee shop had a video surveillance system that was connected to AI and recorded the work of the employees. It counted the number of cups that were dispensed by a particular barista. On the one hand, this seems like a good tool for measuring the efficiency of employees, but the work of a barista includes not just making coffee, but creating an atmosphere, communication, and just a friendly smile, which can be valued even more than the coffee itself. This is something that AI cannot measure in any way. I was so interested that I found a discussion on the Internet about this innovation and most users found the idea terrible. In fact, I tend to share this opinion, in my opinion, such an application of AI is more likely to harm the efficiency of an organization.

Anyway, the presentation was really entertaining, and gave me quite a few insights that I can use in my master thesis.

Dynamic Women Podcast

For my last impulse blog post, I decided to listen to two episodes of a “Dynamic Women” podcast. It is an Award-Winning action-focused lifestyle and leadership podcast full of stories and strategies to help women design their success.

In the first episode, which was about strategic planning for success, they talked about how it is important to not blindly follow trends, emphasizing that what’s popular might not necessarily align with a personalized, effective strategy for an individual. Additionally, listeners of a podcast get an insight into Diane’s (Professional Certified Coach) personal experiences with strategic planning.

Another episode was about gender equity in the career fields, which had a podcast quest Sophie Warwick, Co-Founder of the Thoughtful Co. She revealed the story of how her passion turned into business and how she employs data analysis to develop in-house gender equity policies and drives the mission of building gender-inclusive workplaces. Sophie also raised an important topic of how women usually hesitate to negotiate for better compensation and promotions. The conversation from there goes to strategies for moving women into senior positions.

The topics discussed in this podcast are important and offer valuable insights for my research topic. By analyzing the gender pay gap, and negotiation challenges, and proposing actionable strategies, Sophie’s and Diane’s expertise aligns seamlessly with the core focus of my investigation.

Podcast Links:

• Strategic Planning: Mapping Out Your Successful Year Ahead with Diane Rolston
• Gender Equity: Get Paid What You Deserve with Sophie Warwick