Nis Bornoe

Password Authentication from a Human Factors Perspective: Results of a Survey Among End-Users

Considering that many organizations today are extremely dependent on information technology, computer and information security (CIS) has become a critical concern from a business viewpoint. CIS is concerned with protecting the confidentiality, integrity, accessible information, when using computer systems. Much research has been conducted on CIS in the past years. However, the attention has been primarily focused on technical problems and solutions. Only recently, the role of human factors in CIS has been recognized. End-user behavior can increase the vulnerability of computer and information systems. In this study, using a large questionnaire survey among endusers, we examine password behavior of end-users.

Video microblogging: your 12 seconds of fame

Microblogging is a recently popular phenomenon and with the increasing trend for video cameras to be built into mobile phones, a new type of microblogging has entered the arena of electronic communication: video microblogging. In this study we examine video microblogging, which is the broadcasting of short videos. A series of semi-structured interviews offers an understanding of why and how video microblogging is used and what the users post and broadcast.

Usability Engineering in the Wild: How Do Practitioners Integrate Usability Engineering in Software Development?

It has been argued that too much research on usability engineering is incoherent with the processes, and settings being the realities for practitioners. In this paper we want to extend the existing knowledge about usability engineering in the wild. Through 12 semi-structured interviews we wanted to get an understanding of how usability is perceived, and practiced in reality. We found that our participants primarily focus on upfront work to support the design, and implementation process. They implement usability engineering through informal evaluations, and by following a set of local de facto standards. We want to extend the existing body of knowledge about usability engineering in practice, to support the development of methods aimed at practitioners.

Friendship Maintenance in the Digital Age: Applying a Relational Lens to Online Social Interaction

HCI research has explored mobile technologies to support social activity and to support greater feelings of connectedness. Much of this has focused on different mobile devices, individual preferences and modes of use. Yet social activity and connectedness are about ongoing enactments of relationships across technologies. We propose the relational lens as a way to include a notion of relational tension in addition to individual preferences in the design and analysis of mobile communication technologies. We discuss three strategies people use to manage tensions in their relationships: selection, segmentation and integration. Our data show that use of social technologies can at times destabilize social relations and occasion relational tensions, forcing users to renegotiate how they enact these relationships.

Active Involvement of Software Developers in Usability Engineering: Two Small-Scale Case Studies

The essence of usability evaluations is to produce feedback that supports the downstream utility so the interaction design can be improved and problems can be fixed. In practice, software development organizations experience several obstacles for conducting usability engineering. One suggested approach is to train and involve developers in all phases of usability activities from evaluations, to problem reporting, and making redesign proposals. Only limited work has previously investigated the impact of actively involving developers in usability engineering. In this paper, we present two small-scale case studies in which we investigate the developers’ experience of conducting usability evaluations and participating in a redesign workshop. In both case studies developers actively engaged in both activities. Per the developers, this approach supported problem understanding, severity ratings, and problem fixing. At the organizational level, we found that the attitude towards and understanding of the role of usability engineering improved.

Facilitating redesign with design cards: experiences with novice designers

While effort has been put into developing and evaluating usability evaluation methods less attention has been paid to shifting usability feedback into improved designs. We report from a study with 44 novice designers creating redesign suggestions. Some were provided with domain specific design cards to facilitate the redesign process. Design cards are physical cards used to structure a collaborative process, and providing design cues such as keywords and questions. Afterward, three developers assessed the quality of the suggestions. We found that the cards diversified the range of system aspects that novices considered, supported ideation, and kept the discussion going. However, the cards did not compensate the limited design experience, and the participants had challenges understanding the value of the cards, and implement them in the process. Having developers assessing the subjective quality of the suggestions turned out to be challenging due to low inter-rater reliability.

TagPad: Supporting Field Interviews and Analysis

The area of cyberinfrastructures has looked extensively at research within the natural sciences, however, the social sciences have been largely overlooked in terms of novel data collection and analysis systems. We developed a probe tool, TagPad, to look at the process for social science data collection through interviews and surveys. Our research participants found that TagPad facilitated structuring of interviews but we also found that the setting in which the interview takes place is essential to the success of using this particular tool. We conclude suggesting future designs of social science research tools.