Value in experience: Design and evaluation framework based on case studies of novel mobile services: Dissertation

The concept of 'value' has received extensive interest in research in the fields of psychology, marketing and, more recently, human-computer interaction (HCI). Gaining insights into users' personal values can lead to a better understanding of user behaviour. However, the concept of value is not clearly defined, and researchers have produced differing views on the conceptualization of the construct. In the past decade, user experience has received considerable attention in HCI research. Yet the relationship between user experience and value has not gained much attention. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand and articulate the value in user experience. The focus is on novel mobile service solutions, taking into account the viewpoint of different user groups. Achieving an understanding of different user groups will greatly help design successful mobile services for target user populations. The empirical foundation for this dissertation is findings concerning user experience from seven individual case studies conducted in the field with the end-users. Interpretive case studies of novel mobile services in varying usage contexts involved different user groups: children, teenagers, college students and vision and memory -impaired older people. An initial value framework is developed as a synthesis from the literature. By utilizing this framework, the user experience findings obtained are re-examined from the point of view of value through a cross-case analysis and synthesis. Based on this analysis, value parameters from individual mobile service case studies are interpreted and categorized. The initial value framework is complemented by relying on the value parameters identified from the case studies. This work contributes to the field of HCI by showing that user experience and value are closely intertwined. The thesis proposes the concept of "value in experience (ViE)", which refers to the user's iterative (subconscious and conscious) interpretation and evaluation of user experience with a service. A value design and evaluation framework is presented and demonstrated by evaluating value in experience from the case studies. Also the designer values are analysed and compared with the value in experience. The framework presents a rich description of value dimensions relevant to specific user groups and mobile service domains in varying usage contexts. Furthermore, value in experience design and evaluation guidelines related to different user groups are proposed. The proposed conceptualization of value in experience offers insights to help understand the dimensions of value, and serves as a lens to guide interpretive analysis of value in experience. The complemented value design and evaluation framework is a tool for identifying and describing the key value dimensions for value in experience evaluation. Furthermore, the framework can support service design processes. The cross-case study findings provide insights into the special characteristics of different user groups and their value priorities in specific service domains. Even though the framework is based on mobile services, its main constructs are expected also to be applicable to other types of digital services.