This thesis takes a human values perspective on the concept of differentiation. The aim is to understand how the concept applies to experience creation in a software company, and how decisions about experiences can be made. The monograph suggests a values-in-experience differentiation concept, develops a decision-making framework and a method for introducing values into the strategic decision process. A software case-company is used to implement the tool and attest the values perspective for experience creation.
The goal of a business strategy is to establish a unique position for the company’s offerings in the minds of customers, while maintaining financial results. Historically, uniqueness was achieved by focusing on product and service features. The experience view, however, departs from the historical assumptions about the nature and sources of differentiation. This thesis examines both the assumptions and changes of differentiation by experience.
The apparent complexity of experiences requires research approaches of a matching complexity that suits the understanding of the challenges that managers face over the course of the experience creation. The thesis suggests that values provide both a stable platform and a flexible environment to guide the strategy process. The research contrasts the human values perspective with the traditional concept of needs and rational view. It proposes that the consistency and the evolutionary change in values seem to provide grounds for combating the risks in experimentation, formulation and re-configuration of a unique position of company’s offerings.
This thesis takes a human values perspective on the concept of differentiation. The aim is to understand how the concept applies to experience creation in a software company, and how decisions about experiences can be made. The monograph suggests a values-in-experience differentiation concept, develops a decision-making framework and a method for introducing values into the strategic decision process. A software case-company is used to implement the tool and attest the values perspective for experience creation.
The goal of a business strategy is to establish a unique position for the company’s offerings in the minds of customers, while maintaining financial results. Historically, uniqueness was achieved by focusing on product and service features. The experience view, however, departs from the historical assumptions about the nature and sources of differentiation. This thesis examines both the assumptions and changes of differentiation by experience.
The apparent complexity of experiences requires research approaches of a matching complexity that suits the understanding of the challenges that managers face over the course of the experience creation. The thesis suggests that values provide both a stable platform and a flexible environment to guide the strategy process. The research contrasts the human values perspective with the traditional concept of needs and rational view. It proposes that the consistency and the evolutionary change in values seem to provide grounds for combating the risks in experimentation, formulation and re-configuration of a unique position of company’s offerings.
Augmented reality (AR) is a visualization technology that can
help in the situations described above. It merges virtual
objects into the user's view, and enhances spatial perception skills. Why isn't this technology widely utilized in everyday situations then? Are there still some technical bottlenecks that need to be solved before wide consumer-level use? Are there some business ecosystem factors that hinder AR applications from entering the consumer market? This doctoral dissertation seeks answers to these questions.
Tool selection for argument visualizationLawrie Hunter
Tool selection strategy for software-based visualization in technical academic argument work
Lawrie Hunter, Kochi University of Technology, Japan
Logic and argument have proven to be significant obstacles to second language English academic writing success, markedly so for research students from East Asian cultures. The technical research paper is a masked facsimile of an argument; thus novice technical academic writing tends to be formulaic, following document structure rather than argument structure. In this frame, novice writing of abstracts is problematic at the design level.
Linear text is not a particularly supportive medium for technical academic argument work. Relations between concepts can be marked in text by rhetorical signals, but the conceptual load economies of visualization are not available. Mind maps, concept maps and rhetorical structure maps, which all embody a number of visual metaphors, are promising tools for the support of novice technical academic argument work.
Software embodiments of the above mapping types are usually marketed without discussion of the information-structure related choices involved in the selection of map type and software. This paper, referring to Hunter's (2009) decision matrix, presents a negotiated strategic pathway to the selection of map type and software for technical academic writing task, taking the example of inferred argument of an informally reported study. Reference points in this pathway include Toulmin (1958), Cañas & Novak (2006) and Kowalski (2011).
Cañas, A. J., & Novak, J.D. (2006) Re-examining the foundations for effective use of concept maps. In Cañas, A. J., & Novak, J.D. (Eds.), Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Concept Mapping.
Hunter, L. (2009) A Decision Matrix for the Use of Mapping and Mapping Software. Presented at EuroCALL 2009. http://www.lawriehunter.com/presns/eurocall09/
Kowalski, R. (2011) Computational logic and human thinking. Cambridge UP.
Toulmin, S. (1958) The Uses of Argument, Cambridge University Press.
[Poster] Towards a Game-Design Framework for Evidence-based Clinical Procedur...Renée Schulz
This is the poster for the paper publication "Towards a Game-Design Framework for Evidence-based Clinical Procedure Libraries" at SeGAH2019 conference, Kyoto, Japan.
Designing Social Network Games with SoPlay HeuristicsRojola
SoPlay workshop presentation given in MindTrek 2010 conference. During the workshop the participants designed social games concepts based on the structure shown in the presentation. More information: http://soplayproject.wordpress.com
20181008 Creative Game Based Learning: from the Learning Mechanics Game Mecha...Margarida Romero
Creative Game Based Learning: from the Learning Mechanics Game Mechanics (LMGM) to creative robotics. Prof dr @margaridaRomero / Lab director @fabline06 #Nice06 @uca_research
Using a Visual Abstract as a Lens for Communicating and Promoting Design Scie...Margaret-Anne Storey
Authors: Margaret-Anne Storey, Emelie Engstrom, Per Runeson, Martin Host, Elizabeth Bjarnason (Lund University, Sweden and University of Victoria, Canada)
Abstract:
Empirical software engineering research aims to generate prescriptive knowledge that can help software engineers improve their work and overcome their challenges, but deriving these insights from real-world problems can be challenging. In this paper, we promote design science as an effective way to produce and communicate prescriptive knowledge. We propose using a visual abstract template to communicate design science contributions and highlight the main problem/solution constructs of this area of research, as well as to present the validity aspects of design knowledge. Our conceptualization of design science is derived from existing literature and we illustrate its use by applying the visual abstract to an example use case. This is work in progress and further evaluation by practitioners and researchers will be forthcoming.
Preprint is available at: http://chisel.cs.uvic.ca/pubs/storey-ESEM2017.pdf
A blog post is available here:
http://margaretstorey.com/blog/2017/11/09/visual-abstracts/
A template for the visual abstract can be found here, if you use it, please share your experience with us!
https://github.com/margaretstorey/VASE
Computational methods for intelligent matchmaking for knowledge workJari Jussila
Computational methods for intelligent matchmaking for knowledge work - Case CMAD. Poster presented at CMADFI, 23 January 2017. Jayesh Prakash Gupta, Jari Jussila, Ekaterina Olshannikova, Karan Menon, Jukka Huhtamäki, Thomas Olsson, Prof. Ravi Vatrapu & Prof. Hannu Kärkkäinen.
Augmented reality (AR) is a visualization technology that can
help in the situations described above. It merges virtual
objects into the user's view, and enhances spatial perception skills. Why isn't this technology widely utilized in everyday situations then? Are there still some technical bottlenecks that need to be solved before wide consumer-level use? Are there some business ecosystem factors that hinder AR applications from entering the consumer market? This doctoral dissertation seeks answers to these questions.
Tool selection for argument visualizationLawrie Hunter
Tool selection strategy for software-based visualization in technical academic argument work
Lawrie Hunter, Kochi University of Technology, Japan
Logic and argument have proven to be significant obstacles to second language English academic writing success, markedly so for research students from East Asian cultures. The technical research paper is a masked facsimile of an argument; thus novice technical academic writing tends to be formulaic, following document structure rather than argument structure. In this frame, novice writing of abstracts is problematic at the design level.
Linear text is not a particularly supportive medium for technical academic argument work. Relations between concepts can be marked in text by rhetorical signals, but the conceptual load economies of visualization are not available. Mind maps, concept maps and rhetorical structure maps, which all embody a number of visual metaphors, are promising tools for the support of novice technical academic argument work.
Software embodiments of the above mapping types are usually marketed without discussion of the information-structure related choices involved in the selection of map type and software. This paper, referring to Hunter's (2009) decision matrix, presents a negotiated strategic pathway to the selection of map type and software for technical academic writing task, taking the example of inferred argument of an informally reported study. Reference points in this pathway include Toulmin (1958), Cañas & Novak (2006) and Kowalski (2011).
Cañas, A. J., & Novak, J.D. (2006) Re-examining the foundations for effective use of concept maps. In Cañas, A. J., & Novak, J.D. (Eds.), Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Concept Mapping.
Hunter, L. (2009) A Decision Matrix for the Use of Mapping and Mapping Software. Presented at EuroCALL 2009. http://www.lawriehunter.com/presns/eurocall09/
Kowalski, R. (2011) Computational logic and human thinking. Cambridge UP.
Toulmin, S. (1958) The Uses of Argument, Cambridge University Press.
[Poster] Towards a Game-Design Framework for Evidence-based Clinical Procedur...Renée Schulz
This is the poster for the paper publication "Towards a Game-Design Framework for Evidence-based Clinical Procedure Libraries" at SeGAH2019 conference, Kyoto, Japan.
Designing Social Network Games with SoPlay HeuristicsRojola
SoPlay workshop presentation given in MindTrek 2010 conference. During the workshop the participants designed social games concepts based on the structure shown in the presentation. More information: http://soplayproject.wordpress.com
20181008 Creative Game Based Learning: from the Learning Mechanics Game Mecha...Margarida Romero
Creative Game Based Learning: from the Learning Mechanics Game Mechanics (LMGM) to creative robotics. Prof dr @margaridaRomero / Lab director @fabline06 #Nice06 @uca_research
Using a Visual Abstract as a Lens for Communicating and Promoting Design Scie...Margaret-Anne Storey
Authors: Margaret-Anne Storey, Emelie Engstrom, Per Runeson, Martin Host, Elizabeth Bjarnason (Lund University, Sweden and University of Victoria, Canada)
Abstract:
Empirical software engineering research aims to generate prescriptive knowledge that can help software engineers improve their work and overcome their challenges, but deriving these insights from real-world problems can be challenging. In this paper, we promote design science as an effective way to produce and communicate prescriptive knowledge. We propose using a visual abstract template to communicate design science contributions and highlight the main problem/solution constructs of this area of research, as well as to present the validity aspects of design knowledge. Our conceptualization of design science is derived from existing literature and we illustrate its use by applying the visual abstract to an example use case. This is work in progress and further evaluation by practitioners and researchers will be forthcoming.
Preprint is available at: http://chisel.cs.uvic.ca/pubs/storey-ESEM2017.pdf
A blog post is available here:
http://margaretstorey.com/blog/2017/11/09/visual-abstracts/
A template for the visual abstract can be found here, if you use it, please share your experience with us!
https://github.com/margaretstorey/VASE
Computational methods for intelligent matchmaking for knowledge workJari Jussila
Computational methods for intelligent matchmaking for knowledge work - Case CMAD. Poster presented at CMADFI, 23 January 2017. Jayesh Prakash Gupta, Jari Jussila, Ekaterina Olshannikova, Karan Menon, Jukka Huhtamäki, Thomas Olsson, Prof. Ravi Vatrapu & Prof. Hannu Kärkkäinen.
1. Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Business and IT, UOIT
2000 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, ON, Canada, L1H 7K4
pejman@uoit.ca
June 21, 2016
To whom it may concern:
Re: Letter of Recommendation for Line Ebdrup Thomsen and Falko Weigert Petersen
I have had the pleasure to collaborate with Line Ebdrup Thomsen and Falko Weigert
Petersen in the creation of their masters’ thesis on psychophysiological evaluation of mobile
games. I found their work to be of great interest for both academia and the industry, as the
subject being addressed in their thesis is contributing with novel knowledge to the field of
Games User Research. They also took the challenge to involve video games development
studios, King and Norsfell, in their studies, which has helped them to understand games
developers’ prospective on their research project.
I have had the chance to review their thesis draft and I am very impressed with the quality of
the thesis, which is showing a deep understanding of the field of Games User Research. I am
very interested in their study design where they utilized mixed-methods that combines and
requires the mastery of multiple methodological disciplines to carry out.
Additionally, they have already submitted a conference paper to the International Conference
on Entertainment Computing (2016) based on the findings of their studies. The conference
paper is concerned with the identification of a set of design heuristics that focus on fostering
engagement of players during the onboarding phase, which is one of the crucial phases for
keeping player retention rate high. Moreover, they are currently working on another paper
that is expanding the research they have completed in their thesis. I am looking forward to
further our collaboration as I find their work very interesting.
Sincerely,
Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Ph.D.
