Usability Improvement and Re-Design of SIMAIR - an Air Quality Assessment Tool

Abstract: The thesis propose a new design solution of the web application and air assessment tool: SIMAIR, a product of The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI). The current solution of SIMAIR is outdated regarding the interaction and visual apperance, as a result it is in need of a user adaption. No user study has been perform earlier and for that reason SMHI needs an increased knowledge about the users. The objectives of this thesis are therefore to perform a user study, develop a more user-friendly design and implementan interactive prototype of the new design solution. By using the design method Goal-Directed Design, a design target of the wide spread user group was found and personas of the user archetypes were developed. By narrowing down the target audience, the new design was more well defined and the chances to create a product that satisfied the users' needs increased. The design target and the personas was used to find goals and motivations, as well as aptitudes and attitudes, of the users. "Seriousness", "Professionalism" and "Reliability" were the objectives for the new design. They formed the basis for the creation and development of a modernized and user-friendly graphical user interface of SIMAIR. The prototypeto visualize the new interface, was developed by using HTML5, CSS3 and the JavaScript libraryJQuery. These technologies are also, well suited for further development and usability improvement of SIMAIR.