Mission: Understanding and shaping the digital culture

Usability and UX Laboratory (UX Lab) is a research lab at Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) affiliated to the INTERACT Research Unit. The UX Lab is engaged in theoretical and empirical research on usability, user experience (UX), media experience, games & gamification, psychophysiology in human-computer interaction and media contexts, and brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

We conduct usability and UX studies adopting various methods and approaches such as usability testing, heuristic evaluations, experiments, surveys, data-driven approaches, psychophysiological approaches. In these studies we employ a pluralistic research methodology drawing from quantitative, qualitative and design science research philosophies.

Particular interests are in studying open-source software communities, information visualization, BCI, media research, safety culture and instructional design, technical and science communication, games and gamification, digitization of the individual, strategic usability, trends and mapping analyses, usability and UX practice, usability cost-benefit analysis.

The lab is equipped with usability testing and psychophysiological equipment such as EEG recording (brain activity) and EMG (facial muscle activity).

Contact information:

Mikko Rajanen, PhD, university lecturer, UX Lab manager, mikko.rajanen(at)oulu.fi

Dorina Rajanen, PhD, university lecturer, UX Lab scientific advisor, dorina.rajanen(at)oulu.fi

News and Community

  • Safety culture in digital fabrication project has now a Github page. You can find there research articles and other interesting materials.

  • For two weeks during 4 - 15.6.2018 we have had two highschool students doing their summer traineeship in the UX Lab where they worked on a game under the supervision of Joni Rajala and Mikko Rajanen. Read more.

  • On 8.6.2018 we have presented a "mind reader" Emotiv demo at Nokia. Read more.

Selected Papers

  • Rajanen, M. & Rajanen, D. (2020) Usability: A Cybernetics Perspective. In Proc. of the 6th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Perspective in IS development (STPIS'20). pdf.

  • Inal, Y., Guribye, F., Rajanen, D., Rajanen, M., & Rost, M. (2020). Perspectives and Practices of Digital Accessibility: A Survey of User Experience Professionals in Nordic Countries. In Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society (NordiCHI '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 63, 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3419249.3420119

  • Mylly, S., Rajanen, M. & Iivari, N. (2020) The Quest for Usable Usability Heuristics for Game Developers. In A. Siarheyeva et al. (eds.), Advanced in Information Systems Development - Information Systems Beyond 2020. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-49644-9_10  , pdf

  • Rajanen, M. (2020) Usability Cost-Benefit Analysis for Information Technology Applications and Decision Making. In E. Idemudia (Ed.), Information Technology Applications for Strategic Competitive Advantage and Decision Making. IGI Global. 10.4018/978-1-7998-3351-2.ch008 pdf

  • Rajanen, D. & Rajanen, M. (2020) Safety Culture in Digital Fabrication: Perceptions, Model and Co-Creation Approach. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, Vol. 20(14). In press. preprint

  • Rajanen, M. & Rajanen, D. (2020) Instructional Storyboard Outcomes of a Co-creation Workshop for Safety Culture in Digital Fabrication. INTERACT No 3, October 2020. University of Oulu, Finland. pdf

  • Inal, Y., Clemmensen, T., Rajanen, D., Iivari, N., Rızvanoğlu, K. & Sivaji, A (2020) Positive Developments but Challenges Still Ahead – A Survey Study on UX Professionals’ Work Practices. - Journal of usability studies 15 (4), https://uxpajournal.org/ux-professionals-work-practices/, pdf .

  • Rajanen, M. & Rajanen, D. (2020) Usability as Speculum Mundi: A Core Concept in Socio-Technical Systems Development. Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly (CSIMQ) no 22, pp. 49-59. DOI: 10.7250/csimq.2020-22.04. pdf

  • Rajanen, M. & Iivari, N. (2019) Empowered or Disempowered? An Analysis of Usability Practitioners’ Interventions in Open Source Projects. In J. Leroux (Ed.) Psychological Perspectives on Empowerment. Nova Science Publishers.  pdf | Order discount code: Special20 at https://novapublishers.com/shop/psychological-perspectives-on-empowerment/ ]

  • Clemmensen, T., Rajanen, D., Rajanen, M. & Abdelnour-Nocera, J. (2019) Introduction to the Special Issue on HCI in a Sharing Society. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (11) 3, pp. 107-116. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol11/iss3/1 , pdf

  • Rajanen, M. & Rajanen, D. (2018) Heuristic Evaluation in Game and Gamification Development. In Proceedings of GamiFin 2018 Conference, Pori. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2186/paper19.pdf

  • Rajanen, D. & Rajanen, M. (2017) Personalized Gamification: A Model for Play Data Profiling. Proc. of Data-Driven Gamification Design Workshop 2017 in Conjunction with the Academic Mindtrek Conference. 20 September, 2017 Tampere, Finland. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1978/paper4.pdf

  • Rajanen, D. & Weng, M. (2017) Digitization for Fun or Reward? A Study of Acceptance of Wearable Devices for Personal Healthcare. Proc. of Academic MindTrek 2017, September 20-21, 2017 Tampere. Finland. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3131085.3131118

  • Rajanen, D., Clemmensen, T., Iivari, N., Inal, Y., Rizvanoglu, K., Sivaji, A., Roche, A. (2017) UX professionals’ definitions of usability and UX – A comparison between Turkey, Finland, Denmark, France and Malaysia. In: Bernhaupt R., Dalvi G., Joshi A., K. Balkrishan D., O’Neill J., Winckler M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2017. INTERACT 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10516 (16th IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - INTERACT 2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68059-0_14 Reviewer's Choice Award [pdf]

  • Rajanen, M., & Rajanen, D. (2017) Usability Benefits in Gamification. GamiFin 2017 Conference, Pori. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1857/gamifin17_p12.pdf