Ease-of-use is nowadays a baseline business factor. Without good usability and user experience the developed applications and services will not make the real markets and generate revenue.
Industrial activities are nowadays carried out in operative business networks. A single company seldom produces the whole of the product or a service by itself. ICT is extensively used for human coordination and collaboration. The effectiveness and efficiency of ICT-supported collaboration depends on the interplay and usability of the ICT applications.
Mobile phones are used even in the most rural and distant locations of the world. People living in these areas can benefit from the financial and healthcare services brought to them via their mobile phones. User studies about the needs, requirements, contexts, and forms of service help in developing these basic services of modern society. This work enables the inclusion and participation of all people in important societal activities.
Marko Nieminen
D.Sc.(Tech.)
Professor of Usability and User Interfaces
Aalto University, School of Science
Department od Computer Science and Engineering
SoberIT - Software Business and Engineering Institute
[Contact Info]
Work
I am professor of Usability and User
Interfaces (T-121) at
Aalto University School of Science and Technology (formerly Helsinki University of Technology).
Our research group
STRATUS
is doing research and providing teaching in
strategic user-centred design.
Research Interests
- Strategic Usability, HCI: Usability in Business, Usability as a Business Factor, Usability Engineering, User-Centred Product Development, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User experience (UX) design, user-centred service development *
- Collaborative ICT in Industry: Information and communication technology (ICT) in the support for collaboration in industrial networks, social media and computer-mediated communities in industry, Computer-Supported Co-operative Work CSCW, Shop-floor usability: Information support for assembly tasks, Interactive Task Support *
- Finance and Healthcare: Research and development of mobile payments and other financial services in international settings, ICT for Collaborative Healthcare: User-centred design of healthcare ICT *
In general, my approach to the research and development of ICT (Information and communication technology) arises from the usability origin: How to make computers and other interactive systems (e.g. mobile devices) both easy-to-use and valuable for the user? Usability and user experience research and development takes place in several different application and solution domains that are of great interest to me. I consider relevant industrial and real-life questions and problems a great origin for academic basic and applied research. Good results in this work can improve our everyday life.
Research Projects
Past and ongoing research projects that I participate and
have taken part in are following:
- UXtools - User Experience Tools (a joint research project with Nokia Research Center and Aalto University, 2009-2011)
- Coprod - Yhteisöllinen tuotannonohjaus verkostoituvassa liiketoiminnassa (Collaborative Production Control in Networked Business, 2009-2011)
- MoFS - Mobile Financial Services (2008-2010)
- Extreme Design (2008-2010)
- Digital dictation in hospitals, a project in cooperation with HUS (1-3/2008)
- Tervesysteemi.info - An open internet forum to support the development of information systems in healthcare (10/2007 - )
- PRIMA - Privacy in the Making (2006-2010)
- Intact - Industrial Interaction through Open Service Platforms (2006-2009)
- FC-ICT - ICT in the New Business and Service Concepts of Foundry Industry (2005-2009)
- TechMedia - Technology Mediated Knowledge Services for Distributed Work Environments (2003-2006)
- MC2 - Mobile Content Communities (2004-2006)
- VIKSU - Virtual Project Room for Distributed Product Development Teams (2000-2003)
- WISE - Web-based Information Services for Engineering (2000-2003)
- MOBIX - Mobile Contexts of Use (2001-2003)
- AMIRE - Authoring Mixed Reality (2001-2004)
- Proakt - Proaktiivisen tietotekniikan
vaikutukset huoltotyöhön (The Effect of Proactive Information Technology to Maintenance Work) (2002)
- ProKM - Kokemusperäinen tieto
henkilöstön tueksi prosessiteollisuudessa (Knowledge Management Practices and Tools in Process Industry) (2002)
- KATTI -
Käyttäjäkeskeisen tuotekehityksen tietotuki (Information Support for User-Centred Product Development) (1997-2000).
- Smart Products II
Usability of Smart Products in Information Society (1997-2001)
- Smart Products
- A multi-disciplinary approach to user interface design (1995-1999)
- ISAD -
Information System for Assembly and Disassembly. 1997-1999.
- COGIS -
Cognitive Requirements and Usability of Information Support
-
KTK - Konepajan tietotyön kehittäminen (Improving Knowlege Work in Machine Shops) (1994-1995)
- Usability I & II
coordinated by the Federation of Finnish Electrical and Electronics Industry. 1994-1996.
- ITSS -
Interactive Task Support on the Shop Floor. 1993-1995.
- Muutoksenhallinnan käytännölliset työvälineet. (Practical tools for change management) 1992-1993.
- Henkilöstövoimavarojen tutkiva kehittäminen. 1991-1992.
Teaching Activities
Office Hours (Vastaanotto)
- Vastaanottoaikani (tyypillisesti maanantai 10-12)
ovat usein varattuja,
siksi on syytä varata aika etukäteen.
- Vastaanottoaikoja voi varata sähköpostitse
Maija Perolta. Sähköpostiosoite on
muotoa Etunimi.Sukunimi@aalto.fi.
- NOTE!
In practice, pre-booking is required to my office hours!
- Contact secretary
Maija Pero in advance
(use e-mail address in form FirstName.LastName@aalto.fi,
i.e. FirstName: Maija, LastName: Pero;
tel. +358-50-3732080).
- Usually Mondays 10:00-12:00
- T-talo, Konemiehentie 2, A251
Publications
Hobbies and Other Interests
- Raise children. When you have three around,
it sometimes keeps you busy. Alive.
- Music. Listen. Play. And discuss music trivia.
It's always a pleasure to listen to good music. Makes you
feel good.
And sometimes even more pleasurable -- for myself, don't know
about you folks -- it is to make music. Play guitar.
Ya know, like Mellencamp*.
And of course with pals -- such as
Martin*.
But for stage-time I use other instruments as well **.
- Wander in the woods. In the middle of
nothing*
* *,
mother nature and the rocks around:
You may even hear yourself. Wonder in the woods. And searching for pots *. Weird.
- Thinking. Wannabe.
- Excercise. Sports ******. Should be mandatory - for me.
- In the dark. Ok, yes. I admit. Behind closed doors: Occasionally, I still do practice some programming.
Contact information
IMPORTANT! Please note: Unfortunately, email has become sort of obsolete for me nowadays: I keep receiving quite an amount of email daily.
As a result with my constantly overflowing calendar, I am unfortunately not anymore able to respond to most of the email messages. My apologies for that. Email just does not seem work for me that well anymore with timely issues or even raising attention. Using other - perhaps more traditional - ways and channels may be more effective.
If you really want to get in touch with me, please try to contact me via our secretary (contact details: see "Office hours"). A final word, though: I am not saying all this to keep you away from me, just trying to lower the annoyance if you do not get a prompt email answer from me.
- E-mail: Send e-mail to me using address in the form
FirstName.LastName@aalto.fi (i.e. FirstName: Marko, Lastname: Nieminen.
Please note the restriction in answering email messages above!)
- Phone: +358 9 4702 3973
- Fax: + 358 9 4702 4958
- Visiting address:
Tietotekniikan talo (T-building):
Room A251
Konemiehentie 2
Espoo
- Mailing address:
Aalto University
Marko Nieminen
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Software Business and Engineering Institute
P.O. Box 15400
FIN-00076 Aalto
FINLAND