by Hannah Nopp -

Master thesis – It’s getting serious!

A whole semester has passed since my last blog article (”About throwing everything aside and starting over”), so there’s a lot to catch up on. Let’s not waste time and dive right in: As mentioned in my last blog entry, I changed my master thesis topic from “Augmented Reality in Education” to “UX Case Study: Designing a mobile application to support self-management and therapy of patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)” (working title for now). For further details on the topic, please read my previous blog entry.

During the past couple of months I did a lot of research on my topic in order to write my exposé, which I soon will hand in. The course “Proseminar Master Thesis” helped a lot during this process, as we had the opportunity to write a first version of our exposé, have it peer reviewed by fellow students, improve it and finally have a one-on-one feedback session with our professor.

My exposé still needs a few adjustments here and there, but it’s at an advanced state already and I’m confident that it will be approved by my supervisor Anika Kronberger, so I can start with the “actual work”. At this point it is to mention that I will be writing my thesis from abroad – from Lisbon to be specific – which will probably bring some challenges as well, but working and communicating remotely has worked out well for the last two years of the pandemic, thus I think that it will also work out for writing a master thesis 🙂

I also had two very insightful meetings with two professionals in the field of interaction design – Orhan Kipcak and Martin Kaltenbrunner. I talked with each of them for half an hour about my topic and received valuable feedback. With Mr. Kipcak I talked a lot about the environment of conducting my thesis. For example he recommended to do research on ongoing projects and studies in the field of my topic in order to get access to valuable data or even collaborate with organizations and people. In this context he recommended several platforms and organizations where I could start my research. Furthermore he underlined the importance of actively involving my supervisor Mrs. Kronberger since she has good connections to other study programs like Midwifery or E-Health as well as to organizations outside of the FH. The talk with Mr. Kaltenbrunner was more about the topic itself and which hurdles could occur in my plan. The most important thing he mentioned was that it is very important to do a proper competitors- and market-analysis of a) existing diabetes apps and b) pregnancy-related apps in general. The first step should be to find out if a new app even makes sense or if it would be better to enhance/adjust an existing app so it fits the needs of GDM patients without re-inventing the wheel. I was/am aware that this could become a problem and it helped a lot to get an opinion and tipps from an expert on how to handle that. Maybe I will have to adjust my plan during the process, but I believe that this is only natural and common.

All in all I now have a more clear plan of my scope, possible hurdles and next steps and am looking forward to start with writing things down.

What are my next steps?

  • Finish my exposé
  • Fill out the official form of the exposé for the FH and hand it in
  • Get the go from my supervisor
  • Start working!

That’s it for now, thanks for reading 🙂

by Alicia Martinez Lopez -

Analysis of a Master Thesis: Gamification in Tourism – A Design Thinking Approach to Memorable Experience Design.

For this exercise, a master thesis written by Rolf Oftedal, Markus Hasler Sveen & Kristian Listou Riksheim for the school of economics and business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences was analysed. The paper was written in 2021, so it is quite current (it mentions the pandemic) and its title is “Gamification in Tourism – A Design Thinking Approach to Memorable Experience Design”.

Level of design

The design is quite simple. It certainly shows the formality of the subject and the document, but it can look a bit sloppy when it comes to displaying images.

In terms of text and font sizes, it is a very good design. Differentiating between the different sections is easy at a glance thanks to the separations. 

It could have been more pleasant if more images or graphics had been used to show the content quickly and visually.

Degree of innovation

The topic of tourism and gamification is quite common. Many designers are using these concepts as a way of addressing users. This may make the topic not very innovative, but it still has a lot to be explored and is seeing its peak with the emergence of COVID-19. Many tourism companies are considering gamification as a means of reaching the public again.

Independence

The project appears to have been carried out independently. It is true that it is done by a group of three people, but the analyses of each example and all the details of the project are their own conclusions.

Outline and structure

The presented structure is very well organised and gives you important data at a first glance thanks to the abstract divided into background, purpose, method and findings. With only one page it gives you a clear and straightforward summary. 

The organisation is progressive and takes you from theoretical beginnings to a practical end with many results. At no point is any content shown that has not been explained before, which makes the reading a very simple task. The authors follow the chosen study method throughout: Empathise, Define, Ideation & Prototyping and Testing & Iteration.

Degree of communication

Referring back to the previous point, it is very easy to read as the more complex terms are explained throughout. 

Moreover, as it is a project carried out by different authors from different disciplines, the content is very complete and the explanations are simplified as much as possible.

Scope of the work

It is a very comprehensive project with three authors coming from different fields. This ensures that the content covers everything that is needed. 

It may be a project that individually could be considered too much work, but as a team and with a good organisation, an exemplary result can be achieved.

Orthography and accuracy

Spelling is correct, and accuracy is exemplary. Information from different backgrounds is visible, making it a comprehensive work.

Literature

The document is correctly cited and has an extensive bibliography (more than four pages). It is true that at a quick glance it is difficult to see the points cited as there are no footnotes, but they still include a correct citation type.

Oftedal, R; Hasler, M; Listou, K. “Gamification in Tourism – A Design Thinking Approach to Memorable Experience Design.“ Master’s Thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 2021. https://bit.ly/3XMGNnB