Study and proposal of a framework for designing tailorable user interfaces

Orientador: Maria Cecilia Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A socialização dos sistemas computacionais trouxe um desafio a mais para os pesquisadores de Interação Humano-Computador: como prover interfaces que propiciem acesso ao maior número possível de usuários independentemente de suas capacidades sensoriais, físicas, cognitivas e emocionais? Um dos caminhos que se apresenta é desenvolver sistemas flexíveis, i.e. que permitam modificações em seu comportamento durante a interação, oferecendo ao usuário a possibilidade de ajustar a interface de acordo com as suas preferências, necessidades e situações de uso. O design de interfaces flexíveis, que façam sentido e sejam acessíveis a mais pessoas, demanda abordagens que permitam conhecer e formalizar os diferentes requisitos de interação, definir funcionalidades e determinar o comportamento ajustável do sistema. Soluções encontradas na literatura relacionadas ao tema interfaces ajustáveis, (ou tailoring em inglês) enfatizam questões relacionadas à infra-estrutura necessária para o ajuste, não tendo sido encontrados trabalhos que apoiassem os designers de forma prática durante o processo de concepção dessas interfaces. Esta tese propõe e apresenta um framework para o design de interfaces de usuário ajustáveis, denominado PLuRaL. O termo framework é utilizado aqui no seu sentido mais amplo como uma estrutura composta por diretrizes, mecanismos, artefatos e sistemas usados no planejamento e na tomada de decisões de design. O PLuRaL adota uma perspectiva sócio-técnica para a concepção das interfaces ajustáveis e uma visão abrangente dos requisitos de interação, incluindo aqueles que são controversos ou minoritários e advindos não somente de usuários, mas também de diferentes dispositivos e ambientes de interação. Aspectos semânticos, pragmáticos e o impacto social da interação também são considerados. Por fim, o comportamento ajustável do sistema é modelado utilizando-se o conceito de normas. O referencial teórico-metodológico adotado para o trabalho de pesquisa envolveu as disciplinas de Interação Humano-Computador e Semiótica Organizacional. A construção do framework foi pautada por 2 estudos de caso envolvendo populações de usuário heterogêneas em contextos de sistemas de governo eletrônico e de rede social inclusiva. A validação do framework foi realizada com 17 designers e os resultados sugerem uma avaliação positiva considerando a utilidade, flexibilidade para apoiar mudanças, liberdade de criação e satisfação com as propostas de design resultantesAbstract: The socialization of computer systems has brought a new challenge to Human-Computer Interaction researchers: how to design interfaces that provide access to as many users as possible regardless of their sensory, physical, cognitive and emotional characteristics? One approach to answer this question is to develop flexible systems, i.e. those that allow changes in their behavior during the interaction, offering users the possibility to tailor the interface according to their preferences, needs and situations of use. The design of flexible interfaces, which make sense and are accessible to more people, demands approaches to understand and formalize the different interaction requirements, define functionalities and determine the system tailorable behavior. Solutions found in the literature about tailorable interfaces have focused on the infrastructure needed to offer flexibility and works to support designers in a practical way during the conception of such interfaces were not found. This thesis proposes and presents a framework for the design of tailorable user interfaces, named PLuRaL. The term framework is used here in its broadest sense as a structure consisting of guidelines, mechanisms, artifacts and systems used in design planning and decision-making. PLuRaL adopts a socio-technical approach to design tailorable interfaces and a comprehensive view for interaction requirements, including those that are controversial or from minority, and arising not only from users, but also from different devices and interaction environments. The semantic, pragmatic and social impacts of the interaction are also considered. Finally, the behavior of the tailorable system is modeled using the concept of norms. The theoretical and methodological references adopted in this work involved the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction and Organizational Semiotics. The framework's construction was guided by 2 case studies with heterogeneous populations, in the context of electronic government and inclusive social network system. The framework's validation was performed with 17 designers and the results suggest a positive evaluation considering the usefulness and flexibility to support changes, freedom to create and satisfaction with the final design proposalsDoutoradoMetodologia e Tecnicas da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

Intangible trust requirements - how to fill the requirements trust "gap"?

Previous research efforts have been expended in terms of the capture and subsequent instantiation of "soft" trust requirements that relate to HCI usability concerns or in relation to "hard" tangible security requirements that primarily relate to security a ssurance and security protocols. Little direct focus has been paid to managing intangible trust related requirements per se. This 'gap' is perhaps most evident in the public B2C (Business to Consumer) E- Systems we all use on a daily basis. Some speculative suggestions are made as to how to fill the 'gap'. Visual card sorting is suggested as a suitable evaluative tool; whilst deontic logic trust norms and UML extended notation are the suggested (methodologically invariant) means by which software development teams can perhaps more fully capture hence visualize intangible trust requirements

Designing Tailorable Technologies

This paper provides principles for designing tailorable technologies. Tailorable technologies are technologies that are modified by end users in the context of their use and are around us as desktop operating systems, web portals, and mobile telephones. While tailorable technologies provide end users with limitless ways to modify the technology, as designers and researchers we have little understanding of how tailorable technologies are initially designed to support that end-user modification. In this paper, we argue that tailorable technologies are a unique technology type in the same light as group support systems and emergent knowledge support systems. This unique technology type is becoming common and we are forced to reevaluate existing design theory, methods of analysis, and streams of literature. In this paper we present design principles of Gordon Pask, Christopher Alexander, Greg Gargarian, and Kim Madsen to strengthen inquiry into tailorable technologies. We then apply the principles to designing tailorable technologies in order for their design to become more coherent and tractable. We conclude that designers need to build reflective and active design environments and gradients of interactive capabilities in order for technology to be readily modified in the context of its use

AN ARCHITECTURE FOR END-USER DEVELOPMENT SUPPORTING GLOBAL COMMUNITIES

Increasingly organizations require their members to act not only as end users but also as developers of their tools, i.e. to create, shape and adapt the software artifacts they use without becoming computer experts. In this way, they move from being mere consumers to active producers of knowledge and developers of software artifacts. This leads to an evolution of the work environment and the organization and force the designers to adapt the software artifacts to meet the needs of the end users and to manage this co-evolution of users and software. Moreover, the achievements of social media, Web 2.0 and the advanced information technologies lead to an upward diffusion of global communities, geographically distributed, that collaborate asynchronously on the same design projects. The members of global communities belong to different cultures, therefore cultural boundaries need to be transcended. The mantra "making all voices heard" has to be evolved into "making all voices heard and understood" to allow the proper participation of end users to knowledge and software artifacts creation, sharing and evolution. To respond to these challenges, the thesis presents a semiotic model for end-user development and a Web architecture that supports 1) an interaction localized to end user\u2019s culture, domain of activity and digital platform in use, and 2) the collaborative creation and evolution of knowledge and software artifacts. The architecture is Ajax-like, component-based, Web service-based, and underpins re-use and evolution of software

Design Ltd.: Renovated Myths for the Development of Socially Embedded Technologies

This paper argues that traditional and mainstream mythologies, which have been continually told within the Information Technology domain among designers and advocators of conceptual modelling since the 1960s in different fields of computing sciences, could now be renovated or substituted in the mould of more recent discourses about performativity, complexity and end-user creativity that have been constructed across different fields in the meanwhile. In the paper, it is submitted that these discourses could motivate IT professionals in undertaking alternative approaches toward the co-construction of socio-technical systems, i.e., social settings where humans cooperate to reach common goals by means of mediating computational tools. The authors advocate further discussion about and consolidation of some concepts in design research, design practice and more generally Information Technology (IT) development, like those of: task-artifact entanglement, universatility (sic) of End-User Development (EUD) environments, bricolant/bricoleur end-user, logic of bricolage, maieuta-designers (sic), and laissez-faire method to socio-technical construction. Points backing these and similar concepts are made to promote further discussion on the need to rethink the main assumptions underlying IT design and development some fifty years later the coming of age of software and modern IT in the organizational domain.Comment: This is the peer-unreviewed of a manuscript that is to appear in D. Randall, K. Schmidt, & V. Wulf (Eds.), Designing Socially Embedded Technologies: A European Challenge (2013, forthcoming) with the title "Building Socially Embedded Technologies: Implications on Design" within an EUSSET editorial initiative (www.eusset.eu/

Self tailorable website interfaces : contributions towards the Design for All

Orientador: Maria Cecilia Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: ...Observação: O resumo, na íntegra, poderá ser visualizado no texto completo da tese digital.Abstract: ...Note: The complete abstract is available with the full electronic documentDoutoradoAvaliação de interfaces de usuarioDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

Computer Applications as Mediators of Design and Use

The present report constitutes together with 21 submitted papers the author's doctor's dissertation. This dissertation summarizes an understanding of computers as the materials that we shape in design, on the one hand, and the artifacts that we use, in work and other everyday activities on the other. The presented work is primarily methodological and design-oriented, i.e. it is concerned with changing computer applications and with understanding them as changing and as part of change