SeMA: A Design Methodology for Building Secure Android Apps

UX (user experience) designers visually capture the UX of an app via storyboards. This method is also used in Android app development to conceptualize and design apps. Recently, security has become an integral part of Android app UX because mobile apps are used to perform critical activities such as banking, communication, and health. Therefore, securing user information is imperative in mobile apps. In this context, storyboarding tools offer limited capabilities to capture and reason about security requirements of an app. Consequently, security cannot be baked into the app at design time. Hence, vulnerabilities stemming from design flaws can often occur in apps. To address this concern, in this paper, we propose a storyboard based design methodology to enable the specification and verification of security properties of an Android app at design time.Comment: Updates based on AMobile 2019 review

Animations in Cross-Platform Mobile Applications: An Evaluation of Tools, Metrics and Performance

Along with the proliferation of high-end and performant mobile devices, we find that the inclusion of visually animated user interfaces are commonplace, but that research on their performance is scarce. Thus, for this study, eight mobile apps have been developed for scrutiny and assessment to report on the device hardware impact and penalties caused by transitions and animations, with an emphasis on apps generated using cross-platform development frameworks. The tasks we employ for animation performance measuring, are those of (i) a complex animation consisting of multiple elements, (ii) the opening sequence of a side menu navigation pattern, and (iii) a transition animation during in-app page navigation. We employ multiple performance profiling tools, and scrutinize metrics including frames per second (FPS), CPU usage, device memory usage and GPU memory usage, all to uncover the impact caused by executing transitions and animations. We uncover important differences in device hardware utilization during animations across the different cross-platform technologies employed. Additionally, Android and iOS are found to differ greatly in terms of memory consumption, CPU usage and rendered FPS, a discrepancy that is true for both the native and cross-platform apps. The findings we report are indeed factors contributing to the complexity of app development.Animations in Cross-Platform Mobile Applications: An Evaluation of Tools, Metrics and PerformanceacceptedVersio

Push Yourself a Bit Harder: The Impacts of Force-based Gestures on Consumer Decisiveness and Self-Regulation

The emergence of force-based gestures (e.g., peek and pop) brings more functionalities to mobile interaction. Although it is believed that peek and pop could facilitate user navigation experience, the psychological and behavioral effects of force-based gestures remain unexplored. This study aims to investigate whether and how force-based gestures (gentle tap vs. hard press) influence mobile consumer decision making. Drawing on Embodied Cognition Theory and Mobile Application Usability literature, we propose that hard press (compared with gentle tap) could make consumers more decisive and thus lead to faster decisions; moreover, hard press (compared with gentle tap) could also facilitate willpower summoning and thus enhance consumer self-control. We also propose that these effects are contingent on visual responsiveness. Accordingly, a 2 by 2 lab experiment is designed. Potential theoretical contributions, practical implications as well as future research directions are discussed

I Am Pakistan

I Am Pakistan is a project that aims to address the question of whether interaction design can be used to create human connections and foster the intrinsic motivation needed for becoming an agent of social change. Pakistan is a country riddled with crippling problems such as poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and injustice. There is a need to make young people aware of proactive measures they can take to help change this dire situation. Figures show that around 55% of Pakistani nationals are under the age of 25 with over 30 million Internet users in the population. This indicates that there is a large target audience of students and young professionals who can potentially be mobilized for social causes. Volunteering is one way of bringing about positive social change in the community. My specific scope of research is to create a design solution for strategic volunteerism, aiming to: 1. Promote volunteerism in an innovative manner 2. Highlight credible channels for volunteer energy 3. Add value to the volunteer experience by making it more personal and social 4. Enable volunteers to contribute to a process having impact I Am Pakistan is an interactive storytelling experience about volunteering. Users are engaged on two fronts: they can choose to read stories as well as add their own story to the compendium. This peer-reviewed collection of volunteer stories provides a true account of a volunteer\u27s experiences, which can further be shared across social media. The goal of such user-generated online content is simple: to promote volunteerism in a young audience using a medium they are accustomed to, and inspire others to contribute

Comunicação mutimédia de inovação de ciência e tecnologia em contexto empresarial

The need to communicate science and technology is increasing. In Research and Development (R&D) projects, which encompass the creation of novel technologies and paradigms, the adequate dissemination of representative content plays a pivotal role to establish such technologies within their target audiences, including the scientific community and project partners. Within the scope of this dissertation, multimedia artifacts were produced for the communication of complex scientific and technological content. This was made in the context of the MOG Technologies company, and its need to communicate with partners, clients, and other stakeholders, the characteristics of their innovation-based services and products. The produced multimedia artifacts were videos and broadcast events. A social media dissemination plan was also created and implemented. The challenge of these concrete outputs was supported by the knowledge and understanding of the MOG projects, products, and target audiences, and by the theoretical framework of science and technology communication using multimedia. The artifacts were implemented and used, obtaining good feedback.A necessidade de comunicar ciência e tecnologia é cada vez maior. Em projetos de Investigação e Desenvolvimento, que incluem a criação de novas tecnologias e paradigmas, a disseminação adequada de conteúdos representativos desempenha um papel fundamental para estabelecer essas tecnologias junto dos seus públicos-alvo, incluindo a comunidade científica e parceiros de projeto. No âmbito desta dissertação, foram produzidos artefactos multimédia para a comunicação de conteúdos científicos e tecnológicos complexos. Isto foi feito no contexto da empresa MOG Technologies, e partindo da sua necessidade de comunicar com parceiros, clientes e outros intervenientes, as características dos seus serviços e produtos baseados em inovação. Os artefactos multimédia produzidos foram vídeos e eventos de broadcasting. Foi também criado e implementado um plano de disseminação nas redes sociais. O desafio de obter estes resultados concretos é apoiado pelo conhecimento e compreensão dos projetos, produtos e públicos-alvo da MOG e pelo enquadramento teórico de comunicação de ciência e tecnologia usando multimédia. Os artefactos foram implementados e utilizados, obtendo-se um bom feedback.Mestrado em Comunicação Multimédi

Supporting improvised games for young people in public spaces

PhD ThesisResearchers looking at technologically mediated play and games have explored how games can be taken away from the computer screen and played in outdoor spaces. This has resulted in new pervasive games that benefit from the opportunities for rich social and physical interaction in new mobile contexts. However, we have only just begun to explore these opportunities; game designs should bring young people together in these new contexts in play that is appropriate, meaningful, and can be enjoyed on their own mobile devices. The research in this thesis explores how game designers and interaction designers can design more playful mobile games for young people that can be played together in public spaces. This work draws upon a research through design approach that has been informed by the researcher’s own practice of game design and working co-creatively with custodians of public spaces. The contributions are based on the analysis of empirical data collected from two case studies in a community library and a country house, while additionally drawing upon three further game designs made in collaborations with other partners. This work contributes a game design framework that provides an approach, a step by step method, guidelines and a software library for making mobile games with more open, spontaneous, and improvised styles of play. The mobile games are designed with and based on a simplistic game system that presents digital playing cards to provide the game structure and bound play, while the mobile device is also used to configure the play space and sustain play. The intention is to provide designers with a practical and evidence-based approach to designing digital games for new mobile contexts. This work will appeal to game designers who are motivated by an interest in play and playfulness that will resonate with our childhood memories of play.UK AHRC KE Hub for the Creative Economy (ref: AH/J005150/1 Creative Exchange

Scripting the virtual: Formats and development paths for recent australian narrative 360-degree virtual reality projects

Since around 2015, an abundance of cinematic, short narrative virtual reality (VR) projects utilizing an immersive 360-degree format have emerged at film festivals around the world and on online platforms. While this medium is one that is increasingly being adopted by established, traditional 2D filmmakers, the specificity of the form gives rise to a number of challenges for the screenwriter when considering screen grammar, script formats and the writing process. This article begins to address a gap in knowledge in this area by reporting upon approaches to the script formats, development techniques and methods of collaboration utilized by three Australian practitioners working in this format. This research includes a study of the physical expression of a screen idea (recorded on the page or elsewhere) and an exploration of the working conditions within which these ideas are shaped to provide some insight into emerging practices. I draw upon detailed interviews with the three practitioners, and in doing so, I open up a discussion on how their approaches to 360-degree VR differ from traditional forms of screenplay writing