FLOW EXPERIENCE IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF DESIGN OPTIONS FOR ECLIPSE

In positive psychology, flow is described as a holistic mental condition in which an individual delves into an activity with full concentration. Even in software engineering, the promotion of flow experience fosters effects such as positive affect, improved learning, and higher product loyalty in computer-aided environments. However, from a practice-based perspective it is not obvious how to design ICT to support flow experience. With this paper, we, therefore, contribute concrete design implications, paving the way for a good flow experience in ICT. This paper be-gins by examining the current state of flow research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. We then go on to present a study comprising the development and evaluation of design options that aim to support flow in integrated development environments such as Eclipse, one of the most prominent open-source IDEs. The findings reveal practical implications on the use of four flow design options for software engineering and are integrated into a preliminary research framework

The role of motivation in regulating the extent to which data visualisation literacy influences business intelligence and analytics use in organisations

Dissertation (MCom (Informatics))--University of Pretoria 2022.The ability to read and interpret visualised data is a critical skill to have in this information age where business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) systems are increasingly used to support decision-making. Data visualisation literacy is seen as the foundation of analytics. Moreover, there is great hype about data-driven analytical culture and data democratisation, where users are encouraged to have wide access to data and fully use BI&A to reap the benefits. Motivation is a stimulant to the richer use of any information system (IS), yet literature provides a limited understanding of the evaluation of data visualisation literacy and the effect of motivation in the BI&A context. Thus, this study aims to explain the role of motivation in regulating the extent to which data visualisation literacy influences BI&A’s exploitative and explorative use in organisations. Data visualisation literacy is measured using six data visualisations that focus on the five cognitive basic intelligent analytical tasks that assess the user's ability to read and interpret visualised data. Two types of motivations are assessed using perceived enjoyment as an intrinsic motivator and perceived usefulness as an extrinsic motivator. The model is tested using quantitative data collected from 111 users, applying Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results indicate that intrinsic motivation exerts a positive effect on BI&A exploitative and explorative use while extrinsic motivation has a positive effect on BI&A exploitative use but weakens innovation with a negative effect on explorative use. The results further show an indirect relationship between data visualisation literacy with BI&A use through motivation. In addition, exploitation leads to creativity with exploitation positively being associated with exploration.InformaticsMCom (Informatics)Unrestricte

Flow Experience in Software Engineering: Development and Evaluation of Design Options for Eclipse

In positive psychology, flow is described as a holistic mental condition in which an individual delves into an activity with full concentration. Even in software engineering, the promotion of flow experience fosters effects such as positive affect, improved learning, and higher product loyalty in computer-aided environments. However, from a practice-based perspective it is not obvious how to design ICT to support flow experience. With this paper, we, therefore, contribute concrete design implications, paving the way for a good flow experience in ICT. This paper begins by examining the current state of flow research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. We then go on to present a study comprising the development and evaluation of design options that aim to support flow in integrated development environments such as Eclipse, one of the most prominent open-source IDEs. The findings reveal practical implications on the use of four flow design options for software engineering and are integrated into a preliminary research framework

How the design of socio-technical experiments can enable radical changes for sustainability

Sustainability requires radical innovations, but their introduction and diffusion usually encounter the opposition of existing socio-technical regimes. An important challenge is, therefore, to understand how to catalyse and support the process of transitioning towards these innovations. Building upon insights from transition studies (in particular the concepts of Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management), and through an action research project (aimed at designing, introducing and diffusing a sustainable mobility system in the suburban areas of Cape Town), the paper investigates the role of design in triggering and orienting societal transformations. A key role is given to the implementation of socio-technical experiments. A new socio-technical system design role emerges: a role in which the ideation and development of sustainable innovation concepts is coupled with the designing of appropriate transition paths to gradually incubate, introduce and diffuse these concepts

PRIMUS/Informed Cities: Making research work for local sustainability

The final report of a three year European Commission FP7 project

Supporting the Discoverability of Open Educational Resources: on the Scent of a Hidden Treasury

Open Educational Resources (OERs), now available in large numbers, have a considerable potential to improve many aspects of society, yet one of the factors limiting this positive impact is the difficulty to discover them. This thesis investigates and proposes strategies to better support educators in discovering OERs. The literature suggests that the effectiveness of existing search systems, including for OER discovery, could be improved by supporting users, such as teachers, in carrying out more exploratory search activities closer to their existing methods of working. Hence, a preliminary taxonomy of OER-related search tasks was produced, based on an analysis of the literature, interpreted through Information Foraging Theory. This taxonomy was empirically evaluated to preliminarily identify a set of search tasks that involve finding other OERs similar to one that has already been identified, a process that is generally referred to as Query By Example (QBE). Following the Design Science Research methodology, three prototypes to support as well as to refine those tasks were iteratively designed, implemented, and evaluated involving an increasing number of educators in usability oriented studies. The resulting high-level and domain-oriented blended search/recommendation strategy transparently replicates Google searches in specialized networks, and identifies similar resources with a QBE strategy. It makes use of a domain-oriented similarity metric based on shared alignments to educational standards, and clusters results in expandable classes of comparable degrees of similarity. The summative evaluation shows that educators do appreciate this strategy because it is exploratory and – balancing similarity and diversity – it supports their high-level tasks, such as lesson planning and personalization of education. Finally, potential barriers and opportunities for the uptake of OER discovery tools were investigated in a structured interview study with experts from the OER field. Identified issues included how to work across multiple OER portals, variability in the use of metadata and how to align with the working practices of teachers. The findings of the thesis can be used to inform the research and development of methods and tools for OER discovery as well as their deployment to serve the needs of educators

Fostering Continuous User Participation by Embedding a Communication Support Tool in User Interfaces

This paper critically reviews previous IS literature on user participation and argues that the literature is mainly empirically or normatively oriented and lacks design research on developing system prototypes in order to foster continuous user participation. It then contributes to the current research by introducing a system prototype, a communication tool that enables users to participate while using their application systems in their work contexts. The prototype provides different communication channels for supporting user-designer communications and knowledge sharing among users with respect to application usage. When integrated in the interface of an application system, the tool can help to adapt and redesign the application. The initial evaluation of the communication tool within the context of an application system indicates its usefulness and usability