How Assessing Plasticity Design Choices Can Improve UI Quality: A Case Study

International audienceIn Human Computer Interaction, plasticity refers to the capacity of User Interfaces (UIs) to withstand variations of context of use while preserving quality in use. Frequently, insuring more or less smooth transition from one context of use to the other (from the end-user perspective) is conducted ad hoc. To support a more systematic approach for characterizing UI tuning in terms of quality in use along context of use variations, we present an exploratory study focused deliberately on platform aspects. The design process of this particular case study is detailed and all design decisions have been recorded in terms of their influence on UI ergonomic quality, using Ergonomic Criteria. The interesting result is that most design choices when changing the platform lead to the reexamination of the initial designs. Ongoing work is done to support the insight that considering plasticity seems to help in explicitly broadening UI design choices and sharpening the solution

A generic approach to the evolution of interaction in ubiquitous systems

This dissertation addresses the challenge of the configuration of modern (ubiquitous, context-sensitive, mobile et al.) interactive systems where it is difficult or impossible to predict (i) the resources available for evolution, (ii) the criteria for judging the success of the evolution, and (iii) the degree to which human judgements must be involved in the evaluation process used to determine the configuration. In this thesis a conceptual model of interactive system configuration over time (known as interaction evolution) is presented which relies upon the follow steps; (i) identification of opportunities for change in a system, (ii) reflection on the available configuration alternatives, (iii) decision-making and (iv) implementation, and finally iteration of the process. This conceptual model underpins the development of a dynamic evolution environment based on a notion of configuration evaluation functions (hereafter referred to as evaluation functions) that provides greater flexibility than current solutions and, when supported by appropriate tools, can provide a richer set of evaluation techniques and features that are difficult or impossible to implement in current systems. Specifically this approach has support for changes to the approach, style or mode of use used for configuration - these features may result in more effective systems, less effort involved to configure them and a greater degree of control may be offered to the user. The contributions of this work include; (i) establishing the the need for configuration evolution through a literature review and a motivating case study experiment, (ii) development of a conceptual process model supporting interaction evolution, (iii) development of a model based on the notion of evaluation functions which is shown to support a wide range of interaction configuration approaches, (iv) a characterisation of the configuration evaluation space, followed by (v) an implementation of these ideas used in (vi) a series of longitudinal technology probes and investigations into the approaches