Bridging the gap: building better tools for game development

The following thesis is about questioning how we design game making tools, and how developers may build easier tools to use. It is about the highlighting the inadequacies of current game making programs as well as introducing Goal-Oriented Design as a possible solution. It is also about the processes of digital product development, and reflecting on the necessity for both design and development methods to work cohesively for meaningful results. Interaction Design is in essence the abstracting of key relations that matter to the contextual environment. The result of attempting to tie the Interaction Design principles, Game Design issues together with Software Development practices has led to the production of the User-Centred game engine, PlayBoard

Considering the User in the Wireless World

The near future promises significant advances in communication capabilities, but one of the keys to success is the capability understanding of the people with regards to its value and usage. In considering the role of the user in the wireless world of the future, the Human Perspective Working Group (WG1) of the Wireless World Research Forum has gathered input and developed positions in four important areas: methods, processes, and best practices for user-centered research and design; reference frameworks for modeling user needs within the context of wireless systems; user scenario creation and analysis; and user interaction technologies. This article provides an overview of WG1's work in these areas that are critical to ensuring that the future wireless world meets and exceeds the expectations of people in the coming decades

Adaptive development and maintenance of user-centric software systems

A software system cannot be developed without considering the various facets of its environment. Stakeholders – including the users that play a central role – have their needs, expectations, and perceptions of a system. Organisational and technical aspects of the environment are constantly changing. The ability to adapt a software system and its requirements to its environment throughout its full lifecycle is of paramount importance in a constantly changing environment. The continuous involvement of users is as important as the constant evaluation of the system and the observation of evolving environments. We present a methodology for adaptive software systems development and maintenance. We draw upon a diverse range of accepted methods including participatory design, software architecture, and evolutionary design. Our focus is on user-centred software systems

Interaction platform-orientated perspective in designing novel applications

The lack of HCI offerings in the invention of novel software applications and the bias of design knowledge towards desktop GUI make it difficult for us to design for novel scenarios and applications that leverage emerging computational technologies. These include new media platforms such as mobiles, interactive TV, tabletops and large multi-touch walls on which many of our future applications will operate. We argue that novel application design should come not from user-centred requirements engineering as in developing a conventional application, but from understanding the interaction characteristics of the new platforms. Ensuring general usability for a particular interaction platform without rigorously specifying envisaged usage contexts helps us to design an artifact that does not restrict the possible application contexts and yet is usable enough to help brainstorm its more exact place for future exploitation

BlogForever D3.2: Interoperability Prospects

This report evaluates the interoperability prospects of the BlogForever platform. Therefore, existing interoperability models are reviewed, a Delphi study to identify crucial aspects for the interoperability of web archives and digital libraries is conducted, technical interoperability standards and protocols are reviewed regarding their relevance for BlogForever, a simple approach to consider interoperability in specific usage scenarios is proposed, and a tangible approach to develop a succession plan that would allow a reliable transfer of content from the current digital archive to other digital repositories is presented

An IMS-Learning Design Editor for a Higher Education Blended Learning Scenario

The IMS-Learning Design has been developed to support the creation of reusable and pedagogically neutral learning scenarios and content. Although it is especially suitable for eLearning, there is a lot of interest on using it in higher education blended learning scenarios. However there are some related key issues which must be managed such as cultural bias and the need for expensive human resources to design and develop specification compliant units of learning. They can be addressed by the design of ad-hoc editors supporting concrete learning design units of learning. We suggest some solutions to overcome these limitations, based on our experience designing the user interface of an IMS-LD compliant editor, GDUS+. We also explain our user centering approach, and give some conclusions about the benefits of using IMS-LD