Using Citizen Science Gamification in Agriculture Collaborative Knowledge Production

RUC-APS is an international project run by 16 research institutions. The project's main goal is empowering agriculture production systems through innovative knowledge-based ICT solutions to deal with high risk and uncertain conditions. In this context, a Semantic Mediawiki is desired to support the various stakeholders in the agriculture value chain in the task of capturing and sharing agricultural best practices. Applying gamification to Wikis is one strategy to encourage the community to participate, and It could be achieved by attaching Metagame, a gamification layer system. However, It could be risky because the tunning of a gamification system in the production face of the wiki could be perceived by the users as a bug in the system. To avoid this situation, a simulation based on the real historical data of the Agriculture community in Wikipedia from 2001 to 2018 was performed. The simulation revealed that is not obvious to generate a system of awards on the type of actions carried out by the Wikipedia editors. The construction of knowledge is done in very small portions, and some of them can be confused with improvements or corrections instead of contributions. Indeed, It shows the importance of tuning the reward parameters, because that allows advancing in the Metagame rank evolution.Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Sketching enactive interactions

The growing trend to integrate the physical form and the digital process affects all the disciplines involved in the design of interactive systems. From a computing perspective, it means creating both embodied and contextual interfaces (which use physical objects to control digital information and depend on the signals available in the environment and situation). Designing has been considered central to HCI with different turns from a focus on the design of software to the current family of user-centered design processes. Theories of Cognition that understand it as an embodied, situated, and enactive phenomenon have expanded notably and opened new research programs in HCI. In recent decades there was a shift towards embodiment with the intention of understanding the interaction with the social and physical environment and the design of supporting interactive systems. The focus of this thesis is constituted in the intersection of three topics of current interest for HCI: a) the designing of interactive systems, with an emphasis on the creation of interaction mechanisms that combine one foot in the digital and one in the physical: how to cope in practice with the challenge of integrating physical form with digital software?; b) the available support of new theories of embodied and enactive cognition: how to approximate the design of interactive systems taking into account explicitly that the cognition that users have of them is embodied and enactive?; c) the creative process supported by sketching, a tool par excellence for the design of interactions: what are the similarities and differences between freehand sketching and enactive interaction sketches? How should the supporting tools be?Resumen de la tesis presentada por el autor el 22 de noviembre de 2019 para la obtención del título de Doctor en Ciencias Informáticas por la Universidad Nacional de la Plata

Sketching Enactive Interactions

The growing trend to integrate the physical form and the digital process affects all the disciplines involved in the design of interactive systems. From a computing perspective, it means creating both embodied and contextual interfaces (which use physical objects to control digital information and depend on the signals available in the environment and situation). Designing has been considered central to HCI with different turns from a focus on the design of software to the current family of user-centered design processes. Theories of Cognition that understand it as an embodied, situated, and enactive phenomenon have expanded notably and opened new research programs in HCI. In recent decades there was a shift towards embodiment with the intention of understanding the interaction with the social and physical environment and the design of supporting interactive systems. The focus of this thesis is constituted in the intersection of three topics of current interest for HCI: a) the designing of interactive systems, with an emphasis on the creation of interaction mechanisms that combine one foot in the digital and one in the physical: how to cope in practice with the challenge of integrating physical form with digital software?; b) the available support of new theories of embodied and enactive cognition: how to approximate the design of interactive systems taking into account explicitly that the cognition that users have of them is embodied and enactive?; c) the creative process supported by sketching, a tool par excellence for the design of interactions: what are the similarities and differences between freehand sketching and enactive interaction sketches? How should the supporting tools be?Resumen de la tesis presentada por el autor el 22 de noviembre de 2019 para la obtención del título de Doctor en Ciencias Informáticas por la Universidad Nacional de la Plata.Facultad de Informátic

Assisted Interaction for Improving Web Accessibility: An Approach Driven and Tested by Userswith Disabilities

148 p.Un porcentaje cada vez mayor de la población mundial depende de la Web para trabajar, socializar, opara informarse entre otras muchas actividades. Los beneficios de la Web son todavía más cruciales paralas personas con discapacidades ya que les permite realizar un sinfín de tareas que en el mundo físico lesestán restringidas debido distintas barreras de accesibilidad. A pesar de sus ventajas, la mayoría depáginas web suelen ignoran las necesidades especiales de las personas con discapacidad, e incluyen undiseño único para todos los usuarios. Existen diversos métodos para combatir este problema, como porejemplo los sistemas de ¿transcoding¿, que transforman automáticamente páginas web inaccesibles enaccesibles. Para mejorar la accesibilidad web a grupos específicos de personas, estos métodos requiereninformación sobre las técnicas de adaptación más adecuadas que deben aplicarse.En esta tesis se han realizado una serie de estudios sobre la idoneidad de diversas técnicas de adaptaciónpara mejorar la navegación web para dos grupos diferentes de personas con discapacidad: personas conmovilidad reducida en miembros superiores y personas con baja visión. Basado en revisionesbibliográficas y estudios observacionales, se han desarrollado diferentes adaptaciones de interfaces web ytécnicas alternativas de interacción, que posteriormente han sido evaluadas a lo largo de varios estudioscon usuarios con necesidades especiales. Mediante análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos del rendimiento yla satisfacción de los participantes, se han evaluado diversas adaptaciones de interfaz y métodosalternativos de interacción. Los resultados han demostrado que las técnicas probadas mejoran el acceso ala Web y que los beneficios varían según la tecnología asistiva usada para acceder al ordenador

Bocetado de interacciones enactivas

El continuo desarrollo de tecnologías interactivas y la mayor comprensión de la participación del cuerpo en los procesos cognitivos ha impulsado al diseño de interacciones en el marco de las investigaciones HCI a la necesidad de resolver la relación del usuario con una multitud de dispositivos que se extienden más allá de los escritorios. Estos ámbitos de diseño abren nuevos desafíos a la hora de disponer de procesos, métodos y herramientas para alcanzar experiencias de uso adecuadas. En la medida que nuevos dispositivos y sistemas involucran los aspectos corporales y sociales del ser humano, se hace más relevante la consideración de paradigmas, teorías y modelos de soporte que excedan la selección de nodos de navegación y organización visual apropiada de widgets y pantallas. El diseño de interacción debe ocuparse no sólo de conseguir que se construya el producto de manera adecuada, sino además que se construya el producto correcto. Esta tesis se constituye en el cruce de tres temas: el diseño de sistemas interactivos que combinan un pie en lo digital y uno en lo físico, las teorías de la cognición corporizada y enactiva y las prácticas creativas soportadas por el bocetado, en particular los procesos de generación, evaluación y comunicación de ideas o propuestas de diseño. Este trabajo incluye contribuciones de diferente carácter. Se realiza un estudio profundo de las teorías sobre cognición corporizada y enactiva, del diseño de interacción con dispositivos digitales y del bocetado como herramienta básica del diseño creativo. Sobre la base de este análisis de la bibliografía existente y con una caracterización de la práctica de bocetado de interacciones enactivas basada en estudios etnometodológicos se plantea un framework para organizar conceptualmente esa práctica y una herramienta de soporte a esa actividad concebida como una composición creativa. Se discuten las contribuciones y se plantean posibles líneas de trabajo futuro.The continuous development of interactive technologies and the greater understanding of body importance in cognitive processes has driven HCI research , specifically on interaction design, to solve the user’s relationship with a multitude of beyond desktop devices. This has opened new challenges for having processes, methods and tools to achieve appropriate user experiences. Insofar as new devices and systems involve the body and social aspects of the human being, the consideration of paradigms, theories and support models that exceed the selection of navigation nodes and the appropriate visual organization of widgets and screens becomes more relevant. The interaction design must take care not only to get the product built properly, but also to build the right product. This thesis is at the crossroads of three themes: the design of interactive systems that combine a foot in the digital and one in the physical, the theories of embodied and enactive cognition and the creative practices supported by sketching, in particular the processes of generation, evaluation and communication of interaction design ideas. This work includes contributions of different character. An in-depth study of the theories on embodied and enactive cognition, the design of interaction with digital devices and the sketching as a basic tool of creative design is carried out. On the basis of this analysis of the existing literature and with a characterization of the enactive practice of enactive interactions based on ethnomethodological studies, a framework is proposed to conceptually organize this practice and a support tool for that activity conceived as a creative composition. The contributions are discussed and possible lines of future work are considered.Facultad de Informátic