The role of users’ emotions and associated quality goals on appropriation of systems: two case studies

In this paper, we examine the role of emotions and associated system qualities in encouraging adoption and effective use of systems. In two different contexts, we examine the use of a learning management system in an educational setting and a personal emergency alarm system in an aged care setting. This study reveals that technology appropriation is driven by different emotions depending on whether users are in the adoption decision-making stage or during actual use as a part of their everyday routine. Findings from this study suggest that social factors influence peoples’ emotions in the decision to adopt a system. However, as people use a system, it is the non-functional system qualities, based on personal experiences with the look, feel, functionality and features that trigger positive and negative emotional responses. Our findings therefore propose that these emotional responses should be considered during system design and implementation to encourage appropriation and avoid rejection of systems

Understanding socially-oriented roles and goals through motivational modelling

Technology has the potential to transform our home life, but only if it addresses the needs of its users. Understanding and modelling social needs is a challenge. For example, how do we understand, model, and then evaluate a system that must support needs such as "being fun"? In this paper, we define a systematic and repeatable process and method for understanding the roles and goals within a social domain for the purpose of informing technology design. We use the case study of building technology that supports meaningful interactions between grandparents and grandchildren separated by distance. Rather than attempt to define the roles of grandparents and grandchildren, and their associated goals, we study the roles and goals of activities in which grandparents and grandchildren typically engage, such as storytelling and gifting, and define role and goals models from the resulting data. The data obtained from the study of these activities provides a form of validation of the models. From these, we gain a better understanding of this complex social relationship, and how software systems can be built to support it. The models that emerge during the process are useful boundary objects, allowing knowledge to be shared across and between the disparate stakeholder communities, including end users, software engineers, and field researchers, and serve as inputs to the design process