Overcoming Language Dichotomies: Toward Effective Program Comprehension for Mobile App Development

Mobile devices and platforms have become an established target for modern software developers due to performant hardware and a large and growing user base numbering in the billions. Despite their popularity, the software development process for mobile apps comes with a set of unique, domain-specific challenges rooted in program comprehension. Many of these challenges stem from developer difficulties in reasoning about different representations of a program, a phenomenon we define as a "language dichotomy". In this paper, we reflect upon the various language dichotomies that contribute to open problems in program comprehension and development for mobile apps. Furthermore, to help guide the research community towards effective solutions for these problems, we provide a roadmap of directions for future work.Comment: Invited Keynote Paper for the 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC'18

An All-in-One mHealth Application: #Beats – Your health mate

Màster en Gestió de Continguts Digitals, Facultat d'Informació i Mitjans Audiovisuals, Universitat de Barcelona i UPF, curs 2019-2020. Tutor: Dr. Cristóbal Urbano. UBBy exploring the current situation of the mHealth market in Spain, and the feasibility of the open-source framework, this article looks forward to developing an all-in-one mHealth application with the concept of Mini Programs/ Instant App. It can integrate the healthcare resources and provide users with more experience of instant services without a complicated installation process. It also strengthens the protection of personal information and privacy. In the meanwhile, by applying the methodology of Rapid Prototyping, a user interface of this app, Beats, will be presented to visualize the above concepts. It may be a revolution for medical providers, doctor-patient relationships, public health care systems, and even the entire healthcare system

Analysis and design of individual information systems to support health behavior change

As a wide-ranging socio-technical transformation, the digitalization has significantly influenced the world, bringing opportunities and challenges to our lives. Despite numerous benefits like the possibility to stay connected with people around the world, the increasing dispersion and use of digital technologies and media (DTM) pose risks to individuals’ well-being and health. Rising demands emerging from the digital world have been linked to digital stress, that is, stress directly or indirectly resulting from DTM (Ayyagari et al. 2011; Ragu-Nathan et al. 2008; Tarafdar et al. 2019; Weil and Rosen 1997), potentially intensifying individuals’ overall exposure to stress. Individuals experiencing this adverse consequence of digitalization are at elevated risk of developing severe mental health impairments (Alhassan et al. 2018; Haidt and Allen 2020; Scott et al. 2017), which is why various scholars emphasize that research should place a stronger focus on analyzing and shaping the role of the individual in a digital world, pursuing instrumental as well as humanistic objectives (Ameen et al. 2021; Baskerville 2011b). Information Systems (IS) research has long placed emphasis on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in organizations, viewing an information system as the socio-technical system that emerges from individuals’ interaction with DTM in organizations. However, socio-technical information systems, as the essence of the IS discipline (Lee 2004; Sarker et al. 2019), are also present in different social contexts from private life. Acknowledging the increasing private use of DTM, such as smartphones and social networks, IS scholars have recently intensified their efforts to understand the human factor of IS (Avison and Fitzgerald 1991; Turel et al. 2021). A framework recently proposed by Matt et al. (2019) suggests three research angles: analyzing individuals’ behavior associated with their DTM use, analyzing what consequences arise from their DTM use behavior, and designing new technologies that promote positive or mitigate negative effects of individuals’ DTM use. Various recent studies suggest that individuals’ behavior seems to be an important lever influencing the outcomes of their DTM use (Salo et al. 2017; Salo et al. 2020; Weinstein et al. 2016). Therefore, this dissertation aims to contribute to IS research targeting the facilitation of a healthy DTM use behavior. It explores the use behavior, consequences, and design of DTM for individuals' use with the objective to deliver humanistic value by increasing individuals' health through supporting a behavior change related to their DTM use. The dissertation combines behavioral science and design science perspectives and applies pluralistic methodological approaches from qualitative (e.g., interviews, prototyping) and quantitative research (e.g., survey research, field studies), including mixed-methods approaches mixing both. Following the framework from Matt et al. (2019), the dissertation takes three perspectives therein: analyzing individuals’ behavior, analyzing individuals’ responses to consequences of DTM use, and designing information systems assisting DTM users. First, the dissertation presents new descriptive knowledge on individuals’ behavior related to their use of DTM. Specifically, it investigates how individuals behave when interacting with DTM, why they behave the way they do, and how their behavior can be influenced. Today, a variety of digital workplace technologies offer employees different ways of pursuing their goals or performing their tasks (Köffer 2015). As a result, individuals exhibit different behaviors when interacting with these technologies. The dissertation analyzes what interactional roles DTM users can take at the digital workplace and what may influence their behavior. It uses a mixed-methods approach and combines a quantitative study building on trace data from a popular digital workplace suite and qualitative interviews with users of this digital workplace suite. The empirical analysis yields eight user roles that advance the understanding of users’ behavior at the digital workplace and first insights into what factors may influence this behavior. A second study adds another perspective and investigates how habitual behavior can be changed by means of DTM design elements. Real-time feedback has been discussed as a promising way to do so (Schibuola et al. 2016; Weinmann et al. 2016). In a field experiment, employees working at the digital workplace are provided with an external display that presents real-time feedback on their office’s indoor environmental quality. The experiment examines if and to what extent the feedback influences their ventilation behavior to understand the effect of feedback as a means of influencing individuals’ behavior. The results suggest that real-time feedback can effectively alter individuals’ behavior, yet the feedback’s effectiveness reduces over time, possibly as a result of habituation to the feedback. Second, the dissertation presents new descriptive and prescriptive knowledge on individuals’ ways to mitigate adverse consequences arising from the digitalization of individuals. A frequently discussed consequence that digitalization has on individuals is digital stress. Although research efforts strive to determine what measures individuals can take to effectively cope with digital stress (Salo et al. 2017; Salo et al. 2020; Weinert 2018), further understanding of individuals’ coping behavior is needed (Weinert 2018). A group at high risk of suffering from the adverse effects of digital stress is adolescents because they grow up using DTM daily and are still developing their identity, acquiring mental strength, and adopting essential social skills. To facilitate a healthy DTM use, the dissertation explores what strategies adolescents use to cope with the demands of their DTM use. Combining a qualitative and a quantitative study, it presents 30 coping responses used by adolescents, develops five factors underlying adolescents’ activation of coping responses, and identifies gender- and age-related differences in their coping behavior. Third, the dissertation presents new prescriptive knowledge on the design of individual information systems supporting individuals in understanding and mitigating their perceived stress. Facilitated by the sensing capabilities of modern mobile devices, it explores the design and development of mobile systems that assess stress and support individuals in coping with stress by initiating a change of stress-related behavior. Since there is currently limited understanding of how to develop such systems, this dissertation explores various facets of their design and development. As a first step, it presents the development of a prototype aiming for life-integrated stress assessment, that is, the mobile sensor-based assessment of an individual’s stress without interfering with their daily routines. Data collected with the prototype yields a stress model relating sensor data to individuals’ perception of stress. To deliver a more generalized perspective on mobile stress assessment, the dissertation further presents a literature- and experience-based design theory comprising a design blueprint, design requirements, design principles, design features, and a discussion of potentially required trade-offs. Mobile stress assessment may be used for the development of mobile coping assistants. Aiming to assist individuals in effectively coping with stress and preventing future stress, a mobile coping assistant should recommend adequate coping strategies to the stressed individual in real-time or execute targeted actions within a defined scope of action automatically. While the implementation of a mobile coping assistant is yet up to future research, the dissertation presents an abstract design and algorithm for selecting appropriate coping strategies. To sum up, this dissertation contributes new knowledge on the digitalization of individuals to the IS knowledge bases, expanding both descriptive and prescriptive knowledge. Through the combination of diverse methodological approaches, it delivers knowledge on individuals’ behavior when using DTM, on the mitigation of consequences that may arise from individuals’ use of DTM, and on the design of individual information systems with the goal of facilitating a behavior change, specifically, regarding individuals’ coping with stress. Overall, the research contained in this dissertation may promote the development of digital assistants that support individuals’ in adopting a healthy DTM use behavior and thereby contribute to shaping a socio-technical environment that creates more benefit than harm for all individuals

Attuning the viewfinder

As there are many mobile apps designed to pull your attention, these interactions have become a kind of normalized addictiveness, such as doom scrolling. I am working on the topic of attention and a meditation app using augmented reality because I want to understand how this technology can be useful from beyond the screen and into a physical space

Usable cryptocurrency systems

Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008 cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have drawn increasing attention from research and industry alike. The probably most visible evidence of the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies is the combined market capitalization which had reached over USD 2.9 trillion in November 2021. While the market capitalization remains subject to high volatility and has fallen since, the field has been growing steadily behind the scenes. Developer activity has been growing over the last decade and multiple projects which had been started to improve over the original design have reached maturity in recent years. However, the introduction of new technologies is often accompanied by the emergence of equally new design challenges. Despite the technological progress over the past years, cryptocurrencies have earned a reputation of being hard to get started with and overall difficult to use. But what exactly are the aspects that make them difficult to use? How do users manage their cryptocurrency in practice? Which challenges do they need to overcome? And how can Human-Computer Interaction help overcome these challenges? In several studies, this dissertation addresses these questions and explores them through three different approaches: (1) Cryptocurrency in Human-Computer Interaction: By systematically reviewing published Human-Computer Interaction research since the inception of Bitcoin, we organize the existing research effort and juxtapose it with the changing landscape of emerging technologies from practice to identify avenues for future research. Our results show that existing research has overwhelmingly focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum, while not addressing novel cryptocurrencies. (2) Understanding User Behavior: By exploring user behavior through multiple lenses we shed light on real-world practices of users and the challenges they face. We explore security and privacy practices through a qualitative interview study and triangulate the results in a delphi-study with 25 experts. We conducted an interview study to understand a particularly relevant point for the adoption of cryptocurrency – we investigate challenges first-time users face. Our results show that many usability issues are not rooted in the technical aspects of blockchain technology and can be addressed through Human-Computer Interaction research. (3) Improving Application Usability: By evaluating different approaches on how to aid the development of cryptocurrency applications we translate the findings of our empirical work into artifacts and put them to the test. Our results show that onboarding in mobile apps can improve perceived usability for first-time users under the right conditions, that Bitcoin Lightning can serve as a usable settlement layer for everyday transactions, that education can support the next generation of developers in building more useful applications, and that systems for rapid interface prototyping may speed up development efforts. Collectively, the contribution of this dissertation centers around the ongoing discussion on how to build usable cryptocurrency systems. More precisely, this dissertation contributes (a) empirical studies that show how users manage their cryptocurrency in practice and which challenges they face in doing so and (b) constructive approaches attempting to support the development of cryptocurrency systems in the future. The work concludes by reflecting on the future role of Human-Computer Interaction research in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space

Visualizing the data flow in virtual reality for training developers

The visual aids are powerful tools in learning, understanding, and retaining data, especially in the industrial sector. However, visualizing data for complex systems is an essential challenge as they need to address a discrete and large amount of data. When novice programmers develop these complex systems, they typically require further training on the data flow in order to understand the hidden meaningful patterns. The visualization of invisible data in virtual reality (VR) helps to explore these patterns and direct new avenues to develop a system in the real world. Thus, the presentation of complex data in a 3D visual form is crucial and effective. To accomplish this, this research study considers a case scenario of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) system based on Internet of Things (IoT). By definition, IoT is a multifarious connection of devices and data over the internet and thus, needs visualization. A better understanding of how visualization in 3D space can assist programmers to learn IoT concepts. In turn, this poses profound questions in the areas of virtual reality and human-computer interaction. Consequently, the aim of this study was to visualize IoT sensor data in a virtual environment and produce guidelines for programmers in order to help them better comprehend the data flow. Subsequent to this, the level of immersion required for an effective VR experience was also investigated. Overall, this study involved background research and an empirical study. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with the programmers and were handled as empirical evidence. This evidence was further analyzed qualitatively. As a result, the static visuals of IoT sensor data values helped the users to understand its flow. The visual clues both from abstract and skeuomorphic designs furthered the users understanding of the concepts. Accompanied by the text, necessary information about the concept was revealed to the end user. The analysis clearly highlights that visualizing in virtual reality enhances the experience by improving user awareness and user engagement level. In addition, this provides a more intuitive understanding of data flow and better recall of the observed relationships

Software Engineering in the IoT Context: Characteristics, Challenges, and Enabling Strategies

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Technology-based service experience: Creation and evaluation of emergency ambulance services

With the rapid development of communication technology and the spreading of mobile devices, mobile applications are involved in people’s everyday life. Technology provides designers with both challenges and possibilities. Service designers also embrace technology to create service systems for better experiences. This study investigates how to improve the emergency ambulance service experience in Rovaniemi with a technology-based service system. A mobile application was designed and tested. The cyclical action research process includes an online questionnaire survey (N=23), semi-structured interviews (N=6) as generative research, and a service prototyping workshop (N=4) as evaluative research. The results from generative research indicate the need for information communication during emergencies, while the results from evaluative research provided more insights for future iteration design. Based on the research data and design outcomes, the study concludes a framework of how to design a technology-based service system by combining service design and UX design