Wizards of Oz in the Evolving Map of Design Research – Trying to Frame GUI Interaction Interviews

We present and discuss GUI-ii, Graphical User Interface interaction interview, a method used to remotely discuss, develop and test GUI prototypes with users and stakeholders. Examples of such sessions are presented to demonstrate that the main benefits of GUI-ii are that this way of co-designing allows for interaction-informed discussions around functions and user interfaces, where re-design and hands-on experience can be integrated and efficiently carried out remotely. Using a facilitation tool to enact GUI layout and responses allows participation and evaluation to take turns in participatory design processes in a productive way. We discuss this form of Participatory Design along the dimensions found in Sanders’ Map of Design Research. The discussion concludes that GUI-ii facilitates participation by relaxing demands for physical presence and by allowing people to participate from their own work environment while still making it easy for them to directly influence contents, structure and interaction

Developing Crisis Training Software for Local Governments – From User Needs to Generic Requirements

In this paper we analyze and present the generic requirements identified for a software aiming at supporting crisis management training in local governments. The generic requirements are divided into overall requirements, requirements connected to the trainer’s role and requirements connected to the trainee’s role. Moreover, the requirements are mapped to problems as well as opportunities. Finally, we present examples of elaborations of the addressed requirements based on software design considerations. In our work we applied a design science approach and the artifact presented in this paper is a list of generic requirement. The presented requirements and the systems development process used, provide guidelines for systems analysts and developers in future systems development projects aiming at constructing new software for crisis management training

Simulating interactive graphic user interfaces

This is a report within category 4: reports with a point of departure in earlier disciplinary affiliation, which in the author's case is General Linguistics. The earlier studies on how writing was invented and how it relates to other means of expression are here extended to a characterisation of the means of expression within human-computer interaction. Special interest is paid to people with limited linguistic competence as well as the relation between linguistic and graphic means of expression. An on-going attempt to make a GUI experimental station for non-programmers, initially targeting on teachers and language therapists, is reported. The idea is to provide for manual simulations of the interactivity of proposed products, thereby simplifying testing and making possible the development of ideas during test runs

Key Concepts for the Effective Use of Digitally Supported Table-Top Crisis Management Exercises

Several researchers and contingency agencies have suggested good practices for crisis management exercises. Resource-constrained practitioners in the field report difficulties finding cost-efficient ways to maintain exercise cycles. This paper draws on experiences from working with professional crisis response coordinators who adapted material for table-top exercises to learning management systems, executed the exercises and evaluated team performance. This paper discusses the elimination of bottlenecks and unexpected benefits arising from more flexible exercise designs in terms of synchrony, continuity, and location. While these concepts capture the essence of the various opportunities for flexibility, they need some supporting features in the design of digital exercises. This paper argues for putting emphasis on the writing/speech dichotomy when analysing exercise designs from the perspective of the entire exercise life cycle, including evaluations and preparations for further exercises. Additionally, how requests for individual answers are planned appears to be an effective instrument for efficient exercise design and evaluation during the conducting of an exercise.CriseIT

Ozlab - A system overview with an account of two years of experiences

Ozlab has been developed to cater for testing which is in part manual and where test users are not aware that the system they seem to interact with is faked. In this way developers can use their human capacity for interactive communication to find suitable human-computer dialogue structures. The chapter argues that the tool itself allows other groups to become interaction designers, since little expertise in programming is needed, while an understanding of every application area as well as an understanding of the need of every user group is always neede

A brief evaluation of icons suggested for use in standardised information policies : Referring to the Annex in the first reading of the European Parliament on COM (2012) 0011

The principle of “informed consent” as prescribed by national laws and EU directives makes it necessary to inform users about all the intended data processing when they submit data. Conveying the sometimes highly complex clauses of privacy policies to the subjects concerned is generally hard. This report takes a look at the icons appearing in Annex to Article 13a of the European Parliament legislative resolution of 12 March 2014 on the Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individual with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation).  COM (2012) 11. In particular, the report presents the result of a small-scale test in which the participants failed to understand the graphic scheme of the proposal as well as the pictographic parts of the icons.A4Cloud - www.a4cloud.e

Grammatological Studies : Writing and its Relation to Speech

This work addresses the problem of how writing is related to speech and how our notions of language are related to writing principles such as ‘the alphabetic principle’. The target of the study is the concept of ‘phonography’ (sound-writing, sometimes called ‘glottography’). This has been used in several theoretical works on writing, often with the assumption that the existence of phonographic systems somehow proves that the purpose of writing is to represent speech. From a functional approach, that is, from a theoretical base where language (of whatever modality) is seen as crucially dependent on actual communicative events, the notion that writing is representational in nature is criticised.  Three areas are investigated: 1. the origin of the phono+graphic type of writing (also treated are the origin of spoken language and the medium-dependency of language); 2. the relation between alphabetic writing and notions concerning the structure of language in general and of particular languages; 3. the relationship between phonographic methods of reading old scripts and the prevailing phonocentrism.  In all three areas it is found that the possibility of indicating pronunciation of written texts by phonographic means has been overinterpretated in favour of the prevalent representational view. The investigations conducted here present new perspectives on how phonography is to be understood in that they demonstrate how it has contributed to the development of the means for human expression, to the historical development of writing systems, to the historical development of concepts about language

Key Concepts for the Effective Use of Digitally Supported Table-Top Crisis Management Exercises

Several researchers and contingency agencies have suggested good practices for crisis management exercises. Resource-constrained practitioners in the field report difficulties finding cost-efficient ways to maintain exercise cycles. This paper draws on experiences from working with professional crisis response coordinators who adapted material for table-top exercises to learning management systems, executed the exercises and evaluated team performance. This paper discusses the elimination of bottlenecks and unexpected benefits arising from more flexible exercise designs in terms of synchrony, continuity, and location. While these concepts capture the essence of the various opportunities for flexibility, they need some supporting features in the design of digital exercises. This paper argues for putting emphasis on the writing/speech dichotomy when analysing exercise designs from the perspective of the entire exercise life cycle, including evaluations and preparations for further exercises. Additionally, how requests for individual answers are planned appears to be an effective instrument for efficient exercise design and evaluation during the conducting of an exercise.CriseIT

Ozlab - A system overview with an account of two years of experiences

Ozlab has been developed to cater for testing which is in part manual and where test users are not aware that the system they seem to interact with is faked. In this way developers can use their human capacity for interactive communication to find suitable human-computer dialogue structures. The chapter argues that the tool itself allows other groups to become interaction designers, since little expertise in programming is needed, while an understanding of every application area as well as an understanding of the need of every user group is always neede

Early user-testing before programming improves software quality

This position statement does not focus on usability although it presents data from a software up-date cycle where several usability- and user-centred methods were used. The important lesson learnt is that a better (more complete) specification before programming results in fewer errors in the code and that such a specification can be reached by user tests of interactive mockups