P2P Mapper: From User Experiences to Pattern-Based Design

User experience is an umbrella term referring to a collection of information that covers the user’s behavior and interaction with a system. It is observed when the user is actively using a service or interacting with information, includes expectations and perceptions, and is influenced by user characteristics and application or service characteristics. User characteristics include knowledge, experience, personality and demographics. We propose a process and supporting software tool called Persona to Pattern (P2P) Mapper, which guides designers in modeling user experiences and identifying appropriate design patterns. The three-step process is: Persona Creation (a representative persona set is developed), Pattern Selection (behavioral patterns are identified resulting in an ordered list of design patterns for each persona), and Pattern Composition (patterns are used to create a conceptual design). The tool supports the first two steps of the process by providing various automation algorithms for user grouping and pattern selection combined with the benefit of rapid pattern and user information access. Persona and pattern formats are augmented with a set of discrete domain variables to facilitate automation and provide an alternative view on the information. Finally, the P2P Mapper is used in the redesign of two different Bioinformatics applications: a popular website and a visualization tool. The results of the studies demonstrate a significant improvement in the system usability of both applications

UX in the Arab World - Research Trends and Challenges for a Better Understanding and Collaboration

During the last decade, a considerable number of studies question how HCI is perceived and how the cultural differences are considered. However, very few focused on eliciting the cultural factors of UX and the underlying integration of UX research methods. In this paper, we overview the literature on UX research in the Arab world. Among others, our findings show that UX research focused on two main themes (1) elicitation of UX guidelines and UX patterns (best UX practices) to match the Arab culture (2) identification of the factors influencing UX in the Arab region. The findings also illustrate existing efforts to raise awareness of HCI and conclude with some research challenges that draw a road map for a better collaboration between Arab researchers and the international community

Framework for examination of software quality characteristics in conflict: A security and usability exemplar

© 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Standards and best practices for software quality guide on handling each quality characteristic individually, but not when two or more characteristics come into conflict such as security and usability. The objectives of this paper are twofold: (a) to argue on the importance of handling the conflicts between quality characteristics in general; (b) to formulate a framework for conflict examination of the software quality characteristics, we do so while considering the specific case of security and usability. In line with the objectives, a framework called Pattern-oriented Design Framework (PoDF) was formulated. The PoDF provides a mechanism for identification of the conflicts, modeling the conflicts to illuminate the reason for their occurrence, and eliciting the suitable trade-offs between the conflicting characteristics. The suitable trade-offs are thus documented as design patterns. The patterns can assist developers and designers in handling the conflicts in other but similar context of use. To validate and instantiate the PoDF, two studies were conducted. Usable security patterns discovered as a result of the studies are also presented in the paper

Teaching Recursive Thinking using Unplugged Activities

Traditionally, recursion is primarily taught using coding activities, presenting a high cognitive load for novice programmers. A possible method to teach recursion to novice programmers is the use of unplugged activities, engaging tasks not involving coding. Despite having been shown to improve students’ understanding of computational thinking, it has been argued that unplugged activities alone are not effective to teach recursion. In response, the authors engaged novice programmers who are non-computer science students by utilising unplugged visual activities to illustrate basic recursion concepts. Thereafter, the students were shown how to implement the activities with coding. The authors created three activities that illustrate recursion using breadth-first search (BFS) and depth-first search (DFS) algorithms. An evaluation study with 19 students was conducted in an on-line teaching environment. Empirical results show that most students learned the covered activities. Further, the students reported that the activities were engaging, and helped them learn how to think recursively

IT Teaching Labs: Innovations in a Distance Education Era

Computer laboratories, or simply labs, are crucial in many fields including Information Technologies (IT), Management Information Systems (MIS), Computer Science (CS) and Software Engineering (SE). Labs play a vital role in helping students achieve the know-how and develop problem solving, communication and collaboration skills. Traditional labs comprising desktop computers organized into lines or U shapes have been around for almost forty years. Many of the contemporary labs look very different from their ancestors they are designed to facilitate a myriad of learning activities including solo learning, testing and perhaps foremost, collaborative group work. This paper reviews some ergonomics issues and investigates examples of innovative labs being developed nowadays. We elaborate on the innovative labs\u27 powerfulness in addressing the drawbacks of traditional labs as well in supporting innovative teaching methods, student creativity and interactions, and the education eco-system engagement. Further, we present several ergonomic tips as a lab proposal for Zayed University (ZU) and under the computing education research umbrella

Engaging Students With a Chatbot-Based Academic Advising System

Advising systems automate aspects of academic advising. Traditionally, advising systems focused on specialized tasks such as course selection. Recently, chatbot-based advising systems have emerged as they emulate scenario-based advising. Nevertheless, the design of most chatbot-based advising systems is not user-centric, potentially causing a lack of adoption. Further, there is a lack of studies reporting findings of usability evaluation of chatbot-based advising systems. In response, we contribute a chatbot-based academic advising system, MyAdvisor, that helps students with prescriptive academic inquiries. The system is based on real advising scenarios and designed with usability principles. The results show that students learn the system fast and find it helpful. This work contributes (1) scenario-based functional requirements and usability requirements of the chatbot-based advising system, (2) the application of usability heuristics in the design of the system, and (3) findings of empirically evaluating the system usability

Persona as a tool to involving human in Agile methods: contributions from HCI and marketing

Human centricity refers to the active involvement in the overall product lifecycle of different human actors including end-users, stakeholders and providers. Persona is one of the different tools that exist for human centricity. While marketing is the original domain in which persona was introduced, this technique has also been widely used in user-centered design (UCD) design. In these two perceptions, persona has demonstrated its potential as an efficient tool for grouping the users or customers and focusing on user or customer needs, goals and behavior. A segmentation technique is generally used with persona in order to group individual users according to their common features, identifying within these groups those that represent a pattern of human behavior. This paper investigates how persona has been used to improve the usability in the agile development domain, while studying which contributions from marketing and HCI have enriched persona in this agile contex

State-of-the Art Study in Citizen Observatories : Technological Trends, Development Challenges and Research Avenues

Citizen science has rapidly spread in the last decades around the world as a genuine interactive and inclusive opportunity for engaging citizens in the continuous collection of data relevant for science, governance, businesses, communal living and individual concerns. The present–day abundance of ICT technologies has caused the proliferation of two data collection methods in this field: participatory (user-centric) and opportunistic (device-centric). As a result, citizen observatories have become big data systems, with large scale volumes of data that come and go to millions of users.; about any social or environmental phenomenon (e.g. transit, air or weather) and comes in different formats (e.g. XML, Plain Text, CSV) and through different platforms (e.g. websites, mobile apps, sensor networks). This study reviewed the last 10 years of citizen science literature through a systematic literature review. This study identified 108 citizen observatories, which were deeply studied and clustered to identify global and European trends in environmental applications, practices, engagement techniques and technology uses. Challenges and recommendations from the literature in the field were classified to understand the common present and future path for the discipline. Furthermore, a survey and interviews were applied to stakeholders in Finland to gain broader understanding of the field country–wise. This study, provides the first comprehensive insight of the broad scale of contemporary ICT enabled citizen observatories in social and environmental dimensions