Paul M. Matchen

Perspectives on HCI patterns: concepts and tools

This workshop will explore a diversity of perspectives on Patterns and Patterns Languages for HCI as well as the requirements for software tools needed to improve the effectiveness of both pattern creation and pattern use. Through discussion of conceptual and methodological issues of why (and how) patterns are identified and in what circumstances they are useful in the design process we hope to map out the conceptual landscape of HCI patterns. By moving closer and examining pattern-related behavior and experiences we hope to identify the requirements for tools to make progress through that landscape.

Ensemble: a recommendation tool for promoting communication in software teams

Successful software development requires effective coordination among developers. In this paper, we propose Ensemble, an approach and a set of tools that aim to help developers better coordinate their work. Built on IBM Rational Team Concert, Ensemble helps developers select the right people to collaborate with, the right times to collaborate with them, and to stay coordinated with them over time.

Iterative development in the field

In this paper, we describe Iterative Development in the Field (IDF), a User-Centered Design approach for developing interactive applications. This approach is characterized by repeated evaluation and redesign cycles that are carried out throughout the product life cycle, from initial discovery and gathering of requirements to beyond deployment in the field. The evaluation is based on the use of interactive prototypes and is performed by actual users in the field. We describe how IDF has evolved over the past 13 years through the experience gained from four major projects and offer a set of guidelines for successful IDF that we illustrate with examples from our experience. We discuss limitations in the applicability of IDF and conclude with some comments regarding the future of IDF.

Sketching tools for ideation (NIER track)

Sketching facilitates design in the exploration of ideas about concrete objects and abstractions. In fact, throughout the software engineering process when grappling with new ideas, people reach for a pen and start sketching. While pen and paper work well, digital media can provide additional features to benefit the sketcher. Digital support will only be successful, however, if it does not detract from the core sketching experience. Based on research that defines characteristics of sketches and sketching, this paper offers three preliminary tool examples. Each example is intended to enable sketching while maintaining its characteristic experience.

Integrated solution engineering

Integrated Solution Engineering helps developers manage software complexity by offering semi-automated support for capturing and mining relationships among artifacts and/or developer tasks at different stages of the software lifecycle, and by aiding developers in the use and management of the information contained in these relationships. The use of these relationships can facilitate traceability, propagation of change, change impact analysis, evolution, and comprehension.

SketchGraph: gestural data input for mobile tablet devices

As tablets become ever more powerful and popular, people want to use them broadly, including for business applications like spreadsheet data graphing. Tablets are better suited to informal exploration through sketching, however, than to inputting data into a spreadsheet. It would be much more appealing, and suitable to the medium, to sketch a graph as if you were drawing on a napkin. We describe an early prototype to support a gestural, graphical interface for inputting and updating graph data that is as easy as drawing a few strokes. With it, users can focus on exploring their domain, rather than on the mechanics of data entry.

Sketching data: lessons learned from a formative user evaluation

Mobile devices require new interaction approaches for working with data, as inputting numbers into a spreadsheet on a tablet is especially tedious. Last year we presented SketchGraph [Martino et al. 2012] for sketching data in a fluid manner (Fig. 1). Here, we discuss observations of usability based on a user study.