Raquel Oliveira Prates

Methods and tools: a method for evaluating the communicability of user interfaces

U User interfaces can be viewed as one-shot, higher-order messages sent from designers to users. The content of such messages is a designers conception of who the users are, what their needs and expectations are, and, more important, how the designer has chosen to meet these requirements through an interactive artifact. The form of the messages is an interactive language (i.e., a series of organized dialog patterns determining how and which other lower-order messages can be exchanged between users and systems. From this perspective, user interface design is a semiotic engineering task [1] whose target is to convey the specific principles of communication that are embedded in any software arti-fact. Thus, designers should be assisted in achieving this goal and in evaluating how well they do it in different situations.

The semiotic inspection method

This paper describes semiotic inspection, a semiotic engineering evaluation method. It briefly identifies the essence of theory-based evaluation methods in HCI. Then it provides a detailed description and illustration of this method, which is based on a semiotic theory of HCI. It discusses its theoretical stance in semiotic engineering compared to the communicability evaluation method, as well as the perceived advantages and disadvantages of semiotic inspection. Finally, it points at the next steps in the semiotic inspection research agenda.

Can inspection methods generate valid new knowledge in HCI? The case of semiotic inspection

HCI evaluation methods tend to be proposed and used to verify the interactive qualities of specific systems and design strategies. A discussion about the scientific merits of such methods to advance knowledge in HCI as a field is very rare, although much needed. This paper shows that, under certain conditions, inspection methods can be safely used in scientific research in HCI and extend their advantages beyond the territory of professional practice. Taking the Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM) as an example, we argue that its interpretive results are objective, can be validated, and produce scientific knowledge comparable to that generated by more widely accepted methods.

A semiotic engineering approach to user interface design

Designing software involves good perception, good reasoning, and a talent to express oneself effectively through programming and interactive languages. Semiotic theories can help HCI designers increase their power to perceive, reason and communicate. By presenting some of the results we have reached with semiotic engineering over the last few years, we suggest that the main contributions of semiotic theory in supporting HCI design are: to provide designers with new perceptions on the process and product of HCI design; to bind together all the stages of software development and use, giving them a unique homogeneous treatment; and to pose innovative questions that extend the frontiers of HCI investigations.

A semiotic engineering approach to HCI

Designing software involves good perception, good reasoning, and a talent to express oneself effectively through programming and interactive languages. Semiotic theories can help HCI designers increase their power to perceive, reason and communicate. In this paper we present the semiotic engineering approach to HCI and some of the results that have been reached at the Semiotic Engineering Research Group (SERG) at the Informatics Department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).

A case study for evaluating interface design through communicability

Communicability evaluation is a method based on semiotic engineering that aims at assessing how designers communicate to users their design intents and chosen interactive principles, and thus complements traditional usability evaluation methods. In this paper, we present a case study in which we evaluate how communicablity tagging of an application changes along users learning curves. Our main goal was to have indications of how communicability evaluation along a learning period helps provide valuable information about interface designs, and identify communicative and interactive problems, as users become more proficient in the application.

Semiotic inspection method in the context of educational simulation games

Software process simulation is increasingly being used as an approach for analyzing complex business, for supporting management planning, for helping with software process training and learning and for supporting the software process improvement. In addition to providing to users a simulation tool that supports all these aspects, it is also important to consider some other requirements during the tools design, such as efficient and effective communication of the designers message to the user. In this way, we show how semiotic concepts can be used in the analysis and generation of knowledge through the application of the Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM), a semiotic engineering evaluation method. In this paper we present a scientific application of SIM to a Software Engineering simulation game focusing the analysis on feedback aspects and issues. The results go beyond the system analyzed and point to considerations regarding simulation games used in educational contexts.

Compulsory institutionalization: investigating the paradox of computer-supported informal social processes

Abstract The nature and depth of technological interference on social activities online are not fully understood. We discuss one such type of interference—compulsory institutionalization, the process by which non-institutionalized face-to-face informal groups, who typically adopt implicit norms tacitly accepted by members, must create a set of explicit group structuring rules with very specific computer-encoded meanings and abide by them when they migrate to online group environments. In societies where rules can be bypassed in view of more highly valued social norms, like the Brazilian society, compulsory institutionalization may undermine experiences that are highly valued to face-to-face groups. In this article, we contrast the findings of our study with a Brazilian group of potential groupware users and those of our semiotic inspection of YahooGroups, SmartGroups and MSN Groups. We show how the systems may frustrate the groups expectations and limit their interaction online. Reflecting on the causes and consequences of compulsory institutionalization, we conclude that the social–technical gap in group technologies may not be possible to bridge completely, and that the fulcrum of scientific research in this area may include some new aspects.

Usability in Brazil

This chapter presents an overview of HCI in Brazil, from the academic and industrial perspectives. Initially, a brief description of the Brazilian demographics, economy and culture is presented to set the context to understanding HCI development and its characteristics in Brazil. This overview is followed by a retrospective of how the field started in Brazil and how the HCI community consolidated itself. The current status of HCI in Brazil is described through its education at the universities, the research developed in the country and how it is used in the industry. In order to describe how HCI is taught in Brazil, an exploratory research with professors was conducted and the results regarding the courses taught are presented. Next, an outline of Brazilian research interests is discussed, highlighting what we perceive as some of its most relevant contributions, namely, its research in semiotic approaches to HCI and digital inclusion. Finally, interviews with some of the leading usability professionals in the country allow us to describe the industrial activity in Brazil as a flourishing web-centered usability business that is pacing towards maturity.

Characterizing the effectiveness of twitter hashtags to detect and track online population sentiment

In this paper we describe the preliminary results and future directions of a research in progress, which aims at assessing the hashtag effectiveness as a resource for sentiment analysis expressed on Twitter. The results so far support our hypothesis that hashtags may facilitate the detection and automatic tracking of online population sentiment about different events.