Rogayah Abdul Majid

A survey on user involvement in software Development Life Cycle from practitioner's perspectives

User involvement is an important issue that is currently discuss in software development industry. This is due to the incidence of user frustration when using a software product. The literature on software development reflected that the involvement of users in all stages of user involvement in software development lifecycle (SDLC) process can contributes to the software usability. Although practitioners have agreed that user involvement in software development is very important but the extent of user involvement in practice is still unknown. This paper reports on a study that was conducted to investigate user involvement in the SDLC process. The objective of the study is to investigate the degree of user involvement in SDLC process. In the study the Human Centered System Development Life Cycle (HCSDLC) model was used as the research model. In the study a survey was carried out and 32 software practitioners has responded to the survey. The result of this survey indicated that user involvement is mainly concentrated in the functional requirement gathering rather than non-functional requirement gathering. This paper then concludes that practitioners do not involve users in the non-functional requirements gathering which then implies that users are not involved in determining the kind of software used during the SDLC process.

A survey on HCI considerations in the software development life cycle: from practitioner's perspective

In the Human-computer interaction (HCI) literature, it has been recommended that user involvement and HCI considerations in the software development life cycle (SDLC) is an important mechanism for a successful system implementation. However, it is still unclear to what extend do the user involvement and HCI consideration have been adopted by software development practitioners. This paper reports the results of a survey on the importance of HCI in SDLC from practitioner perspective. The survey involves thirty two software designers. The objectives of the study are to identify the state of user involvement in SDLC and to identify the HCI elements that have been addressed. Results have found that many of practitioners involve users in SDLC, but majority are only during the requirement analysis phase. The findings also reveal that HCI elements on functionality are well addressed, however, the non-functionality elements such as cultural and affective values have not been emphasized by practitioners. The paper concludes with recommendation to further investigate on user awareness on the importance of user involvement in the software development.

The role of social media in supporting elderly quality daily life

It is importance to address the quality of life among elderly because elder are easily exposed to problem relate to psychology disability due to loss of social communication and declining of interaction. The advantage of social media technology such as the Facebook which able to connect people, indirectly bonding up the social needs between each of individuals especially elderly. The goal of this study is to investigate how social media can support elderly deal with their everyday routine life. Netnography method has been used to investigate how the elderly communicate using the social media technology specifically trough the Facebook. The field investigation through social media technology with a three months of participant-observation is done. The participant age ranging from 55 years old to 70 has been chosen. The findings of this study show how Facebook helps elderly in their daily life which align with the seven components of the “Quality of Life”.

An Evaluation on the Usability of E-Commerce Website Using Think Aloud Method

The introduction of e-commerce websites have enabled users to shop online. To ensure positive shopping experiences by the users in a highly competitive environment, it is important for e-commerce website designers to design a good and usable site. This study attempts to evaluate the usability of the thepoplook.com website based on the model proposed by Venkatesh & Argawal. However, there is a missing element in the model - the security element. Therefore, this study has identified the problems encountered by users during the process of online shopping offered by thepoplook.com website. In addition to that, this study has also identified elements for evaluation of website usability and determined the importance of security element in evaluating e-commerce website. Think-aloud method was used to evaluate the thepoplook.com website where the respondents are required to answer questions regarding the usability of the website. The findings of the study showed that five attributes have been identified as usability elements used to evaluate the e-commerce website, namely: Ease of Use, Made-to-Medium, Emotion, Content and Security. The findings confirmed that security is the one of the important elements that the users consider in using e-commerce website. Web site designer must consider security elements as a crucial part in developing an e-commerce website, since it will give users confidence to buy from the website.

An Assessment Tool for Measuring Human Centered Design Adoption in Software Development Process.

Human Centered Software Engineering (HCSE) is an approach which integrates Human Centered Design (HCD) and software engineering (SE) that emphasize on user’s needs and goals during the software engineering process. The obstacle faced by the organizations is the lack of a systematic approach towards HCD adoption that can guide software organization strategize the HCD adoption in their business operation. The aim of this study to propose a Human Centered Design Adoption Model (HCDAM) that can provide a guideline to measure the organizational capability to adopt HCD. The HCDAM was developed by identifying the HCD adoption level and the HCD adoption processes through literature analysis. The adoption levels describe the stage where the organization adopted the HCD while the adoption process describes the processes that the organization has to go through in order to achieve a certain adoption level. The HCDAM is proposed as a measurement tool that enables a systematic approach to guide SE organizations to strategies the HCD adoption in their business operations in the pursuit of developing quality softwares.

Adaptive Web-Based Learning Courseware for Students with Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is the lack of ability to acquire arithmetical or numerical skills in mathematics. Students with such learning disability fail to understand the basic concepts of mathematical problem such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This leads to lack of understanding of the problem domain in finding the correct solution to solve mathematical problems. Since the past years, the traditional teaching and learning activities have evolved to ICT-facilitated learning environment utilizing tablets and computers. Most software provided for teachers at schools are specifically for students with other forms of learning disabilities, hence lacking of specific courseware or software to cater the learning needs for dyscalculia students. Thus, this study was conducted in realization to assist dyscalculia students in their learning; i.e. development of an adaptive web-based courseware. The courseware could be used both in class and at home. The courseware conceptual model was adopted and built upon theories on cognitive learning and multisensory method of learning. User review and feedback were gathered to gauge the first-hand user experience with the courseware.

User experience on XD Theatre: Body gestures and postures of deaf and normal children

This study observes on the significant user experience focusing on body gestures and body postures towards XD Theatre between deaf and normal children. Less extensively studied field of bodily expression of emotion that models how people communicate emotion through body gestures and postures and how people make inferences about them. Two groups were involved in this study: an experimental group which included three deaf and three normal children. Their gestures and postures for both groups were video recorded. An interview using sign language was conducted on the deaf children after the movie in order to understand their feelings. The analysis was done through video observation at six different scenes on fear and surprise emotion. The findings discovered different gestures and postures between the groups. Also even though the deaf children are fascinated and immersed into the movie through other senses including eyes, nose and hands, they felt less fear and surprise watching the movie. In addition, based on the interview, due to their limitation of not be able to hear sound effect in the movie, at certain scene, they felt sudden shock on fear and surprise. Therefore, recommendation for the future on valuable features for them in the interface design in XD theatre should be considered to stable their emotion while watching it.