Wan Adilah Wan Adnan

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.

The design of aesthetic interaction: towards a graceful interaction framework

The growth of techno-dependency and the proliferation of creative engagement have spurred research towards the creation of human values through digital engagement. Against the backdrop of technology evolution, research on human computer interaction (HCI) has begun to explore dimensions of human value derived from the aesthetics of interaction. This desire for beauty aligns to the Maslows hierarchy of human needs which acknowledge that humans needs aesthetic satisfaction to realize self-actualization. However in the past, the main focus of aesthetics in HCI research was on visual beauty of the user interface. To further explore new forms and perspective of aesthetics of interaction, we present the notion of graceful interaction. In this paper, we present the theoretical understanding derived from the multidisciplinary areas of human basic movement, aesthetics and interaction design into a graceful interaction phenomenon of interactive interface as an attempt to build the foundations for the graceful interaction framework. We also argue that the aesthetics of human movement can be applied to the online environment and illustrates how the movement paradigm and can be aligned and mapped into user experience interaction design. Based on these theoretical understandings, several theoretical propositions are formed to describe the aesthetics dimensions of graceful interaction.

Evaluating trust elements in the context of Islamic based informational websites

In the past, many researches have examined and addressed the notion of trust multidimensional in concepts within the areas of e-commerce ranging from business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer (C2C). Indeed, the element of trust is vital in ensuring the success of e-commerce. However, the web evolution has moved the interpersonal and inter-organizational transactions to knowledge and information exchange with the rise of Web Mediated Information Environment (W-MIE) that offer services such as health advice, religion information, political views and financial advice. Hence, the aim of this research is to identify trust elements within the context of Islamic based informational websites. We contend that this environment posed significant emotional values to its users in terms of the overall design strategy for the web content, interface representation and systems characteristics adherence to Islamic values, principles and guidelines. This paper reported the results of an experiment conducted within the scope of Islamic educational based websites by using semantic differential method with 10 Islamic users. The measured elements are derived through literature analysis and Islamic expert review. Through factor analysis we have found 8 trust elements which are significant for the design of Islamic web based content websites. There are “credibility”, “benevolence”, “Tauheed”, “avoid distraction”, “presentable”, “well-conveyed”, “avoid unfairness” and “avoid childish” and discussion towards design implications are further elaborated.

Elderly mental model of reminder system

The growing numbers of elderly is inevitable. As we get older, we will experience some memory declines, thus an assistive technology such as reminder system is recommended. However, the uptake of reminder system is still low. Many researchers from the western countries are interested in exploring the use of reminder system as part of assistive technology for the elderly. Nevertheless, no research is solely focused on what actually elderly users expect from a reminder system. Hence, this paper attempts to assess and propose elderly mental model on reminder system. We conducted a series of studies: interview, usability evaluation and drawing activity with eight (8) participants. Our results revealed that elderly users expected that a reminder system should be simple, familiar, flexible and recognizable to them. We also learned that drawing and user study can be effective methods for assessing a mental model depending on type of user groups involved in the study.

Expressive Information Visualization Taxonomy for Decision Support Environment

This paper proposes expressive information visualization (IV) taxonomy to support cognitive and perceptual needs for decision support environment. Four key dimensions have been identified, namely representation, organization, interaction and content. The effects of these expressive dimensions on user satisfaction were examined. Results suggest that these dimensions are important and affect their satisfaction. Further analysis was conducted and results indicate that there are significant differences across IV techniques and decision style. This suggests and provides empirical evidence that the proposed expressive IV taxonomy is important to consider in the design and evaluation of IV in particular and user interface in general.

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.

Applying Soft System Methodology (SSM) into the Design Science: Conceptual modeling of Community based E-museum (ComE) Framework

The community based e-museum is a socio-technical solution that intends to empower the community in the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage knowledge through efforts of knowledge sharing. In the development of this socio-technical solution, the Community based E-museum (ComE) Framework is created to address the social and technical views on museum processes and human activity system with regards to preservation of authentic cultural knowledge. Although the Design Science Research (DSR) has gained significant acceptance within the design work on technology solution, it lacks the socio technical concern which is a vital component in the conceptualization of ComE. To address this gap the Soft System Methodology (SSM) is applied. This paper reports on the work that integrates the application of the SSM with the DSR approach in the creation of the conceptual model of ComE. This work contributes to the literature on the integration of technology (hard) systems and human (soft) systems and will be a useful basis for future socio-technical solution conceptualization, design and development.

Investigating Children Preferences of a User Interface Design

Though there have been many studies of user interface design preferences, only a few have considered the children preferences. This paper presents an investigation into the children preferences regarding user interface design. The objective of studying this area is to investigate the differences of children preferences on the elements of a user interface design. An experiment was conducted regarding five elements of user interface design: font type, font size, background color and interface type. Findings show that there is a significant differences in the children preferences for interface type, font type and background color. Further analysis was conducted and the results indicate that there is a significant difference between gender groups for background color, interface type and font color. This study provides empirical evidence on the importance of considering the children in the interface design.

A framework for graceful interaction: Applying Laban effort theory to define graceful movement quality

Direct manipulation which was introduced in the 1990s has enriched the technological and intellectual landscape of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) where interaction style progresses from linguistic to manual interaction via graphical objects. The engagement that results in the direct manipulation activity gives rise to a new philosophy of graceful interaction. However, ever since the concept was introduced, the HCI literature does not exhibit much related work on graceful interaction. In this paper, we present a design framework for graceful interaction through the use of Laban effort theory to formalize graceful interaction design. This framework presents a theoretical proposition and practical characteristics to describe the movement qualities of graceful interaction. The framework invites and challenges interaction designers for the exploration of graceful towards aesthetic interaction.

An experimental evaluation of information visualization techniques and decision style

The importance of individual characteristics has been emphasized in the human computer interaction and information visualization (IV) literature. However, decision style, which is recognized as one of the key individual cognitive differences that affects system success, has received little attention in these areas. This study aims to examine how individual differences, IV techniques and task complexity influence decision performance and user preferences in a business decision support environment. The study adopted an experimental method, based on within-subject design approach. The results showed that there were significant differences in decision performance between IV techniques, individual differences and task. The results suggest that decision style is a significant moderator on the relationship between IV and performance. The findings have important implications for the DSS designers, and provide important research issues for future work.