The work presented in this article is part of a broader research initiative whose focus revolves around the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in diagnosing Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), in particular, investigating the reliability and stability of eXplainable AI (XAI) predictions concerning markers of MCI and Alzheimer's Disease. In order to foster neurologists' understanding, confidence and trust in the AI system results, the initial Machine Learning (ML) based analysis pipeline has been now extended to incorporate a graphical user interface (GUI) that would provide "neurologist-centred" explanations. In this article, the focus is on a preliminary study that involved neurology professionals to assess their understanding and confidence in AI-generated diagnoses presented through three alternative plots implemented in the system GUI.
This paper introduces CM-DIR (Conceptual Model - Dynamicity and Interaction in Recommender Systems), a method that we have originally devised to help with the description of dynamic user behavior in Recommender Systems (RS). The identification of user behavior change is paramount to optimize RSs to face new contexts of use and adapt their user interface accordingly. Capturing dynamic user behavior is, however, not an easy task and most RS systems do not take this information into account during the requirements engineering process. The proposed method leverages user and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) stories and extends them to describe dynamicity. The method has been evaluated with a panel of experts through semi-structured interviews and the results suggest that the CM-DIR is necessary and comprehensible and that the proposed extension allows flexibility and adaptability while ensuring informative specifications.
In software ecosystems, the decision-making process for vendor selection remains a significant challenge, often worsened by the lack of effective tools that leverage visualization to aid in these decisions. This study aims to bridge this gap by prototyping a tool and hence proposing a user interface for the same, based on a software vendor selection framework, enhancing decision-making through intuitive visualizations and a user-friendly interface. Our research methodology combined a semi-structured literature review, preliminary user interface development, and expert feedback to ensure the tool’s practicality and effectiveness. The prototype testing of the user interface design, informed by expert feedback, indicates a positive impact on decision-making processes, demonstrating the prototype’s ability to streamline vendor analysis and selection. The proposed tool significantly contributes to reducing the complexity and subjectivity of vendor selection, offering a more structured and data-driven approach.
Web accessibility awareness among development teams has increased with initiatives like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and more user-centered development methods. While this awareness has grown, there is a need to explore accessibility from diverse stakeholder perspectives when applying these standards. This study presents findings from a survey of 47 stakeholders who used an internal customized digital tool with design components like patterns, principles, and graphic profiles. This study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the stakeholders’ experiences when developing accessible public web services with the support of a customized ICT tool. Results show that a knowledge-based digital platform, which is used for assessing and communicating accessibility requirements, can streamline the development process and establish a common baseline for all stakeholders involved in developing accessible public web services. This research highlights the importance of having a holistic perspective from various stakeholders on accessibility and the impact of tailored tools in fostering inclusivity and compliance with web accessibility standards.
Practical experiences are an important part of the education in vocational schools. In many cases, for example concerning production modes, this experience is gained by excursions to factories. Since the number of such excursions is limited by time and money constraints, and since the current alternative are traditional, less immersive materials such as books or videos, we present a virtual reality (VR) walkthrough of a demonstration factory. We collected requirements that are specific to this situation, built an application, and evaluated it, according to the human-centred design process. From this, we derive an overview of the special precautions and the challenges related to development for use in a school setting.
Today, more than 60% of websites on the Internet are created and run using content management systems (CMS), and this rate is constantly increasing. Thus, it has become important to ensure that these platforms support and promote web accessibility for all. While in traditional software engineering approaches, the accessibility validation is carried out at the end of the process, often with the support of external validators, it would be important to support Web developers during the actual development process while the content is defined. The work described in this paper addresses the possibility of supporting web accessibility while developing websites with WordPress, the currently most used CMS. For this purpose, we report on the design and development of a plugin to evaluate the accessibility of pages created with this popular platform. The developed plugin aims to provide WordPress users with open, useful and effective accessibility evaluation support capable of filling the gaps in current practices.
Software accessibility has recently become a legal requirement in most countries. Minimal guidance into the legalities of this matter has been provided, leaving most software engineers to adapt software they write to “skim” the surface of what is acceptable, such as providing simple screen reading capability. Even less information is available for users with two disabilities. In this work, we provide a user-centered designed game example, with a participatory design approach, to address not one but two disabilities, vision and dexterity impairments, concurrently. We show how entertainment and interaction can take priority in the development process while not compromising on the usability and accessibility of the games. We provide the reader with seven guidelines from our findings to create accessible mobile games that can be entertaining for people with dual disabilities and non-disabled individuals equally.
Customers are the lifeline of software companies. Therefore, it is vital for companies to guarantee customer satisfaction and loyalty. Many research studies have been conducted on employee satisfaction and employee motivation, but these have rarely been connected to software services to customers. In this paper, we describe a case study where performance indicators were defined both from the perspective of the employees and the customers to give some indication of the quality of the services. The case study was conducted in collaboration with an international software company in Iceland where the main author of this paper is an employee. The main results show that the employees agreed that the performance indicators were positive and motivating. The main contribution of the project is in the form of key performance indicators that the employees will hopefully use in the future. The results of the project can be used by other IT professionals that want to define performance indicators for their services from the joint perspective of the customers and the employees.
People living with disabilities of dexterity can be vulnerable to attackers when authenticating using physical input methods, such as when inputting PIN numbers using a keypad at an ATM(Cash Point), due to the extended time these interactions take because of the device’s lack of accommodations and accessibility. This makes their input more observable to a potential attacker and thus compromises their security. In addition, when ease of use is severely compromised, this may cause a need to circumvent good security practices for practical usability which further makes these individuals vulnerable to potential attackers. While research in the field of accessible and secure authentication exists, limited work has focused on the unique needs of individuals who have limited to no hand or finger dexterity. This paper proposes an accessible framework for authentication (AAFIDD), that focuses on meeting the needs of this group. We implemented a prototype authentication model and present an initial user study with 7 participants that evaluated the efficacy of this prototype and the framework. Each participant was randomly assigned a PIN and asked to input it using a method reliant on hand-dexterity and then using the prototype gaze-based input. Users were timed and asked to evaluate their experience in terms of ease of use while a researcher attempted to perform an over-the-shoulder attack to evaluate the security. We found that the prototype input method was less likely to be interpreted by an observer than using a mouse to input, while users considered the prototype input method accessible and easy to use.
In today’s world, the importance of remote collaboration for maintenance scenarios is strongly increasing. Especially in the industrial context where machinery and other objects have to be maintained, traditional collaboration tools such as video conferencing systems are not helpful enough to communicate and interact about situation-specific spatial information. In this work, we identify and discuss current challenges in enhancing communication and interaction for mobile augmented reality (AR) based collaboration approaches. To address the identified challenges we introduce a mobile AR solution that integrates various features like voice communication, text chat, screen share, AR annotations, and AR animations to enhance the task of remote collaboration between an on-site technician and a remote expert. Based on a coffee machine maintenance example scenario we have conducted a user study and compared the benefits and drawbacks of different interaction techniques in our mobile AR collaboration solution.
Traditional urban planning methods fall short in addressing the complexities of modern urbanization and environmental challenges. By adopting Generative Design, Virtual Reality, and Digital Twins, the aim is to make urban planning more interactive, accessible, and inclusive. The research is grounded in a comprehensive literature review across related fields, including Digital Twins' dynamic modeling capabilities and Virtual Reality's immersive visualization potential. Initial findings from sit-down interviews with Eindhoven residents reveal critical insights into pedestrian preferences. In my next steps in the PhD, I will focus on developing Virtual Reality prototypes to further examine walkability and Generative Design prototypes to generate urban planning aligning with regenerative development toward walkability. At the end of my PhD, the knowledge from previous prototypes is used to create a tool to simplify urban planning, including multiple stakeholders, to improve walkability in an urban context. This innovative approach promises to contribute significantly to the creation of livable, sustainable urban environments by leveraging cutting-edge technologies to address key challenges in urban walkability and planning.
In recent years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have showcased an impressive ability for natural language (NL) understanding, code generation, and logical reasoning. This provides the potential to significantly speed up development times by integrating this technology into software development workflows. Similarly, Low-Code Development Platforms (LCDPs) are already in use for reducing development effort and lowering the entry barrier to who can become a developer in the first place. This poses the question whether these technologies can be combined in order to enable end-users to edit an application via NL while experienced developers can still work on the same app using a regular LCDP and benefit from its advantages. To asses whether this proposal has been realised yet (and if so, to what extend), a literature survey is necessary. This paper presents such a survey, outlining how LLMs have been used to edit low-code applications, and especially Oracle Application Express (APEX) apps. It identifies an open research gap in this direction.
Student feedback is crucial for the development of HCI learning experiences. Still, there is little research on how suitable the feedback methods are for gathering learning experiences and especially how the usage of the methods is experienced by the students. Hence, we have collected feedback using two different methods during an international two-week intensive course to understand the students’ experiences and to be able to compare the results. The methods were: the Retrospective Hand method and the Intensive Project Course Evaluation (IPCE) questionnaire method. Feedback was collected both during the course and on the last day of the course. By analyzing the feedback, we were able to iterate the course structure and content accordingly to meet the students’ needs. In this paper we describe the two methods and compare the results from both methods. We analyze the findings, discuss how these methods differ and discuss the usefulness of the feedback. Additionally, we advise how the two methods could be used in other courses for extending the communication between course teachers and students for improving the learning experiences.
Due to the increasing size of software projects, they usually require team work and a sufficient amount of communication, which can influence team mood. However, this communication is often not adequate by means of tone and language. Sentiment analysis tools can be used to prevent this problem by investigating the mood conveyed by text-based communication. Most studies aim to improve or develop sentiment analysis tools for a better prediction of the sentiments raised by a specific communication behavior. The tools were often tested in a small experimental group settings (e.g. academia or open-source), but only very few studies applied the tools in industrial software projects. In this paper, we focus on the feasibility and usefulness of a state-of-the-art sentiment analysis tool in industrial settings. We conducted a user study over 4 months, in which twelve practitioners used a sentiment analysis tool and received weekly information on the sentiments conveyed with their text-based communication in group chats. This way, we evaluated the general feasibility of sentiment analysis in industry. Afterwards, we conducted an interview study with six of the twelve participants to get feedback. This way, we validated the insights gained from the user study and evaluated whether the application of sentiment analysis is useful in industrial software projects. We also investigated which improvements are necessary in order to increase the usefulness of sentiment analysis. Every participant reported that such a tool is suited for the use in software projects. However, they also pointed out some improvements that are required to increase its usefulness. These improvements include explanations, dashboards, and sarcasm detection.
With more and more applications exploring the possibilities of AR and VR, some applications do not stay inside one reality but operate cross-reality. We propose the concept of a cross-reality escape room, where one player is in the real world interacting with real objects and one player is in a virtual world. They have to work together to solve a series of puzzles to complete the game. The actions one player does on their side can directly affect the other player’s world. Besides the concept of cross-reality escape rooms, we also provide an end-user editor to create such games. The editor aims to enable non-technical users, like designers for conventional escape rooms, to create their own cross-reality escape room, including creating and positioning objects and integrating and configuring a logic flow that drives the application. This allows virtual objects to be configured as well as real-life objects. To evaluate the concept and editor, twelve participants in groups of two first played a demo escape room and used the editor to create part of a room themselves. They were asked to give quantitative and qualitative feedback for both parts. With a score of 55.17 out of possible 63 on the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS)-18, we can say, that players like the demo room, we created. Combined with results from open feedback sessions, the players liked the concept, and that cross-reality adds value to the concept of escape rooms. However, there is still potential to improve. For the editor, we received mixed results, that depend heavily on the individual users. During semi-structured interviews, we could also create a list of improvements for future versions.
Education in the medical domain with the help of digitized content using state-of-the-art technology is a current topic, nowadays. In this paper, we are presenting our ongoing research on streamlining the medical domain expert workflow in the field of histopathology by designing a graphical user interface for an artificial-intelligence-powered (AI-powered) assistance educational tool for digitized specimen annotations. We found out that the approach to the presentation of the AI-powered features in the user interface should be built upon the level of expertise of the domain expert. The differences in interactions with the proposed annotation tools were observed in a case study with five participants with different levels of expertise from ongoing research cooperation with medical faculty students and domain experts in the field of histopathology. We discuss the quantitative and qualitative outcomes from the aforementioned case study to serve as a base for maximizing the benefits leveraging from applying AI-powered assistance tools in the field of education in digitized histopathology.
This doctoral research delves into the domain of User-Centered Design (UCD) skills acquisition among software engineering and computer science students and early professionals. Ground the literature, it addresses the challenges faced by novices in understanding complex problems and empathising with diverse user groups. The proposed publications address structured “toolboxes” comprising various UCD methods tailored to different demographics and design contexts. Through a mixed-methods approach, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and iterative process optimisation based on student feedback, the study aims to explore the experiences, benefits, and challenges associated with toolbox-based learning of UCD. Notably, the research has progressed with the dissemination of findings through scholarly publications, showcasing the evolution and application of these toolboxes in educational and professional settings. Four publications detail the iterative refinement and application of the toolboxes proposed. The final dissertation is set to offer insights into UCD skill acquisition and application across diverse educational and professional contexts.
User-centred design (UCD) has been developed as a useful and effective design approach for designing interactive systems. However, some researchers point out that UCD methods created for the developed world imply assumptions that make them difficult to use in the developing world. The paper presents a systematic literature review focused on user-centered design initiatives for development in rural areas. A comprehensive analysis of 190 publications was conducted in order to systematically and critically examine existing design studies. The results support results from previous reviews and provide deeper insights into existing challenges and underlying assumptions and attitudes.
Sustainability is continuously gaining attention from different software research disciplines and organizations because of the impacts of human activities on the planet aided by software products and services. The process of creating and developing these software products and services through agile has gained significant attention with different guidelines and frameworks proposed to support sustainability. However, there is the challenge of a few concrete illustrations that exemplify how these software sustainability design guidelines and frameworks have been applied in agile practice, specifically Scrum by software development practitioners. This creates no common ground for software development practitioners to understand their role in promoting sustainability during software design and development. This paper explores integrating sustainability into agile software requirement gathering, focusing on the Scrum framework. The outcome presented in this study represents early results from an ongoing case study with an agile development team in the industry.
ICT is an enabler for sustainable development and contributes to sustainability problems arising from different human activities aided by ICT interactive software and services. Consequently, these ICT-aided activities contribute to a vast amount of electronics and paper package waste at different stages of production, usage, and disposal. Some of these wastes can be attributed to a lack of understanding from ICT designers on how to design ICT interactive software and services for a green user experience. This paper explores design patterns as a tool to capture and incorporate sustainability concerns into the design of ICT interactive software and services for green user experience, where users become more conscious of the sustainability impacts of their actions. The Design science research method was applied to create and validate three sustainability design patterns. The results show that the proposed design patterns can guide ICT designers to engage and influence user behavior toward sustainability awareness.
