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The TGarden is a genre of responsive environment in which actor-spectators shape dense media sensitive to their movements. These dense fields of light, sound, and material also evolve according to their own composed dynamics, so the agency is distributed throughout the multiple media. These TGardens explore open-ended questions like the following: what makes some time-based, responsive environments compelling, and others flat? How can people improvise gestures without words, that are individually or collectively meaningful? When and how is a movement intentional, or collectively intentional? This paper introduces what has been at stake behind the experimental work: subjectivation, moving from technologies of representation to technologies of performance, and the potential for ethicoaesthetic novelty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first illustrates what kind of ethical issues arise from the new information, communication and automation technology. It then argues that we may embrace the popular idea that technology is ethically neutral or even ambivalent without having to close our eyes to those issues and in fact, that the ethical neutrality of technology makes them all the more urgent. Finally, it suggests that the widely ignored fact of normal responsible behaviour offers a new and fruitful starting point for any future thinking about such issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working with current methodologies of art, biology, and genetic technologies, the stated aims of artists working in this area include attempts both to critique the implications and outcomes of genetic technologies and to forge a new art practice involved in creating living beings using those technologies. It is this last ambition, the development of a new art practice involved in creating living beings, that this essay will particularly take to task by questioning the ethics of that goal and the uses of biotechnology in reaching it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of information overload, the primary concern for many knowledge areas becomes the organisation and retrieval of data. Artists have a unique opportunity, at this historical juncture, to play a role in the definition and design of systems of access and retrieval, and at the very least comment on the existing practices. In this article I show how some personalities have foreshadowed and indeed influenced the current practices and huge efforts in digitising our collective knowledge. This article is an effort to broadly contextualise the current atmosphere and environment that 'information architects' are confronted with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent studies of technological change have focussed on the implementation of computer-based high technology systems. The research described here deals with the introduction of a new but ‘low' technology into an ancient craft tradition in India. The paper describes a project to capture and archive aspects of the tacit knowledge content of the traditional cire perdue brass foundry (Dhokra) craft of Bikna village, near Bankura, West Bengal. The research involved collaboration between the Indian National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) and School of Art, Media and Design, University of Wales, Newport, UK in the context of the EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation Network Project. NISTADS were proposing to introduce a new fuel-efficient furnace technology in place of the traditional form used in Bikna. It was expected that the introduction of the new furnace would catalyse major changes in the entire dhokra craft at Bikna. What was not anticipated, however, was the speed and extent of this change, to the extent that the old traditional way of doing things was changed within the space of a few months. A Multimedia record of the craft and the process was developed. These technologies make it possible to develop adequate representations of skilled performance mediated by the craftsman him-or herself. Particularly valuable in this respect is the capacity of multimedia systems to use a full range of modalities of description, including video, sound, still image, conventional text and technical diagrams. This enables the presentation of very complex information in a variety of formats and contexts. The context and process of developing this knowledge archive are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human centredness asserts firstly, that we must always put people before machines, however complex or elegant that machine might be, and, secondly, it marvels and delights at the ability and ingenuity of human beings. The Human Centred Systems movement looks sensitively at these forms of science and technology which meet our cultural, historical and societal requirements, and seeks to develop more appropriate forms of technology to meet out long-term aspirations. In the Human Centred System, there exists a symbiotic relation between the human and the machine in which the human being would handle the qualitative subjective judgements and the machine the quantitative elements. It involves a radical redesign of the interface technologies and at a philosophical level the objective is to provide tools (in the Heidegger sense) which would support human skill and ingenuity rather than machines which would objectivise that knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper tackles the main changes that have taken place in the mechanical worldview of simple, self-regulating and intelligent machines, and studies their repercussions at the ethical and organisational level. These views of machines agree with the scientific, human-relations and postmodern proposals in organisation theory, in that they are in fact reflections on human nature which depend on metaphorical devices within which the machine metaphor is central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary knowledge systems have given too much importance to visual symbols, the written word for instance, as the repository of knowledge. The primacy of the written word and the representational world built around it is, however, under debate—especially from recent insights derived from cognitive science that seeks to bring back action, intent and emotion within the core of cognitive science (Freeman and Nunez in J Consciousness Stud 6(11/12), 1999). It is being argued that other sensory experiences, apart from the visual, along with desires (or intent) and emotions—like pain, pleasure, sorrow or joy—constitute equally important building blocks that shape an individual's cognition of the world around. This multi-sensory cognition colored by emotions inspire action and hence is valid knowledge. This is probably nowhere more apparent than in the world of the visually impaired. Deprived of visual sensory capability, they have to perforce depend on other senses. But the dominant discourse in wider society plays a major role in determining what they (the blind) can do. A society built around visual symbols and the written word underplays other elements of cognition and in the process undervalues them. This also gets reflected in the construction of social artifacts of various kinds, such as the educational certification system (The Braille system is an attempt to make the written world accessible to the blind through tactile signals—so that words are ‘felt' and ‘read.' But it is quite cumbersome. For instance, even a blind highly skilled at writing in Braille would not be able to match the writing speed of an ordinary visually endowed literate person. Effective and efficient computer-based voice-text-voice converters might solve this problem better.)-based primarily on skills over the written word. Linguistic ability becomes most valuable and at another level the written word gets salience over the spoken word. The blind hardly has a chance, therefore, except through concessions or piety. A practice built around the imagery of an empowered blind person, therefore, must depart from mainstream conceptualization—for power is derived from what one has rather than from what one lacks. It must begin by tapping and valorizing one's own endowments. This paper is an attempt to identify such a departure based on the experience of Blind Opera—a theatre group of the blind working in Kolkata, India. It seeks to provide an exposition in written word of an experience that can only be partially captured within the confines of a text. It is an incomplete account, therefore, and may be taken as an attempt to reach out and seek an exchange of experiences and insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, three propositions are put forward. First, that intellectual structures of wide scope commonly lead to conclusions which are ethically unacceptable; secondly that the ethically unacceptable consequences of science arise from one particular presupposition which it adopts, namely that of causality; thirdly, that causality is no essential part of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tacit knowledge is widely acknowledged to be an important component of innovation, but such recognition is rarely accompanied by more detailed explanations about the nature of tacit knowledge, why such knowledge is significant, how it becomes codified or whether there may be limits to codification. This paper attempts to fill some of the gaps, drawing on a recent study of university/industry links in three emerging technologies. It concludes that tacit knowledge, which can only be transmitted through personal interaction, will continue to play an important role in innovation. This derives from a variety of reasons, but most significant are the complexity of systems and the emergence of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of nursing has been the subject of discussion for the last 10-15 years. One reason is that in many countries the education of nurses has moved from teaching hospitals to the academies. This move has given rise to the question of the scientific basis for nursing knowledge. Lately, the content of nursing knowledge has become a principal focus in the work on developing expert systems for nursing. Thus theories of knowledge and the nature of new technology are of great concern to the future of the nursing profession. The basic assumptions underlying a chosen theory of knowledge will determine the development and use of advanced technology in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper highlights the importance of inter-relationships between language, context, practice and interpretation. These inter-relationships should be of interest to AI researchers working in multi-disciplinary fields such as knowledge based systems, speech and vision. Attention is drawn to the importance of Part II, Section II of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations for understanding the enormous complexity of the concept of seeing and how it is woven into an understanding of language and of human relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goals of public education, as well as conceptions of human intelligence and learning, are undergoing a transformation through the application of military-sponsored information technologies and information processing models of human thought. Recent emphases in education on thinking skills, learning strategies, and computer-based technologies are the latest episodes in the postwar military agenda to engineer intelligent components, human and artificial, for the optimal performance of complex technological systems. Public education serves increasingly as a "human factors" laboratory and production site for this military enterprise, whose high performance technologies and command and control paradigms have also played central roles in the emergence of the information economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Artificial Intelligence, and the cognitivist view of mind on which it is based, represent the last stage of the rationalist tradition in philosophy. This tradition begins when Socrates assumes that intelligence is based on principles and when Plato adds the requirement that these principles must be strict rules, not based on taken-for-granted background understanding. This philosophical position, refined by Hobbes, Descartes and Leibniz, is finally converted into a research program by Herbert Simon and Allen Newell. That research program is now in trouble, so we must return to its source and question Socrates' assumption that intelligence consists in solving problems by following rules, and that one acquires the necessary rules by abstracting them from specific cases. A phenomenological description of skill acquisition suggests that the acquisition of expertise moves in just the opposite direction: from abstract rules to particular cases. This description of expertise accounts for the difficulties that have confronted AI for the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chapter explores the design of the user interface within and across the user interaction spaces. It deals with a key issue of knowing the user from the known and unknown interaction contexts. In other words, how do we discern the reality from the actuality of user interaction? In comprehending the place and role of the user in various social, functional, and cultural contexts, we face the issue of understanding the dynamics of interactions in these sometimes overlapping and intersecting contexts. It argues that the notion of valorisation can be used to extend the concept of ‘interface' from the realm of the ‘separation' between the reality and the actuality, to the symbiotic realm of the actuality and reality. This symbiotic realm enables users from different realities to collaborate by pooling their knowledge and experiences, while sharing their cultural differences. In doing so, users enter into a symbiotic interaction space which facilitates the enhancing of both their common capacities (objective knowledge) and personal capabilities (tacit experiences). This perspective of seeking symbiosis between the user reality and actuality is termed here as ‘valorised reality'. This concept of valorisation provides a methodological tool for bridging the gaps between "actuality" and "reality" mediated by the symbiotic interface. The concept of the cultural holon is introduced to represent the network architecture of user interactions in a local-global context. In this perspective, the symbiosis represents the possibilities, choices and alternative paths available for user interaction in overlapping and inter-linked interaction spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenarios are flexible means to integrate disparate ideas, thoughts and feelings into holistic images, providing the context and meaning of possible futures. The application of narrative scenarios in engineering, development of socio-technical systems or communities provides an important link between general ideas and specification of technical system requirements. They focus on how people use systems through context-related storytelling rather than abstract descriptions of requirements. The quality of scenarios depends on relevant assumptions and authentic scenario stories. In this article, we will explore how the narrative approach may enrich the scenario ‘skeleton' with ‘flesh and blood', that is, living, detailed and consistent storytelling. In addition, criteria are suggested for evaluation of the quality of scenario storytelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge issues in the management of innovations are addressed properly when the importance of language and in particular of utterances are recognised. This is a new paradigm of management, named here as management by utterance. Unspoken knowledge is not communicated and unspeakable tacit knowledge cannot be of much use in such innovations. Knowledge can be uti- lised in innovations when its generation and sharing are accomplished through linguistic acts such as a narration or a drama. Discourse necessarily takes a back seat. Utterances and other linguistic forms such as narration or drama bring forth the inter-cultural issues which a manager must resolve in order that a globally diversified research, production and consumption culture remains dy- namic and innovative. These inter-cultural aspects have been detailed in this paper by a description of how European and Indian cultural stereotypes understand and appreciate the same narration or utterance. It appears that cultures differ widely in their appreciations of the same management language. Moreover, such variations belittle the discourse-based styles and emphasise the foundational aspects of global communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To create successful interactive systems, user interface designers need to cooperate with developers and application domain experts in an interdisciplinary team. These groups, however, usually lack a common terminology to exchange ideas, opinions and values. This paper presents an approach that uses pattern languages to capture this knowledge in software development, human-computer interaction (HCI) and the application domain. A formal, domain-independent definition of design patterns allows for computer support without sacrificing readability, and pattern use is integrated into the usability engineering life cycle. As an example, experience from building an award-winning interactive music exhibit was turned into a pattern language, which was then used to inform follow-up projects and support HCI education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper points out the need for an analytical and ontological reorientation of the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). It is argued that even though this field is heterogeneous it is marred by general problems of conceptualising the co- constitutive relations between humans and technologies. This is demonstrated through readings of several recent CSCW analyses. It is then suggested that a conceptual improvement can be facilitated by paying attention to newer scientific studies, here exemplified by Pickering, Haraway and Latour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a basis for renewed talk about ‘use' in computing, Four current ‘discourse arenas' are described. Different intentions manifest in each arena are linked to failures in ‘translation', different terminologies crossing disciplinary and national boundaries non-reflexively. Analysis of transnational use discourse dynamics shows much miscommunication. Conflicts like that between the ‘Scandinavian System Development School' and the ‘usability approach' have less current salience. Renewing our talk about use is essential to a participatory politics of information technology and will lead to clearer perception of the implications of letting new systems becoming primary media of social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impressive development of electronic communication techniques has given rise to virtual communities. The nature of these computer-mediated communities has been the subject of much recent debate. Are they ordinary social groups in electronic form, or are they fundamentally different from traditional communities? Understanding virtual communities seems a prerequisite for the design of better communication systems. To clarify this debate, we will resort to the classical sociological distinction between small traditional communities (based on personal relations) and modern social groups (bound by looser, more impersonal links). We will argue that the discussion about virtual communities is often vitiated by a simplistic assimilation to traditional communities, whereas they may be in fact quite different and much more impersonal. Virtual communities are often bound by reference to common objects or goals, and not by personal relations. In this respect, virtual communities are just another example of a long-term evolution of modern society toward more abstract social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new perspective of the impact of collaboration technology on the degrees of engagement and specific interaction zones in interactive workspaces. The study is at the intersection of the design of physical work spaces, i.e., bricks, rich electronic content such as video, audio, sketching, CAD, i.e., bits, and new ways people behave in communicative events, i.e., interaction. The study presents: (1) an innovative multi-modal collaboration technology, called RECALL (patented by Stanford University), that supports the seamless, real-time capture of concept generation during project brainstorming and project review sessions, (2) the deployment of RECALL in an interactive workspace that supports real project review sessions, called FISHBOWL, and (3) the observations of the impact of RECALL and the interactive workspace on degrees of engagement and interaction zones as it is deployed in the specific FISHBOWL sessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cognition, Communication & Interaction is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Skilled cooperative action means being able to understand the communicative situation and know how and when to respond appropriately for the purpose at hand. This skill is of the performance of knowledge in co-action and is a form of social intelligence for sustainable interaction. Social intelligence, here, denotes the ability of actors and agents to manage their relationships with each other. Within an environment we have people, tools, artefacts and technologies that we engage with. Let us consider all of these as dynamic representations of knowledge. When this knowledge becomes enacted, i.e., when we understand how to use it to communicate effectively, such that it becomes invisible to us, it becomes knowledge in co-action. A challenge of social intelligence design is to create mediating interfaces that can become invisible to us, i.e., as an extension of ourselves. In this paper, we present a study of the way people use surfaces that afford graphical interaction, in collaborative design tasks, in order to inform the design of intelligent user interfaces. This is a descriptive study rather than a usability study, to explore how size, orientation and horizontal and vertical positioning, influences the functionality of the surface in a collaborative setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter presents an analysis of knowledge as a process of tacit knowing embodied in dialogue rather than as a process of information transfer embodied in signal processing (Shannon and Weaver 1949). Within dialogue we acquire knowledge (experiential knowledge, tacit knowing, practical knowledge) through our embodied performance of 'how ' and 'what' we know about the communication situation we are in. This embodied performance includes utterances, gestures, movement and modulation of body and voice, as well as mediating artefacts, such as interactive technologies. This chapter explores the implications of this perspective of knowledge for the conception and design of interactive technologies that seek to facilitate joint action and joint attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usability maturation manifests in terms of quality in software, in interaction, and in value, constituting the three parts of this volume. In this green paper, the three editors present a range of ideas drawn and synthesized from the fifteen preceding chapters. It is not just a review, but, more importantly, it is an invitation for interested individuals or organizations to contribute more views and information, providing answers to open questions, challenging existing opinions, raising new issues, and bridging the gaps. In the Introduction, a brief overview of the development of the field of HCI is presented. In each of the three following sections, the five chapters comprising the respective part are reviewed and attendant issues are discussed, leading to research agendas that can serve as a roadmap for the future work on usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the future of usability evaluation hold? To gain insights for the future, this chapter first surveys past and current usability practices, including laboratory usability testing, heuristic evaluation, methods with roots in anthropology (such as contextual inquiry and ethnographic research), rapid iterative testing, benchmarking with large population samples, and multiple-method usability programs. Such consideration has several benefits, because both individual usability practitioners and organizations have attained different levels of usability sophistication and maturity. Usability evaluation methods long employed by major corporations may still be in the future for smaller or younger organizations. The chapter begins by discussing 20th-century usability evaluation, continues with an overview of usability evaluation today, and concludes with a discussion of what to expect in usability evaluation over the next years. For each period in the history—and future—of usability evaluation, the chapter addresses how its impact on software value is increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for expanding the scope of current HCI research, by including economic aspects that affect user experience when interacting with online services. This framework presents development models for interactive products and online services. It refers to the concept of value-oriented design that attempts to use HCI and interaction design as a part of business design activity. Although this framework is as yet partly visionary and needs validation, it seems to open interesting perspectives on user experience design, because interaction design is an important part of modern business technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usability evaluation measures remain too close to what were originally dependent variables in factorial experiments. The basis for genuine usability problems in such variables is not guaranteed, but there has been little progress on finding replacements since HCI's shift from the laboratory to field studies. As a result, the worth of much usability evaluation is questionable. Such doubts will persist until we can fully align the purpose of evaluation with the purpose of design, which is to create value in the world through innovative products and services, whether sold in markets, or provided free by either individuals or public and voluntary agencies. This chapter reviews issues with common usability measures and introduces a framework that can plausibly realign evaluation criteria with design purpose by adapting an approach from consumer psychology. This provides opportunities to deploy evaluation measures and instruments that meet the needs of design, rather than reflect skill sets from psychology and human factors. The current gap between design and usability evaluation narrows, but an exclusive usability focus in evaluation becomes impossible. Instead, the role of usability in delivering or degrading intended worth is placed in a wider worth systems context. The maturity of usability will thus be evidenced by its effective integration with a range of design and evaluation concerns. It can longer assume intrinsic importance, but has to demonstrate it in the context of achieved product value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses how to understand the purpose of formative usability evaluation. We raise concerns about common ways of understanding usability evaluation, and propose a complementary view of usability evaluation as idea generation. Implications of this view for researchers and practitioners are discussed, and it is argued that seeing usability evaluation as idea generation may help move research in evaluation methods forward. In addition, we suggest practitioners some benefits of viewing their work as idea generation and some concrete techniques based on this view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor usability and hence a stressful work situation is still a severe problem in computer-supported work, despite efforts to increase the focus on these issues. Consequently, Sweden has a high level of sick rates, particularly in the civil service sector, and some problems relating to inadequate IT systems with poor usability. In this chapter, we aim at understanding attitudes about and practices for integrating usability and users' health issues in systems development. Quality in value—i.e. users' well-being, productivity, and user satisfaction—is shaped by attitudes and perspectives underpinning discourse in systems development. These attitudes and perspectives are embedded in the methods, models, and representations used in systems development, as well as in discourse and action. In our qualitative study, data was collected through semistructured interviews with 127 informants, and in a case study of an ongoing project in one organization. During analysis of data, we identified problems with attitudes and perspectives about users and their work, such as the strong focus on automation, efficiency, and surveillance of work, which shaped the development of new technology and ultimately shapes the work situation of the user. Furthermore, we identified that the work of civil servants was frequently discussed in terms of simple steps and procedures that can be predefined and automated in accordance with clearly defined rules and regulations. Finally, we suggest user-centered design and field studies to address the problems and to improve the understanding of the users' needs and work practices in development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of usability and its implications for usability research and practice. We propose that the concept of usability evolved from a narrow focus on individual performance to a more inclusive concept of experience and the collective. We address three major trends: cognition-performance, emotional-experience, and social context-experience which, together, seem to reflect those pervading the field of usability. We argue that the movement away from the strictly cognitive, performance-oriented concerns to embracing emotion and eventually social and cultural aspects can largely be attributed to two forces. One is a change in tasks, technologies, and the objectives of systems. The other is the realization that performance alone in the cognitive sense is not enough to account for the richness of phenomena influencing people's interactions with technology. We then discuss the importance of aesthetics and emotion, and finally, usability in the context of collaborative and social computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ISO 13407 is a widely used and referred model of user-centered design, UCD. In this chapter, the principles and activities of ISO 13407 are analysed. Based on the analysis, a revised UCD model "KESSU 2.2" is proposed, including refinements both in the presentation and in the contents of principles and activities. The goal is that the refined model is more consistent and illustrates the essential contents of UCD clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this chapter is to present a design space for tools and methods supporting remote usability evaluation of interactive applications. This type of approach is acquiring increasing importance because it allows usability evaluation even when users are in their daily environments. Several techniques have been developed in this area for addressing various types of applications that can be used in different contexts. We discuss them within a unifying framework that can be used to compare the weaknesses and strengths of the various approaches and identify areas that require further research work to exploit all the possibilities opened up by remote evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study aims to gain insight into how usability practitioners work in professional web design. This is done through interviews and a grounded analysis. The description reported here refers to the wider influence of the commercial context on usability work. This brings to the fore such issues as the client's influence on work, negotiation between clients and practitioners, the adaptation and use of methods, practitioner expertise and the consideration of people in the usability process. It is believed that this research focus, which moves toward wider issues in practice, is best conceptualized from a system level perspective where the goal is to coordinate resources to add value to the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept of systems usability is introduced. Systems usability provides a holistic activity-oriented perspective to evaluation of the appropriateness of ICT-based smart tools. The concept has been developed in empirical studies of work in complex industrial environments. The nuclear power plant domain is used here to exemplify the systems usability concept and the method developed for evaluating it. In the chapter, we first identify four practical challenges that the current approaches in usability studies face: task analysis, data collection methods, usability measures, and inferences concerning the interface. As a solution to tackle these challenges we, then, introduce our concept of systems usability. To reach the demands of systems usability, work tools must fulfill all three functions of tools: the instrumental, psychological, and communicative. Because systems usability is visible in practices of using the tools we, finally, demonstrate how the developed method labeled contextual assessment of systems usability (CASU) is used for evaluating systems usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal interfaces are becoming more common, even in the field of safety critical interactive software, mainly due to the naturalness of the interaction that increases the bandwidth between the user and the system they are interacting with. However, the specificities of multimodal interactive systems make it difficult to gather information from the use of modalities and to extract from this information recommendations for improving the multimodal user interfaces. This chapter aims at presenting how abstract information described in models can be fruitfully exploited to improve the quality of evaluations of multimodal interfaces. The approach presented in this chapter combines model-based verification (based on simulation scenario extraction generated from models) and empirical methods for usability evaluation. Our aim is to try to bring together two separated (and often opposite) issues, such as usability and reliability, into the development of safety critical systems. This approach is illustrated via a Space Ground System of a satellite control room, whose multimodal interaction technique is fully described by the means of formal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter explores the role that formal modelling may play in aiding the visualization and implementation of usability, with a particular emphasis on experience requirements in an ambient and mobile system. Mechanisms for requirements elicitation and evaluation are discussed, as well as the role of scenarios and their limitations in capturing experience requirements. The chapter then discusses the role of formal modelling by revisiting an analysis based on an exploration of traditional usability requirements before moving on to consider requirements more appropriate to a built environment. The role of modelling within the development process is re-examined by looking at how models may incorporate knowledge relating to user experience, and how the results of the analysis of such models may be exploited by human factors and domain experts in their consideration of user experience issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For users, a software product frequently corresponds to a black box that must effectively support their business processes. Consequently, what a stakeholder seeks is a software product that possesses both required functionality and required quality. Young, immature companies usually can only afford developing functionalities, while mature organizations can develop quality, as well. In this sense, the level of quality observed in a software product is an indicator of the level of maturity of its developer. One may even say that because functionalities are always in a product and quality only sometimes, quality is a more restrictive indicator. Having this in mind, in this chapter we present software quality engineering from both implementation and managerial perspectives, discuss aspects of functionality-quality conflict in the economic and business dimensions, and finally give a few practical observations and recommendations that might find merit in the real, software development lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model-driven architecture (MDA) has recently attracted the interest of both the research community and industry corporations. It specifies an automated process for developing interactive applications from high-level models to code generation. This approach can play a key role in the fields of software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). Although there are some MDA-compliant methods for developing user interfaces, none of them explicitly integrates usability engineering with user interface engineering. This chapter addresses this issue by showing how the usability of user interfaces that are generated automatically by an industrial MDA-compliant CASE tool can be assessed. The goal is to investigate whether MDA-compliant methods improve software usability through model transformations. To accomplish this, two usability evaluations were conducted in the code model (final user interface). Results showed that the usability problems identified at this level provide valuable feedback on the improvement of platform-independent models (PIM) and platform-specific models (PSM) supporting the notion of usability produced by construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]