184 research outputs found
Proceedings - 13th IEEE International Symposium on Web Systems Evolution, WSE 2011: Foreword
No full textInteractive Dialogue Model: a Design Technique for Multi-Channel Applications
No full textAbstract—Multichannel applications deliver the same content and a “similar interactive experience” using different devices and different technologies (e.g., web sites, palm held devices, car navigators, or interactive TVs). Various channels imply a number of differences, including screen (size), keyboard (size), pointing devices, output devices, performances, and the context of use (standing, sitting, walking, etc.). In most cases, today, applications for different channels are designed and implemented almost “independently,” with ineffectiveness for the developers (high costs) and ineffectiveness for the users (loss of consistency across the different channels and the perception that they are “different applications”). This paper presents an interactive dialogue model (IDM), a novel design model specifically tailored for multichannel applications. The background research, moving from linguistic theories and practices, has led us to the development of a “channel-independent” design model (based on dialogue primitives). Design can start in a “conceptual,” channel-independent fashion, and then proceed into a further “logical” design oriented toward specific channels of communication. Designing an interactive application in two steps (channel-independent first, and channel-dependent later) allows a number of advantages without making more cumbersome the overall design process. Beside the emphasis on multichannel, IDM has additional distinctive features: it is lightweight, providing a few set of primitives (and a simple graphic notation) which are easy to learn and teach. Moreover, it is suitable for brainstorming and generating ideas at early stage during design (or during the shift from requirements to design); finally, it is cost-effective (it requires little effort from designers) and modular (designers can take the part they wish, not being forced to “all or nothing”). IDM has been validated both in the academic and industry environments, providing excellent results so far
Goal-Driven Requirements Analysis for Hypermedia-intensive Web Applications
No full textAbstract Requirements analysis for Web applications still needs to employ effective RE practices to accommodate some distinctive aspects: capturing high-level communication goals, considering several user profiles, defining hypermedia-specific requirements, bridging the gap between requirements and Web design, and reusing requirements for an effective usability evaluation. Techniques should be usable, informal, require little training effort, and show relative advantage to project managers. On the basis of the i * framework, this paper presents a proposal for defining hypermedia requirements (concerning aspects such as content, interaction, navigation, and presentation) for Web applications. The model adopts a goal-driven approach coupled with scenario-based techniques, introduces a hypermedia requirement taxonomy to facilitate Web conceptual design, and paves the way for systematic usability evaluation. Particular attention is paid to the empirical validation of the model based on the perceived quality attributes theory. A case study developed with industrial partners is discussed
Branding and Communication Goals for Content-Intensive Interactive Applications
No full textRequirements engineering has traditionally focused on identifying functional and non functional requirements to inform design, and to ensure that the product under development accommodates the needs of the end users, the goals of the different stakeholders, as well as the technological, organizational, and business constraints. For requirements analysis of content-intensive interactive applications, we propose to take a wider perspective driven by the concepts of brand, brand value, and communication goal. We highlight the pervasive impact of this kind of "non functional requirements" on various design dimensions of content-intensive interactive applications - contents, lay-out, information architecture, interaction, services - in order to create not only a functional or informative experience, but also an emotional relationship with the artifact and the brand underneath it. The paper discuss a case study to exemplify our approach, sets the founding elements for brand&communication-driven requirements analysis in content-intensive interactive applications, and provides a modeling framework for representing the results of this process
Does Branding Need Web Usability? A Value-Oriented Empirical Study
No full textDoes usability of a web-based communication artifact affect brand, i.e., the set of beliefs, emotions, attitudes, or qualities that people mentally associate to the entity behind that artifact? Intuitively, the answer is "yes": usability is a fundamental aspect of the quality of the experience with a website, and a "good" experience with a "product" or its reifications tends to translate into "good" brand perception. To date, however, the existence of a connection between web usability and brand perception is shown through anecdotic arguments, and is not supported by published systematic research. This paper discusses a study that empirically investigates this correlation in a more rigorous, analytical, and replicable way. Our main contribution is twofold: on the one hand, we provide empirical evidence to the heuristic principle that web usability influences branding, and we do that through four between subjects controlled experiments that involved 120 subjects. On the other hand, we inform the study with a systematic value-oriented approach to the user experience, and thus provide a conceptual framework that can be reused in other experimental settings, either for replicating our study, or for designing similar studies focusing on the correlation of web branding vs. design factors other than usability
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