Human-Centered Computing


Book Description

The 10th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2003, is held in Crete, Greece, 22-27 June 2003, jointly with the Symposium on Human Interface (Japan) 2003, the 5th International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, and the 2nd International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. A total of 2986 individuals from industry, academia, research institutes, and governmental agencies from 59 countries submitted their work for presentation, and only those submittals that were judged to be of high scientific quality were included in the program. These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The papers accepted for presentation thoroughly cover the entire field of humancomputer interaction, including the cognitive, social, ergonomic, and health aspects of work with computers. These papers also address major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of diversified application areas, including offices, financial institutions, manufacturing, electronic publishing, construction, health care, disabled and elderly people, etc.







Designing the Requirements


Book Description

Too many software applications don’t do what’s needed or they do it clumsily, frustrating their users and owners. The core problem: poorly conceived and poorly crafted requirements. In Designing the Requirements, Chris Britton explains why it’s not enough to simply “gather” requirements—you need to design them. Britton offers powerful techniques for understanding stakeholders’ concerns and working with stakeholders to get the requirements right. Using Britton’s context-driven approach to requirements design, you can detect inconsistencies, incompleteness, poor usability, and misalignment with business goals upstream—long before developers start coding. You can also design outward-looking applications and services that will integrate more effectively in a coherent IT architecture. First, Britton explains what requirements design really means and presents a hierarchy of designs that move step by step from requirements through implementation. Next, he demonstrates how to build on requirements processes you already use and how to overcome their serious limitations in large-scale development. Then, he walks you through designing your application’s relationship with the business, users, data, and other software to ensure superior usability, security, and maximum scalability and resilience. Whether you’re a software designer, architect, project manager, or programmer, Designing the Requirements will help you design software that works—for users, IT, and the entire business. Coverage includes Designing the entire business solution, not just its software component Using engineering-style design analysis to find flaws before implementation Designing services, and splitting large development efforts into smaller, more manageable projects Planning logical user interfaces that lead to superior user experiences Designing databases and data access to reflect the meaning of your data Building application frameworks that simplify life for programmers and project managers Setting reasonable and achievable goals for performance, availability, and security Designing for security at all levels, from strategy to code Identifying new opportunities created by context-driven design




Digital Home Networking


Book Description

In an era of ubiquity, nomadism and ecological challenge, the maturity of wireless technologies, the readiness of broadband Internet access and the popularity of smart terminals should contribute to emancipating IT services in connection with the home and home-based resources. This book, in light of several years of applied research and technological surveys, aims at describing the digital home networking environment, its techniques, and the challenges around its service architecture. Digital Home Networking aims to provide a broad introduction to state-of-the-art digital home standards and protocols, as well as an in-depth description of service architectures for entertainment and domotic services involving digital home resources. The book covers aspects such as networking, remote access, security, interoperability, scalability and Quality of Service. Notably, it describes the generic architecture, which was proposed and developed in the context of the EUREKA/Celtic research project "Feel@Home".







Smart Homes and Their Users


Book Description

Smart home technologies promise to transform domestic comfort, convenience, security and leisure while also reducing energy use. But delivering on these potentially conflicting promises depends on how they are adopted and used in homes. This book starts by developing a new analytical framework for understanding smart homes and their users. Drawing on a range of new empirical research combining both qualitative and quantitative data, the book then explores how smart home technologies are perceived by potential users, how they can be used to link domestic energy use to common daily activities, how they may (or may not) be integrated into everyday life by actual users, and how they serve to change the nature of control within households and the home. The book concludes by synthesising a range of evidence-based insights, and posing a series of challenges for industry, policy, and research that need addressing if a smart home future is to be realised. Researchers will find this book provides useful insights into this fast-growing field




Toward Engineering Design Principles for HCI


Book Description

This is the second of two books by the authors about engineering design principles for human-computer interaction (HCI-EDPs). The books report research that takes an HCI engineering discipline approach to acquiring initial such principles. Together, they identify best-practice HCI design knowledge for acquiring HCI-EDPs. This book specifically reports two case studies of the acquisition of initial such principles in the domains of domestic energy planning and control and business-to-consumer electronic commerce. The book begins by summarising the earlier volume, sufficient for readers to understand the case studies reported in full here. The themes, concepts, and ideas developed in both books concern HCI design knowledge, a critique thereof, and the related challenge. The latter is expressed as the need for HCI design knowledge to increase its fitness-for-purpose to support HCI design practice more effectively. HCI-EDPs are proposed here as one response to that challenge, and the book presents case studies of the acquisition of initial HCI-EDPs, including an introduction; two development cycles; and presentation and assessment for each. Carry forward of the HCI-EDP progress is also identified. The book adopts a discipline approach framework for HCI and an HCI engineering discipline framework for HCI-EDPs. These approaches afford design knowledge that supports “specify then implement” design practices. Acquisition of the initial EDPs apply current best-practice design knowledge in the form of “specify, implement, test, and iterate” design practices. This can be used similarly to acquire new HCI-EDPs. Strategies for developing HCI-EDPs are proposed together with conceptions of human-computer systems, required for conceptualisation and operationalisation of their associated design problems and design solutions. This book is primarily for postgraduate students and young researchers wishing to develop further the idea of HCI-EDPs and other more reliable HCI design knowledge. It is structured to support both the understanding and the operationalisation of HCI-EDPs, as required for their acquisition, their long-term potential contribution to HCI design knowledge, and their ultimate application to design practice.




Human-Computer Interaction. Novel User Experiences


Book Description

The 3-volume set LNCS 9731, 9732, and 9733 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2016, held in Toronto, ON, Canada, in July 2016. The total of 1287 papers and 186 posters presented at the HCII 2016 conferences and were carefully reviewed and selected from 4354 submissions. The papers thoroughly cover the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. The volumes constituting the full 27-volume set of the conference proceedings.




Understanding Your Users


Book Description

Today many companies are employing a user-centered design (UCD) process, but for most companies, usability begins and ends with the usability test. Although usability testing is a critical part of an effective user-centered life cycle, it is only one component of the UCD process. This book is focused on the requirements gathering stage, which often receives less attention than usability testing, but is equally as important. Understanding user requirements is critical to the development of a successful product. Understanding Your Users is an easy to read, easy to implement, how-to guide on usability in the real world. It focuses on the "user requirements gathering" stage of product development and it provides a variety of techniques, many of which may be new to usability professionals. For each technique, readers will learn how to prepare for and conduct the activity, as well as analyze and present the data —all in a practical and hands-on way. In addition, each method presented provides different information about the user and their requirements (e.g., functional requirements, information architecture, task flows). The techniques can be used together to form a complete picture of the users' requirements or they can be used separately to address specific product questions. These techniques have helped product teams understand the value of user requirements gathering by providing insight into how users work and what they need to be successful at their tasks. Case studies from industry-leading companies demonstrate each method in action. In addition, readers are provided with the foundation to conduct any usability activity (e.g., getting buy-in from management, legal and ethical considerations, setting up your facilities, recruiting, moderating activities) and to ensure the incorporation of the results into their products.·Covers all of the significant requirements gathering methods in a readable, practical way·Presents the foundation readers need to prepare for any requirements gathering activity and ensure that the results are incorporated into their products ·Includes invaluable worksheet and template appendices·Includes a case study for each method from industry leaders·Written by experienced authors who teach conference courses on this subject to usability professionals and new product designers alike