Abstract Agile Requirements Engineering (Agile RE) has been widely studied, but gaps remain regarding how user-centered research practices, specifically UX Research, are integrated into Agile RE. This paper investigates how UX Research is applied within Agile RE activities and identifies the positive and negative aspects of this integration. We conducted a multiple-case study with four distinct organizations, collecting data through interviews with 12 agile and UX professionals. Our results revealed that UX Research practices and tools are most frequently employed to discover requirements, both in organizations with and without UX professionals. However, the findings also indicate that although UX Research practices provide valuable input for requirements specification, there remains a need to better structure and communicate UX-related aspects so they become more visible to the agile team in all Agile RE activities. Our study contributes by discussing how UX Research practices and tools are employed across the stages of the Agile RE cycle, as well as the roles of the different stakeholders involved in these stages in different companies.

User experience (UX) data, derived from user interactions with software applications, holds significant potential for product evolution and issue mitigation. However, academic literature often overlooks practical approaches for exploring, visualizing, and communicating these valuable insights. To address this gap, we conducted a Grey Literature Review (GLR) to investigate how UX data is utilized in practice. Our research questions focused on: (1) how UX data improves software UX, (2) the attributes of UX data, and (3) visualization techniques for UX data exploration. This paper presents findings on UX data characteristics, motivations for its exploration, and effective visualization approaches for extracting meaningful information. Based on these insights, we propose a UX data taxonomy outlining objectives, purposes, and necessary UX data. This taxonomy aims to empower non-UX professionals to leverage UX data, fostering data-driven decision-making and ultimately enhancing software user experience.

Longitudinal user experience research depends on capturing how perception evolves over time. Two practical problems limit current tools: participants reconstruct missed reports after the fact (“back-filling”), contaminating in-situ datasets with retrospective fabrications; and the qualitative volume produced by long studies exceeds what manual analysis can absorb. We present UXTracker , a web-based instrumentation platform engineered for longitudinal UX studies. The system makes three architectural commitments. First, all temporal and protocol decisions are taken on the server, so the client cannot bypass cooldowns or alter timestamps. Second, the data model separates the semantic definition of evaluation aspects from the storage of raw measurements, allowing researchers to add or modify evaluation dimensions during a study without database migrations. Third, qualitative interpretation is generated by a Large Language Model that operates strictly on a structured analytical context derived from server-side clustering, never on the raw dataset. We deployed UXTracker in a five-wave field study with 51 participants, distributed across in-situ and retrospective protocols, and collected 765 evaluation points on a third-party learning platform. The deployment demonstrates that the architecture concurrently enforces two temporal regimes within a single study, preserves the granularity differences expected between protocols, and produces grounded narrative interpretations.

The work of software development teams has been altered to remote mode in recent years.Although software teams have used digital tools for virtual face-to-face communication (e.g., Google Meet), these tools have usually not been adequate to promote the engagement and collaboration of software team members.Metaverse, an immersive virtual environment, has emerged as a promising platform to replicate physical presence and address these challenges.In this study, we proposed design requirements to support the development of an immersive environment tailored for agile teams, specifically focusing on sprint planning ceremonies.Based on these requirements, we developed a prototype to support sprint planning ceremonies .To evaluate the environment, we conducted three rounds of sprint planning sessions with the participation of twelve agile software developers.Our findings revealed that participants experienced a high sense of immersion and enhanced their engagement supported by the environment features.These results suggest that the Metaverse can be seen as a potential workplace for agile teams collaboration.

Abstract Companies adopt agile methodologies for various reasons, primarily due to their adaptability to change and evolving business demands. In this context, addressing non-functional requirements (NFRs) may not always be a priority and can present challenges for agile teams. The focus on User Stories present in agile methods and tools often does not offer explicit alternatives for documenting NFRs. In this research, we perform a survey to explore five different strategies for documenting NFRs, to identify which fits better for different types of quality attributes and to understand the strengths and drawbacks of each one. As a result, the participants considered certain strategies as being more or less suitable for specifying different types of quality attributes. For instance, while Story Labeling was rarely recommended for security requirements, using Story Sub-sections or Verification Rules were highly recommended for this kind of quality attribute. Our results also evaluated the strategies considering several factors, such as the level of detail and requirement duplication. As a practical implication, the results of this work can provide guidance to agile development teams in choosing the most suitable alternative for each NFR documentation.

Context The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced WFH situations come with both limitations and opportunities. As the ‘new normal’ for working might be based on the current state of Work‐from‐home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that. Objective This study aims to gain insights into how their WFH arrangement impacts project management and software engineering. We are also interested in exploring these impacts in different contexts, such as startups and established companies. Method We conducted a global‐scale, cross‐sectional survey during the spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. Results We characterize the profile of WFH in both spatial and temporal aspects, together with a set of common collaborative tools and coordination and control mechanisms. We revealed some areas of project management that are relatively more challenging during WFH situations, such as coordination, communication and project planning. We also revealed a mixed picture of the perceived impact of WFH on different software engineering activities. Conclusion WFH is a situational phenomenon which can have both negative and positive impact on software teams. For practitioners, we suggest a unified approach to consider the context of WFH, collaborative tools, associated coordination and control approaches and a process that resolve those aspects that are sensitive to physical interaction.

Abstract The interest in virtual learning is not new; however, it has become a hot topic since the outbreak of COVID-19. In the area of human–computer interaction (HCI), there have been few educational experiences conducted in fully online mode. This paper examines a virtual flipped classroom–based approach, which was adopted to support HCI teaching–learning by using online tools. We conducted two case studies at a Brazilian University and carried out qualitative data analysis. We also investigated how this approach affected the experience of undergraduate and graduate students, together with the skills it enabled them to acquire. The results revealed a high degree of satisfaction and motivation felt by students when they adopted this approach and a change in their mindset about the importance of HCI in their future job activities as professionals. Skills related to effective work in group management and innovative thinking were also stimulated by our approach.

Mobile applications play an important role in many aspects of life. It is essential to be aware of the software development approaches that can support the design of accessible applications. Their main goal is to ensure that the interactive applications are available to everyone, including people with disabilities, reduced skills, or momentarily induced impairments. This paper aims to identify the accessibility barriers that occur when using design patterns for building user interfaces of mobile apps and propose guidelines to prevent the problems most often encountered. We start by conducting a gray literature review in professional forums and blogs to reveal the difficulties developers face when using mobile user interface design patterns. We thus compiled a catalog which contains the descriptions of 9 user interface design patterns, the accessibility barriers linked to the use of each pattern and the guidelines that can be followed to prevent the problem of these barriers. We carried out an evaluation of the use of the catalog with 60 participants. Our results show that in most cases, the guidelines were correctly applied for the prototyping of mobile user interfaces. The findings also revealed the usefulness and ease-of-use of the guidelines from the perspective of the participants.

Abstract Software start-ups develop innovative software products working with disruptive technologies in time pressure and market-driven environment. Recently, User eXperience (UX) has become a hot topic that interests software teams of start-ups. However, software and UX professionals have struggled to match UX practices into the development activities, partially because of the lack of resources in the start-ups. This paper investigates how software start-ups handle UX activities during software development and how relevant UX is to these companies’ professionals. To achieve our aim, we surveyed 88 professionals who take part in software teams in star-ups, analyzing the responses using descriptive and statistical methods. Our results reveal that regardless of having or not a UX position in the start-up, UX practices are spread in different software development phases and not fitting into them. Results also show although professionals consider UX relevant and recognize important skills to perform UX activities, some obstacles hinder the effective use of UX in software start-ups. From the survey results, we identified a set of challenges to be overcome in consolidating the UX work in software start-ups. By diagnosing the UX state-of-practice in start-up scenarios and identifying such challenges, our work contributes to provides relevant insights to further academic and practical studies in this field.

Over the years, network monitoring tools have evolved to keep pace with the advances in networking technologies and paradigms, such as virtualization and softwarization, and more recently, data plane programmability. However, there have been few advances regarding user interfaces and interactions in network management systems. In this paper, an investigation based on the human-computer interaction perspective is presented and improvements on the usability aspects of network monitoring tools are proposed. First, we conducted a survey to capture general information from network administrator professionals. On the basis of these initial data, we identified and specified two personas to represent the groups of users. Thereafter, a study focused on observing users' interaction and experience with a well-known network monitoring tool was conducted. Finally, our qualitative analysis revealed several findings that were used to develop recommendations to aid developers in the (re)design of these tools to enhance end-user interaction.

The concern on promoting the development of Computational Thinking (CT) in children has increased over the years. Games are recognized as a good strategy for presenting CT and for engaging children to the learning of its concepts. Hand gestures are a form of interaction widely used in video-games. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate how children feel and interact when using hand gestures in the context of learning tools. And this number decrease in studies about CT learning. In this paper, we explore the feedback of 29 children about their interaction by using hand gestures in a game to stimulate the CT which we called CT game. We also compare this type of interaction to touch. Additionally, we examine how both, hand gestures and touch, can impact on accomplishing of the goals of the game phases. Our findings revealed the children kept more engaged when using hand gestures, and consequently, this affected their concentration on the game purpose.

Software analytics supports data-driven decision making, which allows software practitioners to leverage valuable insights from software data to improve their processes and many quality aspects of the software.In this paper, we present an artifact designed from a set of patterns to support agile teams to plan and manage software analysis activities, named Software Analytics Canvas.Further, we report the study undertaken to evaluate the ease of use and the utility of our canvas from the practitioners' viewpoint, and a participatory design session carried out to collect information about possible artifact improvements.In general, subjects found the artifact useful, but some of them reported difficulties in learning and understanding how to use it.In the participatory design, they pointed out improvement points and a new layout for the canvas components.The results of both studies helped us refine the proposed artifact, improving both the terms used in each element and the layout of the blocks to make more sense for its users.

Progressive Web App (PWA) is a new approach to the development of mobile applications (apps) which was proposed by Google in 2015. It combines technology resources of both web and native apps. Meta-design is an End-User Development (EUD) approach from which end-users participate actively in a system's design process. Yet, PWAs are a recent technology and the impacts of associating EUD and PWAs has been little exploited. As the traditional PWA approach is limited regarding users acting as co-designers, we propose the PWA-EU approach, an extension of the traditional PWA architecture that includes EUD concepts. PWA-EU provides contributions in two lenses. First, the proposal was designed to be used by developers on the design/development time. Second, the app developed using PWA-EU approach will allow end-users to select design preferences, which makes them participants of the app's design. This active participation of end-users on the design is possible due to the meta-design concepts present on the PWA-EU approach. In this article, we present the PWA-EU approach and its evaluation in the perspective of developers/designers. For the evaluation, we grouped participants according to their professional background. The results also indicate that novice developers had a reasonable performance with only one hour of training.We conclude that even novice developers could achieve better performance in a real-life environment, in which they would have more time.

Background: Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF), a well-known e-infrastructure provides open data to study the future anthropogenic climate change. Data are accessed by the research communities to produce sophisticated simulations of the earth system and to study the impact of climate change. Although these e-infrastructures provide relevant data, little is known about the User eXperience (UX) and the issues that users face during their interaction with these infrastructures. Aim: This article presents an investigation about the issues that researchers (end-users) may face while interacting with an e-Science infrastructure and consequently, it elucidates obstacles to access required data. Method: Supported by Action Research (AR) methodology, this study was carried out in the context of ESGF by analysing different types of stakeholders especially users and the help desk. Based on Grounded Theory (GT), in a deeply qualitative analysis, we examined 655 e-mail threads that were sent to ESGF help desk as there were questions asked by end-users to access the data served by the e-infrastructure. Results: The outcomes revealed that questions related to workflow in the e-infrastructure were the bottlenecks that mostly impact the UX. Based on the classification scheme of the barriers that is derived as a result, after applying GT, we classified such bottlenecks and made suggestions to improve UX in e-Science infrastructure. Conclusions: According to our knowledge, this is the first study focused on discussing UX in e-Science infrastructure as it explains the barriers that limit and delay the research process of scientists while they interact with the e-infrastructure. Henceforth, the full benefit of the data projects hosted by the e-infrastructure is not realized. If these barriers would be treated using a joint-strategy initiated by the stakeholders of an e-infrastructure, the research process for the users will be faster and they will have a better UX.

Nowadays smartphones are composed of a wide range of sensors, components and resources such as GPS (Global Positioning System), Bluetooth and Internet connection through Wi-Fi, 3G, among others.Along with the smartphone's increasing popularity around the world, there is an increasing development and popularity of power-hungry applications: applications that take advantage from these resources and may reduce the energy life time of smartphones to a few operation hours a day.The article goal is to present a mechanism that is able to dynamically manage the smartphone components states, for example turning off unnecessary interfaces, at run time.For this the mechanism collects and analyze data from the smartphone usage along the days in order to predict when the components should be managed.The experimental results show that up to 30% of energy savings is achieved when comparing to the energy dissipation of an smartphone without the proposed mechanism installed.

Social tagging has been recognized as an important solution to the description of resources available on the Web. In the context of e-learning it is presented as an auxiliary mechanism to the composition of learning object metadata. This article aims to present the results of a study on the state of the art of works related to social tagging and learning objects, promoting a discussion about the main elements related to the concepts.

The use of social networks in Brazil has been increasing on different groups of people. Although the high concentration of users are in the 20-40 years-old group there is an expansion in the group of people over 50 years which use social networks. These different groups have their own needs during the interaction with different social networks. The goal of this work is to present the results of a survey on the use of Facebook as an entertainment tool by older users in Brazil. The research shows that although most users adopt the social network for more than one hour a day, some of them still experience difficulties during its use and wish for new ways of interacting with the tool. The exploratory study outcomes allowed us to draw the personas for the Brazilian scenario. From this survey, were identified and defined the main personas, aiming at an efficient representation of the group studied. The survey showed us that although the majority of users had mobile devices and used for daily activities, some of them still face dificulties on handling them.

Social networks have become the main media for information dissemination in the so-called Web 2.0. The core of these networks is social tagging, the act of annotating what users see in their social space. In the education domain, social tagging is potentially a useful resource to improve the organization (cataloguing) of large repositories of learning objects. To the present moment, however, many questions are open about social tagging in e-learning. In this work, hence, we proceed to answer three questions: (1) Can social tagging successfully catalog e-learning objects? (2) How do students behave according to Körner's classification: categorizers or describers? and (3) Does social tagging converge to a well-defined descriptive vocabulary of tags? We performed a large experiment with 336 technician students that marked 218 electronic learning objects for about 4,985 times. Our results show that social tagging is a promising practice for e-learning; however some issues must be addressed to prevent an excessive number of categorizer students and, also, a premature convergence of the vocabulary of tags. Our conclusions are specific for the setting of our experiment, but we generalize them as much as possible suggesting guidelines of how to use social tagging in e-learning.

Ubiquitous Computing promises seamless access to a wide range of applications and Internet-based services from anywhere, at anytime, and using any device. In this scenario, new challenges for the practice of software development arise: Applications and services must keep a coherent behavior, a proper appearance, and must adapt to a plenty of contextual usage requirements and hardware aspects. Especially, due to its interactive nature, the interface content of Web applications must adapt to a large diversity of devices and contexts. In order to overcome such obstacles, this work introduces an innovative methodology for content adaptation of Web 2.0 interfaces. The basis of our work is to combine static adaption — the implementation of static Web interfaces; and dynamic adaptation — the alteration, during execution time, of static interfaces so as for adapting to different contexts of use. In hybrid fashion, our methodology benefits from the advantages of both adaptation strategies — static and dynamic. In this line, we designed and implemented UbiCon, a framework over which we tested our concepts through a case study and through a development experiment. Our results show that the hybrid methodology over UbiCon leads to broader and more accessible interfaces, and to faster and less costly software development. We believe that the UbiCon hybrid methodology can foster more efficient and accurate interface engineering in the industry and in the academy.