Evaluation is the key to effective interface design. It becomes even more important when the interfaces are for cutting edge technology, in application areas that are new and with little prior design knowledge. Knowing how to evaluate new interfaces can decrease development effort and increase the returns on resources spent on formative evaluation. The problem is that there are few, if any, readily available evaluation tools for these new interfaces. This work focuses on the creation and testing of a new set of heuristics that are tailored to the large screen information exhibit (LSIE) system class. This new set is created through a structured process that relies upon critical parameters associated with the notification systems design space. By inspecting example systems, performing claims analysis, categorizing claims, extracting design knowledge, and finally synthesizing heuristics; we have created a usable set of heuristics that is better equipped for supporting formative evaluation. Contributions of this work include: a structured heuristic creation process based on critical parameters, a new set of heuristics tailored to the LSIE system class, reusable design knowledge in the form of claims and high level design issues, and a new usability evaluation method comparison test. These contributions result from the creation of the heuristics and two studies that illustrate the usability and utility of the new heuristics. / Ph. D.

One of the problem that plagues Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) software is its development cost. Many software companies forego the usability engineering aspect of their projects due to the time required to design and test user interfaces. Unfortunately, there is no "silver bullet" for user interface design and implementation because they are inherently difficult tasks. As computers are moving off the desktop, the greatest challenge for designers will be integrating these systems seamlessly into our everyday lives. The potential for reuse in user interfaces lies in reducing the time and effort required for this task, without sacrificing design quality. In this work we begin with an iterative development cycle for a claims library based on prominent literature within the HCI and software engineering fields. We constructed the Claims Library to be a repository of potentially reusable notification system claims. We examine the library through theoretical and practical perspectives. The theoretical perspective reveals tradeoffs in the initial implementation that relate to Krueger's taxonomy of reuse. The practical perspective stems from experience in designing and conducting usability testing for an in-vehicle input device using the Claims Library. While valuable, these examinations did not provide a distinct method of improving the library. Expecting to uncover a specific diagnosis for the problems in the library, it was unclear how they should be approached with further development efforts. With this realization, we saw that a more important and immediate contribution would not be another iteration of the Claims Library design. Rather, a clarification of the underlying theory that would better inform future systems development seemed a more urgent and worthy use of our experience. This clarification would need to have several characteristics to include: composed of a staged or prioritized architecture, represents an ideal model grounded in literature, and possesses intermediate development objectives and assessment points. As a solution, we propose the Claims Library Capability Maturity Model (CL-CMM), based on the theoretical deficiencies that should guide development of a claims library, as noted in the two evaluations. This thesis delivers a five-stage model to include process areas, goals, and practices that address larger threads of concern. Our capability maturity model is patterned after models in software engineering and human resource management. We include a full description of each stage, a gap analysis method of appraisal, and an example of its use. Several directions for future work are noted that are necessary to continue development and validation of the model. / Master of Science

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Os medicamentos sÃo a principal ferramenta terapÃutica para a recuperaÃÃo ou manutenÃÃo das condiÃÃes de saÃde da populaÃÃo. Dentre os problemas mais comuns relacionados aos mesmos estÃo a ReaÃÃo Adversa a Medicamentos (RAM) e Queixas TÃcnicas (QT), sendo necessÃria sua vigilÃncia atravÃs do gerenciamento, direcionamento e desenvolvimento de atividades de farmacovigilÃncia mediante a formaÃÃo de centros colaboradores/notificadores. Avaliar as notificaÃÃes de RAM e QT enviadas e analisadas pelo Centro de FarmacovigilÃncia do Cearà (CEFACE) durante os seus nove anos de funcionamento voltados para o contexto da saÃde pÃblica e do uso racional de medicamentos. Foram coletadas todas as notificaÃÃes de RAM e QT do banco de dados do CEFACE, durante o perÃodo de janeiro/97 a dezembro/05, sendo as seguintes variÃveis analisadas: sexo e idade, origem da notificaÃÃo, notificador, medicamento envolvido, RAM referida, e classificaÃÃo desta quanto à causalidade e severidade e tipo de RAM segundo Rawlins e Thompson. Quanto à QT, as variÃveis foram: origem da notificaÃÃo, tipo de QT, notificador e medicamento ou material mÃdico envolvido. Foi tambÃm realizado um levantamento para identificaÃÃo na literatura da possibilidade dos excipientes farmacÃuticos serem fatores de risco para RAM, utilizando-se como base inicial os 11 medicamentos mais vendidos no mercado brasileiro, no perÃodo de novembro/02 a novembro/03 e suas respectivas formulaÃÃes. Posteriormente foi feita a retirada de casos com envolvimento desses excipientes em estudos de casos clÃnicos suspeitos. No perÃodo de janeiro/97 a dezembro/05, o CEFACE registrou 1.293 notificaÃÃes. Destas, 1.172 (90,6%) foram casos de RAM e 121 (9,4%) de QT. Houve uma reduÃÃo significante do envio dessas notificaÃÃes durante os anos. A maioria das RAM foi referente ao sexo feminino (62,7%) e a faixa etÃria de 21-30 anos (17,7%). A busca ativa foi o mÃtodo de notificaÃÃo com maior percentual (59,3%). 85,6% (RAM) foram de origem hospitalar com percentual de pÃblicos de 81,6%. O grupo terapÃutico com maior envolvimento foi o dos antiinfecciosos de uso sistÃmico (40%). O sistema da pele (48,5%) destacou-se dentro das RAM referidas. Quanto à causalidade, o maior nÃmero de RAM foi do tipo provÃvel (44,1%) e para a severidade destacaram-se as moderadas (52,2%). A maioria foi RAM do tipo A. As RAM graves e fatais tambÃm ocorreram. As QT foram de origem hospitalar (n=120), com Ãnfase para a mudanÃa de coloraÃÃo (47,1%) e falta de eficÃcia (22,3%). Foram identificados na literatura 10 excipientes farmacÃuticos de risco, sendo 03 responsÃveis por RAM coletadas no banco de dados do CEFACE. O estudo de RAM e QT, bem como o estabelecimento de seus fatores condicionantes por um centro de farmacovigilÃncia tÃm grande importÃncia no contexto da saÃde pÃblica e do uso racional de medicamentos. Tanto o profissional notificador, como a populaÃÃo em geral, deve ser incentivado a notificar toda suspeita de RAM e QT aos ÃrgÃos responsÃveis para que sejam estabelecidas medidas administrativas, dentre elas: a) Retirada de produtos inadequados do mercado; b) MudanÃas nas suas bulas e c) RestriÃÃo de uso na populaÃÃo. O levantamento na literatura cientÃfica demonstra de forma clara que, o envolvimento dos excipientes à um fator de risco para a ocorrÃncia de RAM, possibilitando sua inserÃÃo no estudo de causalidade de casos suspeitos. / Drugs are the mainly therapeutical tool to the recoverying or maintenance of the population health condiction. Among the most common problems related for it are Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) and Technical Complains (TC), being need this survey through the management, and development of activities of pharmacovigillance with the creation of helperâs and notifiers centers. Evaluate the ADR and TC sended to and analized by the pharmacovigillance center of ceara during its nine years of function toward to public health and rational use of drugs. Were collected All the ADR and TC notifications in the database of CEFACE, during the period of January 1997 to December 2005, being analized the following variables: gender and age, origin of the notification, notifier, drug involved, ADR, causality and severity classification of these ones and the kind of ADR according to Rawlins and Thompson. About the TC, the variables being: origin of notification, kind of TC, notifier, and drug or medical material involved. Also A research was made to identify in literature the possibility of pharmaceutical excipients being risks factors to cause ADR, using as initial data the 11 drugs most sold in the brazilian market in the period of November/02 to November/03 and their respective compositions. Lately was made the retrieve of cases with the involvement of these excipients in studies of suspects clinical cases. In the analized period, January 1997 to December 2005, the CEFACE registered 1.293 notifications. Of these ones, 1.172 (90,6%) ADR cases and 121 (9,4%) TC. There was a significant reduction of the number of notification during the years. Most of the ADR were registered in females (62,7%) and age of 21-30 anos (17,7%). Active search was the greatest notification method (59,3%). 85,6% (ADR) came from in hospitals with a percentual of publics in 81,6%. The therapeutical group with greatest involvement most was antibiotics for systemic use (40,0%). %). The skin system (48,5%) to be detached inside of the reported ADR. For causality, the higher number of ADR were classified as probably (44,1%) and for severity the highest percentual were considered as moderate (52,2%). Most were ADR A type. The severe and fatal ADR also occurred. The TC came from in hospitals (n=120), with emphasis to changing of color (47,1%) and lack of effectiveness (22,3%). In the literature were identified 10 risk pharmaceutical excipients, being 03 responsible for ADR collected in CEFACE database. The study of ADR and TC, as well as the establishment of their conditioners factors by a pharmacovigillance center, has large importance in public health and rational use of drugs context. Both the professional notifier and the population must be encouraged to notify all the suspects of ADR and TC to the responsable groups to be taken administrative measures among them: a) retrieve of inapropriated products from market; b) change in the labels and c) restriction in the use by population. The research in scientific literature shows in a clear way that, the involvment of excipients is a risk factor to ADR occurrence, enabling your insertion in the causality study of suspects cases.

Many software systems fail as a direct consequence of errors in requirements analysis. Establishing formal metrics early in the design process, using attributes like critical parameters, enables designers to properly assess software success. While critical parameters alone do not have the potential to drive design, establishing requirements tied to critical parameters helps designers capture design objectives. For the design of interactive systems, the use of scenario-based approaches offers natural user centricity and facilitates knowledge reuse through the generation of claims. Unfortunately, the requirements-analysis phase of scenario-based design does not offer sufficient built-in and explicit techniques needed for capturing the critical-parameter requirements of a system. Because success depends heavily on user involvement and proper requirements, there is a crucial need for a requirements-analysis technique that bridges the gap between scenarios and critical parameters. Better establishing requirements will benefit design. By adapting task-modeling techniques to support critical parameters within the requirements-analysis phase of scenario-based design, we are able to provide designers with a systematic technique for capturing requirements in a reusable form that enables and encourages knowledge transfer early in the development process. The research work presented concentrates on the domain of notification systems, as previous research efforts led to the identification of three critical parameters. Contributions of this work include establishment of a structured process for capturing critical-parameter requirements within a user-centric design framework and introduction of knowledge reuse at the requirements phase. On one hand, adapting task models to capture requirements bridges the gap between scenarios and critical parameters, which benefits design from user involvement and accurate requirements. On the other hand, using task models as a reusable component leverages requirements reuse which benefits design by increasing quality while reducing development costs and time-to-market. / Master of Science

As software systems continue to grow, and as project teams become larger and more distributed, support for project management in collaborative environments is critical. Management tasks include maintaining team coordination, monitoring progress, and, of particular interest for this work, managing risk tasks often add significant overhead to a project. To reduce overhead, management tasks must be integrated, whenever possible, directly into the software design and development process. Additionally, to prevent common problems from reoccurring in different projects, developers must focus on reusing the knowledge gained and the lessons learned through previous projects to guide future endeavors. The overall goals of the work contained within this thesis are to define reusable, project-related knowledge as project risks and to utilize that knowledge in the development of a risk-driven management model to be integrated within a human-computer interaction (HCI) design process. Existing risk management techniques typically involve process-related knowledge, such as project planning and client involvement. However, HCI as a discipline is more concerned with product-related design knowledge. Claims structure product-related knowledge for reuse by explicitly stating the positive and negative tradeoffs of incorporating a particular feature in the design of a system. By managing these negative tradeoffs as design risks, HCI designers can identify and focus on the most critical design issues throughout the course of a project. This systematic approach to solving design issues helps to ensure that designers make informed design decisions rather than following an ad hoc design process. Building upon existing risk management techniques from other domains, this thesis delivers a risk-driven, claims-based management model for HCI design. In doing so, this work transfers techniques traditionally used in managing process-related knowledge into a new domain for use in managing product-related design risks. The need for risk management in software design is argued through a review of existing collaborative tools, resulting in a series of guidelines for providing project management support. An initial risk model is then presented, along with the results of a user evaluation conducted to determine not only the accuracy of risk prioritization, but also the overall benefit of applying risk management within the context of HCI design. Following a discussion of these results, several directions for future work are mentioned both to further the quest for a true design science and to improve the standards by which software projects are managed. / Master of Science

Design and evaluation of input methods for secondary tasks in dual-task systems presents specific challenges not covered by traditional human-computer interaction design techniques. Emerging trends in the fields of mobile, ubiquitous, and in-vehicle information systems demonstrate a desire for users to interact with information systems while engaging in other tasks. Research on interaction within these various fields has revealed input methods that perform well for a particular task. However, few focus on the tradeoffs of attention that must be made to react to this notification information. A design analysis technique for input methods is proposed focusing on the design objectives of interruption, reaction, and comprehension for the secondary task made at the cost of primary task attention. Through a study conducted using a reusable usability test platform constructed for this thesis, a typical in-vehicle information system is analyzed using the proposed design analysis. Three input methods were designed and compared: a graffiti character recognizer, a touch screen, and a remote control for their proficiency at selecting an item from a list while operating a driving simulator. The results of the study revealed similar task performance between the varied input methods; however, the design analysis enabled recommendations about future design directions, confirming the viability of the technique for notification systems research. / Master of Science

This thesis proposes creating an interactive learning environment for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to facilitate access to, and learning of, important design knowledge. By encapsulating HCI knowledge into reusable claims stored in a knowledge repository, or claims library, this learning environment aims at allowing students to effectively explore design features to limit their reliance on intuition to mold their interfaces, help them address proper design concerns, and evaluate alternatives for their designs. This learning approach is based on active learning where students create their own knowledge by gathering information. However, building adequate development records from which students can gather HCI knowledge is critical to support this approach. This thesis explores using effective reusable design components to act as design records to create an interactive learning environment for students learning HCI design. An initial prototype for the learning environment introduces claims as an encapsulation mechanism for design features from which students can gather HCI knowledge. Pilot testing outlines the accessibility, applicability and reusability problems associated with this approach. To solve theses issues, a taxonomic organization of an improved form of claims (reference claims), is introduced to share core design knowledge among students. A taxonomy is designed as a way to expose students to important design concerns as well as a method to categorize claims. Reference claims are introduced as improved claims inspired by reference tasks to expose students to design alternatives for design concerns. A detailed taxonomy and a set of reference claims for the domain of notification systems demonstrate how existing theories of design can be translated into reference claims to create an interactive learning environment. An experiment illustrates the applicability and reusability of reference claims for various designs within a particular domain. Finally, an evaluation assesses the benefits of this learning environment based on reference claims in terms of improving student designs and increasing the amount of HCI knowledge they reuse. Results show that by exposing students to valuable concerns and alternatives for the design of interactive systems, an interactive learning environment based on reference claims can improve students' understanding of the design scope and lead to an increased use of existing HCI knowledge in their designs. / Master of Science

Актуальность темы обусловлена потребностью предприятия АО «Альфа-Банк», для улучшения процесса работы системы оповещений, для увеличения осведомленности пользователей системы SFA о новых обновлениях системы. Цель работы: улучшение качества работы системы оповещений и увеличении количества читаемости оповещений пользователями с целью увеличения осведомленности об обновлениях SFA, чтобы уменьшить количество консультаций с пользователями по поводу обновлений системы. Объектом исследования данной выпускной работы является информационная система SFA для работы с клиентами банка, а именно с системой оповещений пользователей о новых обновлениях системы. Предметом исследования является бизнес-процесс работы с системой оповещений. Научная новизна исследования состоит в том, что созданы новые методы для запуска модальных окон при загрузке приложения в low-code платформе Pega, создан метод для работы слайдеров изначально не заложенных в систему. Тем самым были выполнены уникальные доработки платформы Pega. Практическая значимость заключается в том, что данную систему оповещений можно применить в любой компании, в которой есть платформа PEGA и необходимость оповещать пользователей об обновлениях системы. / The relevance of the topic is due to the need of Alfa-Bank JSC to improve the process of the notification system, to increase the awareness of users of the SFA system about new system updates. The purpose of the work: to improve the quality of the alert system and increase the amount of readability of alerts by users in order to increase awareness of SFA updates in order to reduce the number of consultations with users about system updates. The object of study of this graduation work is the SFA information system for working with bank customers, namely, with a system for alerting users about new system updates. The subject of the study is the business process of working with the notification system. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that new methods have been created for launching modal windows when loading an application in the Pega low-code platform, a method has been created for the operation of sliders that were not originally included in the system. Thus, unique improvements to the Pega platform were made. The practical significance lies in the fact that this notification system can be applied in any company that has a PEGA platform and the need to notify users about system updates.