A inclusão de crianças com deficiência em escolas regulares, ocorrida seguindo a Lei 13.146 de 06 de julho de 2015, que institui a Lei Brasileira de Inclusão da Pessoa com Deficiência, exige que as atividades escolares sejam acessíveis a todas as crianças. Entre as atividades escolares, as atividades de programação têm se espalhado nas escolas devido aos benefícios gerados nas habilidades dos alunos, como criatividade e pensamento lógico. Atualmente, essas atividades utilizam principalmente ambientes de programação em blocos, como o Scratch, que focam em aspectos visuais para interação, contando com cores, formatos e utilização do mouse. Nesse contexto, e de grande importância o estudo de interfaces de programação para que crianças com deficiência visual possam ser incluídas e participem em conjunto com as outras crianças. Este projeto busca investigar este tema, bem como propor e avaliar um sistema para atividades de introdução à programação para crianças cegas e videntes. Foi proposto um sistema formado por peças tangíveis, em que os blocos digitais foram substituídos por peças físicas com formas para reconhecimento tátil e respostas auditivas. Foi adotado um modelo cíclico para o desenvolvimento do protótipo que garantiu duas etapas de testes com usuários. Na primeira etapa foram 4 participantes videntes, sendo que três participaram vendados, e a partir das observações foram gerados novos requisitos e modificações no protótipo. Na segunda etapa participaram 2 crianças cegas e os resultados destes testes geraram requisitos específicos para a utilização do sistema por crianças cegas. Este trabalho traz como contribuição final um conjunto de recomendações para o desenvolvimento de sistemas que permitam a crianças cegas e videntes brincarem juntas em atividades de programação. / The inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools, following Law 13,146 of July 6, 2015, which establishes the Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, requires that school activities be accessible to all children. Among school activities, programming activities have spread in schools because of the benefits generated in students\' skills such as creativity and logical thinking. Currently, these activities mainly use blocks programming environments, such as Scratch, that focus on visual aspects for interaction, counting on colors, shapes and mouse usage. In this context, it is of great importance to study programming interfaces so that children with visual impairment can be included and participate together with other children. This project seeks to investigate this theme as well as to propose and evaluate a system for introductory programming activities for blind and sighted children. It was proposed a system formed by tangible pieces in which the digital blocks were replaced by physical pieces with forms for tactile recognition and auditory responses. It was adopted a cyclical model for the development of the prototype that guaranteed two stages of testing with users. In the first stage, four sighted participants, three were blindfolded among them, and and from the first observations were generated new requirements and modifications in the prototype. The second stage involved 2 blind children and the results of these tests generated specific requirements for the use of the system by blind children. This work brings as final contribution a set of recommendations for the development of systems that allow blind and sighted children to play together in programming activities.

O aumento da população senescente no Brasil e no mundo implica ações específicas para satisfazer às necessidades e preferências do público idoso. Diversas áreas do conhecimento dedicam-se aos estudos relacionados ao envelhecimento humano com a finalidade de garantir a autonomia, independência, qualidade de vida e expectativa de vida saudável das pessoas com mais de 60 anos. Nesse contexto, novas tecnologias de intervenção baseadas nos jogos digitais têm sido utilizadas para promover a prá-tica de atividade física com o propósito de prevenir o declínio funcional em indivíduos idosos. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em estabelecer um conjunto de requisitos de projeto para apoiar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizam a interface natural, a partir da perspectiva dos usuários idosos caidores, a fim de contribuir para a melhora na qualidade de vida. Para tanto, realizou-se uma intervenção no projeto de extensão do Centro de Estudos de Lazer e Atividade Física do Idoso (Celari) da Escola de Educação Física (ESEF) da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), em um período de oito semanas, com duas sessões semanais. Os instrumentos de avaliação aplicados na pesquisa foram dois questionários, incluindo questões fechadas, com delineamento pré e pós-intervenção. Além disso, utilizou-se a observação direta com o intuito de recolher informações acerca da amostra. O instrumento de intervenção adotado na pesquisa foi o console Xbox One® com o sensor de movimento Kinect 2.0® e sete jogos digitais. Estabeleceram-se, então, os requisitos de usuá-rios com base nas necessidades e preferências exigidos pelos participantes da pesquisa durante a inter-venção. Em uma etapa posterior, empregou-se o método do Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD) para converter os requisitos de usuários em um conjunto de requisitos de projeto sistematizados de acordo com grau de importância atribuído pelos usuários. Com isso, pretendeu-se oferecer um con-junto de requisitos de projeto para, eventualmente, orientar o desenvolvimento de um jogo digital uti-lizando a interface natural, com vistas a melhorar a qualidade de vida, o equilíbrio e reduzir o risco de quedas das pessoas idosas. / The increase in the elderly population in Brazil and in the world implies specific actions to meet the needs and preferences of the elderly. Several areas of knowledge are involved with studies related to human aging in order to ensure autonomy, independence, life quality and healthy life expectancy of people over 60 years of age. In this context, new digital game-based intervention technologies have been used to promote the practice of physical activity aiming at preventing functional decline in the elderly. Thus, this research aims to establish a set of project requirements to support the development of digital games using the natural user interface from the perspective of elderly faller users in order to contribute for the improvement in life quality. Therefore, an intervention was accomplished in the extension project of the Center of Studies of Leisure and Physical Activity for the Elderly (Celari) from the School of Physical Education (ESEF), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), during a period of eight weeks, two sessions/week. The assessment tools used in the research were two questionnaires, with closed questions, pre- and post- test design. In addition, it was also used the direct observation in order to gather information about the sample. The intervention tool adopted in the research was the Xbox One® console with Kinect 2.0® motion sensor and seven digital games. Then, it was established the user’s requirements based on the needs and preferences required by the participants of the research during the intervention. At a later stage, it was used the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to convert the user requirements into a set of project requirements system-atized according to the degree of importance assigned by the users. Thus, it was intended to offer a set of requirements for the project in order to, possibly, orientate the development of a digital game using the natural user interface, aiming to improve the elderly’s life quality, balance as well as decrease their risk of falls.

A geração automatizada de Interfaces de Usuário (IU) é objeto de estudo há muitos anos. Desde a década de 80, dezenas de projetos foram desenvolvidos e várias soluções apresentadas ao mercado. Entretanto, mesmo com os avanços obtidos neste cenário, inúmeras dificuldades ainda continuam presentes no dia-a-dia dos desenvolvedores de sistemas. A necessidade de processos, sintaxes e linguagens proprietárias associado ao elevado esforço de configuração e à baixa reutilização de tecnologias são os principais problemas nessa área. Objetivando sanar essas dificuldades, este trabalho propõe uma solução diferenciada para o problema, a qual reutiliza e integra-se à maioria das tecnologias comumente presentes nos ambientes de desenvolvimento e que conta com um exclusivo sistema de configuração, capaz de minimizar o trabalho de geração das IU. Sendo um típico gerador baseado em modelos, o software proposto é chamado MERLIN, e objetiva automatizar completamente a geracão de interfaces CRUD, as quais estão presentes em até 30% dos sistemas que operam sobre banco de dados. Para alcançar este objetivo, o software aposta no uso intensivo de heurísticas e na formação de uma estrutura auto-contida e realimentada de configurações, a qual reside unicamente nas classes compiladas da aplicação. Completando a sua arquitetura, um processo de geração em tempo de execução inibe a produção de qualquer linha de código-fonte, o que evita a necessidade de refatoração ao longo da evolução dos sistemas. Com esses elementos em evidência e focando inicialmente a plataforma Java, sinaliza-se uma solução diferenciada, apta para ser utilizada em ambientes profissionais de desenvolvimento. / The automated generation of User Interfaces (UI) has been the object of study for many years. Since the 1980s, dozens of projects have been developed and various solutions presented to the market. However, even with the advances obtained under this scenario, innumerable difficulties still continue to present themselves in the daily routine of system developers. The demands of proprietary methodologies, syntaxes and languages, the high level of effort needed for configuration and low reuse of technologies are the main problems in the area. With the object of rectifying these difficulties, this work proposes a solution specific to the problem, which reuses and combines the majority of the technologies already existing in development environments and relies on an exclusive configuration system, capable to minimize the work of generating the UI. Being a typical model based generator, the software under consideration is called MERLIN, and has as its objective to completely automate the generation of CRUD interfaces, which are present in up to 30% of the systems that interact with data bases. To achieve this objective, the software relies on the intensive use of heuristics and the creation of a self contained configuration feedback structure, which exists solely in the compiled classes of the application. Completing this architecture, a process of execution time generation eliminates the need for any source code, which significantly reduces the costs of refactoring the code throughout the evolution of the systems. With these elements in evidence and focusing initially on the Java platform, indicates that this distinguished solution is ready for use in professional development environments.

ERIAN is a complex business rule management system developed by com- pany Komix. Part of this system is the Rule Management Interface (RMI) which allows users to create, edit, schedule, test and otherwise manage their business rules. The RMI is implemented as a thick client based on C# and WPF, which has its disadvantages. This thesis provides a prototypical implementation of the RMI as a thin client based on cutting-edge web technologies. This thesis predominantly deals with the choice of the correct technologies for the task, while allowing develop- ment and maintainance of different customized versions of the RMI and making sure the prototype handles working with business rules seamlessly even if they are exceptionally large. The resultant RMI prototype is well testable and adds several new function- ality features, compared to the original. It lays a good foundation for a complete re-implementation of the RMI as a thin client.

This thesis investigates embedded databases and graphical interfaces for the MicroBaseJ project. The project aim is the development of an integrated database and GUI user interface for a typical 3G, or 2.5G, mobile phone with Java MIDP2 capability. This includes methods for data acquisition, mobile data and information communication, data management, and remote user interface. Support of phone delivered informatics will require integrated server and networking infrastructure research and development to support effective and timely delivery of data for incorporation in mobile device-based informatics applications. A key research and development (R&D) challenge is to support effective and timely delivery of data for incorporation in mobile device-based informatics applications. Another important aspect of the project is determining how to develop efficient graphics for the small mobile screen. The research investigates and analyses the architecture of a mobile monitoring system. The project developed a generic solution that can be implemented in a number of commercial sectors, such as horticulture, building management and pollution/water management. The developed concept is tested using data relevant to the horticultural area of application. The system also addresses the main issues related to mobile monitoring, including real-time response, data integrity, solution cost, graphical presentation, and persistent storage capabilities of modern mobile devices. Four embedded databases based on J2ME have been investigated. Two of the four have been evaluated and analysed. The Insert function, Sequence Search, and Random Search of Perst List and RMS (Record Management System) databases have been tested. The size of the processed data was limited to 20,000 records when using the wireless toolkit simulator, and 11,000 records when using a mobile phone. Perst Lite reflects good performance and has out-performed RMS in all tests. User interface software such as J2ME Polish for mobile phones has been investigated. Custom J2ME class for graphical interface is developed. This provides the graphical presentation of the data collected from the sensors; including temperature, wind speed, wind direction, moisture, and leaf wetness. The graphical interface, bar charts, and line charts with trace ball for collected data have been designed and implemented. The embedded database performance and project performance have been investigated and analysed. The performances of Perst Lite and RMS are evaluated in terms of the insert, sequence search, and random search functions based on simulation and real devices. The record numbers vary from 1,000 to 20,000. The project performance contains data receiving and storage, and data presentation and configuration. The performance of data storage and configuration can be negated due to the running mode and the response time. Thus, data presenting performance is the key focus in this project. This performance was divided into the categories of initial, data search, data selection, and charting. The initial performance includes the initialisation of the project parameters, and the reaching of the welcome interface. Data search performance refers to the retrieval of the specified data from the embedded database, measured on 48 data points, which only can be presented on the mobile screen from the retrieved data. These four performance types are measured in thousands of record numbers, varying from 1,000 to 18,000 record numbers, with the retrieved data range varying from 1 day to 30 days.

The familiar computer graphic user interface (GUI) makes extensive use of visually representative devices such as folders and files. These symbols help the user deal with computer data and operations that otherwise have little or no physical form. The computer’s underlying complexity is symbolised for the user, who is then able to manipulate the computer by interacting directly with the interface. The early development of computer interface design was largely the domain of software and hardware developers. Many sound principles of user interaction and testing were established and provided essential guidance for new generations of interface designers. As computer technology and its tools became more widely available, a broader range of designers began contributing, including those from product design and visual communication. This study is written from the point of view of a “visual designer” – a designer who began his career in graphic design and who has moved towards interface design out of curiosity and a desire to proffer a different attitude and approach to interface issues. The study therefore will demonstrate a design process that many visual designers will be able to identify with. The process includes research, analysis, methodical progression and artistic inspiration. The artistic inspiration in this case comes from the Constructivist artist El Lissitzky, and will illustrate the significant contribution that art can make to interface design. This art-influenced design process was presented at the 2005 Ed-Media World Conference on Educational Multimedia, (Montreal, 2005). The enthusiastic response and discussion provided encouragement to continue in this direction. In the following year another presentation, which included the working prototype, was presented as part of a keynote speaker presentation at the 2006 Siggraph Taipei Conference, National Chiao Tung University, Taipei. The specific task chosen to work with in this study is that of Web browser history. As a user browses the Web the computer records a list of visited websites. The first few generations of browsers presented this information as a simple list, but this approach incorporated many flaws and caused problems for users. More recent browsers provide more options, but significant issues remain. This study offers solutions to several of these problems. The resulting design prototype is named “isoBrowser”. It is the result of the alternative design process outlined above and offers alternative methods of visualising, organising and manipulating data. The prototype is not intended to be fully functional nor “live”. However, it is sufficiently operable so as to test interface interaction and user response. A fully functional version, operably and aesthetically complete, would be the subject of further development.

The Internet is a vastly under-utilised resource, only used for half of the IT story. Describe the Internet in two words and many might say ‘sharing knowledge’. But sharing information is more accurate. It’s just that all the principle ways we use the Internet — the Web, email and media streaming — happen to be examples where information is in the form of knowledge. But IT — Information Technology — has another side: the realm of software programming where information means the dynamic control of how things work. The Internet is the driving force in the IT industry, so why isn’t it also known for sharing control? True, there are examples of specialised, one-off software applications interfacing with each other via the Internet, but there has yet to be any systematic and universal attempt to exploit the potential of the Internet for control-IT in the way we have seen it for knowledge-IT. Taking the strengths of the Web model as a starting point, this thesis proposes a parallel, dynamic world to the Web called The Mesh. In the same way that the Web seamlessly connects databases of the world to provide a global font of knowledge, the Mesh would connect software of the world to provide a global means of control. The Mesh would embody all the successful, empowering features of the Web. Everyone would have a say in how things work, mirroring Web 2.0’s user-generated content but for software instead of media. In being a universally integrated design approach for device control, the Mesh would encompass a number of research areas working on the control issue at the big picture level. It would address the problems of universal usability and ubiquitous computing. It would also provide solutions in agent-based systems and grid computing. But many features of the Mesh would simply be unique. They would change the way we go about software design, leading to new opportunities for users, programmers and manufacturers alike. The key to everything is design simplicity. A concept demonstrator has been developed as an integral part of this research project. It shows that the Mesh is both feasible and practical. Examples of programs run in the concept demonstrator are discussed, showing exactly how the Mesh would be built and how it would work. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2007

<p>In the future network-based Swedish Defence (NBD), attaining information superiority will be of great importance. This will be achieved by a network of networks where decision-makers, information- and weapon-systems are linked together. As a part of the development of NBD, we have performed a study of user interface design for a future network-based tool package for analysis of sensor systems, referred to as the C2SR-system. </p><p>This thesis was performed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, Sensor and Information Networks, during the autumn 2002. A pre-study concerning the requirements of usability, trustworthiness and functionality of a userinterface for the C2SR-system was performed. Officers representing the future users in the NBD played an important role when gathering these requirements. Another important part of the pre-study was the evaluation of software that contains parts of the functionality necessary for the C2SR-system. </p><p>On the basis of the results from the pre-study, we have designed a user interface to the future C2SR-system. To demonstrate the most important conclusions, a prototype was implemented.</p>

<p>In the future network-based Swedish Defence (NBD), attaining information superiority will be of great importance. This will be achieved by a network of networks where decision-makers, information- and weapon-systems are linked together. As a part of the development of NBD, we have performed a study of user interface design for a future network-based tool package for analysis of sensor systems, referred to as the C2SR-system. </p><p>This thesis was performed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, Sensor and Information Networks, during the autumn 2002. A pre-study concerning the requirements of usability, trustworthiness and functionality of a user interface for the C2SR-system was performed. Officers representing the future users in the NBD played an important role when gathering these requirements. Another important part of the pre-study was the evaluation of software that contains parts of the functionality necessary for the C2SR-system. </p><p>On the basis of the results from the pre-study, we have designed a user interface to the future C2SR-system. To demonstrate the most important conclusions, a prototype was implemented.</p>

<p>Browsing the Web on a distant screen may very often become user’s unpleasant experience. Such a situation may happen in a living room environment, where the user attempts to browse the Web on TV sitting at 10-foot distance from the screen. In a vast number of web sites that the user is able to request, many may contain, for instance, tiny text characters, which would become unreadable when watched from the distance. On the other hand, also navigation through the Web offerings can become troublesome. Especially, when the user is only equipped with the commonly used remote controller, interaction with the displayed content may prove inefficient. Therefore, methods to overcome content visibility and navigation problems become challenging. In this thesis we perceive living room environment as a good scenario, in which web-enabled handheld devices could further be utilized to interact with Consumer Electronics products, such as TVs. This sort of interaction should make an advantage of publically available Web resources to have them displayed on TV and controlled from the distance by the user who is equipped with, for instance, a web-enabled mobile phone. We think that such an interaction approach would become beneficial in several ways, making the Web browsing routine an interactive, possibly a group activity. Discussed in this thesis solutions are the first step of automatic transformations of web content into a form that can be rendered on Web4CE (Web for Consumer Electronics) products. A particularly important aspect of the proposed system is the concept of request/response HTTP message processing and HTML modification. According to this approach, living room browsing activity should be achievable without the need to re-author already existing web sites.</p>