Understanding User Requirements: a Semiotic-based View
M. Cecilia C. Baranauskas
Aula 6103, 18:00 horas
BIOGRAPHY
M. Cecilia C. Baranauskas is Professor at the Institute of Computing, Unicamp, Brazil. She received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, at UNICAMP, Brazil. Her research interests have focused on issues in human-computer interaction, particularly investigating different formalisms (including Semiotics and Participatory Design) in the design and evaluation of user interfaces. She is leading several projects investigating the use of those formalisms for analyzing, evaluating and designing domain-oriented applications (collaborative learning systems, geographical information systems, systems for work practice). Currently she is the Brazilian Representative at IFIP TC13, member of the BR-CHI (an ACM SIGCHI local chapter) Executive Council and member of the Special Committee for HCI at SBC (Brazilian Computing Society).
ABSTRACT
Requirements Engineering (RE) is the process of discovering the purpose of a prospective software system, by identifying stakeholders and their needs, and documenting these in a form that is suitable to analysis, communication, and subsequent implementation. Requirements elicitation is closely related and even interleaved to other RE activities such as: modeling, analysis & negotiation, and communication of requirements. RE is a multidisciplinary and human-centered activity with high impact on the interaction design. In this presentation we will show a participatory approach to requirements elicitation that deals with functional and non-functional requirements considering social, political, cultural and ethical issues involved in understanding the problem in the process of RE. The proposed approach is theoretically grounded in methods and models coming from Organizational Semiotics. We will illustrate it with the development of applications in different domains such as Geographical Information Systems in the Web (Web GIS), e-Gov and Web-inclusive design. Results achieved so far have allowed us to observe the contribution of OS in the proposed approach, including elements to inform the user interface design of the systems.
This talk is also an opportunity to foster cooperation among our university in Brazil and UPM, through the proposal of joint research projects and interchange of students.
