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Summary: This book provides an in-depth insight into the emerging paradigm of End-User Development (EUD), discussing the diversity and potential for creating effective environments for end users. Containing a unique set of contributions from a number of international researchers and institutes, many relevant issues are discussed and solutions proposed, making important aspects of end-user development research available to a broader audience. Most people are familiar with the basic functionality and interfaces of computers. However, developing new or modified applications that can effectively support users' goals still requires considerable programming expertise, that cannot be expected of everyone. One of the fundamental challenges that lie ahead is the development of environments that enable users with little or no programming experience to develop and modify their own applications. The ultimate goal is to empower people to flexibly employ and personalise advanced information a nd communication technologies.

In this paper we describe MultiModal WebRemUsine, a tool for remote usability evaluation of Web sites that considers data regarding the user behavior coming from multiple sources. The tool performs an automatic evaluation of the usability of the considered Web site by comparing such data with that contained in the task model associated with the pages (which describes the expected behavior of the user). The results of the analysis are provided along with information regarding the user behavior during the task performance. Using such information, evaluators can identify problematic parts of the Web site and make improvements, when necessary. An example of application of the proposed method is also discussed in the paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for support of multi-user interaction is growing in several application domains, including the Web. However, there is a lack of tools able to support designers and developers of multi-user, multi-device interactive applications. In this paper we present a proposal for this purpose describing how it can provide support at both design and run-time. The design and development process can start with task model descriptions and such logical information is used to generate interfaces adapted to the target platforms and mechanisms for their coordination at run-time [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usability maturation manifests in terms of quality in software, in interaction, and in value, constituting the three parts of this volume. In this green paper, the three editors present a range of ideas drawn and synthesized from the fifteen preceding chapters. It is not just a review, but, more importantly, it is an invitation for interested individuals or organizations to contribute more views and information, providing answers to open questions, challenging existing opinions, raising new issues, and bridging the gaps. In the Introduction, a brief overview of the development of the field of HCI is presented. In each of the three following sections, the five chapters comprising the respective part are reviewed and attendant issues are discussed, leading to research agendas that can serve as a roadmap for the future work on usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the future of usability evaluation hold? To gain insights for the future, this chapter first surveys past and current usability practices, including laboratory usability testing, heuristic evaluation, methods with roots in anthropology (such as contextual inquiry and ethnographic research), rapid iterative testing, benchmarking with large population samples, and multiple-method usability programs. Such consideration has several benefits, because both individual usability practitioners and organizations have attained different levels of usability sophistication and maturity. Usability evaluation methods long employed by major corporations may still be in the future for smaller or younger organizations. The chapter begins by discussing 20th-century usability evaluation, continues with an overview of usability evaluation today, and concludes with a discussion of what to expect in usability evaluation over the next years. For each period in the history—and future—of usability evaluation, the chapter addresses how its impact on software value is increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for expanding the scope of current HCI research, by including economic aspects that affect user experience when interacting with online services. This framework presents development models for interactive products and online services. It refers to the concept of value-oriented design that attempts to use HCI and interaction design as a part of business design activity. Although this framework is as yet partly visionary and needs validation, it seems to open interesting perspectives on user experience design, because interaction design is an important part of modern business technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usability evaluation measures remain too close to what were originally dependent variables in factorial experiments. The basis for genuine usability problems in such variables is not guaranteed, but there has been little progress on finding replacements since HCI's shift from the laboratory to field studies. As a result, the worth of much usability evaluation is questionable. Such doubts will persist until we can fully align the purpose of evaluation with the purpose of design, which is to create value in the world through innovative products and services, whether sold in markets, or provided free by either individuals or public and voluntary agencies. This chapter reviews issues with common usability measures and introduces a framework that can plausibly realign evaluation criteria with design purpose by adapting an approach from consumer psychology. This provides opportunities to deploy evaluation measures and instruments that meet the needs of design, rather than reflect skill sets from psychology and human factors. The current gap between design and usability evaluation narrows, but an exclusive usability focus in evaluation becomes impossible. Instead, the role of usability in delivering or degrading intended worth is placed in a wider worth systems context. The maturity of usability will thus be evidenced by its effective integration with a range of design and evaluation concerns. It can longer assume intrinsic importance, but has to demonstrate it in the context of achieved product value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses how to understand the purpose of formative usability evaluation. We raise concerns about common ways of understanding usability evaluation, and propose a complementary view of usability evaluation as idea generation. Implications of this view for researchers and practitioners are discussed, and it is argued that seeing usability evaluation as idea generation may help move research in evaluation methods forward. In addition, we suggest practitioners some benefits of viewing their work as idea generation and some concrete techniques based on this view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor usability and hence a stressful work situation is still a severe problem in computer-supported work, despite efforts to increase the focus on these issues. Consequently, Sweden has a high level of sick rates, particularly in the civil service sector, and some problems relating to inadequate IT systems with poor usability. In this chapter, we aim at understanding attitudes about and practices for integrating usability and users' health issues in systems development. Quality in value—i.e. users' well-being, productivity, and user satisfaction—is shaped by attitudes and perspectives underpinning discourse in systems development. These attitudes and perspectives are embedded in the methods, models, and representations used in systems development, as well as in discourse and action. In our qualitative study, data was collected through semistructured interviews with 127 informants, and in a case study of an ongoing project in one organization. During analysis of data, we identified problems with attitudes and perspectives about users and their work, such as the strong focus on automation, efficiency, and surveillance of work, which shaped the development of new technology and ultimately shapes the work situation of the user. Furthermore, we identified that the work of civil servants was frequently discussed in terms of simple steps and procedures that can be predefined and automated in accordance with clearly defined rules and regulations. Finally, we suggest user-centered design and field studies to address the problems and to improve the understanding of the users' needs and work practices in development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of usability and its implications for usability research and practice. We propose that the concept of usability evolved from a narrow focus on individual performance to a more inclusive concept of experience and the collective. We address three major trends: cognition-performance, emotional-experience, and social context-experience which, together, seem to reflect those pervading the field of usability. We argue that the movement away from the strictly cognitive, performance-oriented concerns to embracing emotion and eventually social and cultural aspects can largely be attributed to two forces. One is a change in tasks, technologies, and the objectives of systems. The other is the realization that performance alone in the cognitive sense is not enough to account for the richness of phenomena influencing people's interactions with technology. We then discuss the importance of aesthetics and emotion, and finally, usability in the context of collaborative and social computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ISO 13407 is a widely used and referred model of user-centered design, UCD. In this chapter, the principles and activities of ISO 13407 are analysed. Based on the analysis, a revised UCD model "KESSU 2.2" is proposed, including refinements both in the presentation and in the contents of principles and activities. The goal is that the refined model is more consistent and illustrates the essential contents of UCD clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study aims to gain insight into how usability practitioners work in professional web design. This is done through interviews and a grounded analysis. The description reported here refers to the wider influence of the commercial context on usability work. This brings to the fore such issues as the client's influence on work, negotiation between clients and practitioners, the adaptation and use of methods, practitioner expertise and the consideration of people in the usability process. It is believed that this research focus, which moves toward wider issues in practice, is best conceptualized from a system level perspective where the goal is to coordinate resources to add value to the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept of systems usability is introduced. Systems usability provides a holistic activity-oriented perspective to evaluation of the appropriateness of ICT-based smart tools. The concept has been developed in empirical studies of work in complex industrial environments. The nuclear power plant domain is used here to exemplify the systems usability concept and the method developed for evaluating it. In the chapter, we first identify four practical challenges that the current approaches in usability studies face: task analysis, data collection methods, usability measures, and inferences concerning the interface. As a solution to tackle these challenges we, then, introduce our concept of systems usability. To reach the demands of systems usability, work tools must fulfill all three functions of tools: the instrumental, psychological, and communicative. Because systems usability is visible in practices of using the tools we, finally, demonstrate how the developed method labeled contextual assessment of systems usability (CASU) is used for evaluating systems usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal interfaces are becoming more common, even in the field of safety critical interactive software, mainly due to the naturalness of the interaction that increases the bandwidth between the user and the system they are interacting with. However, the specificities of multimodal interactive systems make it difficult to gather information from the use of modalities and to extract from this information recommendations for improving the multimodal user interfaces. This chapter aims at presenting how abstract information described in models can be fruitfully exploited to improve the quality of evaluations of multimodal interfaces. The approach presented in this chapter combines model-based verification (based on simulation scenario extraction generated from models) and empirical methods for usability evaluation. Our aim is to try to bring together two separated (and often opposite) issues, such as usability and reliability, into the development of safety critical systems. This approach is illustrated via a Space Ground System of a satellite control room, whose multimodal interaction technique is fully described by the means of formal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter explores the role that formal modelling may play in aiding the visualization and implementation of usability, with a particular emphasis on experience requirements in an ambient and mobile system. Mechanisms for requirements elicitation and evaluation are discussed, as well as the role of scenarios and their limitations in capturing experience requirements. The chapter then discusses the role of formal modelling by revisiting an analysis based on an exploration of traditional usability requirements before moving on to consider requirements more appropriate to a built environment. The role of modelling within the development process is re-examined by looking at how models may incorporate knowledge relating to user experience, and how the results of the analysis of such models may be exploited by human factors and domain experts in their consideration of user experience issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For users, a software product frequently corresponds to a black box that must effectively support their business processes. Consequently, what a stakeholder seeks is a software product that possesses both required functionality and required quality. Young, immature companies usually can only afford developing functionalities, while mature organizations can develop quality, as well. In this sense, the level of quality observed in a software product is an indicator of the level of maturity of its developer. One may even say that because functionalities are always in a product and quality only sometimes, quality is a more restrictive indicator. Having this in mind, in this chapter we present software quality engineering from both implementation and managerial perspectives, discuss aspects of functionality-quality conflict in the economic and business dimensions, and finally give a few practical observations and recommendations that might find merit in the real, software development lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model-driven architecture (MDA) has recently attracted the interest of both the research community and industry corporations. It specifies an automated process for developing interactive applications from high-level models to code generation. This approach can play a key role in the fields of software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). Although there are some MDA-compliant methods for developing user interfaces, none of them explicitly integrates usability engineering with user interface engineering. This chapter addresses this issue by showing how the usability of user interfaces that are generated automatically by an industrial MDA-compliant CASE tool can be assessed. The goal is to investigate whether MDA-compliant methods improve software usability through model transformations. To accomplish this, two usability evaluations were conducted in the code model (final user interface). Results showed that the usability problems identified at this level provide valuable feedback on the improvement of platform-independent models (PIM) and platform-specific models (PSM) supporting the notion of usability produced by construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous technology is continually spreading computing and communication power in our life. Recent technological advances (including increasing availability of various types of interactive devices, sensors and communication technology) are more and more enabling novel interactive software to support users in several contexts for different objectives, by profiting from the resources available in smart environments. Users should be able to seamlessly access information and services regardless of the device they are using and/or their position, even when the system and/or the environment dynamically change. This creates challenges for designing the user interface, and several interaction modalities (e.g. graphical, vocal, gesture, tactile..) could be used for providing more natural interaction techniques supporting the ‘anytime-anyhow-anywhere' paradigm. In this scenario, a particulrly important aspect is enabling the users to freely move about and naturally continue the interaction with the available applications through different devices (i.e. cell phones, PDAs, desktop computers, digital television sets, intelligent watches..) without having to start their session from scratch at each interaction device change. In this chapter we describe our solution for migratory interactive services which are able to address the above issue by means of three fundamental mechanisms: adapting and preserving the state of the software application parts dedicated to interaction with end users; supporting methods for application logic reconfiguration; and defining flexible mechanisms from the underlying network layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary work groups have proved to be one of the best practices (in terms of efficiency) in modern organizations. Large applications have many different users who can play different roles with responsibilities and rights depending on such roles. There are so many roles, groups, relationships among them, tasks, and collaborations, that it is very difficult to develop an application without gathering all this information in a proper way. This paper describes a modelling approach supported by a graphical notation, which makes the representation of such information easier to analyse and manage. The goal is to provide a complete and integrated approach to model collaborative interactive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging ubiquitous environments raise the need to support multiple interaction modalities in diverse types of devices. Designing multimodal interfaces for ubiquitous environments using development tools creates challenges since target platforms support different resources and interfaces. Model-based approaches have been recognized as useful for managing the increasing complexity consequent to the many available interaction platforms. However, they have usually focused on graphical and/or vocal modalities. This paper presents a solution for enabling the development of tilt-based hand gesture and graphical modalities for mobile devices in a multimodal user interface development tool. The challenges related to developing gesture-based applications for various types of devices involving mobile devices are discussed in detail. The possible solution presented is based on a logical description language for hand-gesture user interfaces. Such language allows us to obtain a user interface implementation on the target mobile platform. The solution is illustrated with an example application that can be accessed from both the desktop and mobile device supporting tilt-based gesture interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a method and a supporting environment that allows remote evaluation of mobile applications. Various modules have been developed in order to gather contextual data about the usage of such applications in different environments. In addition, issues related to how to visualise usability data have been addressed in order to support the designers' work in analysing such data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several accessibility and usability guidelines are proposed more and more. In this paper we present an environment for defining, handling and checking guidelines for the Web. The goal of such a tool is to support developers and evaluators in flexibly handling multiple sets of guidelines, which can be dynamically considered in the evaluation process. In particular, an interactive editor has been designed to assist the evaluators in abstracting and specifying new and existing guidelines in our XML-based Guideline Abstraction Language (GAL), which are then stored in external files. Our tool is able to check any guidelines specified in this language without requiring changes in its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migratory user interfaces are particularly promising for forthcoming ubiquitous environments enabled by the evolution of wireless technology and the proliferation of a wide variety of interactive devices. In this paper we present a logical framework and some fundamental concepts and dimensions that can be useful to help user interface designers and developers understand migratory interfaces, analyse the state of the art, and identify areas which need further research. A number of works in this area are compared and referred to such framework and dimensions, so as to identify the advantages and drawbacks of the various approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an approach, and the associated environment, aiming to support designers to intuitively model interactive applications. The goal is to make modelling activity more natural. The approach is based on a transformation able to convert hand-drawn visual model sketches on boards into task-model specifications that are further editable and analysable through automatic visual tools. A first test of the environment has been carried out and has provided useful suggestions about how to improve it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research field of end-user development has evolved, during recent years, to a certain degree of internal structure, problem awareness and consistency. Both academia and industry have begun to consider it an important field for research and development. In order to let EUD research contribute to the Information Societies, research and development must continue in a consolidated and well-balanced way. This chapter provides an overview of major challenges, motivates why these challenges should be addressed with considerable effort to bring about an Information Society with empowered end-users, and finally discusses how these challenges should be translated into a concrete research and development agenda for the short- and mid-term future. Key words. tailorability, end user programming, flexibility, usability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End-user development (EUD) has enormous potential to make computers more useful in a large variety of contexts by providing people without any formal programming training increased control over information processing tasks. This variety of contexts poses a challenge to EUD system designers. No individual system can hope to address all of these challenges. The field of EUD is likely to produce a plethora of systems fitting specific needs of computer end-users. The goal of this chapter is not to advocate a kind of universal EUD system, but to cut across a variety of application domains based on our experience with the AgentSheets end-user simulation-authoring tool.We have pioneered a number of programming paradigms, experienced a slew of challenges originating in different user communities, and evolved EUD mechanisms over several years. In this chapter we present design guidelines that cut across this vast design space by conceptualizing the process of EUD as a learning experience. Fundamentally, we claim that every EUD system should attempt to keep the learning challenges in proportion to the skills end-users have. By adopting this perspective, EUD can actively scaffold a process during which end-users pick up new EUD tools and gradually learn about new functionality. We structure these design guidelines in accordance to their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic nature of support offered to end-users. Key words. agents, end-user programming, graphical rewrite rules, programming by example, visual programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological research into the usability of programming languages and environments, and the cognitive processes that must be supported to improve their usability, has been conducted for over 30 years [dating at least to Weinberg's (1971) book "The Psychology of Computer Programming"]. For the past 15 years, there have been two permanent research communities devoted to this topic: the Psychology of Programming Interest Group in Europe (www.ppig.org) and the Empirical Studies of Programmers Foundation in America. This chapter presents a survey of the research that has been conducted in those communities, the relationship between that research and end-user development, case studies of shared research themes, and design approaches that have arisen from these themes. In this chapter, I will refer to the work of both communities under the generic term "psychology of programming," although as will become clear later, this term is not completely adequate. Key words. psychology, programming, end-users, education, spreadsheets, scripting, design models [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We think it is time to take another look at an old dream—that one could program a computer by speaking to it in natural language. Programming in natural language might seem impossible, because it would appear to require complete natural language understanding and dealing with the vagueness of human descriptions of programs. Butwe think that several developments might nowmake programming in natural language feasible. First, improved broad coverage natural language parsers and semantic extraction techniques permit partial understanding. Second, mixed-initiative dialogues can be used for meaning disambiguation. And finally, where direct understanding techniques fail, we hope to fall back on Programming by Example, and other techniques for specifying the program in a more fail-soft manner. To assess the feasibility of this project, as a first step, we are studying how non-programming users describe programs in unconstrained natural language.We are exploring how to design dialogs that help the user make precise their intentions for the program, while constraining them as little as possible. Key words. natural language programming, natural language processing, parsing, part-of-speech tagging, computer science education, programming languages, scripting languages, computer games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world that is not predictable, improvisation, evolution, and innovation are more than a luxury: they are a necessity. The challenge of design is not a matter of getting rid of the emergent, but rather of including it and making it an opportunity for more creative and more adequate solutions to problems. Meta-design is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. It extends the traditional notion of system design beyond the original development of a system to include a coadaptive process between users and a system, inwhich the users become co-developers or co-designers. It is grounded in the basic assumption that future uses and problems cannot be completely anticipated at design time, when a system is developed. Users, at use time, will discover mismatches between their needs and the support that an existing system can provide for them. These mismatches will lead to breakdowns that serve as potential sources of new insights, new knowledge, and new understanding. This chapter is structured in four parts: conceptual framework, environments, applications, and findings and challenges. Along the structure of the chapter, we discuss and explore the following essential components of meta-design, providing requirements, guidelines, and models for the future of end-user development: (1) the relationship of meta-design to other design methodologies; (2) the Seeding, Evolutionary Growth, Reseeding Model, a process model for large evolving design artifacts; (3) the characteristics of unself-conscious cultures of design, their strengths and their weaknesses, and the necessity for owners of problems to be empowered to engage in end-user development; (4) the possibilities created by meta-design to bring co-creation alive; and (5) the need for an integrated design space that brings together a technical infrastructure that is evolvable, for the design of learning environments and work organizations that allow end-users to become active contributors, and for the design of relational settings in which users can relate, find motivations and rewards, and accumulate social capital. Key words. co-creation, design for change, design space, design time, domain-oriented design environments, Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory, interactive art, open systems, SER model, social capital, underdesign, unself-conscious cultures of design, use time, value-feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One approach to designing usable and enjoyable computer applications is to say that designers need better methods and tools to understand users and their contexts, and to encode this understanding into closed computer systems. Another is to acknowledge that there will always be unattended user needs, and that the way to increase users' satisfaction is to help them modify systems in order to meet constantly changing requirements. Different techniques are proposed in one approach usually without reference to the other. We present an overarching perspective of human-computer interactionwhere both meet, and provide a semiotic characterization of designers' and users' activities that clarifies the tradeoffs involved in designing and choosing techniques in either approach. Central to this characterization is the role of intentions in what users mean to say and do when using computers. Our characterization is in line with a broader concept of usability, in which systems must support users' improvisation and creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assuming end-user development (EUD) is here to stay, we must begin to consider the economic, organizational and societal factors which would impact its adoption and use. Such studies have so far focused on the wider issues of IT adoption and users controlling information processing power (end-user computing), whilst EUD research has focused on the cognitive and technology aspects of programming by non-specialists. In this chapter we describe the start of a research programme addressing this gap. We present our findings from a pilot survey of researchers, practitioners and end-users conducted over several months in Spring/Summer 2003. The survey analysed two group discussions and 38 questionnaire returns to elicit organisational perceptions and views on End User Development, and to help formulate further research directions in the area, including an outline strategy for managing the integration of EUD. Key words. organizational factors, EUD acceptance, survey of EUD perceptions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An empirical case study highlights that software professionals develop and use specialized knowledge artifacts to improve the effectiveness of product design based on components-off-the-shelf integration. Computational counterparts of these artifacts improve the cooperative problem solving required by the design of applications fulfilling complex user requirements. Integration is likely to become a typical approach in EUD too, and tools supporting it are required. This chapter describes the outcomes of the case study. Lessons learned are discussed with regard to EUD, when it is interpreted as a creative discovery of components to be integrated. Key words. Knowledge Artifact, Software Integration, Design as Discovery [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change of change applications to suit the needs of users in different places and facilitate development over time has long been a major challenge for software maintenance experts. In this chapter we take up tailoring as a means of making software flexible. Starting with two case studies— one taking up tailoring for different users and the other addressing changes over time—the article discusses problems related to both the use and development of a tailorable application. Developing tailorable software presents newchallenges: howdo you create a user-friendly tailoring interface? How do you decide what should be tailorable, and how do you create a software architecture that permits this? How do you ensure that the tailorable system gives acceptable performance? Our experience shows that the borders between maintenance and use become blurred since tailorability can replace maintenance by professional software engineers by tailoring by advanced users. Using our experience of the two selected cases, we identify and discuss five important issues to consider when designing and implementing tailorable systems in industrial settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter we depict collaborative aspects of tailoring software. We provide a categorization distinguishing between (at first) three levels of intensity of user ties regarding tools usage ("shared use," "shared context," and "shared tool") and discuss approaches to support collaborative tailoring in these scenarios. For the two levels with the most intense ties ("Shared Context" and "Shared Tool") we provide the relevant theoretical background as well as empirical evidence from our own fieldwork. Our taxonomy helps us to describe and address two important shortcomings of current tailoring environments. First, current considerations regarding tailorability usually address tailoring within one tool, while current work infrastructures (which we introduce as a forth scenario—"Shared Infrastructure"—in our taxonomy) require a thinking beyond one tool. Second, although studies on tailoring-in-practice and evolving use of organizational software show the importance of user-userinteraction in processes of technology configuration, this interaction was only treated as a side issue in the design of tailoring environments. Respecting the importance of that interaction, we suggest to stronger focus on opportunities to support those appropriation activities of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tailorability should enable users to fit computer systems to the application context. So tailoring options should be meaningful for end-users in their respective domains. This paper discusses how these design criteria can be realized within the technical framework of component-based tailorability. Component-based tailorability assumes that technical flexibility can be realized by allowing end-users to recompose components at runtime. To enable end-users to recompose components at runtime, the system has already appropriately broken down into modules at design time. Such a modularization of the software needs to meet two requirements: on the one hand it must provide sufficient flexibility with respect to the application context and on the other hand it must be understandable by the end-users. In an industrial case study we demonstrate how such a modularization can be established by applying ethnographic methods and choosing an appropriate design metaphor. The ethnographic study helps to capture tailoring needs of the application context. The design metaphor helps to break down software into components which are understandable by end-users. Subsequently, systematic interventions following an action research approach help to validate the design decisions. Key words. component based software engineering, anticipation of change, tailorability, case study, ethnography [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewriting systems are popular in end-user programming because complex behavior can be described with few or no abstractions or variables. However, rewriting systems have been limited to manipulating non-rotatable objects on a grid, such as in Agentsheets or Stagecast Creator. Systems that allow free-form movement of objects must use other techniques, such as the sequential programming by demonstration in Squeak. Viscuit is a new rewriting system that introduces fuzzy rewriting, which allows freely positioned and rotated objects to interact using only rewriting rules. The result is a system that allows users to specify animations in a highly interactive way, without textual language or menu selections. Key words. animation, rewriting system, visual programming language [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]