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community), uses a system workshop; a software
engineer uses a particular system workshop to
produce the tools for the other members of the
team and accesses other workshops to check their
functionalities.
In general, a network is organized in levels. In
each level, one or more workshops can be used,
which are connected by communication paths. In
the example in Figure 1, three levels exist: (a) the
metadesign level
, where software engineers use
a system workshop called W-SE to prepare the
tools to be used and to participate in the design,
implementation, and validation activities; (b)
the
design level
, where software engineers, HCI
experts, and end-user representatives cooperate
in the design, implementation, and validation
activities; a design member belonging to the
community X participates in the design using a
system workshop W-ReprX customized to the
needs, culture, and skills of community X; and (c)
the
use level
, where practitioners of the different
communities cooperate to achieve a task; simi-
larly, practitioners belonging to the community
X participate in the task achievement using the
application workshop W-End-UserX customized
to their needs, culture, and skills.
Software engineers are required (a) to provide
the software tools necessary to the development
of the overall application and (b) to participate in
the design of application and system workshops.
Therefore, from their workshops, software engi-
neers may reach each system and/or application
workshop.
Representatives of end users may work at two
levels. At the design level, they use their own
system workshop to participate in the design, and,
at the bottom level, they use their own application
workshop to carry out specific activities in their
application domain.
HCI experts use their own system workshop
to participate in the design and, at the bottom
level, may access all application workshops to
check their functionalities.
Practitioners can only use their own applica-
tion workshop to perform their tasks.
At each level, communication paths exist that
allow experts in a domain to communicate with
experts in a different domain. A domain expert
using his or her workshop W-ReprZ can send data
or programs to a different domain expert. Data
and programs are interpreted and materialized
by the workshop W-ReprY, customized to the
second domain expert. As we have discussed in
detail in Costabile et al. (2006a), the main tool
currently used for this kind of communication is
electronic annotation.
It is important to notice that a communication
exists from a lower level to the upper one and vice
versa. In our approach, this capability is given by
(a) allowing end users, interacting with an SSW,
to annotate their usability problems and to com-
municate them to all the experts reachable in the
network and (b) allowing designers to update the
applications and propose the updated versions to
end users. See Costabile et al. (2006c) for a de-
tailed discussion about the communication paths
in a SSW network and their role in supporting the
co-evolution of users and systems.
Each SSW co-evolves in time with end users
and the design team. Co-evolution is a long life
process asking for a
continuous development
of
the interactive system. This is different from the
so-called Rapid Application Development (RAD)
that foresees the possibility for programmers of
quickly building working programs. RAD systems
emphasize reducing development time, while the
SSW focuses on user satisfaction, that is, (1) ac-
ceptability and usability of the application and (2)
balancing the features of the tools on user needs
and expectations. Moreover, RAD systems are
development environments devoted to software
engineers, but they are still far from being used
easily and effectively by end users. The SSW ap-
proach stresses the role of representatives of end
users as active members of the design team. To
this end, system workshops at the design level,
used by either HCI experts or representatives of
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