Design de interação em desenvolvimento distribuído de software: práticas, desafios, recomendações e lacunas de pesquisa.

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an area focused on studies on human interaction with/through computational systems, among which stand out tangent studies on interaction design. In HCI, interaction design has been consolidated as a practice with the potential to support interactive systems projects. On the other hand, more and more organizations are developing (conceiving, designing, building, testing) software with geographically distributed teams. However, interaction design in distributed software development (DSD) has been little explored, mapped, or structured in the scientific literature. Although there are reports in the scientific literature about interaction design in DSD and some proposed solutions, it is not clear how interaction design occurs in DSD projects. This research, therefore, was motivated by the advancement of projects in DSD, the increase in the number of projects and users of free/libre open source software (FLOSS), problems related to human-computer interaction, and interaction design challenges in DSD. In this sense, this research investigated how interaction design has been practiced in DSD projects, seeking to understand its characteristics, challenges, and limitations. The methodology of this research was based on Charles S. Peirce's semiotic methodeutics, bibliographic research method (ad-hoc literature review and systematic mapping study), and mixed methods research (survey and interview study) to investigate the current state of knowledge and practice on interaction design in DSD, in addition to providing a theoretical foundation for the conception of recommendations for the interaction design in DSD. We hope that the results pointed out by this research contribute to the body of knowledge about interaction design at the research frontier between HCI and DSD by (i) providing an overview of research efforts on interaction design in DSD, (ii) providing an overview of the practice of interaction design in DSD projects, (iii) presenting how interaction design occurs in DSD projects, (iv) identify research gaps and discuss future research directions, (v) conceiving a set of recommendations for interaction design in DSD, and (vi) supporting the involvement of end users in the construction of interactive systems artifacts in DSD projects.