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Designing Mobile Systems in Highly Dynamic Scenarios: The WORKPAD Methodology

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Knowledge, Technology & Policy

Abstract

The design of interactive systems to be used in mobile and pervasive scenarios, such as emergency management, requires novel methodologies which combine user-centred design approaches and software engineering approaches tailored for distributed architectures. In this paper, the methodology adopted in a successful research project is presented together with a case study.

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Notes

  1. http://www.amira.no/

  2. http://liaison.newapplication.it/liaison/

  3. http://www.oasis-fp6.org/

  4. http://www.eu-orchestra.org/

  5. http://www.win-eu.org/

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the other technical partners in the project, namely IBM ITALIA, MOVIQUITY, SOFTWARE 602, the Distributed Systems Group of the Technical University of Wien, the Università di Roma TOR VERGATA, for their valuable inputs and fruitful discussions, and the Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, Regione Calabria, namely Salvatore Alcaro, Giuseppe Iiritano, Francesco Manti and Antonino Scopelliti, for invaluable support throughout the project and when interacting continuously with users.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica “Antonio Ruberti”, SAPIENZA-Università di Roma, Via Ariosto 25, Roma, 00185, Italy

    Shah Rukh Humayoun, Tiziana Catarci, Massimiliano de Leoni, Andrea Marrella & Massimo Mecella

  2. Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Jakob-Haringer-Str. 5/III, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Manfred Bortenschlager & Renate Steinmann

Authors
  1. Shah Rukh Humayoun
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  2. Tiziana Catarci
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  3. Massimiliano de Leoni
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  4. Andrea Marrella
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  5. Massimo Mecella
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  6. Manfred Bortenschlager
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  7. Renate Steinmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shah Rukh Humayoun.

Additional information

This work has been partly supported by the EU research project WORKPAD—http://www.workpad-project.eu/.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Interview Template

The moderator asks potential users the following questions:

Basic Data

Date:

 

Name of the interviewed person:

 

Organisation:

 

Position in the organisation

 

Moderator:

 

Present Persons:

 

Question 1: What are your main responsibilities within this organisation?

Question 2: In what kind of emergencies is your organisation involved?

Question 3: What is your role during an emergency? In which phase of an emergency are you involved?

Question 4: Do you know the statistical frequency according to which an emergency happens in your territory?

At this point (it depends on the user), the interview is divided in two trunks: the first concerns front-end users and the second concerns back-end users. The main idea is to immerse the user in the context of an emergency. It means that we have to investigate the steps that the user performs when preparing himself to face the emergency (when he/she gets a call related to an emergency), until the moment in which he/she has to act really. In this way, we create an “implicit scenario” for the user (he/she believes to be in an emergency situation), and he can answer in the way he wants to.

Front End User

Shortly after the emergency has happened

Question 5a: Which steps do you perform shortly after the emergency has happened?

Question 6a: What kind of information (related to the emergency) do you get from the control centre?

Question 7a: How long is the front-end team actively involved in this phase of the emergency (average)?

Question 8a: What kind of information do you exchange with other members of the team during the transport to the place where the emergency has happened?

During the emergency

Question 9a: Describe the composition of the team and the various roles of the team members allocated to them during the emergency.

Question 10a: What kind of technical devices do you currently use in emergencies?

Question 11a: How do you communicate with the other team members and the back-end centre?

Does your team use a separate communication channel?

Question 12a: What kind of technology do you currently use in/after emergency situations?

Question 13a: What kind of information (and in which form) do you exchange with the team leader?

Question 14a: What kind of information (and in which form) do you exchange with the back-end centre?

Question 15a: Do you co-operate with members of other organisations? (For example police, etc.)?

Do you exchange information and/or data?

Do you share a common technology?

Back End User

Shortly after the emergency has happened

Question 5b: Which steps do you perform shortly after the emergency has happened?

Question 6b: How much time are the back-end team actively involved in this phase of the emergency (average)?

Question 7b: What kind of information do you send to front-end operators, who have to prepare them to face the emergency?

Question 8b: In what way do you obtain such information and in which format?

Question 9b: Please, describe the structure of your organisation and the various roles assigned to the team members in this phase of the emergency?

During the emergency

Question 10b: What kind of technical devices do you use for the communication with the front-end operators?

Question 11b: What kind of communication technology do you use?

Does your organisation use a separate communication channel?

Question 12b: Does the communication take place with a particular team member(s) or can you communicate arbitrarily with everybody (how strict are the hierarchical and the communication structures defined within your organisation)?

Question 13b: What kind of information do you send to the front-end users?

Question 14b: What kind of information do you receive from the front-end users?

Question 15b: Do you share technology and data with other organisations?

Which kind of data/technology?

In which way does this exchange of information take place?

The last questions are the same for every user.

Question 16: Do you currently use Geographic Information Systems (GIS)?

If yes, which software and data do you use?

Question 17: Do you think that the devices and technologies used to face the emergency are conform to the purpose for which they are used?

Question 18: What do you think would be a big improvement concerning the technology part?

What kind of improvement would you propose?

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Humayoun, S.R., Catarci, T., de Leoni, M. et al. Designing Mobile Systems in Highly Dynamic Scenarios: The WORKPAD Methodology. Know Techn Pol 22, 25–43 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9070-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9070-3

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