Lsri Speaker Series - Audio

Over the past 25 years, user interface designers and usability engineers have studied and refined human-computer interaction techniques with the goal of improving people’s productivity and experience. But the target of these efforts — the end user — is fast becoming a thing of the past. Many people now construct or extend software on their own, building artifacts that range from email filters to spreadsheet simulations to interactive web applications. These individuals are end user developers who build their own ad hoc solutions to everyday computing needs. Will end user developers help to resolve the software crisis? Given the right tools, people may be able to rapidly develop custom solutions to a range of context-specific computing requirements, eliminating the wait for IT professionals to analyze and engineer a solution. Or are these individuals a threat to our computing infrastructure? End user developers are informal programmers with no training in software construction methods or computing paradigms. T