SoD-Team: A Meta-Design Framework for Participative Software Systems

我们现在正在进入一个软件开发的新阶段，在这个阶段，数百万人不仅在使用软件，而且在很大程度上参与到软件的开发中。现有的软件设计方法主要侧重于生产力驱动的系统，不足以应付因如此广泛和多样化的用户参与而出现的实际用途和不断变化的要求。相反，需要一种新的参与式软件系统，其设计不会在部署时结束。对于参与式系统来说，成功取决于持续的用户参与，一个重要的目标是实现软件系统与其不断变化的使用环境、问题、域、用户和用户社区之间的“最佳匹配”。在这个项目中，PI将开发一个元设计框架，以应对基本挑战，并指导软件开发人员设计此类系统。基于对现有设计理论的评估以及对成功的参与式软件系统的系统分析，这项研究将从一个部分连接的元设计框架开始，该框架建立在假设元设计系统可以由种子、进化增长和重新播种(SER)过程模型支持的基础上。PI将确定和关联参与式软件系统的技术和社会特征，以支持用户协作地参与解决他们自己问题的解决方案的设计。确定的特征将用于指导设想和发现合作实验室(EDC)的未来发展，该实验室将由真实用户用于解决不同设计领域中的复杂现实问题。这项工作将与与公共交通有关的一个具体的重大多年期城市规划项目相结合，利益攸关方已经为此形成了初步合作。在初始元设计框架的指导下，仔细和系统地评估设计决策对这种现实世界问题解决情况的影响将反馈到元设计框架的改进中。由此产生的元设计框架将描绘设计空间，定义设计过程，并为创建参与式软件系统确定一套评估标准。广泛影响：随着软件系统越来越多地融入我们的日常生活，并重塑人们交互、协作、工作和思考的方式，对软件系统的需求变得更加个性化，并在持续使用过程中不断变化。这项研究将为设计参与式软件系统奠定科学基础，这些系统在任何时候都没有固定的需求，并且需要用户参与和贡献作为系统的基本部分。这项研究将有助于更好地理解对设计科学这一具有挑战性的领域至关重要的技术和社会方面的复杂相互作用。该项目将汇集来自设计理论、软件工程、人机交互和认知科学的研究人员，以深入了解如何让问题的所有者负责，并使他们独立于“高科技抄写员”。许多本科生和研究生将参与研究活动，作为他们经验的一部分，他们将接触到软件设计的新方法。

We are now entering a new phase for software development where millions of people are not only using software but also becoming involved in its development to widely varying degrees. Existing software design methodologies that focus primarily on productivity-driven systems are insufficient to cope with the emergence of situated uses and fluctuating requirements encountered by such wide and diversified user involvement. Rather, a new class of participative software systems is needed, the design of which does not end at the time of deployment. For participative systems success hinges on continued user participation, and an important goal is to achieve the "best fit" between the software system and its ever-changing context of use, problems, domains, users, and communities of users. In this project, the PI will develop a meta-design framework to address fundamental challenges and guide software developers in the design of such systems. Grounded in an assessment of existing design theories as well as the systematic analysis of successful participative software systems, this research will start with a partially articulated meta-design framework, founded on the assumption that meta-designed systems can be supported by the Seeding, Evolutionary Growth, and Reseeding (SER) process model. The PI will identify and correlate the technical and social characteristics of participative software systems that support users to collaboratively engage in the design of solutions to their own problems. The identified characteristics will be used to guide future development of the Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC), which will be used by real users to solve complex real-world problems in different design domains. The work will be integrated with a specific major, multi-year urban planning project relating to public transportation, for which an initial collaboration among the stakeholders has already been formed. Careful and systematic assessment of design decision impacts, guided by the initial meta-design framework, on this real-world problem-solving situation will feed back into the refinement of the meta-design framework. The resulting meta-design framework will delineate a design space, define a design process, and identify a set of evaluation criteria for the creation of participative software systems.Broader Impacts: As software systems are being increasingly woven into our daily lives and reshape the way people interact, collaborate, work, and think, requirements for software systems have become more individually differentiated and continuously change during their ongoing use. This research will create the scientific foundation for the design of participative software systems that do not have fixed requirements at any point in time, and necessitate user participation and contribution as a fundamental part of the system. The research will contribute to a better understanding of the complicated interactions of technical and social aspects essential to this challenging domain of a science of design. The project will bring together researchers from design theory, software engineering, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science to gain insight into how to put owners of problems in charge and make them independent of "high-tech scribes." The many undergraduate and graduate students who will be involved in the research activities will as part of their experience be exposed to new approaches to software design.