Environments to support context and emotion aware visual interaction

The interaction with software systems is often affected by many types of hurdles that induce users to make errors and mistakes, and to break the continuity of their reasoning while carrying out a working task with the computer. As a consequence, negative emotional states, such as frustration, dissatisfaction, and anxiety, may arise. In this paper, we illustrate how the Software Shaping Workshop (SSW) methodology can represent a solution to the problem of developing interactive systems that are correctly perceived and interpreted by end-users, thus becoming more acceptable and favouring positive emotional states. In the methodology, a key role is played by domain-expert users, that is, experts in a specific domain, not necessarily experts in computer science. Domain-expert users' skills and background, including their knowledge of the domain and users' needs and habits, are exploited to create context and emotion aware visual interactive systems. Examples of these systems are illustrated by referring to a case study in the automation field.