http://hdl.handle.net/10149/47215 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:07:21 GMT 2013-05-23T05:07:21Z http://hdl.handle.net/10149/251498 Title: Web user requirements: a support framework for students Authors: Bingham, A. (Andrew) Abstract: This thesis proposes a framework to support the inexperienced student user to undertake the elicitation, analysis and specification of web user requirements. It is designed to support the student during web projects and to encourage more rigorous analysis by documenting web user requirements before the student commences design and implementation. The framework comprises a process meta-model, object model, rules model, support and guidance model, consistency, completeness and correctness model, learning model, student data model and a requirements specification model. The framework was transformed into an automated Computer Aided Web Environment (CAWE) tool and tested on a number of web modules within a Higher Education Institute (HEI). The research programme adopts the Canonical Action Research (CAR) methodology, which involves one or more iterations of diagnosing, action planning, action taking, evaluating and specifying what has been learned through reflection and allows interventions to take place within the next research cycle. Students were active participants in the research programme and contributed to the development of the intervention with continuous feedback. Analysis of usage data generated by the CAWE tool provided a valuable insight into how the framework and support mechanism was used by the students. Main contributions include the extension of knowledge and understanding of Web User Requirements in Web Engineering. Contribution is made to the curriculum of Web Engineering by identifying gaps in knowledge and understanding regarding the lack of analysis techniques used by the student. ii Contribution is also made to Web and User Requirements Engineering by proposing, implementing and evaluating a range of novel methods and frameworks through student collaboration. Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10149/251498 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10149/132190 Title: Expressive reversible language: Aspects of semantics and implementation Authors: Lynas, A. R. (Angel Robert) Abstract: In this thesis we investigate some of the issues involved in creating a reversible variant of the formal software development language B. We consider the effects of regarding computation as a potentially reversible process, yielding a number of new programming structures which we integrate into an implementation-level language RB0, a more expressive variant of B0, the current implementation-level language for B. Since reversibility simplifies garbage collection, in RB0 we make use of more abstract, set-based data types, normally available in B only at the specification level. Similarly, we propose extending the domain of abstract functions currently specifiable in B to allow them to become concrete functions, thereby furnishing B with a functional sub-language. We also investigate expanding the use of Lambda calculus from the abstract stage of B to the implementation. Unlike B0, RB0 will not disallow non-determinism, and can also specify what we call Prospective Value computations (which are described). The executable language implements all of these features. After introducing some preliminary concepts, we review the work leading to the rise of Reversible Computing as a possible answer to the growing problem of energy dissipation in modern processors. We describe the language RB0, and demonstrate the use of its features, introducing the companion language RB1 and its role in the process. We then introduce our execution platform, the Reversible Virtual Machine (RVM), and translate some of the examples developed earlier into RVM code. For the concrete functions, we provide a proposed syntax and translation schema to enable consistent translation to RVM, and introduce a postfix Lambda notation to link the RB0 specification to the RVM’s own postfix notation. We provide comprehensive translation schemas for those parts of RB0 which would be found in B operations; these will form the basis of an automated translation engine. In addition, we look at a denotational semantics for Bunch theory, which has proved useful in formalising the underlying concepts. Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10149/132190 2011-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10149/129791 Title: Characterising action potential in virtual game worlds applied with the mind module Authors: Eladhari, M. P. (Mirjam Palosaari) Abstract: Because games set in persistent virtual game worlds (VGWs) have massive numbers of players, these games need methods of characterisation for playable characters (PCs) that differ from the methods used in traditional narrative media. VGWs have a number of particularly interesting qualities. Firstly, VGWs are places where players interact with and create elements carrying narrative potential. Secondly, players add goals, motives and driving forces to the narrative potential of a VGW, which sometimes originates from the ordinary world. Thirdly, the protagonists of the world are real people, and when acting in the world their characterisation is not carried out by an author, but expressed by players characterising their PCs. How they can express themselves in ways that characterise them depend on what they can do, and how they can do it, and this characterising action potential (CAP) is defined by the game design of particular VGWs. In this thesis, two main questions are explored. Firstly, how can CAP be designed to support players in expressing consistent characters in VGWs? Secondly, how can VGWs support role-play in their rule-systems? By using iterative design, I explore the design space of CAP by building a semiautonomous agent structure, the Mind Module (MM) and apply it in five experimental prototypes where the design of CAP and other game features is derived from the MM. The term semiautonomy is used because the agent structure is designed to be used by a PC, and is thus partly controlled by the system and partly by the player. The MM models a PC’s personality as a collection of traits, maintains dynamic emotional state as a function of interactions with objects in the environment, and summarises a PC’s current emotional state in terms of ‘mood’. The MM consists of a spreading-activation network of affect nodes that are interconnected by weighted relationships. There are four types of affect node: personality trait nodes, emotion nodes, mood nodes, and sentiment nodes. The values of the nodes defining the personality traits of characters govern an individual PC’s state of mind through these weighted relationships, resulting in values characterising for a PC’s personality. The sentiment nodes constitute emotionally valenced connections between entities. For example, a PC can ‘feel’ anger toward another PC. This thesis also describes a guided paper-prototype play-test of the VGW prototype World of Minds, in which the game mechanics build upon the MM’s model of personality and emotion. In a case study of AI-based game design, lessons learned from the test are presented. The participants in the test were able to form and communicate mental models of the MM and game mechanics, validating the design and giving valuable feedback for further development. Despite the constrained scenarios presented to test players, they discovered interesting, alternative strategies, indicating that for game design the ‘mental physics’ of the MM may open up new possibilities. The results of the play-test influenced the further development of the MM as it was used in the digital VGW prototype the Pataphysic Institute. In the Pataphysic Institute the CAP of PCs is largely governed by their mood. Depending on which mood PCs are in they can cast different ‘spells’, which affect values such as mental energy, resistance and emotion in their targets. The mood also governs which ‘affective actions’ they can perform toward other PCs and what affective actions they are receptive to. By performing affective actions on each other PCs can affect each others’ emotions, which - if they are strong - may result in sentiments toward each other. PCs’ personalities govern the individual fluctuations of mood and emotions, and define which types of spell PCs can cast. Formalised social relationships such as friendships affect CAP, giving players more energy, resistance, and other benefits. PCs’ states of mind are reflected in the VGW in the form of physical manifestations that emerge if an emotion is very strong. These manifestations are entities which cast different spells on PCs in close proximity, depending on the emotions that the manifestations represent. PCs can also partake in authoring manifestations that become part of the world and the game-play in it. In the Pataphysic Institute potential story structures are governed by the relations the sentiment nodes constitute between entities. Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10149/129791 2010-04-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10149/123246 Title: A framework for user characteristics capture: An evaluation of using RUMM in the teaching of web design Authors: Bingham, A. (Andrew); Turnell, J. (Julie); Griffiths, G. (Gary); Oates, B. J. (Briony) Editors: Lang, M. (Michael); Oates, B. J. (Briony); Siau, K. (Keng) Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10149/123246 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z