Interaction Design in Distributed Software Development: What we know and what we don’t know

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an area focused on human interaction with/through computational systems, among which tangent studies on interaction design stand out. In HCI, interaction design has been consolidated as a practice with the potential to support interactive systems projects. On the other hand, more and more organizations are developing software with geographically distributed teams. However, interaction design in distributed software development (DSD) has yet to be explored, mapped, or structured in the scientific literature. Although there are reports in the scientific literature about interaction design in DSD and some proposed solutions, how interaction design occurs in DSD is still being determined. In this paper, we present a summary of the results of a research that aimed to investigate how interaction design has been practiced in DSD, seeking to understand the practices, challenges, and limitations, as well as to promote and advance the state of knowledge in interaction design in the context of DSD. The research methodology was based on Charles S. Peirce's semiotic methodeutics, bibliographic research method, and mixed methods research to investigate the current state of knowledge and practice on interaction design in DSD. We hope that the results pointed out by this research contribute to the body of knowledge about interaction design at the research frontier between HCI and DSD by (i) providing an overview of research efforts on interaction design in DSD, (ii) providing an overview of the practice of interaction design in DSD, (iii) identify research gaps and discuss future research directions, and (iv) conceiving a set of recommendations for interaction design in DSD.