ProAut: um processo para apoiar a prototipação de interfaces de aplicações para autistas

Abstract

Designing a system’s interface is is an extremely important activity since if aesthetics or usability does not please the user, the user experience can be compromised. When it comes to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, it is no different, and it becomes a challenge due to the development teams’ lack of preparation in conducting interface projects for this audience. Considering that in several projects, creating a prototype can help validate the interface at a low cost, this thesis proposes to help teams that include prototypes in their applications. In this context, was identified the following research question: “How to support software engineers and/or designers in conducting prototype development of application interfaces specific for autistic audiences?”. Through a systematic mapping, gaps were identified in relation to a process to develop prototypes of interfaces for autistic people. That said, this thesis presents ProAut, a process to support the prototyping of application interfaces for autistic public. ProAut has its stages based on Design Thinking, which are: Immersion, Analysis, Ideation, and Prototyping. Among the main aggressive agents of ProAut we have PersonAut and EmpathyAut, as a model of Personas and Empathy Map, respectively, unique to personify low functioning autistics. A professional industry team evaluated ProAut to identify opportunities for improvement in its artifacts and enable validation from that team’s point of view. This evaluation points out ProAut as promising and usable by teams that wish to prototype application interfaces for autistic people.