Benefits and Challenges of Incorporating Crowdsourcing in User Interface Design - Essay Example

Crowdsourcing Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Crowdsourcing in the field of interface design 3 Impact of crowdsourcing on the field of interface design 4 3 benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in user interface design 5 Challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing to interface design 5 Solution to generating interest 7 Evaluating quality of code 7 Effects of crowdsourcing on project timeline and budget 8 Legal, ethical and societal issues and crowdsourcing 9 Legal issues: 9 Ethical dilemma: 9 Societal issue: 10 Conclusion 10 Reference List 12 Introduction Crowdsourcing is basically a phenomenon in which the company provides work to a number of individuals in an attempt to obtain information from them. The term crowdsourcing can be implemented to a number of activities and can even involve the division of a difficult task amongst a number of individuals in an attempt to achieve a set of goals. One of the greatest examples of crowdsourcing has been the advent of Wikipedia. Starting an online encyclopedia would have been a tremendous task and could have required a great deal of resources. Through crowdsourcing the information was obtained without a great deal of cost. The term crowdsourcing was introduced in 2006 in an article published in an online magazine. The article described how organizations were obtaining information from individuals that were willing to help with a particular project or help setup certain businesses (Howe, 2006). The internet has been one of the main tools that have allowed companies to practice the process of crowdsourcing. Through internet companies have been able to reach out to numerous potential volunteers that contribute information to a particular project. Crowdsourcing in the field of interface design Interface design is one of the most critical parts of a project. A user interface visually communicates with the user of that particular piece of software or website. The more attractive a user interface is the more chances there are that the user would opt to use that piece of software or visit the website more frequently additional emphasis is also given on user interface because it greatly is affiliated with the usability of a software or website (Lientz & Rea, 2003 ). The importance of user interface makes it vital for organizations to pay special attention to interface design. Initially organizations preferred hiring individuals who would design the interface under the direct supervision of the heads of the project. The financial crises however forced a number of organizations to cut down on their cost. This in turn led them to opt to outsource a great deal of tasks such as interface design to countries such as India and China where labor rates were considerably low as compared to labor rates in countries such as United States and England. Interface design was a part of tasks that were being outsourced (Avalon Global Research,, 2009). Outsourcing of these tasks greatly decreased the quality of work that was being brought in. Organizations were unable to properly communicate their messages to developers working in foreign countries. The advent of crowdsourcing gave the organizations a means to obtain greater work of different variety at considerably lower rates. All organizations had to do was to swift through the work that was submitted or merge together different ideas in order to obtain the kind of interface they required (Avalon Global Research,, 2009). Impact of crowdsourcing on the field of interface design Over the years there crowdsourcing has been used as a tool in the field of interface design to carry out a number of tasks. One of the greatest impact that crowdsourcing had on the field of interface design is that it allowed the company to obtain different perspective to the design of interface of a particular website or a piece of software. With ideas flowing in from different sources organizations have the opportunity to merge these ideas with the ideas of their own (Vliegendhart, Dolstra, & Pouwelse, 2012). Another major impact that crowdsourcing has had on the field of interface design is the manner in which interfaces of software and websites are tested. Organizations are able to obtain a greater audience for testing user interfaces of their software. Subsequently the result of tests conducted provide the organization with feedback that allows the organization to be able to make any necessary alterations that are needed to improve the design of the interface or to leave it as it is (Vliegendhart, Dolstra, & Pouwelse, 2012). 3 benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing in user interface design One of the biggest benefits of using crowdsourcing for interface design has been the low cost. Organizations have been able to attract talented individuals by offering them small rewards to pitch in ideas about the interface design. Obtaining ideas through crowdsourcing also markets the product that the organization is about to launch (Sui, Elwood, & Goodchild, 2013). Another benefit of crowdsourcing is the range of quality of work that is obtained by the organization. When organizations implement the process of crowdsourcing the organization obtains work that is of different levels of quality. The work ranges from that of excellent quality to poor quality. This allows organizations to obtain work that meets their expectations and work that they can efficiently use and significantly reduce the complexity of their task. It also allows the organization to obtain solution to their interface problem by merging solutions suggested by different volunteers to obtain a single solution (Sui, Elwood, & Goodchild, 2013). While testing their interface organizations usually have to hire individuals that represent a particular community or age. This provides the organization with a smaller sample size which in turn does not provide them with accurate feedback for their software’s interface or of their website’s interface. Crowdsourcing however allows organizations access to a larger sample size and even allows them to obtain feedbacks from individuals from different communities and different parts of the world. An example is the beta testing methods that allow organizations such as Microsoft and Google to be able to obtain feedback about their product from all corners of the earth and from different communities (Sui, Elwood, & Goodchild, 2013). Challenges of incorporating crowdsourcing to interface design One of the greatest challenges that organizations have to face regarding crowdsourcing and interface design is the submission of low quality work. More than often the prospect of reward attracts almost everyone with coding abilities to send their work to the organization. This work rarely meets the requirements of the organization and individuals at the organization have to go through it for no reason at all. Submission of such work also discourages employees that are going through it, a prospect that endangers the prospects of such future programs (Eckert, Niepert, Niemann, Buckner, Allen, & Stuckenschmidt, 2010). Crowdsourcing involves obtaining code from unknown parties. Organizations are unaware of the background and identity of these individuals. This poses a great deal of risk for the organization as the code submitted by some individuals maybe malicious in nature and could even lead to the spread of a virus or Trojan within the organization’s network. Competitive organizations could even use crowdsourcing schemes of that organization as a means to spy on that organization. Such actions would lead to clients questioning the credibility of the organizations security policies and would even ruin the organization’s reputation. This in turn would lead to the loss of regular customers and potential clients (Eckert, Niepert, Niemann, Buckner, Allen, & Stuckenschmidt, 2010). Crowdsourcing also usually causes a great deal of ill feelings amongst the organization’s employees, especially those that are working on the interface of software. Employees tend to think that organizational heads are of the perception that these employees are not competent enough to design an interactive interface. These employees also tend to get frustrated by going through all the work that is submitted through crowdsourcing. These frustrations lead employees into resenting their jobs and eventually lose their motivation to give their hundred percent for the organization (Eckert, Niepert, Niemann, Buckner, Allen, & Stuckenschmidt, 2010). Solution to generating interest Successful implementation of crowd sourcing heavily relies on two main factors, the number of motivated volunteers and the quality of work that he or she submits to the organization. To enhance the number of motivated volunteers organizations provide various incentives to the mass population for example Netflix offered a reward of more than million dollars to the individual that comes up with the best algorithm for movie recommendation (Nakatsu & Grossman, 2013). In this case Netflix had offered a high amount to the winner of the competition. The result can also be obtained with the organization offering a smaller reward to its volunteers. Another more effective measure to ensure that volunteers keep on returning to the organization for future products is by providing them with an interactive interface (Nakatsu & Grossman, 2013). The ease with which individuals are able to navigate through all of the processes of the system would allow help the organization in not only retaining volunteers for a project but would also allow them attract new individuals. Building relationships with individuals is also a method through which individuals companies can obtain the best of the lot. Building relationships with these individuals is by no means an easy task and a great deal of respect is demanded by these individuals. Providing the respect would significantly increase the motivation with which they work for the organization (Nakatsu & Grossman, 2013). Evaluating quality of code In general code is assessed through qualitative and quantitative methods. Points are awarded to the code on performance of the code regarding factors such as security, durability and functionality. These methods also allow the organization to assess if chosen code meets the priorities of the organization if not how close it is. Code evaluation is an integral part when it comes to crowdsourcing interface design. As mentioned above the quality of work submitted varies and the range of quality also varies from excellent to useless (Soley, 2012). To assess the quality of code submitted organizations first have to briefly go through the codes. This may include executing codes that have been submitted. In the second phase organizations then shortlist codes that meet their requirement or can be used by them (Soley, 2012). The short listed code is then thoroughly checked to see if it has any bad sections. The code structure of the code is analyzed to check the code’s robustness and its maintainability. The complexity of the code is assessed next. It is vital to assess the complexity because it helps in determining the time it would take for the code to execute the task it has been given to carry out. The greater the time a code takes to execute the more unreliable and unusable it is (Soley, 2012). Effects of crowdsourcing on project timeline and budget As mentioned above when organizations opt to implement crowdsourcing in interface design it receives a great variety of work. The project team has to swift through all the work that is provided to them. This requires a great deal of the project team’s time. The time that the project team employs at going through the work submitted could be spent on other more important tasks. The extra work that the project team has to do due to crowdsourcing significantly increases the delay. This also postpones the delivery date of the project (Eckert, Niepert, Niemann, Buckner, Allen, & Stuckenschmidt, 2010). As far as budget is concerned crowdsourcing increases the budget as well. The project team has to work overtime in order to assess the work obtained through crowdsourcing. Organization has to pay their project team extra for the overtime that the team puts in. moreover the organization also has to provide volunteers reward that the organization usually promises them. These rewards can be a lump sum award if the organization conducts a competition or the reward can be small in amount provided to multiple volunteers. Organizing and marketing such promotion schemes also costs the organization a great deal of money. All these factors eventually increase the budget set for the project by a great deal (Eckert, Niepert, Niemann, Buckner, Allen, & Stuckenschmidt, 2010). The increase in budget and the increase in time initially estimated results in the loss of potential clients. Crowdsourcing might initially seem like a cheaper option than opting to hire a full time interface designer. However a proper decision can only be reached after proper analysis (Vliegendhart, Dolstra, & Pouwelse, 2012). Legal, ethical and societal issues and crowdsourcing Legal issues: One of the main legal issues that have been associated with crowdsourcing has been the ownership of the concept idea or work submitted to the organization. The concept of interface design that volunteers submit to organizations is also subjected to the same issue (Phneah, 2013). For example if an organization adopts the code of an interface of a volunteer and integrates it into the software or website then there is a chance that the volunteer might claim ownership of the intellectual property he or she would have submitted and the organization made use of. Another problem that is raised for legal authorities is the creation of laws to ensure that volunteers are not swindled out of their rights when they submit a particular concept or an intellectual property. In some cases the reward that is provided to the volunteers is much smaller when compared to the benefits organizations make from the sale of their product (Phneah, 2013). Ethical dilemma: Ethically the view on crowdsourcing is divided amongst the mass population. Most individuals believe that organizations should be more ethically responsible and provide appropriate compensation to volunteers that are providing their ideas to the organization. Paying volunteers lesser than what they deserve tends to raise a great deal of criticism regarding the use of crowdsourcing by organizations for their own benefits. A second set of individuals argue that in order to help out local businesses and help boost the economy of the nation every individual must pitch in and offer the little that they can. This view helps argue in support of using crowdsourcing as a means to obtain ideas (Lientz & Rea, 2003 ). Societal issue: On a large scale crowdsourcing divides a large complex problem amongst various volunteers. These volunteers complete the task and hand over the result to the organization that integrates the result of each volunteer into a single solution. The volunteers are unaware of the end result of the work that they submit. The project that the organization may be working on could be against the beliefs of one or more volunteers. For example if an organization designs a website for a fast food restaurant and asks a vegetarian to work on part of the interface of that website (Sui, Elwood, & Goodchild, 2013). Conclusion Crowdsourcing has gained a great deal of popularity in recent times and has become one of a strategic tool that organizations have come to make use of to reduce their cost and allow the organization to easily solve complex problems. Interface design has been one of many tasks where project team has been up to a certain extent been able to implement crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has been greatly advantageous to organizations. However there are some pitfalls that organizations have to watch out for while implementing the process of crowdsourcing. There are some social, ethical and legal concerns regarding crowdsourcing that with time have arisen. It is vital that in order to ensure that if the process of crowdsourcing flourishes these issues must be addressed and their solutions must be provided as soon as possible. Reference List Avalon Global Research,. (2009). The Global economic meltdown and its impact on Outsourcing. New Dehli: Avalon Global Research. Eckert, K., Niepert, M., Niemann, C., Buckner, C., Allen, C., & Stuckenschmidt, H. (2010). Crowdsourcing the Assembly of Concept. Proceedings of the 10th ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL). Brisbane: ACM Press. Howe, J. (2006, June 12). The Rise of Crowdsourcing. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.wired.com/: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html Lientz, B. P., & Rea, K. P. (2003 ). International Project Management. London: Routledge. Nakatsu, R., & Grossman, E. (2013). Designing Effective User Interfaces for Crowdsourcing: An Exploratory Study. Los Angeles: Loyola Marymount University. Phneah, E. (2013, June 4). Crowdsourcing faces ethical, legal risks. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/: http://www.zdnet.com/crowdsourcing-faces-ethical-legal-risks-7000016300/ Soley, R. M. (2012). How to Deliver Resilient, Secure, Efficient, and Easily Changed IT Systems in Line with CISQ Recommendations. Needham: Object Management Group. Sui, D. Z., Elwood, S., & Goodchild, M. F. (2013). Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI . Colombus: Springer. Vliegendhart, R., Dolstra, E., & Pouwelse, J. (2012). Crowdsourced user interface testing for multimedia applications. CrowdMM 12 Proceedings of the ACM multimedia 2012 workshop on Crowdsourcing for multimedia (pp. 21-22). Atlanta: ACM. Read More