e-Cidadania: Systems and Methods for the Constitution of a Culture mediated by Information and Communication Technology

In the Brazilian society, we face a situation characterized by enormous differences with regard to socio-economics, culture, geographical region as well as access to technology and knowledge. This is a scenario for which there exist no previous experiences to get inspiration from and where the challenge is unique: to let the citizens benefit from Information and Communication Technology, via its user interfaces, thus promoting the process of constitution of a fairer society, opened to the differences. The big challenge of Computer Science to change this reality lies in the search for methods and system designs that provide access and make sense to the users' community, thus supporting the formation of a digital culture that respects the diversity in our society.

This research proposal investigates and proposes solutions for interaction models and interfaces for the diversity of users and competencies that constitute the scenario of the digitally excluded people in our society (which include illiterate and impaired people). In general terms, the project proposed in this document aims at studying and proposing solutions to the challenges of interaction and user interface design for systems in the context of citizenship practice. To reach this goal, the research group will develop joint actions with a partner institution (network Jovem.com and communities around it) to conduct interaction and interface design of a pilot system to be implemented in the target community.

Making available systems that make sense to and are accessible by the citizen – and thus also bring benefits for society as a whole – requires a socio-technical vision of the problem. Therefore, for this research we propose to use the frame of reference of Organizational Semiotics articulated with principles of Universal Design or Design for All. The contribution of this project lies in the advance of research in the area of (inclusive and universal) interfaces tailorable to users' diversity of competencies as well as in the creation of applications that actually make sense to the target community (i.e. constitution of social networks and e-citizenship).

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Universal Design, Accessibility and Inclusive Design, Digital Inclusion, electronic Government.