Standardized questionnaires are one of the methods used to evaluate User Experience (UX). Standardized questionnaires are composed of an invariable group of questions that users answer themselves after using a product or system. They are considered reliable and economical to apply. The standardized questionnaires most recognized for UX evaluation are AttrakDiff, UEQ, and meCUE. Although the structure, format, and content of each of the questionnaires are known in detail, there is no systematic literature review (SLR) that categorizes the uses of these questionnaires in primary studies. This SLR presents the eligibility protocol and the results obtained by reviewing 946 papers from four digital databases, of which 553 primary studies were analyzed in detail. Different characteristics of use were obtained, such as which questionnaire is used more extensively, in which geographical context, and the size of the sample used in each study, among others.

Together with many success stories, promises such as the increase in production speed and the improvement in stakeholders’ collaboration have contributed to making agile a transformation in the software industry in which many companies want to take part. However, driven either by a natural and expected evolution or by contextual factors that challenge the adoption of agile methods as prescribed by their creator(s), software processes in practice mutate into hybrids over time. Are these still agile? In this article, we investigate the question: what makes a software development method agile? We present an empirical study grounded in a large-scale international survey that aims to identify software development methods and practices that improve or tame agility. Based on 556 data points, we analyze the perceived degree of agility in the implementation of standard project disciplines and its relation to used development methods and practices. Our findings suggest that only a small number of participants operate their projects in a purely traditional or agile manner (under 15 percent). That said, most project disciplines and most practices show a clear trend towards increasing degrees of agility. Compared to the methods used to develop software, the selection of practices has a stronger effect on the degree of agility of a given discipline. Finally, there are no methods or practices that explicitly guarantee or prevent agility. We conclude that agility cannot be defined solely at the process level. Additional factors need to be taken into account when trying to implement or improve agility in a software company. Finally, we discuss the field of software process-related research in the light of our findings and present a roadmap for future research.

Natural user interfaces are becoming popular. One of the most common natural user interfaces nowadays are voice activated interfaces, particularly smart personal assistants such as Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana, and Siri. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of these four smart personal assistants in two dimensions: the correctness of their answers and how natural the responses feel to users. Ninety-two participants conducted the evaluation. Results show that Alexa and Google Assistant are significantly better than Siri and Cortana. However, there is no statistically significant difference between Alexa and Google Assistant.

Background. Standardized questionnaires are well-known, reliable, and inexpensive instruments to evaluate user experience (UX). Although the structure, content, and application procedure of the three most recognized questionnaires (AttrakDiff, UEQ, and meCUE) are known, there is no systematic literature review (SLR) that classifies how these questionnaires have been used in primary studies reported academically. This SLR seeks to answer five research questions (RQs), starting with identifying the uses of each questionnaire over the years and by geographic region (RQ1) and the median number of participants per study (how many participants is considered enough when evaluating UX?) (RQ2). This work also aims to establish whether these questionnaires are combined with other evaluation instruments and with which complementary instruments are they used more frequently (RQ3). In addition, this review intends to determine how the three questionnaires have been applied in the fields of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence (RQ4) and also in studies that incorporate nontraditional interfaces, such as haptic, gesture, or speech interfaces, to name a few (RQ5). Methods. A systematic literature review was conducted starting from 946 studies retrieved from four digital databases. The main inclusion criteria being the study describes a primary study reported academically, where the standardized questionnaire is used as a UX evaluation instrument in its original and complete form. In the first phase, 189 studies were discarded by screening the title, abstract, and keyword list. In the second phase, 757 studies were full-text reviewed, and 209 were discarded due to the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The 548 resulting studies were analyzed in detail. Results. AttrakDiff is the questionnaire that counts the most uses since 2006, when the first studies appeared. However, since 2017, UEQ has far surpassed AttrakDiff in uses per year. The contribution of meCUE is still minimal. Europe is the region with the most extended use, followed by Asia. Within Europe, Germany greatly exceeds the rest of countries (RQ1). The median number of participants per study is 20, considering the aggregated data from the three questionnaires. However, this median rises to 30 participants in journal studies while it stays in 20 in conference studies (RQ2). Almost 4 in 10 studies apply the questionnaire as the only evaluation instrument. The remaining studies used between one and five complementary instruments, among which the System Usability Scale (SUS) stands out (RQ3). About 1 in 4 studies analyzed belong to ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence fields, in which UEQ increases the percentage of uses when compared to its general percentage, particularly in topics such as IoT and wearable interfaces. However, AttrakDiff remains the predominant questionnaire for studies in smart cities and homes and in-vehicle information systems (RQ4). Around 1 in 3 studies include nontraditional interfaces, being virtual reality and gesture interfaces the most numerous. Percentages of UEQ and meCUE uses in these studies are higher than their respective global percentages, particularly in studies using virtual reality and eye tracking interfaces. AttrakDiff maintains its overall percentage in studies with tangible and gesture interfaces and exceeds it in studies with nontraditional visual interfaces, such as displays in windshields or motorcycle helmets (RQ5).