The topic of the research reported here is direct user participation in the task-based development of interactive software systems. Building usable software demands understanding and supporting users and their tasks. Users are a primary source of usability requirements and knowledge, since users can be expected to have intimate and extensive knowledge of themselves, their tasks and their working environment. Task analysis approaches to software development encourage a focus on supporting users and their tasks while participatory design approaches encourage users' direct, active contributions...

The combination of fast, low-latency networks and high-performance, distributed tools for mathematical software has resulted in widespread, affordable scientific computing facilities. Practitioners working in the fields of computer communication networks, distributed computing, computational algebra and numerical analysis have been brought together to contribute to this volume and explore the emerging distributed and parallel technology in a scientific environment. This collection includes surveys and original research on both software infrastructure for parallel applications and hardware and...