Abstract
Aging is a natural process that progressively introduces limitations in a person's life, which can have dramatic effects on the person's lifestyle and wellbeing and in most cases is related to the strength of the person's social bonds with the family and friends group. Therefore, it is important to maintain these bonds in the various stages of life, especially in the later life, when the individual has health limitations and may be living in a care centre. In this work, we developed an exploratory approach to the usage of ICT systems in order to autonomy assist the elderly in maintaining their social connections and relationships with family and friends. It doesn't substitutes the human care, but it should assist and encourage the elderly to preserve and develop their social activities and the relationships with their family and friends social group. We propose the design of a software system, capable of running in autonomous devices, such as, robots and other consumer appliances, enabling them to recognize and interact with the users, according to their state of mind and the specific current moment context. The interactions should be simple and focused on keeping the users engaged and informed about the current life events of their family and friends, and create the opportunities for the users to interact with the participants of those events by creating interaction proposals. On a technical level, the system should have knowledge about the user and be able to acquire and update context information from social media, video cameras, email, etc, regarding the user and the persons from his family and friends groups, in order to develop meaningful interactions with the user. An adaptive user interface would present and manage the interactions, acting as a mediator between the user and his family and friends group.

Abstract

Abstract
Neste artigo, é apresentada uma pesquisa-ação com o objetivo de motivar os alunos a desenvolverem suas aprendizagens de programação de computadores no ensino superior, particularmente na transição da programação de nível iniciante para a programação avançada. Para alcançar este objetivo, foi desenvolvida uma abordagem motivacional denominada SimProgramming. A partir das reflexões sobre o processo desta pesquisa, conclui-se que SimProgramming em sua aplicação ao ensino de programação de computadores em turmas intermediárias é promissor e ainda apresenta potencial para ser usado em outros contextos educacionais.;In this paper, an action research is presented to motivate students to develop their learning of computer programming in higher education, particularly in the transition from beginner to advanced programming. To achieve this goal, a motivational approach was developed called SimProgramming. From the reflections on the process of this research, it is concluded that SimProgramming in its application to the teaching of computer programming in intermediate classes is promising and still presents potential to be used in other educational contexts.

Abstract
This paper presents an accessible platform for the automatic creation of icons through a simple (web) form. The platform allows the creation of personalized icons that can be used as a navigation or search option in web context replacing the usual text keyword metaphor. With the development of this platform we aimed to provide a simpler automatic method of icon creation, allowing users to personalize their icons and share them with others. The icons created are stored in a database that can be used in different Web or digital contexts. As a proof of concept, the platform was integrated with an existing Web application for video searching in the YouTube platform through icons hyperlinks: SAMi [1]. The resulting integrated platform was assessed for usability (user tests) and accessibility (with an automatic assess tool). The results showed the interface is accessible to a group of people with intellectual disabilities, increasing their performance, satisfaction, motivation and autonomy. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Abstract

Abstract
In recent years, the demand from online customers has become a major problem, the variety of choice and the need for them to feel special triggered the desire to customize the products they want to buy. This high customer demand for customized products has been one of the biggest obstacles that companies have encountered. To achieve an adequate response to customer demands, companies need to adopt tools that offer to customers exactly what they want, in other words, allow customers to customize the products they want to buy. This research aims to perceive if using CMS platforms and low-cost software might be a proper solution for enterprises who intend to not only sell their products online, but also want their customers to be able to perform live product customization during their purchase. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.