Interfaces that induce error: an undergraduate thesis catalogues common traps — and how to avoid them
Caio César de Almeida Beleza defended at FCTE/UnB an undergraduate thesis analyzing software interface problems that push users toward error and systematizing recommendations to avoid them.
Brasília, May 19, 2021
Blaming the user is the easy way out. But much of the error trail that appears in system logs is triggered by design choices that made it through the team without any pushback. This blind spot is what Caio César de Almeida Beleza brings under scrutiny in his undergraduate thesis, defended in May 2021 at FCTE/UnB, advised by Prof. Fabiana Freitas Mendes .
The work builds on a premise that is now common ground for HCI researchers: interaction effectiveness depends both on system quality and on how people operate it. Human errors, under this framing, are not isolated operational failures — they are frequent symptoms of an interface that emitted ambiguous signals, hid critical options, or asked for decisions in the wrong context.
The research catalogues frequent interface problems that push users toward error, discusses how to identify them during development, and proposes practical recommendations to mitigate them. It is a piece of software quality work conceived as a service: turning what usually circulates as tacit experience into a reference that can be consulted during design decisions.
The full text — written in Portuguese — is available at the UnB Undergraduate Theses Digital Library.
About CEDIS: The Center for Studies, Development, and Innovation in Software (CEDIS), linked to the University of Brasília, researches and develops innovative software solutions.