Interface Design: The Role of Crowdsourcing in Development

This report delves into the multifaceted role of crowdsourcing in interface design. It begins by defining crowdsourcing and tracing its evolution, emphasizing its growing impact, particularly for smaller and start-up companies. The report explores how crowdsourcing leverages the collective intelligence of online communities to generate innovative ideas, improve interface design, and optimize project timelines. It highlights the benefits, such as increased productivity, access to creativity, and reduced costs. The report also acknowledges challenges, including idea screening, management complexities, and ensuring project success. The paper then offers suggestions for generating project interest, evaluating skills, and assessing code quality. It further discusses the impact of crowdsourcing on budgets, timelines, and the associated legal, societal, and ethical considerations, providing a comprehensive analysis of this transformative approach to interface design.

Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing in the Field of Interface Design
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Invention and Growth of Crowdsourcing..................................................................................2
Crowdsourcing Impact on Interface Design..............................................................................2
Benefits of Incorporating Crowdsourcing..................................................................................2
Challenges of Incorporating Crowdsourcing.............................................................................2
Generating Project Interest of Online Community....................................................................2
Skill and Quality of Code Evaluation........................................................................................2
Crowdsourcing impact on Budget and Timeline.......................................................................2
Legal, Societal, and Ethical Issues.............................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................2
References..................................................................................................................................3

Introduction
Crowdsourcing is a method through which a specific crowd is engaged to achieve some
particular goal. The crowdsourcing activities are facilitated by the advanced technological
aspects present today, namely, social media, and web 2.0. There are various levels at which
crowdsourcing can be facilitated (Aitamurto et al, 2011). It can be facilitated at the individual
level by calling the individuals to join the particular to complete a task over a particular topic,
or it can be done at the industry level. The companies such as Apple and Microsoft can
engage the particular group of individuals together and make them work to complete a task.
Due to the facilities in connectivity, the crowdsourcing activities have received much
attention in contemporary situation.
There are millions of people who are connected to each other as an the online community and
due to the faster internet services and outreach, everyone is getting closer each day. This has
become a greater source in solving the problem at hand. It is quite interesting that the way
one can receive ideas to solve complex problems by simply asking to a large community
which was not accessible a decade ago (Alsever, 2007). This has allowed one asking
questions to bigger group of people and receiving answer in a systematized manner with no
noise.
This paper is concerned with understanding the various aspects of crowdsourcing and how it
will support in the development of interface design for individual client. The areas that have
been covered are the way crowdsourcing has grown in past few years and the benefits and
challenges of this aspect. Moreover, suggestions have been given to activate the online
community towards a project and evaluate the skills each of the individuals joining the team
has and the quality assessment of the code they have submitted.

Invention and Growth of Crowdsourcing
The exponential growth has been observed in the case of utilization of crowdsourcing as the
tool to develop the interface designs. The fundamental reason behind the utilization of the
crowdsourcing is to access the collective intelligence of individuals who are sitting far from
the company and support in the business activities (Gonzales, 2010). These were the
activities that were previously were conducted within the company which has been brought
out to the public at large to access. This brings the power to the companies to access the
benefits of the external sources that could not have been possible otherwise.
The crowdsourcing is different from outsourcing in the manner that it uses the resources
which are available in a particular geographical area of the company. The companies that
have limited budget in their hand can amply access this technique and use its benefits. The
ideas are free-flowing which were not been able to be tapped due to the lack of the access.
However, after the advent of the internet the companies are able to access these with greater
ease and comfort. This method has helped the small companies as well as the larger ones. The
interface design and development in this manner has been possible only through the
development and growth in the internet.
There are multiple reasons why any individual engage in crowdsourcing and provide their
knowledge and support to the companies looking for external sources. Some of the reasons
are to get access to extra payment options, out of fun to get new challenges that they do not
find in everyday office jobs, to increase their reputation in the technology field, to interact
with other people who are similar to them, and others (Ambati & Vogel, 2010).
Crowdsourcing as a tool to work on a project from far distance has become an interesting tool
and its usability is gradually increasing day by day. The access of the companies to the wider

diversified thinking capability has allowed the company increase their power exponentially
with minimum cost possible.
Crowdsourcing Impact on Interface Design
The crowdsourcing activities began with one thing in mind and that was to translate the
knowledge floating outside that was not within the reach of the companies earlier. In the
initial stage it was simply training and evaluation data for SMT. SMT stands for statistical
machine translation. As for example, the development of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk which
was extensive data set with two languages was build using the SMT in the manner which was
cheapest and fast (Buhrmester et al, 2011). Through the growth in the technologies, this
aspect entered into the interface design and development. Though one cannot state there is no
negative aspect of this. There are positive as well as negative aspects for this method.
As stated earlier, the major impact of the crowdsourcing has been on the smaller and start-up
companies (Howe, 2006). These companies do not carry lots of budget in the beginning for
the research and development for particular project such as logo designing and developing
ideas for the website designs. The crowdsourcing has been proved as the boon for these
companies who can complete such things with the minimum cost possible.
The major purpose behind the crowdsourcing has been to invite the external community that
is wide through posting the requirements on the online forums that are designated specifically
for the developers or the graphic artists. The postings attract attention of these people and
facilitate the development. Most of the times, the individuals on these forums solve queries
without needing any kind of compensation. They do this just out of interest and curiosity and
to increase their reputation or ranking in the particular forum or online community.

In some cases, money placed as rewards and not as the compensation for doing the attract
which acts as the major attraction centre as it calls the competitive minds to take part in such
realistic simulation and win prizes. This gives the companies opportunity to sort between
hundreds of ideas at one at the cost of one (Brabham, 2008). Such incentives encourage the
individuals to take part in such activities and it not only attract the existing players but the
new ones also who never entered such game before.
The impact of the crowdsourcing on activities like interface designs are immeasurable.
However, there are some instances where the inclusions of some external players in the
existing designing games pose greater competition to the current players. But as the major
purpose to gain the ideas and benefits from the client side, so it becomes a better opportunity.
The major impact of this tool is that the companies that were unable to utilize such talent
even by conducting extensive hiring on daily basis and providing them training, through
crowdsourcing, now they are able to enjoy the benefit just like a customer receiving the
finished product while paying just for the product and nothing else. In this method, it can be
stated that the companies have been positively impacted due to the access of so many ideas at
minimum cost possible and sometimes at no cost.
In most cases, the individual joining the crowdsourcing activities are able to gain recognition
and tries to involve more in such activities. The impacts of crowdsourcing on the interface
designs have been negative as well as positive. The next chapter discusses the benefits of the
incorporation of crowdsourcing activities and the next chapter of this one discusses the
challenges in outsourcing activities.

Benefits of Incorporating Crowdsourcing
There are multiple benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing activities in the design of the
interface. Some of these benefits are increase in the productivity, access to creativity,
minimization of labour cost, and extensive reduction in the research expenses. It is
established now that the internet is the major facilitator of the crowdsourcing activities. One
of the interesting aspects is that not only crowdsourcing facilitates interface designing
activities, but it also acts as the major source of customers who provide feedback on multiple
things. This feedback collection could have taken days or months of the company effort and
time along with the budget, whereas with the use of crowdsourcing, the company is able to
access that feedback within shortest time possible and at bare minimum cost.
Moreover, due to the involvement of the large pool of individuals for the feedback reduces
the major efforts of the companies that were invested in the other functions such as
marketing, brand building, and development of the products (Doan et al, 2011). It also
extensively reduces the need for the staffs and associated risks.
Mentioned below are some of the benefits in detail:
Infrastructure: The crowdsourcing activities do not require major access to infrastructure.
The presence of computer and access to the internet is considered enough to facilitate this
activity in the interface design. Moreover, due to the ease of access to the technologies, the
companies are better able to conduct the crowdsourcing activities. The communication with
the individuals sitting far off has become easier. The reduction of the cost on the
infrastructure is substantial and the companies do not need to allocate particular space within
the company for the research and development activities.

Vision: The crowdsourcing activities have helped the companies properly work on their
vision and move towards the company objectives effectively.
Human Capital: The expenditure on the human capital has reduced with the ability to access
the far better talent in the market that could not have been possible while bringing in few
from the market.
Financial Capital: The reduction in the financial expenses is major benefits that the
companies can observe. As stated earlier, the crowdsourcing activities require minimum cost
and effort and the market provides best of the ideas for the interface designs. This has
significantly reduced the financial expenditure and saved capitals to a larger extent.
Challenges of Incorporating Crowdsourcing
Along with the benefits of incorporating crowdsourcing, there are also some challenges that
have been observed in this activity. Some of the challenges are the involvement of the costs
in the idea screening, management of the huge crowdsourcing activities, and the
determination of whether particular brought in idea is a success.
It is a matter of decision that to work on an idea, whether the companies should engage in the
crowdsourcing or the in-house development would be beneficial. The decision to bring in the
idea from the external individuals can be an easy source (Estellés-Arolas et al, 2012).
However, the major challenge comes when the particular idea is to be screened for viability
and reliability. Therefore, if the companies want to outsource the ideas then it would have to
be look for individuals who have credentials in such activities so that it does not receive
cheap ideas that will waste the effort of the company and bring in no result after extraneous
screening process.

The third challenging aspect is the determination of whether the particular idea is a success.
There are numerous individuals who generally engage in crowdsourcing activities. However,
in some cases it is possible that the company do not need huge influx of ideas and only
certain one or two idea will be enough.
Moreover, one of the challenging aspects is the collaborating with all the workers within the
crowdsourcing environment. If the company do not have proper infrastructure to facilitate the
communication, then it will be a huge challenge in handing the activities properly and might
be possible that the crowd made something which was not required by the company
(Leimeister et al, 2009). It will become a total waste of time, effort, and whatever money
spent on that activity.
Generating Project Interest of Online Community
The first step towards increasing the interest in my project would be to present the need to the
online community wherever they are present on the internet. There are various forums where
the need can be pitched (Howe, 2006). Moreover, there are some specific website that has
been developed to particularly to facilitate crowdsourcing can be used. There are some
websites that provide broadcasting facilities to the users of the website. Some of these
websites are Quora, LinkedIn Answers, and others. These platforms can be utilized to
connect to the individuals from there. There are areas in these websites where one can post
questions and get answers. Here, the masses have the options to answers to the queries
posted. Moreover, there is a feedback mechanism where the idea or answered given can be
voted by the other users. In this manner, one has the opportunity to select the best voted
answers.
The web design and development can be facilitated by visiting the websites that provides
various designs that easy to be navigated and give the options to different layouts (Poetz and

Schreier, 2012). This also acts as idea stimulant or can be picked as one actual idea and
developed further.
There are some websites that provide the opportunity to the web designers to place their own
designs on the website and attach a price tag with the design. The viewers have the option to
view the design and make the payment for it. Some of these websites are 99Designs and
Crowdspring. Some of the website like Threadless has developed a format wherein there are
numerous T-Shirt designs that are crowdsourcing.
The interest generation on the platforms can be done by running the contest or attaching
particular amount of incentives with the project.
Skill and Quality of Code Evaluation
Apart from bring in the ideas from the external crowd it is equally necessary that the
evaluation of their skills and qualities of their code is facilitated. In the crowdsourcing
activities, the codes are brought in by the individuals who are not known to the users, and
therefore it becomes a matter of necessity that one engage in the assessment of the code to
ensure that there is no issues in it that can harm the client of the company.
One of the methods that can be adopted to hire the give the project to the right individuals is
to look for those who have received credentials in the particular community and has past
projects with reputed companies (Zheng et al, 2011). Moreover, if the individuals who are
working for the company that are reputed then such individuals can be allowed to work on
such projects.
Crowdsourcing should not be taken as throwing projects to the random individuals in the
dark. It must be observed as the methodological approach. This can be facilitated by
observing this activity as the contracting jobs. The people who are desire to engage in this

activity must submit their resumes and the feedback of the previous clients along with their
contact numbers.
The company can then look for the credentials through talking to the clients of the
individuals. The positive feedback will help build the understanding that the individual is
suitable for the job.
Moreover, to assess the quality of the code, appropriate test mechanisms should be
established. The individuals with the right testing skills can be hired within the company.
Crowdsourcing impact on Budget and Timeline
The impact on the budget and timeline regarding the crowdsourcing project depends on the
size of the project. If the project is of substantial size then it is possible that the time will
extend than usual, whereas for smaller tasks it is possible that the tasks can be completed.
However, if the appropriate management of the large sized projects are facilitated then it is
possible that those projects can be finished in the half time in comparison to the usual time
such project could have taken to complete. The company can split the project small segments
and distribute it to the larger geographical area and combine the parts together in the end to
reach the finished product.
The only thing that has to be kept into consideration in this is the need for the effective
coordination among the individuals, particularly for the tasks that require dependency on one
or two other individuals. It will be responsibility of the company to bring them together.
Legal, Societal, and Ethical Issues
Legal concerns emerge when licensed innovation, for example, copyrights and licenses, are
accidently ruptured on the grounds that a man may have unwittingly broken the authoritative

report. As per (Yankovsky et al,. 2012) managing copyright, patent, or trademark law, this
hazard continuum by and large applies all through protected innovation law, on the grounds
that the weights of clearing potential encroachment and getting rights in the work item by and
large are comparative". For instance, an organization sources a plan for their site logo. Since
they are making this log inside, they can diminish the danger of encroachment because of the
reality the plans would be one of a kind. When they outsource the logo configuration to the
crowdsource, they are put into a high hazard zone in which they may use a logo that has as of
now been utilized as a part of a past venture. (Yankovsky et al., 2012) likewise express that
inside sourced plans possess the most reduced hazard territory of the outline source
continuum and hypothetically have the least freedom danger of the classifications talked
about, because of the component of control an organization has over its workers. Also, the
work that is made by the representative qualifies as works made for contract. Subsequently,
lawful issues emerge when licensed innovation are ruptured which can make a reason for
sympathy toward the little organization.
Social issues concerning crowdsourcing emerge when matters that specifically or by
implication influence a man or individuals from a general public. Some may state that
crowdsourcing diminishes the quantity of business openings and can evacuate various
employments far from the workforce. This is the because of the way that workers are did not
require any more if employments are crowdsourced. (Rosenberg, 2011) states, "we are
predominantly inspired by what crowdsourcing can do to help regular people add to social
change in a way that is both valuable and candidly fulfilling". Be that as it may, on the off
chance that we take a gander at the last mentioned, we can see patrons may give futile
contribution to finishing a venture because of the openness of crowdsourcing.