Heuristic to support the sociability evaluation in virtual communities of practices

Abstract

The Virtual Community of Practices (VCoPs) create collaborative spaces that promote cooperation and the construction of knowledge, because provide communication and interaction between individuals so that knowledge and experience are utilized in a coordinated manner. A significant aspect of VCoPs is sociability, because it is related to the manner that people interact in the environment. Therefore, the objective of this work is assist expert professionals in the planning and creation of VCoPs interfaces, from proposition of a heuristic evaluation of interfaces these communities in order to minimize the difficulties of users concerning the sociability. The proposed heuristic was applied in the evaluation some VCoPs aiming the construction of virtual communities that allow a higher quality interaction for participants, respecting the guidelines for good sociability.