Dr. Silvia Mirri received her BS, MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bologna (Italy), where she is an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Her research interests are related to the Human Computer Interaction, ranging from accessibility for users with disabilities and with special needs to content adaptation of multimedia and personalization of e-learning tools and environments. She teaches Web applications and services in the Master Degree in Computer Science and Engineering, moreover she teaches Computer science classes in the Environmental Sciences Degree and in the International Master Degree in Science for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage.

Involving users in design and creation processes of computational artifacts is at the basis of many HCI methodologies and it is emerging as a crucial activity for those initiatives that aim to co-creation and open innovation. The user is playing a role that is becoming more active, being the main character in several steps of the most commonly used approaches for the development and release of applications and tools, in particular in those initiatives of open innovation and co-creation. In these contexts, many HCI methodologies can be adopted, with a different level of users' involvement. Several questions and considerations arise: Is users' satisfaction proportional to real users' engagement in the design process of an application? Which methodology has to be applied so as to obtain an interface that better meet users' expectation? We will discuss about the results we have obtained in different projects where the main role has been played the Users.