Tales of Software Updates: The process of updating software
Software and Programming Tools
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Vaniea, Kami
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Rashidi, Yasmeen
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.3215-3226
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Updates alter the way software functions by fixing bugs, changing features,
and modifying the user interface. Sometimes changes are welcome, even
anticipated, and sometimes they are unwanted leading to users avoiding
potentially unwanted updates. If users delay or do not install updates it can
have serious security implications for their computer. Updates are one of the
primary mechanisms for correcting discovered vulnerabilities, when a user does
not update they remain vulnerable to an increasing number of attacks. In this
work we detail the process users go through when updating their software,
including both the positive and negative issues they experience. We asked 307
survey respondents to provide two contrasting software update stories. Using
content analysis we analysed the stories and found that users go through six
stages while updating: awareness, deciding to update, preparation,
installation, troubleshooting, and post state. We further detail the issues
respondents experienced during each stage and the impact on their willingness
to update.