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How Users Employ Workarounds in Software Forms

Software Engineering 2025-04-08 v2

Abstract

Workarounds enable users to achieve goals despite system limitations but expose design flaws, reduce productivity, risk compromising data quality, and cause inconsistencies. This study investigates how users employ workarounds when the data they want to enter does not align with software form constraints. Through a descriptive user study, we analyzed how workarounds originate and impact system design and data integrity. Understanding workarounds is essential for software designers to identify unmet user needs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.17624,
  title  = {How Users Employ Workarounds in Software Forms},
  author = {MohammadAmin Zaheri and Michalis Famelis and Eugene Syriani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.17624},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:30:38.655Z