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Andrew Monk
University of York, York, United Kingdom
email: am1@york.ac.uk
1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter describes four representations for recording and reasoning about the users needs. It is argued that the gap between understanding the need of the user and an initial design can be minimized by using these informal techniques:
In each case there are sections describing what it is for, what it looks like and how to do it. A further section describes how to use these representations to produce an initial design.
2. THE DESIGN CONTEXT
2.1. PROVIDING A FIRM PLATFORM TO BRIDGE FROM GETTING THE REPRESENTATION RIGHT
The problem introduced in Chapter 1 is how to bridge the gap between (1) an understanding of the needs of the user and (2) the first prototype design. The understanding referred to in (1) will include information about the work the system is to support, the kinds of skills the user will have, and so on. The initial design referred to in (2) may take the form of a paper prototype of the screens to be used with some verbal description of how they behave. It may be a software prototype of some kind or alternatively some more abstract specification of how the user interface will work (see Gould et al., 1987, for examples of the many forms a prototype design may take). After the gap has been bridged there are many practical techniques for refining the initial design (e.g., Monk and Curry, 1994; Nielsen, 1993). Techniques for use before the gap are also available (Whiteside et al., 1988). The gap to be bridged then is the large step between an understanding of the needs of the user and the first prototype.
In almost any design context documents will be produced to record the results of the deliberations of the parties concerned. These documents will contain diagrams, tables, lists, and other textual devices. Some of these representations have known mathematical properties (e.g., state transition diagrams); others are much more informal. The message of this chapter is that the gap can be made more bridgeable by the way we write down the results of our activities under (1). To stretch the metaphor somewhat, the argument to be made is that by using the right representation to record and reason about our understanding of user needs we can provide a firm platform from which to build the bridge, thus making it more likely that we will arrive safely at the other side.
Documentation, and the representations used within documents, have two important functions in addition to those usually given of providing a record for management, software maintenance, or whatever. The first is to communicate. Design is rarely a solitary occupation. Members of a design team need to communicate and negotiate their understanding of the design. In some organizations the before the gap activities will be carried out by different individuals to the after the gap activities and so the findings of the former group have to be communicated to the latter. Even in design teams where everyone takes part in all activities there is still a lot of communication to be done. Different team members will have different viewpoints and a common vocabulary, of the kind provided by a representation, makes it possible to negotiate an agreed understanding. The second function of a document is to facilitate reasoning. Writing down your conclusions makes it possible to reflect on and reason about them. Has everything been considered? Representing conclusions about one thing will remind you of other things yet unconsidered. Are the conclusions drawn consistent? Writing down one conclusion may make you realize that an earlier formulation about something else can be improved.
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