Previous | Table of Contents | Next |
Assumption (1) makes it possible to use concise representations, even though they lack a formal syntax or semantics. The analysis for a typical project may be expressed in a few pages. This is only possible because of this assumed shared understanding within a small design team. Assumptions (2) and (3) are also essential for the ease of use of these techniques. Getting designers to see their designs from the point of view of a user is the central point of user-centered design. The more often that developers can get together with users, see them operating their systems, and understand their work, the better the designs that will result. While this is the normal modus operandi in many companies, in many others there are obstacles to it. Developers may feel threatened by the process, management may not be confident in the ability of developers and there may be political objections from other groups. These problems are more often imagined rather than real, and once developers and management have seen the advantages of techniques such as those described above, they quickly come around (Haber and Davenport, 1991).
While the techniques described are tailored to a specific design context and so make these important assumptions, the reader may see elements of the approach that can be adapted to other contexts. More generally, it is hoped that this chapter has illustrated the value of developing representations for reasoning and recording users needs and that the form those representations take can either facilitate or hinder the development of the understanding needed for effective design.
9. REFERENCES
Apple Computer, Inc., Human Interface Guidelines: The Apple Desktop Interface, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1987.
Bellotti, V., Implications of current design practice for the use of HCI techniques, Proceedings of HCI88: People and Computers V, Jones, D. M. and Winder, R., Eds., University of Manchester, (September 59): Cambridge University Press, 1334, 1988.
Campbell, R. L., Categorizing scenarios: a Quixotic Quest?, ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 24, 1617, 1992.
Checkland, P., Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1981.
Clegg, C., Warr, P., Green, T., Monk, A., Kemp, N., Allison, G., and Lansdale, M., People and Computers: How to Evaluate your Companys New Technology, Ellis Horwood, 1988.
Curry, M. B., Monk, A. F., Choudhury, K., Seaton, P., and Stewart, T. F. M., Enriching HTA using exceptions and scenarios, InterCHI93 Bridges Between Worlds, Adjunct Proceedings, Ashlund, S., Mullet, K., Henderson, A., Hollnagel, E., and and White, T., Eds., ACM Press, Amsterdam, 4546, 1993.
Gould, J. D., Boies, S. J., Levy, S., Richards, J. T., and Schoonard, J., The 1984 olympic message system: a test of behavioural principles of system design, Communications of the ACM, 30, 758769, 1987.
Green, T. R. G., Cognitive dimensions of notations, Proceedings of the HCI89 Conference, People and Computers V, Sutcliffe, A. and Macaulay, L., Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 443460, 1989.
Haber, J. and Davenport, L., Proposing usability testing to management - an It works therefore its truth approach, Human Factors in Computing Systems: Reaching Through Technology, CHI91 Conference Proceedings, Robertson, S. P., Olson, G. M., and Olson, J. S., Eds., ACM Press, Amsterdam, 498, 1991.
Harel, D., Statecharts: a visual formalism for complex systems, Science of Computer Programming, 8, 231274, 1987.
IBM, Common User Access (CUA). Systems Application Architecture, Basic and Advanced Interface Design Guides, IBM technical publications, 1991.
Monk, A. F., and Curry, M. B., Discount dialogue modelling with action simulator, HCI94 Proceedings: Computers and People 9, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 327338, 1994.
Monk, A. F., Curry, M. B., and Wright, P. C., Why industry doesnt use the wonderful notations we researchers have given them to reason about their design, in User-Centred Requirements for Software Engineering, Gilmore, D. J., Winder, R. L., and Detienne, F., Eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 195188, 1994.
Monk, A. F., Wright, P., Haber, J., and Davenport, L., Improving your Human-Computer Interface: A Practical Technique, Prentice-Hall, BCS Practitioner Series, Hemel Hempstead, 1993.
Nielsen, J., Usability Engineering, Academic Press, New York, 1993.
Whiteside, J., Bennett, J., and Holtzblatt, K., (1988). Usability engineering: our experience and evolution, in Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Helander, M., Ed., North-Holland, New York, 791817, 1988.
Previous | Table of Contents | Next |