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1.1. EXAMPLE OF A NEW-GENERATION PRODUCT
Most UI design addresses the requirements of the mainstream business computer market and is dominated by the WIMP (windows, icon, menu, pointer) paradigm pioneered with the Star interface (developed at Xerox PARC over 25 years ago; Winograd, 1996). The interface design discussion is also limited to standard computer hardware, which includes a large visual display, a QWERTY keyboard, and a mouse. However, advances in communication and computing are bringing new devices onto the market that mark a paradigm shift. The devices that embody this shift are small, mobile, and wireless, and users will interact with them through tactile, gestural, voice, and electronic pen input. Unlike the serial dialogue that is typical of WIMP-based products, these new generation devices are characterized by several parallel streams of input and output. These new devices bear little resemblance to conventional computers, and therefore they offer both new opportunities and challenges to the user interface designer.
The development of the Orbitor Wireless Communicator project is a good case study of a new-generation product. The Orbitor combines and extends capabilities far beyond traditional cellular telephones, electronic organizers, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and two-way pagers.
The challenge for the Orbitor design team was to develop a pocket-able device that would offer voice-centric communication, as well as messaging, graphical notes capability, and other not-yet-defined services. The size constraint coupled with the extensive and expanding list of feature requirements necessitated a high degree of co-evolution between the graphical on-screen interface and the physical interface. The user interface design encompassed both the screen-based interface and the physical-product interface. The team had to adopt an exploratory, iterative approach to allow them to integrate newly emerging features and services while also supporting key customer values.
2. EXPLORATORY DESIGN STAGE
Exploratory Design is the first stage in the overall UI design process for new generation products. The purpose of the Exploratory Design Stage is to identify potential new high-value products and services that will satisfy key user needs not being met by todays solutions (Note: hereafter product will refer to the combined physical interface and software interface). More importantly, the Exploratory Stage is used to conceptualize the tasks users might want to perform with the new product (see Figure 11.2).
Figure 11.2 User feedback to concepts.
The Exploratory Design Stage is characterized by confusion and unease within the design team. Nothing is settled. Although the design team has a set of constraints, many are often no more than accidents of circumstance. Typically, the design team will... have some indications of appropriate directions or application areas which may have been provided by upper management or distilled from the corporate zeitgeist... (Erickson, 1995, p.43).
The Exploratory Stage may be pursued by a variety of groups or individuals, including a marketing group, a product manager, an executive, or an entire design team. In the design of the Orbitor, the Exploratory Stage was done by a multi-disciplinary design team which included User Interface Designers, User Needs Assessment Professionals (Cognitive Psychologists), Industrial Designers, and Mechanical Engineers in partnership with an Advanced Hardware/Software Technology Group and a Marketing Group.
2.1. VISUALIZATION AND IDEATION
In exploratory design, new product concepts are often first conceived through rough sketches and rudimentary physical models (constructed from paper, cardboard, or foam). One source of inspiration for these new concepts is the identification and exploration of awkward features associated with current related products: these suggest new opportunity areas. It can also be useful to informally observe users in their actual work and play environments (e.g., people use products such as telephones very differently in their car, in their home, and in their office).
The emphasis at this phase is on the creation of a large number of diverse sketches illustrating new product value and functionality without any attempt at critical analysis. The use of analysis techniques is avoided because they can overly constrain the creative thinking of the design team. Also, there is not any great importance attached to the first conceptual sketches of a design; the issue of importance is articulating and communicating ideas.
The exploratory UI design process is similar to the classic ideation techniques used by architects, industrial designers, and graphic designers. Many of the concept-generating techniques perfected in these professions are directly transferable to the design of new-generation user interfaces. For example, using the ideation process a designer will typically sketch many rough thumbnail concept drawings which reflect a wide variety of different ideas. The better thumbnail concept-sketches are redrawn at a larger scale, and then continuously refined using trace paper overlays. The act of sketching in itself is a design and learning tool (see also Hanks, 1977; Porter, 1979; Ching, 1979).
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