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8. DIRECTIONS FOR SYSTEMATIC CREATIVITY
Currently we have been using time-consuming tools for putting together the framework. We use outline versions of word processing systems tied with spreadsheets that can be sorted in multiple views. This requires much effort on the part of the human factors team. This work must be done to construct the original framework and to update it during product development. Having a tool that could automatically provide links and allow us to assemble different views coupled with the ability to trace objects and actions back to the original user goals would definitely speed up the tedious work. As we work with the framework, we are evolving our requirements for an automated system to help in maintaining the data and the relationships between them.
The framework could also be the starting point for design rationale. Consider for example, making a decision not to include a particular feature that is very beneficial to users because of the present cost of the needed technology. This decision may result in the inclusion of other features to partially provide the omitted feature. We need a way to document these design decisions so that later revisions can be made knowing why a particular decision was made and the ramifications of that decision.
Currently the data for the framework needs to be collected by people trained in interviewing techniques. This makes it difficult to take along developers or other team members as they have no time for training in this area. On one hand, this wasnt a limitation for us, as we have considerable difficulty finding team members who are able to take the time to accompany us on these interviews. It would, however, be nice to give product team members more of a firsthand look at the users rather than seeing impersonal text. One way of doing this would be to incorporate audio or video clips attached to different data classes that illustrate issues users told us about during data collection. Rather than bringing the team to the users, we would like to use intranet technologies to bring the users to the team by providing a multimedia framework. Use of an intranet site could also be used to generate and collect discussion about particular points. A framework diagram containing hot spots that team members could use to view current discussions or to contribute ideas would facilitate input from the team and would promote more of a shared view of the product.
9. SUMMARY
Systematic Creativity facilitates team communication and decision making. Providing a way to lay out all the issues and see conflicts of goals and priorities of goals is a great facilitator in product definition. It gives all team members the same basis of information to start from and enables user-centered decision making. The same is true of the design process. Creativity is not stifled but it is evaluated by assessing all the information and noting how all the needed goals are supported. Having such a framework produces better product design as all goals are taken into account when the initial brainstorming is done. Having the information in text form, rather than visual form, has proven to be a good idea. Too often we find ourselves arguing about the form of the visual rather than the basic ideas of what functionality it supports. Having only text there for the beginning of product definition allows us to concentrate on the real issues what functionality do we have to support and what can we support well.
We feel that this method has great promise in creating new products as well as revising existing products. The ability to generate and view data about user requirements systematically allows us to do a more complete product definition and design. Decisions about what to include in the product and how to include particular features can be made knowing what it is that users really want to do.
10. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was done by the authors along with other human factors engineers at Intel Corporation. We thank Doug Sorensen and James Newbery for their work in information gathering, information displaying, and their devotion to using this method for design and design testing. Michael Mateas worked on the development of the CNN@Work product and the screen shots in this chapter are from a simulation written by Michael. Thanks also to the user interface developers on the CNN@Work team for their support of our work.
11. REFERENCES
Holtzblatt, K. and Jones, S., Contextual inquiry: a participatory technique for system design, in Participatory Design, Principles and Practices, Schuler, D. and Namioka, A., Eds., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1993, 177210.
Mateas, M., Salvador, T., Scholtz, J., and Sorenson, D., Engineering ethnography in the home, in Common Ground, CHI96 Conference Companion, Tauber, M., Ed., ACM Press, New York, 283284, 1996.
Moore, G.A., Crossing the Chasm, Harper Collins, New South Wales, 1991.
Mueller, M., PICTIVE: democratizing the dynamics of the design session, in Participatory Design, Principles and Practices, Schuler, D. and Namioka, A., Eds., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1993, 211238.
Salvador, A.C. and Scholtz, J. C., (1996). Systematic creativity: a methodology for integrating user, market and engineering requirements for product definition, design and usability testing, in Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction, Bass, L. J. and Unger, C., Eds., Chapman & Hall, London, 1996, 307329.
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