Quiz6 Flashcards
In order to design something to support people, we must know who our target users
are and what kind of support an interactive product could usefully provide. These
needs form the basis of the product’s requirements and underpin subsequent design
and development. This activity is fundamental to a user-centered approach, and is
very important in interaction design.
Identifying needs and establishing recquirement
This is the core activity of designing: actually suggesting ideas for meeting the
requirements. This activity can be broken up into two sub-activities: conceptual
design and physical design. Conceptual design involves producing the conceptual
model for the product, and a conceptual model describes what the product should do,
behave and look like. Physical design considers the detail of the product including
the colors, sounds, and images to use, menu design, and icon design. Alternatives
are considered at every point.
Developing alternative designs
Interaction design involves designing interactive products. The most sensible way for
users to evaluate such designs, then, is to interact with them. This requires an
interactive version of the designs to be built, but that does not mean that a software
version is required. There are different techniques for achieving “interaction,” not
all of which require a working piece of software.
Building interactive versions of the design
Evaluation is the process of determining the usability and acceptability of the
product or design that is measured in terms of a variety of criteria including the
number of errors users make using it, how appealing it is, how well it matches the
requirements, and so on. Interaction design requires a high level of user involvement
throughout development, and this enhances the chances of an acceptable product
being delivered. In most design situations you will find a number of activities
concerned with quality assurance and testing to make sure that the final product is
“fit-for-purpose.” Evaluation does not replace these activities, but complements and
enhances them.
Evaluation designs
Four basic activities of interactive designs
Identifying needs and establishing requirements
Developing alternative designs
Building interactive versions of the design
Evaluating design
Three key of interaction design process
Focus on users
Specific usability and user experience goals
Iteration
It has been emphasized, so you will not be surprised to see that it forms a central
plank of our view on the interaction design process. While a process cannot, in itself,
guarantee that a development will involve users, it can encourage focus on such
issues and provide opportunities for evaluation and user feedback.
Focus on users
This should be identified, clearly documented, and agreed upon at the beginning of
the project. They help designers to choose between different alternative designs and
to check on progress as the product is developed
Specific usability and user experience goals
This allows designs to be refined based on feedback. As users and designers engage
with the domain and start to discuss requirements, needs, hopes and aspirations,
then different insights into what is needed, what will help, and what is feasible will
emerge. This leads to a need for iteration, for the activities to inform each other and
to be repeated.
Iteration
Identifying the users may seem like a straightforward activity, but in fact there are
many interpretations of “user.” The most obvious definition is those people who
interact directly with the product to achieve a task. Most people would agree with
this definition; however, there are others who can also be thought of as users.
Who are the users?
those who manage
direct users, those who receive products from the system, those who test the system,
those who make the purchasing decision, and those who use competitive products.
Users
Three categories of users
Primary, secondary and tertiary
those likely to be frequent hands-on users of the system
Primary users
occasional users or those who use the system through an
intermediary
Secondary users
those affected by the introduction of the system
or who will influence its purchase.
Tertiary users
people or organizations who will be affected by the
system and who have a direct or indirect influence on the system requirements
Stakeholders
When we talk about identifying needs, therefore, it’s not simply a question of asking
people, “What do you need?” and then supplying it, because people don’t necessarily
know what is possible. Instead, we have to approach it by understanding the
characteristics and capabilities of the users, what they are trying to achieve, how
they achieve it currently, and whether they would achieve their goals more
effectively if they were supported differently
What do we mean by needs?
A common human tendency is to stick with something that we know works. We
probably recognize that a better solution may exist out there somewhere, but it’s
very easy to accept this one because we know it works-it’s “good enough.” Settling
for a solution that is good enough is not necessarily “bad,” but it may be undesirable
because good alternatives may never be considered, and considering alternative
solutions is a crucial step in the process of design. But where do these alternative
ideas come from?
How do you generate alternative designs?
Choosing among alternatives is about making design decisions: Will the device use
keyboard entry or a touch screen? Will the device provide an automatic memory
function or not? These decisions will be informed by the information gathered about
users and their tasks, and by the technical feasibility of an idea. Broadly speaking,
though, the decisions fall into two categories: those that are about externally visible
and measurable features, and those that are about characteristics internal to the
system that cannot be observed or measured without dissecting it.
HOw do you choose among alternative designs ?
used to represent a model that captures a set of activities
and how they are related. The reason such models are popular is that they allow
developers, and particularly managers, to get an overall view of the development
effort so that progress can be tracked, deliverables specified, resources allocated,
targets set, and so on
Lifecycle models
the first model generally known in software engineering
and forms the basis of many lifecycles in use today. This is basically a linear model
in which each step must be completed before the next step can be started
The waterfall lifecycle method
incorporates them in an iterative framework that
allows ideas and progress to be repeatedly checked and evaluated. Each iteration
around the spiral may be based on a different lifecycle model and may have different
activities.
Spiral lifecycle method
attempts to take a
user-centered view and to minimize the risk caused by requirements changing during
the course of the project
RAD(Rapid Applications Development)
does not specify any
ordering of activities. In fact, the activities are highly interconnected: you can move
from any activity to any other, provided you first go through the evaluation activity
Star lifecycle method
