Table Of ContentUSER
INTERFACE
DESIGN
Bridging the Gap from
User Requirements
to Design
Edited by
Larry E. Wood
CRCPress
Boca Raton Boston New York Washington, D.C. London
Acquiring Editor: Ron Powers
Project Editor: Susan Fox
Cover Design: Denise Craig
Prepress: Kevin Luong
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Preface
This book grew out of a workshop held at CHI'96 in Vancouver in April1996 on
"Transforming User-Centered Analysis into Concrete Design". The workshop
was motivated by the lack of published accounts of how experienced designers
use the results of user work/task analyses and other tools and resources to produce
Graphical User Interface (GUI) designs (i.e., to bridge the gap between analysis
and interface design). Interface designers with a wide variety of experience were
invited to share their methods for addressing the problem. This book is a result of
our collective efforts.
Several themes became apparent in our workshop discussions, such as repre
sentations and models of work, scenarios (examples of user tasks), and high-and
low-fidelity prototyping; designing for heterogeneous vs. homogeneous user popu
lations; designing "breakthrough" systems vs. supporting existing work or rede
signing legacy systems; and the virtues of objected- vs. task-oriented interfaces.
Authors of individual chapters elaborate the role of these issues as appropriate to
their own methods and work context.
The book should be useful to anyone involved in or interested in the issues
surrounding user-centered design of software applications. However, it was our
intention to provide information that will be particularly useful to practitioners
who have a role in designing GUI's. The emphasis on examples from real GUI
design projects will hopefully accomplish that goal.
PARTICIPANTS
There were fourteen people who participated in the workshop, among whom
there was a wide variety of design experience. Including the organizers, there were
three from academia, ten from large software development companies, and one
who operates her own consulting firm. The participants included the following
individuals:
• Larry Wood, Brigham Young University, USA (organizer)
• Ron Zeno, Intuitive Design, USA (organizer)
• Tom Dayton, Bellcore, USA
• Joseph Kramer, Bellcore, USA
• Tom Graefe, Digital Equipment Corporation, USA
• Frank Ludolph, SunSoft, Inc., USA
• Andrew Monk, University of York, U.K.
• Peter Nilsson, Linne Data, Sweden
• Martin Rantzer, Ericsson Radio Systems AB, Sweden
• Allan Risk, IBM SWS Toronto Laboratory, Canada
• Sabine Rohlfs, IF Interface Consulting Ltd., Canada
• Jean Scholtz, Intel Corp., USA
• Kevin Simpson, University of Guelph, Canada
• Colin Smith, Northern Telecom, Canada
Acknowledgments
I express my appreciation to the workshop participants for their willingness not
only to share their knowledge and experience in interface design at the workshop,
but especially for their efforts in writing the chapters that make up the substance
of this book. I regret that after his enthusiastic participation in the workshop, Allan
Risk was unable to complete a chapter to be included in the book. Likewise,
following his efforts at organizing the workshop, Ron Zeno was unable to contrib
ute to the book, which is unfortunate.
I also want to thank our CRC publisher, Ron Powers, and his assistant, Cindy
Carelli, for their patience and flexibility in working with us to produce this
volume.
Finally, I express my gratitude to Shannon Ford, who "found" us and was
willing to provide helpful feedback on the chapters, expecially the introduction
(Chapter 1).
The Editor
Larry Wood is a professor of cognitive psychology at Brigham Young University,
who has taught human-computer interaction and interface design courses and
consulted on design projects for 10 years. His research interests include all aspects
of user-centered design.
Contributors
Tom Dayton Martin Rantzer
Bell core Systems Engineering Lab
Piscataway, New Jersey Ericsson Radio Systems
Linkoping, Sweden
Thomas M. Graefe
Digital Equipment Corporation Sabine Rohlfs
Littleton, Massachusetts IF Interface Consulting Ltd.
Ottawa, Canada
Joeseph Kramer
Bellcore Tony Salvador
Piscataway, New Jersey Intel Corporation
Hillsboro, Oregon
Frank Ludolph
Sun Microsystems, Inc. Jean Scholtz
Mountain View, California National Institute of Standards and
Technology
AI McFarland Gaithersburg, Maryland
Bellcore
Piscataway, New Jersey Kevin T. Simpson
Financial Models Company
Andrew Monk Mississauga, Canada
Department of Psychology
University of York Colin D. Smith
York, United Kingdom Corporate Design Group
Nortel Technology (Northern Telecom)
Peter Nilsson Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Linne Data
Frolunda, Sweden Larry E. Wood
Brigham Young University
Ingrid Ottersten Department of Psychology
Linne Data Provo, Utah
Frolunda, Sweden
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction: Bridging the Design Gap ............................................................... 1
Larry E. Wood
Chapter 2
Bridging User Needs To Object Oriented GUI Prototype Via Task
Object Design ..................................................................................................... 15
Tom Dayton, AI McFarland, and Joseph Kramer
Chapter 3
Transforming Representations in User-Centered Design .................................. 57
Thomas M. Graefe
Chapter 4
Model-Based User Interface Design: Successive Transformations
of a Task/Object Model ..................................................................................... 81
Frank Ludolph
Chapter 5
Lightweight Techniques to Encourage Innovative User Interface Design ..... 109
Andrew Monk
Chapter 6
Interaction Design: Leaving The Engineering Perspective Behind ................ 131
Peter Nilsson and Ingrid Ottersten
Chapter 7
Mind the Gap: Surviving the Dangers of User Interface Design ................... 153
Martin Rantzer
Chapter 8
Transforming User-Centered Analysis into User Interface: The Redesign
of Complex Legacy Systems ........................................................................... 185
Sabine Rohlfs
Chapter 9
Systematic Creativity: A Bridge for the Gaps in the Software
Development Process ....................................................................................... 215
Jean Scholtz and Tony Salvador
Chapter 10
The UI War Room and Design Prism: A User Interface Design
Approach from Multiple Perspectives ............................................................. 245
Kevin T. Simpson
Chapter 11
Transforming User-Centered Analysis into User Interface: The Design
of New-Generation Products ............................................................................ 275
Colin D. Smith
Index ................................................................................................................. 305
1
CHAPTER
Introduction: Bridging the Design Gap
Larry E. Wood
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
email: [email protected]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Good Interface Design .................................................................................... 1
2. The Gap: Or Then a Little Magic Happens ................................................... 2
3. Bridging the Gap: Major Issues/Considerations ............................................. 3
4. Individual Chapter Descriptions ..................................................................... 4
4.1. Dayton, McFarland, and Kramer (Chapter 2) ....................................... 4
4.2. Graefe (Chapter 3) ................................................................................. 5
4.3. Ludolph (Chapter 4) .............................................................................. 6
4.4. Monk (Chapter 5) .................................................................................. 7
4.5. Nilsson and Ottersten (Chapter 6) ......................................................... 8
4.6. Rantzer (Chapter 7) ............................................................................... 9
4.7. Rohlfs (Chapter 8) ............................................................................... 10
4.8. Scholtz and Salvador (Chapter 9) ....................................................... 11
4.9. Simpson (Chapter 10) .......................................................................... 12
4.10. Smith (Chapter 11) .............................................................................. 12
5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 13
6. References ...................................................................................................... 14
1. GOOD INTERFACE DESIGN
Design is both a product and a process. The product is an artifact designed for a
specific purpose, given a set of components, resources, and constraints within
which a designer has to work. The process consists of techniques and procedures
for constructing the desired product. While there are principles and laws that guide
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