Design process excludes users: the co-creation activities between user and designer

User needs are a fundamental element of design. If the design process does not properly reflect user needs, the design will be severely compromised. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate how the user is, and user needs are, understood in the design process. In this article, three accepted linear process models for web site and interactive media design are reviewed in terms of the designer and user participation. The article then proposes a user-evolving collaborative design process which is built on co-creation activities between designer and user. Co-creation activities across the entire design process structurally and ontologically reposition the users, and user needs, centrally, which allows the designers to holistically approach to the user needs through building a partnership with the users. Co-creation creates an equal evolving participatory process between user and designer towards sharing values and knowledge and creating new domains of collective creativity.     

基于组件F1Book的报表生成工具的设计与应用

F1Book是一个表格组件,在它的基础上设计的新报表组件F1BookReporter提供了良好的编程接口方便MIS系统开发者设计报表;基于新组件的报表设计器采用表格格式编辑与数据填入分开的方式,符合中国式报表的设计习惯,并且提供了易用的通用查询界面供用户从数据库中查询取数,方便MIS系统用户使用,两者相结合,使报表的设计和维护都得到了简化。该文介绍了该报表生成工具的设计思路及其应用。     

Action-effect rules: a technique for evaluating an informal specification against principles

The technique described here involves generating a user-centred specification of the system in terms of 'action-effect rules'. This specification is then examined for violations of principles. In this paper we consider hard to reverse effects and ambiguous displays. Additional principles which might be used are also discussed. The technique is demonstrated with an example which also shows how it can be incorporated, with user testing, into an iterative design methodology. Action-effect rules are easier to generate than many of the alternative schemes. They can be extracted from the functional specification a designer will have to produce anyway. Specifying the user interface of a system with action-effect rules encourages the designer to think about the problems of the user from the earliest stages of design.     

一个基于模式的快速查询构建系统

介绍了如何设计和实现一个基于模式的J2EE快速查询生成系统。系统主要有两种角色的使用人员,设计人员与用户。系统让设计人员定义面向用户的数据库信息,包括表、表的字段及其显示风格;系统允许用户从已设计好的界面模式中选择自己喜欢的界面风格,在用户定制完自己的查询内容后,系统采用广度优先搜索来判断查询的合理性,并用最短路径算法优化查询。系统极大地简化了基于Web的查询系统的开发和维护。     

基于集成化知识的产品概念设计技术研究

从用户知识出发，通过对用户内隐性知识的获取、表征、传递、运用的研究，探讨了“用户意象与设计知识”的映射以及“特征基、特征和风格”三层表达体系；建立了用户内隐性知识的获取、表征与运用模型，设计知识的表达模型，用户知识与设计知识的整合模型；提出了基于集成化知识的产品概念设计理论，以手机设计系统为例进行了验证，支持用户和设计师在同一个平台上协同工作，为产品协同设计、网络化设计提供一致的知识体系。     

GUIDE: Games with UML for interactive design exploration

In this paper we present our design tool GUIDE, which allows the user to explore a design in UML interactively by playing a game. The game incorporates both the design model and a specification of what it means for the design to be correct. The central idea of this approach is that the designer can increment the game during a play and gradually add more detail to it. Specification and design are refined by repeated plays of the game. The designer stops playing when design and specification are detailed enough for his purpose and match each other. The interactive game approach helps to cope with incompleteness and informal definition of UML models, which make strictly formal verification techniques difficult. The designer may resolve these problems when they arise during a play or let the GUIDE tool determine how the play should proceed. We discuss the potential impact of GUIDE and tools like it on software development.     

A physical database design evaluation system for CODASYL databases

An interactive design tool for designing CODASYL databases is described. The system is composed of three main modules: a user interface, a transaction analyzer, and a core module. The user interface allows a designer to enter interactively information concerning a database design which is to be evaluated. The transaction analyzer allows the designer to specify the processing requirements in terms of typical logical transactions to be executed against the database and translates these logical transaction into physical transaction which access and manipulate the physical databases. The core module is the implementation of a set of analytical models and cost formulas developed for the manipulation of indexed sequential and hash-based files and CODASYL sets. These models and formulas account for the situation in which occurrences of multiple record types are stored in the same area. Also presented are the results of a series of experiments in which key design parameters are varied. The system is implemented in UCSD Pascal running on IBM PCs     

The Society's Lecture 1987 The Use of Models in Human-Computer Interface Design

A user-centred approach to human-computer interface design requires that the designer has appropriate tools to aid in the design process and employs iterative design procedures which incorporate user evaluations. The concept of using models of the user as an interface design tool is discussed, and several approaches to user modelling are described. These approaches are divided into the broad categories of conceptual and quantitative models. Conceptual models deal primarily with representations of users1 cognitive processes, structures and strategies. Quantitative models include performance, ergonomic, computer simulation and statistical models. Examples of both a conceptual and a quantitative model are provided to illustrate human-computer interface design implications. Some unresolved issues pertaining to both categories of models are discussed, and recommendations are made to improve modelling as an interface design tool.     

A function combined baby stroller design method developed by fusing Kano,QFD and FAST methodologies

This paper proposes a user requirements-oriented baby stroller design method centered on finding the best combination of functions. First, user requirements are gathered, analyzed using KJ method for hierarchical analysis and clustered according to the Kano model, and the importance of each group is determined. Then, the function of the baby stroller body is decomposed using FAST method to obtain the function structure. Finally, the function structure of the baby stroller is imported into the “requirement-function” of the quality house model to establish the correlation between user requirements and stroller functions, and a function system diagram is created. The outcome of our experimental design study shows that the proposed function-combining design method allows the designer to effectively grasp real user requirements and design a stroller using a streamlined design process, thus resulting in better designs that meet user expectations.Relevance to industryThe proposed function-combining design method allows the designer to effectively grasp real user requirements and design a stroller using a streamlined design process.     

Object-oriented specification of user interfaces

This paper presents an object-oriented approach for the specification of graphical user interfaces. Specification starts with the analysis of the end user's operations. The user interface is then designed on the basis of this analysis. Operation analysis is followed by structure and component specification which presents the dialogue structure of the application and the contents of each dialogue. Visualization produces the final screen layouts, and task specification documents the usage of the user interface for the purpose of creating user's guides. The method presented in this paper makes it easier for a designer to take the end user's needs into account. Still, it does not automatically guarantee good quality user interfaces. The top-down nature of the method allows the designer to concentrate on the most important aspects of the user interface and split the design procedure into manageable pieces. Also, the visibility of the process allows the designer to communicate with other people while specifying the user interface. This paper connects the method with the object-oriented specification of entire applications. It briefly explains the connections with object-oriented analysis and design, and demonstrates how to implement the specified user interface in an object oriented fashion. The approach presented in this paper is being applied in the development of a large network management system with about two million lines of C++ code running in the XII environment. Still, the method does not require the specification being implemented with any specific windowing system. The only requirement is that the user interface is based on graphical elements, such as dialogues, push-buttons and text fields.     

Intra‐organizational user‐centred design practices: The impact of design research departments at design consultancies

The user is a critical factor in design and innovation. Firms experiment with different approaches to involving the user in design processes, which results in new forms of intra‐ and extra‐organizational collaboration. The establishment of in‐house design research units within design consultancies is one such intra‐organizational user‐centred design practice that targets designer‐researcher collaboration. This paper addresses this issue and reports on the findings from multiple case study research exploring the impact of in‐house design research teams on designers' user knowledge construction. We utilized constructivist learning theory to assess major aspects of these intra‐organizational user‐centred design practices. Ethnographically informed field studies were conducted at six design consultancies representing three design fields (i.e., architecture, industrial design and interaction design) in the Northwestern United States. Three of the consultancies have design research departments and three do not. The findings indicate that in‐house design research units play a role in designers' user knowledge construction via their results, processes and human resources. Among these, the active participation of designers in the research process was observed to have the largest impact because of its contribution to designers' contextual and collaborative learning about users.     

LIY: learn-it-yourself software interfaces

An increasing number of people are becoming users of unfamiliar software. They can be genuinely "new" computer users or part of a growing group who are transferring skills and knowledge from a familiar product such as a word processor to a functionally similar, but different, unfamiliar one. The problem for users in this position is that they do not have access to training courses to teach them how to use such software and are usually forced to rely on text-based documentation. LIY is a method for producing computer-based tutorials to teach the user ofasoftware product.This paper describes how LIY is, in turn, (1) a method for application system design which recognizes the need for tutorial design (a task analysis and user interface specification provide information structures that are passed to the tutorial designer); (2) a support environment for the tutorial designer (in addition to prompting for courseware for nodes in the task analysis, LIY provides a ready-made rule base for constraining the degree of learner control available while the tutorial is in use. The designer is able to tailor this rule base for a specific tutorial); and (3) a tutorial delivery environment (the tutorial adapts to individual learners and offers a degree of learner control).     

Creating Interaction Techniques by Demonstration

When creating highly interactive, direct-manipulation interfaces, one of the most difficult design and implementation tasks is handling the mouse and other input devices. Peridot, a new user interface management system, addresses this problem by allowing the designer of the user interface to demonstrate how the input device should be handled by giving an example of the interface in action. The designer uses sample values for parameters, and the system automatically infers the general operation and creates the code. After an interaction is specified, it can be executed rapid prototyping, since it is very easy to design, implement, and modify mouse-based interfaces. Perudit also supports such additional input devices as touch tablets, as well as multiple input devices operating in parallel (for example, one in each hand) in a natural, easy-to-specify manner. All interaction techniques are implemented using active values, which are like variables except that the objects that depend on active values are updated immediately whenever they change. Active values are a straightforward and efficient mechanism for implementing dynamic interactions.     

Web UI设计职责的思考

随着近年我国互联网的不断壮大,在各类网络行业的蓬勃发展中,Web设计师作为设计行业的代表,将扮演着越来越重要的角色。在新的互联网时代,如何获得良好的用户体验成为设计的核心问题。而目前大多数WebUI设计师并没有脱离美工的束缚,仅从视觉上来提升用户体验。数字网络时代的发展需要设计师贡献更多的职责和力量,同时也赋予了他们更广阔的发展空间,而不应只局限于界面的设计上,这就需要设计师能够打开思路,看到更远,重新思考设计的含义。     

Design thinking in social organizations: Understanding the role of user engagement

Design thinking has recently gained significant attention as a potential approach to address major global problems. Although its practice is proven to contribute to advance organizational efficiency and address user needs, lack of understanding about its practice in social organizations limits our understanding about its social context. With this background, we study how users persuade social organizations to adopt design thinking. We conducted a qualitative study in four social organizations in India during 2008–2013 and interviewed 38 respondents to answer our research question. Our results indicate that the designer roles are blurred when social organizations adopt design thinking, where users in the form of interconnecting agency reduce the gap between designers and communities.     

低压电力线通信点对点通信性能测试系统设计与实现

介绍了在低压电力线信道环境下点对点载波通信模块的通信性能测试系统的设计。测试系统结构简单,实用性强,能够实现点对点通信误码率测试、有效通信速率测试,并且能够根据测试结果综合评价通信模块的性能,既能够横向比较不同厂家的载波通信模块的通信性能,还可以纵向比较同一厂家不同类型的载波通信单元的通信性能,通用性强。     

Development of the user-computer interface

Requirements of the personal computer user are identified and contrasted with computer designer perspectives towards the user. The user's psychological needs are described so that the design of the user-computer interface may be designed to accommodate them. Development of the user-computer interface is discussed in terms of the user's physical, perceptual and conceptual contact with the system. The ideals of system transparency and visibility to the user are described resulting in a set of dialogue principles. Further research is suggested which will explore the characteristics of efficacious menu selection, develop a theory of the operator, determine the best locus of control for dialogue features. provide guidelines for improving system documentation and improve user work station habitability.     

浅谈用户界面设计

用户界面(UI)设计是一个动态的、逻辑的推理过程。某种特定的用户群体需要某种特定的界面设计。要让产品获得成功,就要把用户心智模型切入产品分析研究设计阶段中作为理论依据。本文以心智模型理论为切入点,结合逻辑学,心理学和美学等理论知识,深入浅出地探讨了一些影响用户界面设计的关键因素。     

Propagating experience-based accessibility guidelines to user interface development

This paper presents a methodological approach towards the integration of accessibility guidelines into the user interface development life cycle. The term accessibility guidelines refers to the consolidated design wisdom, as documented in general recommendations, principles of good practice, experience-based heuristics or otherwise ‘blessed’ rules, regarding the construction of interactive computer-based software for people with disabilities. At the core of the proposed method is the use of a design repository and a supporting tool environment capable of encapsulating, customizing and reusing experience-based accessibility wisdom, so as to facilitate the integration of previously generated, tested and agreed, accessibility recommendations into new design cases and user interface implementations. It is argued that the proposed approach eliminates some of the limitations or shortcomings associated with more conventional methods, such as the use of paper-based guidelines, or reviews by experts, while it facilitates more effective communication amongst designers and developers of user interfaces.