Users and designers as partners - design method and tools for user participation and designer accountability within the design process

Abstract. We have found two main causes of inadequacies in a decision support system designed by us. They are, in general, the lack of direct user participation and the lack of designer accountability in the design process. In an attempt to solve the problem, we develop a new design method, the User Participation and Designer Accountability (UPDA) method. It involves users' direct manipulation of colour cards, which contain the contents of simple design charts. These cards are also made accessible to everyone involved in the design process and form the basis upon which the designer can be questioned. We have applied the UPDA method and so far the reactions are very positive.     

Graphical process design tools for iontophoretic transdermal drug-delivery devices

A graphical procedure was proposed for the optimum design of transdermal drug-delivery systems enhanced by iontophoresis. Contour plots displayed the relationships among steady-state plasma level, current density and initial drug concentration in a vehicle. This information was combined with a closed-form expression of the process time constant, estimated as the medicament in the blood reaches a plateau after application of the electric field. Analysis was conducted using Laplace-transformed variables and did not require time-domain solutions. Simulation results show that a current density of 0.044 mA/cm(2) and a loading of 3500 μg/ml of dexamethasone sodium m-sulfobenzoate were necessary to achieve an equilibrium plasma concentration of 1.254 ng/cm(3) with a time constant of 8.34 h.     

CASE: analysis and design tools

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are defined, and ten CASE tools are briefly overviewed. Individual presentations on the various tools follow. The focus is on structured analysis, design, and programming. Two of the tools (Cradle and JSP Workbench) are implementations of the Yourdon and Jackson methods for structured analysis, structured design, and programming; three tools (Time Bench, Card Tools, and Prosa) are for real-time systems development; four (Excelerator, Adagen, Smart System, and Software Through Pictures) are general-purpose front-end CASE tools and one (Virtual Software Factory) is a CASE tool for building CASE tools     

Workflow structuring and reengineering method for design process

A short lead time for product commercialization is a critical advantage in the era of highly challenging competitions. It is more difficult, however, to shorten the design process rather than manufacturing process since the underlying design activities in process and related data are often interlinked and quite uncertain, and the attempts to perform the design activities concurrently increase the complexity of the design process.

In case the targeting process is well-structured and easy to be managed, many approaches have been proposed and it is the best way to use the well-known reengineering method such as crashing the bottle-neck activity. However, they have only concerned mainly about well-defined procedures, not an operational-level sophisticated workflow.

As a means to effectively manage and accelerate the design process, a process or workflow model needs to define complex relations such as iteration or coupled dependency in design process in order to coordinate the sophisticated process effectively. And, the acceleration approaches based on the operational-level information needs to be discussed.

Firstly, in order to develop an appropriate model that effectively captures the operational-level characteristics in design process, we define the workflow including the control and data flow with an incidence matrix called Workflow Matrix (WfM). Secondly, a workflow structuring method is developed for identifying the reengineering issue and it also transform the complex design process into a well-structured workflow. Finally, we analyze the design process with WfM and suggest reengineering strategies to improve the design process.     

The RAISE language,method and tools

This paper presents the RAISE¹ software development method, its associated specification language, and the tools supporting it. The RAISE method enables the stepwise development of both sequential and concurrent software from abstract specification through design to implementation. All stages of RAISE software development are expressed in the wide-spectrum RAISE specification language. The RAISE tools form an integrated tool environment supporting both language and method.The paper surveys RAISE and furthermore, more detailed presentations of major RAISE results are provided. The subjects of these are (a) an example of the use of the RAISE method and language, and (b) a presentation of the mathematical semantics of the RAISE specification language.     

软件过程改进方法的研究与设计

成熟度模型(CMM)是当前国内外研究的热点。给出了如何理解CMM的基本概念,提出了两种软件过程改进方法,即基于同行评审和测试的软件过程改进方法和基于CASE工具和文档的软件过程改进方法。这两种方法是分别针对现有软件开发机构实施过程改进时遇到的实际问题,结合CMM的关键实践而设计的。最后对现有软件过程活动中存在的问题进行了相关总结。     

Microprocessors and software design tools

Software development aids available to the programmer are introduced. Application programs can be broken down into almost independent software modules. Each module can be independently developed and its interface with other modules defined. Microprocessor development systems, software components and future software are discussed. It seems that changes in computer system architecture are inevitable as LSI technology spreads computing, but this will also lead to better, more reliable software development tools.     

Towards useful and usable interaction design tools: CanonSketch

Despite all the effort dedicated to bringing better User-Centered Design (UCD) tools to market, current studies show that the industry is still dominated by tools that do not support the activities and workstyles of designers. Also, there is a growing need for interaction design tools aimed at software engineers, a problem related to bringing usability into the software engineering processes.

We propose a new workstyle model that can be effectively used to envision, design and evaluate a new generation of innovative interaction and software design tools, aimed at integrating usability and software engineering.

We illustrate the effectiveness of our model by describing a new tool, called CanonSketch, that was built in order to support UCD in terms of the dimensions in our workstyle model. We also describe an evaluation study aimed at contrasting paper prototyping with our tool as well as the level of workstyle support.     

Semantic interoperability in building design: Methods and tools

Semantic interoperability is a crucial element to make building information models understandable and model data sharable across multiple design disciplines and heterogeneous computer systems. This paper presents a new approach and its software implementation for the development of building design objects with semantics of interoperable information to support semantic interoperability in building designs. The novelty of the approach includes its incorporation of building design domain ontology, object-based CAD information modeling, and interoperability standard to make building information models and model data semantically interoperable. A set of methods are proposed to address the issues of object-based building information representation compliant with the Industrial Foundation Classes (IFC); extension of IFC models with the supplementary information; and semantic annotation of the interoperable and extensible information sets. The prototype implementation of these methods provides a set of Web-enabled software tools for effectively generating, managing, and reusing the semantically interoperable building objects in design applications of architectural CAD, structural analysis, and building code conformance checking.     

软件过程风险评估方法研究

随着科技的突飞猛进,软件工程的不断革新,在软件开发的过程中,由于每项软件活动之间都存在着一定的风险,所以为了保证软件工程的健康平稳的发展,应该采用风险评估的研究方法对其进行监控,在软件生产的过程中,发生偏离最佳实践的风险就叫做软件过程的风险,本文通过根据建立在CMMI中的过程域的风险评估体系,并采用每个过程域的模糊综合评估,进而监控软件风险与质量,通过实例分析,进一步说明该风险评估的方法符合软件工程建模的要求。     

Design sketches and sketch design tools

In early stages of design architects often use sketching and diagramming to perform formal and functional reasoning. Design sketches are an external representation aid for visualization and evaluation of the spatial arrangements of artifacts. Symbols and configurations are used in design sketches to define context and object arrangements. This paper argues the need to study design drawing, reports the findings from empirical studies of design drawings, and describes the software systems implemented to support intention inference and automated activation of knowledge-based design tools to support design.     

DialogDesigner: tools support for dialogue model design and evaluation

DialogDesigner is an integrated design and development environment that supports dialogue designers in creating an electronic dialogue model, writing dialogue snippets, running and analysing simulation sessions, getting graphical views of the model, making automatic evaluation regarding dialogue model well-formedness, compiling the model into run-time code, and extracting different presentations. DialogDesigner has been used for research purposes as well as in commercial projects. Its primary focus is on providing support for the development process. We explain underlying ideas, illustrate the functionality of DialogDesigner and discuss its strengths.     

Categories,disciplines, and social coordination

Lucy Suchman's paper, Do categories have politics, challenges the validity of speech act theory as a basis for computer systems for workflow support. Suchman fears that the explicitiness of the theory leads to undue discipline when it is applied in practice. Her fear is grounded in a misunderstanding of what it means to use such a theory, and this paper clarifies the difference between formal comprehensivemodels of behavior and formalstructures used in communication and recording, Explicit speech act theory, like explicit accounting procedures, enforces a kind of uniformity that is necessary in any communication situation where ambiguity and vagueness cannot be routinely resolved through direct personal contact and knowledge. The practicalities of large geographically distributed organizations makes the appropriate use of shared structuring a precondition for effective cooperation.     

面向对象方法在过程控制系统设计中的运用

本文概括介绍了面向对象的思想，并比较了其与传统系统分析方法的差异；在给出某轧钢厂过程控制系统的传统模型后，运用面向对象方法，建立了轧钢过程控制的面向对象模型，并给出了其中一些对象类的C 描述，总结了面向对象方法的优越性。     

Attention-shaping tools,expertise, and perceived control in IT project risk assessment

This study investigates the use of attention-shaping tools and their interactions with expertise and perceptions of control on individual decision-making about risks in IT projects. The paper uses data collected from 118 IT project experts and 140 novices through a role-playing experiment to provide several novel insights into how these three factors independently and collectively influence perception of risks and subsequent project continuation decisions. First, attention-shaping tools have a significant effect on both risk perception and decision-making. However, among individuals with low expertise, risk shaping tools exhibit a significant but dual-sided effect on risk perception. They help identify risks captured by the attention-shaping tool but simultaneously introduce blind spots in their risk awareness. Second, while individuals with greater expertise perceive significantly higher levels of risks relative to those with lower expertise, the level of expertise had generally no influence on decision-making. Third, we found that perceived control is a powerful factor influencing both risk perception and decision-making. Implications for research and practice are discussed along with potential avenues for future research.