Tutorial 27

Models, Prototypes, and Evaluations for HCI Design: Making the Structured Approach Practical

George Casaday, Cynthia Rainis Digital Equipment Corporation

Monday, May 8

Objective

Participants will learn to (1) describe for their team a plan for user-interface design with specific work products as deliverables, (2) create and evaluate specific work products or facilitate these activities, (3) lead teams through a cost-effective design process, and (4) develop design ability by refining the tutorial work products and adding new ones.

Content

The structured approach divides HCI design into distinct, interrelated components. This approach is an excellent way to learn design and for a design team to stay on track. This tutorial teaches (a) seven design work products (usability requirements, scenario, work model, storyboard, user interface map, paper prototype, on- line prototype); (b) evaluation of five usability requirements (learnability, relearnability, efficiency, error behavior, subjective satisfaction); (c) evaluation in three modes (heuristic, client, user); and (d) a strategy for organizing design activities (preferred sequence of work products, creation of each at comparable levels of detail, formative evaluation of each, iteration through the sequence for greater detail).

Audience

This intermediate-level tutorial is intended for participants who have responsibility for user interface design with a software development team. It is particularly relevant for participants facing issues of limited resources, limited time, and a need to prove credibility. Participants should be acquainted with design for graphical user interfaces.

Presentation

Lecture, exercises

Instructors

George Casaday is a Principle Software Engineer with Digital Equipment Corporation. He manages an internal training program in HCI design and works as an HCI consultant and designer. Cynthia Rainis is a Senior Instructional Design Consultant with Digital Equipment Corporation. Her current responsibilities include developing methods for integrating all user information sources into a coherent whole.

Keith Instone / instone@acm.org / 95-01-05