Design Strategies and Methods in Interaction Design: The past, present, and future

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.

INTRODUCTION

WHY DESIGN STRATEGIES AND DESIGN METHODS?

Design strategies define activities within the constraints of time and resources. These strategies help the designer to select the best mix of creative and rational methods. Since user interface design involves many issues, it is necessary to apply well-chosen strategies to optimize the design process.

Design methods help formalize problem solving procedures and techniques. This formalization reduces errors and oversights in the design process. The use of design methods helps to externalize thoughts and ideas, forcing the designer to be more explicit. For a long time, designers have dealt with ill-defined problems which caused them to develop a variety of skills and methods necessary to generate creative solutions. On the other hand, rational thinkers, such as those in the fields of human-factors and cognitive psychology, have dealt with well-defined problems that generate specific knowledge. A broader approach, combining these two schools of thought, is necessary to deal with the complexity of interaction problems in the future.

THE WORKSHOP

Position papers will be used to develop more detailed and focused activities for the workshop. The workshop will consist of discussion groups drawing on the experience of the organizers and participants.

These participatory groups will use consensus building techniques (e.g., affinity diagramming, brainstorming, nominal group technique, and snowcards) to address the issues and identify directions for the future.

The goal of the first day is to explore the past and present state of DS&M and to construct a preliminary framework for the second day, during which the future of DS&M will be explored.

In the first half of day one, participants will share and discuss how DS&M were utilized from the past to the present and what kind of results were obtained. This session is particularly important to understand how DS&M evolved. This session is also important to explore how researchers and practitioners have applied DS&M over time and across disciplines. The results from this session, along with the pre-workshop activities, will provide a background for the afternoon session.

In the second half of day one, small groups will focus on how DS&M are currently utilized. Participants may share examples of DS&M from their current work experience. This session will enable the group to reach consensus on the attributes of effective DS&M in the real world. Defining the attributes will help to build a framework that would be the starting point to explore the future of DS&M.

In the first half of day two, the workshop will focus on future uses of DS&M with respect to the framework defined in the first day.

In the second half of day two, conclusions will be drawn and post-workshop activities will be discussed including plans to publish workshop results. The results may contain a taxonomy of DS&M, pros and cons of using DS&M, and the future of DS&M in interaction design represented in the form of scenarios and story-boards. We hope that the results will be beneficial to researchers and practitioners, particularly in the field of human-computer interaction.

Organizers will make the results available during the CHI'97 conference as an interactive poster and in the SIGCHI bulletin.

Organizers' Backgrounds

Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Kansas, Branham has been exploring design systems and theory both in the classroom and in the real world since the early 1960's. His degree in industrial design (M.S., Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology and M.F.A., B.F.A. at Kansas) provided him with the basic tools to Build the Information and Design Systems Division of Unimark International. He then co-founded the Design Planning Group, Chicago. He returned to the University of Kansas in 1974 as Chairman of the Design Department, and has since received numerous teaching awards.

In 1980, he co-authored Language of Form, and is currently compiling a textbook on human factors for designers, with an emphasis on human cognition. Branham continues to consult independently and through Forcade & Associates, Lawrence, KS and Evanston, IL in professional design, marketing and information design; recent clients include China Foreign Trade Center Co. Ltd., Shanghai, Kansas Department of Agriculture, McDonald's Corporation, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Spiegel and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Alp Tiritoglu

Tiritoglu is a Design Researcher and Developer in Human Computer Interaction with international experience in The Netherlands. After having a degree in computer science, Tiritoglu focused on user interface design, interaction methods, cognitive psychology, design theory, and design methods (B.S.. Computer Science and M.F.A., Design Theory).

During his international fellowship at the Institute for Perception Research (IPO), The Netherlands, he consulted in the Information Ergonomics Department and managed research projects. He was also actively involved in collaboration between Philips Corporate Design and IPO to define research subjects. Tiritoglu authored and co-authored papers in the field of user interface and information ergonomics.

Tiritoglu is the chairman of the Kansas City local chapter of the SIGCHI, ACM and an active member of ACM. He is currently developing software and designing user interfaces for Geographic Information Systems(GIS) at M.J. Harden Associates, Inc., Kansas City, MO.

REFERENCES

1. Bechtel, R.B. et al. (eds.). Methods in Environmental and Behavioral Research. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1987.
2. Bryson, J.M. Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement. Jossey-Bass., San Francisco, 1989.
3. Carroll, J.M. Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1995.
4. Chaiklin, S., and Lave, J., (eds.). Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993.
5. Cross, N. Engineering Design Methods: Strategies for Product Design. Second edition. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, 1989.
6. Greenbaum, J., and Kyng, M. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, 1991.
7. Greenblat, C.S., and Duke., R. D. Principles and Practices of Gaming Simulation. Beverly Hills, CA, 1981.
8. Gregory, S.A. (ed.). Design Method. Plenum Press, New York, 1966.
9. Jones, J.C. Design Methods. Second ed. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1992.
10. Moran, T.P., and J. M. Carroll. Design Rationale. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, 1995.
11. Nielsen, J. Usability Engineering. AP Professional, Boston, 1993.
12. Preece, J. et al. Human-Computer Interaction. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
13. Pugh, S. Total Design: Integrated Methods for Successful Product Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1991.
14. Rowe, P.G. Design Thinking. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987.
15. Rudisill, M., et al. (eds.). Human-Computer Interface Design. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1995.
16. Schuler, D., and Namioka., A. (eds.). Participatory Design: Principles and Practices. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, 1993.
17. VanGundy, A.B. Techniques of Structured Problem Solving. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1981.
18. Wiklund, M.E. (eds.). Usability in Practice. AP Professional, Boston, 1994.
19. Winograd, T. Bringing Design to Software. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1986.
20. Wixon, D., and Ramey, J. (eds.). Field Methods Casebook for Software Design. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1996.