We argue that HCI has emerged as a design-oriented field of research, directed at large towards innovation, design, and construction of new kinds of information and interaction technology. But the understanding of such an attitude to research in terms of philosophical, theoretical, and methodological underpinnings seems however relatively poor within the field. This paper intends to specifically address what design `is' and how it is related to HCI. First, three candidate accounts from design theory of what design `is' are introduced; the conservative, the romantic, and the pragmatic. By examining the role of sketching in design, it is found that the designer becomes involved in a necessary dialogue, from which the design problem and its solution are worked out simultaneously as a closely coupled pair. In conclusion, it is proposed that we need to acknowledge, first, the role of design in HCI conduct, and second, the difference between the knowledge-generating Design-oriented Research and the artifact-generating conduct of Research-oriented Design.

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time.

The paper shows a SHEL oriented requirements engineering approach, which has been applied in a case study dealing with the definition of the requirements for a new railways traffic control system. The SHEL model provides an integrated view by considering any productive process or activity performed by a combination of Hardware, Software and Liveware resources within a specific environment. A set of SHEL oriented requirements describes the different views on a complex system. The requirements are grouped into three main classes of requirements, namely, functional, cognitive and quality requirements. The paper points out the issue of integrating different types of requirements.

This paper discusses the role of user-centred evaluations as an essential method for researching interactive information retrieval. It draws mainly on the work carried out during the Clarity Project where different user-centred evaluations were used during the lifecycle of a cross-language information retrieval system. The iterative testing was not only instrumental to the development of a usable system, but it enhanced our knowledge of the potential, impact, and actual use of cross-language information retrieval technology. Indeed the role of the user evaluation was dual: by testing a specific prototype it was possible to gain a micro-view and assess the effectiveness of each component of the complex system; by cumulating the result of all the evaluations (in total 43 people were involved) it was possible to build a macro-view of how cross-language retrieval would impact on users and their tasks. By showing the richness of results that can be acquired, this paper aims at stimulating researchers into considering user-centred evaluations as a flexible, adaptable and comprehensive technique for investigating non-traditional information access systems.

We are exploring methods for participatory and public involvement of new 'players' in the design space. Underdogs & Superheroes involves a game-based methodology -- a series of creative activities or games -- in order to engage people experientially, creatively, and personally throughout the design process. We have found that games help engage users' imaginations by representing reality without limiting expectations to what's possible here and now; engaging experiential and personal perspectives (the 'whole' person); and opening the creative process to hands-on user participation through low/no-tech materials and a widelyunderstood approach.

interaction design in practice

a portal application for mobile handsets

Abstract not found

This dissertation proposes novel tools for the prototyping of user interfaces as part of a larger user interface design process. Doing so successfully requires understanding underlying principles and practices of design. This chapter presents a brief review of different models of design and the role prototypes play in the process. 2.1 DESIGN, DEFINED User interface design is informed and influenced by professional design disciplines such as product design on one side and by software engineering on the other side. This section provides a brief overview of the history of professional design and introduces some established models of the design process to motivate the development of design-specific tools. 2.1.1 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY DESIGN? Herbert Simon provided a very broad definition of design as “devising courses of action aimed at changing current situations into preferred ones ” [34]. Countless competing definitions exist. Common to many definitions is the focus on a specific process, with the goal of creating plans or models for the creation of new artifacts, which have to fit potentially conflicting sets of constraints, requirements, and preferences. To elaborate on these three core characteristics: 1) Design is a process and has structure — there is a set of core activities designers engage in, regardless of the domain of design. 2) Design is not manufacturing — for physical artifacts, the final realization is done by someone else. For software, the division between design and implementation may be less clear. In both domains, the end product of design is often a specification that will be interpreted and implemented by someone else. 3) Design has a client and users — it is accountable to external judgment. Different stakeholders may have conflicting expectations. Design is thus distinguishable as a unique discipline from art (creation which is accountable to the vision of the artist); engineering (“the application of scientific and mathematical

The increased impact of natural disasters and terror attacks on our society has augmented the awareness of needs for advances in emergency response. For local communities it is vital to make use of existing resources. Serviceoriented technology provides new possibilities for the enhancement of command and control (C 2) systems. However, to gain full use of the technology, it must harmonize with the supported organizations and their work procedures. This paper explores the possibilities and usefulness of service oriented C 2-systems for emergency response at the local community level. The study was performed in five steps: (1) literature study, (2) interviews, (3) scenario design, (4) prototyping service-oriented C 2 systems, and (5) a scenario based evaluation. The results show that service-oriented C 2 systems would support and enhance emergency response at the local community level. Still, several issues that need to be further considered remain, not the least the ability of quality assurance of services.