The Usability Architect

Bridging the gaps between the disciplines has become a established field of research related to the design and specification of user interfaces. The topic is on the list of IFIP’s workgroup 2.7/13.4 on user interface engineering and being discussed during conferences such as the HCSE.

Both the name of the workgroup and the conference point out to the fact that the related research is mostly focused on a common denominator for software and usability engineering processes.

The issue is complex and the best researchers from all over the world develop various approaches to combine the best of both disciplines during user interface specification tasks.

An analysis of presented results shows that one is able to identify both formal and informal approaches for a joint course of action. The formal solutions usually come from the software engineering population. Their idea of user interface specification is very much related to a model-driven development of interactive systems. Here, actors create models and intend to create the code for the user interface on the push of a button. From an interaction designer’s point of view, the outcome mostly lacks aesthetics and usability. Moreover, innovation user interface usually won’t evolve applying such an approach.

That is one of the main reasons why usability engineers vote for a less formal approach. Naturally, usability engineering also knows a huge amount of models. Many of them are said to be heavy-weight methods, as they require much effort (e.g. usability tests, interviews, etc.). But many case studies of usability-oriented and innovation-driven user interface engineering projects show that thoughtfully applied usability methods lead to successful user interface designs.

It is mandatory for software engineering and usability engineering experts to provide room for creativity and discussion. This is hardly possible in model-driven environments, where specific terminologies and modelling languages prevent participatory processes.

It is very dangerous to answer the complexity of the subject of bridging the gaps by switching to extreme solutions. Formal approaches are inappropriate due to their focus on code generation. Informal approaches become inadequate as soon as they limit the process of user interface engineering on a visual externalization of design vision.

Naturally, prototyping the user interface is among the most important activities of interaction designers. But we must not forget that there is a very special reason why twenty years of usability engineering research lead to a sound set of user and task models. Both are necessary to capture the requirements for the user interface. The interaction designer must develop a design rationale that must be as transparent as possible. Switching between abstract descriptions and more visual artifacts is the most important activity during user interface development. It’s necessary to cross-check designs with underlying requirements.

The development of adequate tool-support therefore still faces some challenges. With tools like iRise, the community is on a very good way. We all know that complex tools and terminologies are not accepted in business organizations. But such tools may need to consider the inclusion of early-stage models and requirements in order to allow a traceable design rationale to evolve.

In the last years we have seen lost of tools that can be said to be all-in-one device suitable for every purpose. Usually, such tools overwhelm the user with too much features and are too difficult to use. It is therefore essential to throughtfully select the kind of models and methods that are incorporated into new and innovative UI tools. Combining a common denominator for usually distinct disciplines with means of information visualization can lead to easy-to-use and easy-to-learn tool-support. We must, however, not forget that finishing the dominance of Office-like applications during user interface specification processes will be a demanding, if not back-breaking assignment.

We successfully demonstrated Inspector to the attendees of the 3rd IASTED conference on Human-Computer Interaction.