A semi-formal framework for describing interaction design spaces

Abstract

Interactive system design is typically more successful if it is an iterative process involving collaboration between multidisciplinary teams with different viewpoints. While some sub-teams may focus on the creative aspects of the user interface design and other subgroups on the implementation of required functionality, all must ensure that they are working towards the same goal. They must also satisfy the requirements and needs of all stakeholders. Although many suggestions have been made as to how such design might be supported in a more formal way (such as by using a model-driven process), less focus has been given to managing the coordination of design sub-teams following a creative process. In this paper we propose a semi-formal framework to describe and to compare design spaces, and the external design representations within those spaces. The framework is based on ideas from interaction design and on formal refinement approaches. It suggests a distinction of design options into alternatives and variants to describe and guide processes of idea generation and convergence within, and between, different design sub-spaces and subgroups. We provide a small example to illustrate our approach and to show how it can be implemented by using standard formal approaches alongside less formal design notations and human-computer interaction processes.

Coping with Design Complexity: A Conceptual Framework for Design Alternatives and Variants

“…The refinement concepts we have presented here are grounded in traditional refinement theory, but we have presented them as light-weight concepts without any practical techniques for supporting their identification. In [6] we gave some formal definitions for such refinements and in future work we should consider the application of these within the framework in a suitable lightweight mannerby which we mean lightweight practical techniques that can be used by interaction designers rather than formal methods specialists.…”

Crosside: A Cross-Surface Collaboration by Sketching Design Space

“…Sketching covers many domains of human activity and inside these domains, there are several works exploiting sketching for one or many sub-activities such as for example: problem analysis in general [44], computer science [17] (e.g., user experience support [8], [18], user interface design, prototyping, and recognition [23], [13], [14], [39], [3], [2], [47], cross-device UI design [25], user-centered design in agile projects [32], [7], system walkthrough [24]), system development (e.g., QUILL [16] for model-based design of web applications), flexible modelling [40] (e.g., FlexiSketch [54], [55] for model sketching), RAPIDO [35] for web API development, sketching UML models (e.g., TAHUTI for sketching UML Class diagrams [19] and SketchML for various UML diagrams [3]), distributed software design [29], [33], task modelling [41], notation creation [55]), computer-supported collaborative work [21] (e.g., stakeholders' meetings [20], collocated tables for meetings [51] and interactive design spaces [6]), product and service design (e.g., sketching in design [21], extreme designing [15], industrial design [52], shape-changing products [42]), public displays [36], learning (e.g., classroom design studio [26], teaching geometry [11]), ideation [4] and concept generation…”

Crosside: A Cross-Surface Collaboration by Sketching Design Space

“…Sketching covers many domains of human activity and inside these domains, there are several works exploiting some form sketching for one or many sub-activities such as for example: problem analysis in general [13], computer science [2] (e.g., user experience support [14,15], user interface design, prototyping, and recognition [16,17,18,19,20,21,22], cross-device UI design [4], user-centered design in agile projects [23,24], system walkthrough [25]), system development (e.g., QUILL [26] for model-based design of web applications), flexible modelling [27] (e.g., FlexiSketch [28,29] for model sketching), RAPIDO [30] for web API development, sketching UML models (e.g., TAHUTI for sketching UML Class diagrams [31] and SketchML for various UML diagrams [20]), distributed software design [32,33], task modelling [34], notation creation [29]), computer-supported collaborative work [35] (e.g., stakeholders' meetings [36], collocated tables for meetings [37] and interactive design spaces [38]), product and service design (e.g., sketching in design [35], extreme designing [39], industrial design [5], shape-changing products [40]), public displays [41], learning (e.g., classroom design studio [42], teaching geometry [43]), ideation [44] and concept generation …”