Virtual University

Human-Computer Interaction

Lecture 16
HCI PROCESS AND Methodologies

Imran Hussain
University of Management and Technology (UMT)

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 In the Last Lecture
• HCI Process and Methodologies
• Problems with digital devices and products
• Significance of process
• Key factors to be consider
• Quality and Usability
• Usability in process
• Evolution of software development process
• Design
• Difference between interface design and interaction design

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 In Today’s Lecture

• Life-cycle Models for Interactive systems

– Waterfall Model
– Spiral Model
– RAD Model
– Star Life-cycle Model
– Usability engineering Model
– Goal Directed Model

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 Design Approach

Iterative and incremental approach towards design

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 Lifecycle Models
• Software lifecycle model consists of different stages and phases
from start to completion.

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 Various Models for SW Lifecyles
• “Historical Models”
– Waterfall model
– Spiral model
• Government Standards
– DoD standards: 2167, 2167A
– FAA standard DO-178A, DO-178B
• Corporate “Standards” or common practices
– Many companies define their own.
– Perhaps using:
• Unified Process (was the Rational U.P.)
• Extreme Programming

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 Why Learn About Process Now?
• There are general principles of about:
– What we do at various stages of SW development
– How to inject quality into SW
– How to avoid early problems that cause huge problems later
– Recognize that SE is not just writing code

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 Waterfall Model
• Early, simple model
– Do the phases shown before, in order
– Complete one phase before moving on to the next
– Produce a document that defines what to do at the start of each phase
– At end of each stage, a document or other work-product is produced:
requirements doc, design doc, code, etc.
– Little or no iteration (going back to previous phase)

• The order of phases/stages is generally “right”, but…

– Following the waterfall precisely is not effective in real development
practice.

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 Traditional ‘Waterfall’ Lifecycle

Requirements
analysis

Design

Code

Test

Maintenance

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 Traditional ‘Waterfall’ Lifecycle

Requirements
analysis

Design

Code

Test

Maintenance

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 Activities in the Life Cycle
• Requirements specification
– Designer and customer try capture what the system is expected to
provide can be expressed in natural language or more precise
languages, such as a task analysis would provide

• Architectural design
– High-level description of how the system will provide the services
required factor system into major components of the system and how
they are interrelated needs to satisfy both functional and non-functional
requirements

• Detailed design
• Refinement of architectural components and interrelations to identify
modules to be implemented separately the refinement is governed by
the non-functional requirements

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 Flaws of the Waterfall

• Need iteration and feedback

– Things change (especially requirements)
– Change late requires change in earlier results
– Often need to do something multiple times, in stages
• As described, it’s very rigid
– Not realistic to freeze results after each phase
• The model does not emphasize important issues
– Risk management
– Prototyping
– Quality

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 A Lifecycle for RAD (Rapid Applications Development)

Project set-up

JAD workshops

Iterative design
and build

Engineer and
test final prototype

Implementation
review

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 Spiral Model (Barry Boehm)
• Important features:
— Risk analysis
— Prototyping
— Iterative framework allowing ideas to be checked and evaluated
— Explicitly encourages alternatives to be considered

— Good for large and complex projects but not simple ones

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 Spiral Lifecycle Model

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 Features of Win Win Spiral Model
• Identification of stakeholders
• Stakeholder includes user
• Win condition of each stakeholder was specified

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 HCI in the Software Process
• Software engineering and the design process for interactive
systems

• Usability engineering

• Iterative design and prototyping

• Design rationale

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 The Software Lifecycle
• Software engineering is the discipline for understanding the
software design process, or life cycle

• Designing for usability occurs at all stages of the life cycle, not as a
single isolated activity

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 A Simple Interaction Design Model

Identify needs/
establish
requirements

(Re)Design
Evaluate

Build an
interactive
version

Final product
Exemplifies a user-centered design approach

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 The Star Lifecycle Model
• Suggested by Hartson and Hix (1989)

• Important features:
— Evaluation at the centre of activities
— No particular ordering of activities. Development may start in any one
— Derived from empirical studies of interface designers

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 The Star Model (Hartson and Hix, 1989)

task/functional
Implementation
analysis

Requirements
Prototyping Evaluation specification

Conceptual/
formal design

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 Usability Engineering Lifecycle Model
• Reported by Deborah Mayhew

• Important features:
– Holistic view of usability engineering
– Provides links to software engineering approaches, e.g. OOSE
– Stages of identifying requirements, designing, evaluating, prototyping
– Can be scaled down for small projects
– Uses a style guide to capture a set of usability goals

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 Usability Engineering Lifecycle Model

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 Goal-directed Design

y
ilit

Ca
ab

pa
sir

bil
De

ity
Product

Viability

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 Probability of customer Probability of Probability of Overall probability
• Adoption (once the product Sustaining business
(up to launch and
Technical completion
(delivery)
Of product success
Has launched)
Long enough after
to build revenue)
User Plan
1. Design
2. schedule
User Model
3. Form and
Technology Model
behavior
1. Context 1. Technology components
spec
• Historical
• Social 2. Competitors
• Economic
3. Build vs buy
2. User buy vs open source
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Technographics

3. Values
Business Model
4. Goals 1. Funding model
2. Income/expense projections etc.
5. scenarios

Business Plan
1. Marketing plan
2. Launch plan
3. Distribution plan

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 User Research
• Qualitative nature
– Market Research and Market segmentation
– Market research gives user survey data.

• Quantitative data is useful for selling a product but not useful for
providing information how people use the product.

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 Gap between user research and ultimate design solution

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 Reason for Gap

Goal-directed methods are not being used

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 • Goals of users
• Needs of business
• Constraints of technology

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 Research is carried out by researchers instead of designers

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 Goal-directed Design

Research Modeling Requirements Framework Refinement

User and the Users and Definition of user, Definition of design Of behavior, form&
domain use context business& technical needs structure & flow content

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 Development Stages

Initiate Design Code Test Ship

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