Workshop 5
Crossing the Chasm: A Methodology Framework for Promoting Usability in the Software Development Community
Charles B. Kreitzberg, Whitney Quesenbery
June 30, 1999, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
A major challenge facing the usability profession is positioning user-centered design as a mainstream component of software development practice. A barrier to wider practice of user-centered design is a lack of detailed understanding about the user-centered design process and how UCD techniques fit into larger software development methodologies. This workshop will explore the development of a standard UCD Framework that provides software developers with a complete, comprehensive, step by step framework that lays out a "generic" but detailed approach to the user-centered design process. A plan for promoting the framework, derived from Geoffrey Moore's "chasm model" will be developed.
User-centered design should be a core part of every software development effort yet, despite its well-documented paybacks, it has yet to be widely adopted. Too often, user-centered design remains the province of visionaries rather than the everyday practice of programmers and analysts. One barrier to the wider practice of user-centered design is that its structure and techniques are not well understood. While programmers may have high-level familiarity with such basic concepts as requirements analysis and usability testing, few understand the complete process at a level which allows them to incorporate it into the larger software development lifecycle.
Yet most usability professionals agree on the basic approach to user-centered design. Key steps include requirements gathering through observation and interview, creating a conceptual design, and iterative testing and refinement. While specific situations may call for different techniques and different levels of formality, the basic structure is generally similar. This commonality is the basis for the emerging ISO Standard 13407: Human-Centered Design Process for Interactive Systems.
One way for the usability profession to educate other technology professionals in user-centered approaches would be to provide them with a complete, comprehensive, step by step framework that lays out the entire process. The organizers of this workshop have developed such a framework, known as Lucid (logical user centered interaction design). This framework is non-proprietary, able to accommodate a wide range of published techniques and is in accord with accepted UCD practice.
The workshop will consider the viability of creating a "generic" framework that can be shared with the software development community. We will use the current version of the Lucid Framework as a starting point and identify missing, desirable and controversial elements. Finally, we will draft a plan for sharing the framework with the software development community. We will use Geoffrey Moore's model of "Crossing the Chasm" as the basis for a plan to promote user-centered design approaches to the software development community. Moore argues that a "chasm" exists between early adopters (visionaries) and the more pragmatic mainstream group. To cross the chasm, UCD must meet the needs of the pragmatists and be presented as a "whole product framework."
We invite participation from usability specialists who are interested in the development of methodologies and standards, who have researched or developed specific user-centered design techniques or who have worked with programming methodologies and can offer insights in how to integrate user-centered design processes with software development methodologies. We also invite participation from usability specialists who are interested in the general problem of promoting user-centered design processes in the software development community and who have good ideas to share.
Prior to the workshop, all potential participants will be provided with access to current copies of the framework and will be asked to review it and formulate a series of issues for group consideration. The facilitators will collate the issues from accepted participants and will distribute them to the group prior to the workshop. Participants will be expected to read these issues prior to the workshop. In addition, participants should read Geoffrey Moore's brief book Crossing the Chasm (Reprint edition, October 1995, Harperbusiness; ISBN: 0887307175).
Registering for a Workshop
Workshops are closed sessions; you may register for a workshop only with
permission of the workshop organizer. To participate, send your
position paper to the address below by May 27, 1999. Electronic applications may be submitted in plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), or Microsoft Word for Windows.
Although the workshop deadline is after the end of early registration, you
can still qualify for the early conference registration discount if you register during
the early registration period. Your registration should include the workshop
you are requesting. Workshop registration (which is not discounted based on
the registration date) will be processed when approved by the workshop coordinator.
Charles B. Kreitzberg
Cognetics Corporation
51 Everett Drive 103B
PO Box 386
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
+1 609 799 5005 voice
+1 609 799 8555 fax
charlie@cognetics.com
|
