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2.2. Review of Existing Development Processes
17
Specify physical devices, (5) Develop software, (6) Integrate system and disseminate
to users, (7) Nurture the user community, and (8) Prepare evolutionary plan. Test-
ing is required in every stage. Despite of its strong user focus this methodology does
not explicitly force the developer to cooperate with the user.
Usability Engineering Lifecycle Methodology. This methodology
[
Nielsen
1993
]
also has a very strong focus on the user. It is composed of eleven rather
formal and systematic steps: (1) Know the user, (2) Competitive analysis, (3) Set-
ting usability goals, (4) Parallel design, (5) Participatory design, (6) Coordinated
design of the total interface, (7) Apply guidelines and heuristic analysis, (8) Proto-
typing, (9) Empirical testing, (10) Iterative design, and (11) Collect feedback from
field use. Though being similar to IDMS at a first glance, the usability engineer-
ing life-cycle explicitly suggests cooperation with the user. However, stimulation of
the user is not part of the methodology. Consequently, the results meet the user’s
requirements but are not necessarily innovative.
Task-Centered Design Process Methodology. The fundamental idea of this
methodology
[
Lewis and Rieman 1993
]
is not to recreate the wheel, but rather to in-
corporate existing applications with their solutions, and copy interaction techniques
from other systems. The focus is, as the title suggests, focused on the user’s task:
(1) Figure out who’s going to use the system to do what, (2) Choose representation
tasks for task-centered design, (3) Plagiarize, (4) Rough out a design, (5) Think
about it, (6) Create a mock-up or prototype, (7) Test it with users, (8) Iterate, (9)
Build it, (10) Track it, and (11) Change it. This methodology actively suggests to
work within existing interface frameworks and toolkits and to incorporate existing
solutions. The focus, however, is rather on the user’s tasks then on the user him-
self. This methodology seems very applicable for solving needs of specific tasks.
This ‘stickiness’ together with the pragmatic approach of reusing existing solutions
whenever possible seems to hinder the goal of innovations that radically depart from
today.
Discussion
Within the field of software design many methodologies exist. Accordingly, there
is also great overlap between methodologies. The focus on the user is clearly more
important than with software engineering processes. However, the emphasis on user
involvement is di erent among processes. It varies from deriving requirements from
the user to actually conduct tests and review sessions together with the user. Some
methodologies are very formal, others are rather informal and leave greater flexibility
to the developer. Nevertheless, the common goal is to develop user interfaces that
match the user’s expectations as well as possible. Innovative developments that
radically depart from today are not fostered. Multiple stakeholders involvement
has not been mentioned in the reviewed methodologies. Stimulation of the users to
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