ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a practical method useful in design of human–computer interaction. The method was developed pragmatically in a consulting practice to satisfy a need for reliable, reusable, and cost-effective problems and design-meeting situations. Design is viewed as a process of construc ting and evaluaing a succession of more and more complete design models until a final design is produced. In this view, an important part of support for design is a powerful method for constucting design models. The chapter offers generic forms, called templates, that can be instantiated to produce specific design models, gready facilitating construction. Three types of template are described. The first group supports modeling of the form of a software user interface. The second group helps in establishing design goals. The third group facilitates managing the design process. Each template is based on actual practice, and each is supported with a procedure for using it and an example of its use in practice.