ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on findings from the author's study to argue that the most important criteria for supporting complex work is to design for usefulness, a different focus from designing for ease of use and access. It then proposes a framework-Bounded Interactivity for Complex Inquiry (BICI)-to guide usability specialists, information designers, and other members of a software development team in building usefulness into programs for complex problem solving. Representing user's complex problem solving in context, BICI emphasizes the interaction between conditions, constraints, and actions, and the need to design programs and interfaces in ways that support the effects of these interactions. The sample design situation focuses on design strategies for one of the most common problem-solving needs experienced by users to carry out and see results from the methods of analysis that are central to their domain and profession's way of inquiring into a problem. The chapter concludes by addressing the implications of designing for usefulness.
