Course : Interactive technologies

In this unit, we present the main techniques for understanding people?s activities and encapsulating this for design.

Design starts with researching and understanding the situation at hand, but in the course of achieving that understanding, designers iterate between the exploration of new concepts, understanding, and evaluation of ideas, designs, and opinions.

Using the techniques described in this unit should ensure that designers undertake a human-centred process.

Techniques for understanding people?s activities in context include interviews, observation and collecting samples of artefacts, complemented by background research away from the domain of interest.

Using more than one technique helps to compensate for their individual limitations.

Requirements work must be documented for communication and use in design; the usual way of doing this is a requirements specification supported by illustrative materials.

The use of scenarios starts early in the design process, with the gathering of user stories, construction of conceptual scenarios for exploring requirements and illustrating their application.