An Observational Study of User Interface Design Practice

Abstract

Most studies of decision making in user interface design have been based on post-hoc interviews. To convey the realm of user interface design practice we conducted a longitudinal study of one designer in an organisation while designing an in–house database system. We applied the participant observation method. The observations revealed that the design took place in a highly turbulent organisational context, the working situation was extremely fragmented, and the information available on the users' tasks was incomplete and contradictory. Under these circumstances the designer adopted an ad–hoc design strategy. No specifications and plans were made. Instead, prototypes were developed aiming at getting feedback from users; however the users were much more concerned with organisational consequences of the system. In the prototypes, the user interface was literally designed from the upper left corner of each screen. Little explicit evaluation was made and drafts became promoted to the real system. Thus, the decisions became disjointed incremental to the existing systems and work practise, i.e. the decision strategy was muddling through.