Abstract
Today, the demand for software that is 'intuitive to use' is very high. In fact, this has become a determining factor for the success of a system. However, building software that is intuitive to use is challenging. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They have to face a variety of problems to remain competitive: Usually no or just small staff is available that is specialized in user requirements engineering research, design, and testing. Furthermore, time schedules and budget are tight. All these factors require a method that delivers creative and intuitive-to-use software even with little design experience and expertise. In this paper, we address this problem by introducing a method for capturing and specifying the user's mental models with image schemas and image-schematic metaphors during the requirements engineering phase of a software engineering project. This method also enables SMEs to systematically transfer these elicited requirements into design solutions, which then result in software that is intuitive to use.
Highlights
Image schemas are core cognitive structures arising from physical and cultural experience and structure human perception [16]
Empirical data shows that users are faster, make fewer errors and prefer user interfaces that are consistent with image schemas – even though they look less familiar [13]
The overall goal when developing the IBIS method was to integrate the image schema method into a requirements engineering and user-centred user interface (UI) design process according to ISO
Summary
The demand for intuitively usable software is very high [19]: Interactive software applications are becoming more and more complex; the time users are willing to spend on learning how to use a system is quite limited; and software is often used by very heterogeneous user groups - just to highlight some of the most important reasons. One solution to tackle this challenge is to provide SMEs with methods that can be tailored to their specific engineering processes and that allow bridging the above mentioned “Design Gap” between requirements engineering and design This can be achieved by providing support in translating the mental models of the user into design solutions even if only little design experience is available. The IBIS method (German for design of intuitive use with Image Schemas) is presented which provides a solution for bridging the aforementioned gap and adressing user requirements in terms of mental models of human-computer interaction (HCI). The innovation of this method compared to existing approaches lies in using image schemas [10] to capture and specify user’s mental models during requirements engineering activities These elicited requirements will function as design guidance resulting in intuitive-to-use interfaces.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
