Proposal for a Method to Clarify Customer Needs Using HI (Human Interface) Patterns

Abstract

We have been developing methods of clarifying and describing customer needs for usability on the basis of human-centered design (HCD) processes. This paper proposes a method of clarifying customer needs in requirements definitions through prototype creation. This method helps system engineers (SEs) without expertise to create and evaluate suitable prototypes by offering prototype components based on the classification of customer needs. These components are defined as HI (human interface) patterns that have four layers of screen transitions, screen layouts, screen elements, and color combinations. This proposed method is assumed to solve problems with previous prototypes such as those where it was not easy for unskilled SEs to create prototypes that reflected customer needs. We confirmed the effectiveness of this method and found additional problems by applying it to a system development project.