Rationale For Design Decisions Research Articles

The Evolution of Designing E-Service-Learning Projects: A Look at the Development of Instructional Designers

This design case will discuss how design strategies evolved through the development and implementation of two e-service-learning project cohorts. The article provides a detailed account for how Designers for Learning launched its first e-service-learning instructional design project to address adult basic education needs. Information and design feedback gathered at the end of project informed design decisions and changes to the process for a second iteration. The authors discuss the rationale for design decisions made throughout the course of these two cohorts as well as recommendations for mentoring and coaching novice instructional designers through a service-learning project.

Conceptual and statistical issues in couples observational research: Rationale and methods for design decisions.

Observational behavioral coding methods are widely used for the study of relational phenomena. There are numerous guidelines for the development and implementation of these methods that include principles for creating new and adapting existing coding systems as well as principles for creating coding teams. While these principles have been successfully implemented in research on relational phenomena, the ever expanding array of phenomena being investigated with observational methods calls for a similar expansion of these principles. Specifically, guidelines are needed for decisions that arise in current areas of emphasis in couple research including observational investigation of related outcomes (e.g., relationship distress and psychological symptoms), the study of change in behavior over time, and the study of group similarities and differences in the enactment and perception of behavior. This article describes conceptual and statistical considerations involved in these 3 areas of research and presents principle- and empirically based rationale for design decisions related to these issues. A unifying principle underlying these guidelines is the need for careful consideration of fit between theory, research questions, selection of coding systems, and creation of coding teams. Implications of (mis)fit for the advancement of theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The nested blocks and guidelines model

We propose the nested blocks and guidelines model for the design and validation of visualization systems. The nested blocks and guidelines model extends the previously proposed four-level nested model by adding finer grained structure within each level, providing explicit mechanisms to capture and discuss design decision rationale. Blocks are the outcomes of the design process at a specific level, and guidelines discuss relationships between these blocks. Blocks at the algorithm and technique levels describe design choices, as do data blocks at the abstraction level, whereas task abstraction blocks and domain situation blocks are identified as the outcome of the designer’s understanding of the requirements. In the nested blocks and guidelines model, there are two types of guidelines: within-level guidelines provide comparisons for blocks within the same level, while between-level guidelines provide mappings between adjacent levels of design. We analyze several recent articles using the nested blocks and guidelines model to provide concrete examples of how a researcher can use blocks and guidelines to describe and evaluate visualization research. We also discuss the nested blocks and guidelines model with respect to other design models to clarify its role in visualization design. Using the nested blocks and guidelines model, we pinpoint two implications for visualization evaluation. First, comparison of blocks at the domain level must occur implicitly downstream at the abstraction level; second, comparison between blocks must take into account both upstream assumptions and downstream requirements. Finally, we use the model to analyze two open problems: the need for mid-level task taxonomies to fill in the task blocks at the abstraction level and the need for more guidelines mapping between the algorithm and technique levels.

Agile Method Tailoring in a CMMI Level 5 Organization

We investigate the use and tailoring of agile methods in a highly disciplined CMMI Level 5 organization. We explore gaps between traditional agile practices and those required for enhanced levels of governance required by CMMI appraisal. We conducted a case study with recorded interviews from practitioners at NIIT Technology Ltd. The interviews were iteratively analysed and coded. Our findings show that agile methods must be supplemented with pre-sprint planning, evidence recording, project metrics, team self-organization, process standardization, and process base-lining to support the CMMI appraisal. There are challenges around Agile compliance with CMMI Level 4 processes and misconceptions about agile methods precluding documentation of the rationale for design decisions. This research contributes data to the tailoring of agile methods in a high-maturity CMMI context and will be useful for agile teams conducting level 5 appraisals.

The value of design rationale information

A complete and detailed (full) Design Rationale Documentation (DRD) could support many software development activities, such as an impact analysis or a major redesign. However, this is typically too onerous for systematic industrial use as it is not cost effective to write, maintain, or read. The key idea investigated in this article is that DRD should be developed only to the extent required to support activities particularly difficult to execute or in need of significant improvement in a particular context. The aim of this article is to empirically investigate the customization of the DRD by documenting only the information items that will probably be required for executing an activity. This customization strategy relies on the hypothesis that the value of a specific DRD information item depends on its category (e.g., assumptions, related requirements, etc.) and on the activity it is meant to support. We investigate this hypothesis through two controlled experiments involving a total of 75 master students as experimental subjects. Results show that the value of a DRD information item significantly depends on its category and, within a given category, on the activity it supports. Furthermore, on average among activities, documenting only the information items that have been required at least half of the time (i.e., the information that will probably be required in the future) leads to a customized DRD containing about half the information items of a full documentation. We expect that such a significant reduction in DRD information should mitigate the effects of some inhibitors that currently prevent practitioners from documenting design decision rationale.

Key choices in the design of Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) provides a data model and vocabulary for expressing Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) such as thesauri and classification schemes in Semantic Web applications. This paper presents the main components of SKOS and their formal expression in Web Ontology Language (OWL), providing an extensive account of the design decisions taken by the Semantic Web Deployment (SWD) Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which between 2006 and 2009 brought SKOS to the status of W3C Recommendation. The paper explains key design principles such as “minimal ontological commitment” and systematically cites the requirements and issues that influenced the design of SKOS components.By reconstructing the discussion around alternative features and design options and presenting the rationale for design decisions, the paper aims at providing insight into how SKOS turned out as it did, and why. Assuming that SKOS, like any other successful technology, may eventually be subject to revision and improvement, the critical account offered here may help future editors approach such a task with deeper understanding.

Key Choices in the Design of Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) provides a data model and vocabulary for expressing Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) such as thesauri and classification schemes in Semantic Web applications. This paper presents the main components of SKOS and their formal expression in Web Ontology Language (OWL), providing an extensive account of the design decisions taken by the Semantic Web Deployment (SWD) Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which between 2006 and 2009 brought SKOS to the status of W3C Recommendation. The paper explains key design principles such as minimal ontological commitment and systematically cites the requirements and issues that influenced the design of SKOS components. By reconstructing the discussion around alternative features and design options and presenting the rationale for design decisions, the paper aims at providing insight into how SKOS turned out as it did, and why. Assuming that SKOS, like any other successful technology, may eventually be subject to revision and improvement, the critical account offered here may help future editors approach such a task with deeper understanding.

A Design Case: Developing an Enhanced Version of the Diffusion Simulation Game

In this paper, we present a design case describing the creation of a new online version of the Diffusion Simulation Game (DSG). The DSG is a serious game that teaches change management strategies aligned with Rogers’ (2003) diffusion of innovations theory. The goal of the game is to promote the understanding of strategies that result in the adoption of an instructional innovation by the staff members of a fictional junior high school. The original board version of the game was created in the 1970s (Molenda and Rice, 1979) and was played as part of a course in the School of Education of a large Midwestern university. With the opening of a distance master’s program, the first online version of the game was developed in 2002 (Frick, Ludwig, Kim, & Huang, 2003). In order to overcome some of the limitations of the first online version, a new online version of the DSG was developed. This new version was rapidly prototyped first on paper and then in Flex Builder, ActionScript, PHP and MySQL. A rapid prototype approach (Tripp & Bichelmeyer, 1990) was utilized to iteratively design the user interface. In addition to describing the design process and rationale for design decisions, we also report results of play-tests and usability evaluations of seven recruited participants and how the information collected from these evaluations will help us to improve the current design.

Designing and deploying a building-wide cognitive radio network testbed

Wireless communication technology is constantly advancing with the primary objective being to improve the quality of service for the end user. Cognitive radio is a technology capable of advancing wireless communications to the next generation of intelligent devices. Integrating cognition into wireless applications such as dynamic spectrum access, radio resource management, wireless distributed computing, and even traditional protocol stacks has already been shown to provide benefits related to the communications quality of service. The majority of cognitive radio related research has been limited to theoretical frameworks and simulations or in a few cases, demonstrating prototype DSA devices on a small scale. In order to continue advancing in this area, larger-scale experiments that are reproducible and able to be moved beyond theoretical simulations are required. Virginia Tech has built a testbed for software-defined and cognitive radio related research for the purpose of rapid next-generation communication system prototyping using a medium scale size network of flexible wireless nodes. In this article we present the details of the development, design decision rationale, and deployment of this testbed in hopes that it will be both used by the research community, and duplicated and improved in order to further the development of the many different facets of cognitive radio research.

Design decision rationale

Design decisions crucially influence the success of every software project. While the resulting design is typically documented quite well, the situation is usually different for the underlying rationale and decision-making process. Despite being recognized as a helpful approach in general, the explicit documentation of Design Decision Rationale (DDR) is not yet largely utilized due to some inhibitors (e.g., additional documentation effort). Experience with other qualities, e.g. software reusability, evidently shows that an improvement of these qualities only pays off on a large scale and therefore has to be pursued in a strategic, pre-planned, and carefully focused way. In this paper we argue that this also has to be considered for documenting DDR. To this end the paper presents: (i) the Decision, Goal, and Alternatives (DGA) DDR framework, (ii) experience in dealing with DGA, (iii) motivators and inhibitors of using DDR, and (iv) an approach for systematic DDR use that follows value-based software engineering principles.

Scalable multimedia communication using IP Multicast and lightweight sessions

This survey describes the roots of IP Multicast, the evolution of the Internet Multicast Backbone, or Mbone, and the technologies that have risen around the Mbone to support large-scale Internet-based multimedia conferencing. The author explains the technical rationale for design decisions that underlay the Mbone tools, describes the evolution of this work from early prototypes into Internet standards, and outlines the open challenges that remain and must be overcome to realize a ubiquitous multicast infrastructure.

Improving design and documentation by using partially automated synthesis

AbstractOne of the products of engineering, besides constructed artifacts, is design documentation. To understand how design participants use documentation, designers and typical documentation users were interviewed and protocols were taken of them both creating and using design documentation. The protocols were taken from realistic projects of preliminary design for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC). The studies of document creation and use revealed three important issues: (1) design participants not only look up design facts; they frequently access documents to obtain information about the rationale for design decisions; (2) the design rationale that they see often is missing from the documents; and (3) design requirements change frequently over a project life cycle so that design documents are often inconsistent and out of date. Recognizing these documentation issues in design practice, a new approach was developed in which documents are no longer static records, but rather interactive design models supporting a case. The feasibility of the approach was demonstrated by constructing a running system and testing it with designers on realistic problems. The costs and benefits of creating and using documentation of design rationale also were analyzed. In particular, the active documents approach was evaluated for a routine, preliminary design in domains where community practice is widely shared and largely standardized. The approach depends on the feasibility of creating a parametric design model for the design domain.

Academic networking in Ireland

This paper describes the networks in use within the Republic of Ireland and in particular, HEANET, the network in use by the University level colleges. It discuss the history of development, rationale for design decisions, funding and charging, management and interconnectivity of HEANET.

Design process and decision rationale models for the N-Chime interface system

The N-CHIME interface system was designed with the broad objective of enabling, or "empowering," different types of users to carry out effective modeling and simulation applications with the Hierarchical Simulation Language ( HSL ). A design methodology was developed that is based on a "parallel processes" model: a triad of parallel design processes, one directed at each of the user, the interface, and the application. For comprehensive and systematic interface design, such a methodology is essential. N-CHIME has been implemented and tested. This paper presents an overview of the design models and some of the resulting tools and techniques supportive of the application-specific user. It also highlights the importance of providing online access to the design decision rationales that were used for the various user-visible tools and devices.

Toward Better Models of the Design Process

What are the powerful new ideas in knowledge based design? What important research issues require further investigation? Perhaps the key research problem in AI-based design for the 1980's is to develop better models of the design process. A comprehensive model of design should address the following aspects of the design process:the state of the design ; the goal structure of the design process;design decisions; rationales for design decisions; control of the design process; and the role of learning in design. This article presents some of the most important ideas emerging from current AI research on design especially ideas for better models design. It is organized into sections dealing with each of the aspects of design listed above.