A Systematic Approach to Support the Idea Generation Phase of the User Interface Design Process

Human-Computer Interaction researchers have primarily focused on systematic techniques and tools for two phases of the user interface design process: design by prototyping and evaluation. Studies have shown that the advent of a number of rapid prototyping techniques and tools have not significantly reduced the amount of time and costs involved in the design and programming of user interfaces. This is due to the fact that designers do not spend enough time thinking about the design problem; instead, they resort to “aimless” prototyping with a complex set of tools. In this paper, we introduce the need for a formal planning and idea generation phase in the user interface design process prior to prototyping, to minimize the effects of ad hoc design practices. This is the phase when preliminary requirements for an information system are available and the designer starts thinking and planning about the problem, making mental and written notes about it. This phase is similar to the problem formulation and idea generation phases discussed by researchers in the area of creative problem solving. We also propose a systematic design methodology containing fifteen non-sequential, highly connected, and iterative set of design tasks to structure the creative and opportunistic thought processes of the designer with appropriate guidance. A tool called HyperDesign has also been developed, incorporating hypertext functionality, to facilitate application of this methodology during this early phase of interface design. Results from a beta test, with students and professionals, confirmed the need for a planning and idea generation phase during the user interface design process with moderate levels of agreement about the validity, 1060-3425/98 $1 relevance, and usefulness of the proposed methodology. The beta test also revealed that the tool was moderately difficult to use; changes to both the methodology and the software have been proposed which will be incorporated in the next iteration, making it more usable and acceptable by designers.