Problems Arising in the Development of Software from Human-Computer Interaction - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxx Title : Problems arising in the development of software from human computer interaction Course : xxxxxx Institution : xxxxxx @ 2010 Problems arising in the development of software from human computer interaction Introduction Users always look for easy to learn and highly effective interfaces and software developers have now discovered the important part played by the interface. According to certain surveys that have been carried out, more than 50 percent of all designing and programming efforts in projects are dedicated to the interface portion, Wilkun, (1994).Computer interfaces determine usefulness, safety, the fate of products on the market and the comfort of the people interacting with computerized systems. Serious catastrophes have also resulted from problems with user interfaces. This has resulted into efforts by computer software engineers to try and design computer programs that can be termed user friendly. This essay therefore is a discussion of the problems that are encountered in the process of developing suitable software for interactive systems and possible solutions to those problems. In order to expose underlying challenges, it also elaborates on the principles, methodologies and methods used in designing and developing user interfaces. Back Ground of user interface problems It was in the 1940s, when intense research started on the principles of the application of human factors on machine interfaces. This was prompted by the complexity of equipment which had started exceeding the ability of people to operate with them safely. This was expected to rise since new technologies are being discovered by the day and machines are becoming more and more sophisticated. There are a number of documented serious disasters that are believed to have been caused by human error at the interface, Olsen, (1992). An example is the accident of the Iran passenger plane that killed many people. It is true that if the user interfaces were effective then some catastrophes could easily be avoided or their effects reduced considerably. Increasing problems with usage of computerized systems therefore prompted the development of Human Computer Interaction. Human Computer Interaction Human computer interaction was developed in the 1970s to early 1980s as a field. The reason for this was the need to address the difficulties encountered by users of powerful and complex computer systems that were on the increase at that time, Card, Moran and Newell, (1983). HCI borrowed heavily from industrial and graphic design, communication theory, cognitive psychology, linguistics and social sciences. This was meant to gain understanding of the motivations, skills, goals and abilities of system users. This know-how helps designers to create technologically effective systems that can be used comfortably by their targeted users. Stuart and Moran (1983) explain that, Human Computer Interaction or HCI involves the study of design, implementation and use of interactive computer systems. It also studies the effects of computers on organizations, people and society. It looks at how computers can be used in an easier way and new techniques of interaction that support user tasks, provide quicker accessibility of information, and allow for better communication. It involves out put and input devices together with interaction techniques using them. It also involves the mode of requesting and presentation of information, control and monitoring of computer actions, help, training, documentation and the tools for designing, testing, building and evaluating user interfaces. Processes followed by developers in designing interfaces are also involved. Design in Human Computer Interactions is very complicated as compared to other engineering fields. It brings together many disciplines, borrows from and influences various areas like software engineering, human factors, psychology and software engineering, Carrol and Moran,(1991). HCI and Software Engineering Projects requiring user interfaces are normally more complex when it comes to building. Development of a user interface needs emphasizes on the software engineering methodologies and there demands extra expertise and resources. There is need to have increased awareness of development processes integrating the development of user interfaces with functional development. This will help design teams meet the challenge of development of software products that have substantial user interfaces. Apparently there is a primary fundamental distinction between approaches adopted by human computer interaction specialists and software engineers. Software engineers tend to be system centered whereas human computer interface specialists tend to be user centered. Carrol and Moran,(1991). Methodologies applied in software engineering are better in modeling some aspects in problem domains. Development of formal methods has been done. These methods represent some aspects of software systems such as data, procedural and architectural aspects. Approaches of software engineering attend to financial and managerial issues well. Methodologies used in software engineering are vital in specifying and developing of functional aspects in a software system. Carrol and Moran,(1991). Human computer interfaces put much emphasis on the development of deep understanding for user characteristics together with an open awareness of the tasks to be performed by a user. Human computer interaction specialists test the design ideas on the users and apply formal evaluation methods in the place of intuition design guidance. This reality check helps to improve final products. It is worth noting here that the contributions HCI specialists make in the development of a product are unknown at least at present. This is partly because of the fact that the HCI community’s contribution in the designing process is ignored by software engineering authors. Again there is an inadequacy in HCI methodologies to clarify the software engineering process’ role in relation to HCI processes. Trying to integrate methodologies is difficult though because HCI specialists and software engineers fail to come to agreement when it comes to methodology value. Software engineers tend to be analytical and therefore lean on the systems view point. As a result they prefer specifying a methodology or work strategy. HCI specialists on the other hand may be because of flexibility in work force or otherwise oppose definition of processes. It is very obvious that these antagonistic approaches can cause disagreements when these two groups interact. There is another stumbling block in trying to combine methodologies by HCI communities and software engineers. This is brought about due to the different approaches to methods applied by these communities. Software engineers go for formal methods but devalue the informal ones. Surprisingly, formal methods are an integral part of HCI processes. However several informal methods are valued and applied. Developing user interfaces The task given to the developer of creating a complex system may look simple to the user when in real sense it is a complex and difficult task. The complex state of software development tasks and those of computing present additional problems. A paradigm of engineering common to several other fields may be generalized to come up with a technical approach to be used in computing systems. Such a paradigm is being used widely. It takes iterative cycle in analysis, designing, implementing and evaluation. To develop usable systems one has to draw on user interface media technologies, software architecture, standards and modeling tools, data modeling and process, testing and building user interfaces. With progress in HCI user interfaces are becoming easier to use or learn. However they are becoming more difficult to build. It was easier to program simple command line interfaces but difficult to operate with. On the other hand modern interfaces are easy to use and understand but very hard to program. This is because they posses more execution paths. Computer science in the context of HCI helps to study and develop techniques, abstractions, tools and languages for dealing with this problem. Muller (2008). There is a necessary concept in applied in user interface development. It requires one to separate into different levels the designs of interactive systems and the development of designs for each level. These levels include semantic, lexical, conceptual and syntactic. Another concept is user interface management systems or UIMS. It provides separately a software component which performs the interactions with the user. An interface design has to use user testing methods. Therefore it needs techniques for modifying the interfaces and for prototyping. One must get a method of identifying precise user interfaces. This will allow the designer to examine various user interfaces prior to building one. This makes it possible to have prototypes being produced automatically for user testing. User Interface Design methodologies in HCI A methodology is an articulation of a given process in idea form. Methodologies are not easy to realize perfectly in practice. However their value is still high and is worth the cost since they convey the usefulness of different stages of a given process to the community. They help in work structuring and progress assessment toward an ultimate target of a designer. A methodology identifies important players in developing software products and defines the tasks to be tackled by a section of a team of designers. They also help teams to work together by defining the tasks of various team members and also through giving overall pictures of a process. The present methodologies don’t accomplish this task adequately though. In order to get a better understanding of the problems experienced in designing software it is prudent to examine the processes through which these interactive systems are designed. Methodologies differ in breadth. They could be broad and identify major steps taken from the design of a soft ware system until its use or they may be narrow. They are also different in depth. They provide different a mounts of detail when defining design processes. Each methodology step identifies a task to be accomplished by the designer. Within the HCI community, an iterative technique for designing is always required in the development of interfaces. It is necessary to have an experimental approach since there is no firm theory for human behavior and cognition from which to construct an interface design based on theory. Muller(2008). An interface prototype is developed, evaluated, rebuilt and reassessed in an iterative manner till the design interface of the final interface. Users are taken to be part of this process. Many other contentious issues are debated beyond the agreeing on an approach. Such issues include the most economical and effective, the point where they can be applied and the value in prescribing the methodology. Below is a discussion on three significant design approaches in HCI. They include cognitive modeling, user centered design and participatory designs. Cognitive modeling In this methodology emphasis is placed on understanding and modeling activities as they are understood by the user. Experts maintain that if one gets this model correctly the he can make use of it to create designs that are intuitive to the users. Advocates of Cognitive modeling have an interest in why users behave in a certain manner or the reason one design could be better than others. This approach however does doesn’t focus on particular methodologies although it has methods like GOMS. Anti methodology According to .Caroll (1991). critiques methodologies, he asserts that problem stages do overlap and this makes it hard to have a simple solution. He says other non design factors come in to influence design and the teams of design are multi disciplinary. According to him, a major from methodology development to design rationale understanding has occurred. He goes a head to propose a design based on scenario to help in design. Recent descriptions to this method encompass psychological theory contained in the scenario for justifying the design. When the psychological theory is added, it is possible to articulate design choices and to better understand design rationale. User Centered Wasserman et al (8, 9) support the use of a prototyping methodology that is rapid. Taking an architectural point of view, USE methodologies distinguishes between the development of the interface and development of an application’s functional aspects. Caroll (1991). This promotes the development of rapid user interface prototypes that are iteratively assessed to the point of designing a suitable interface. The process of development of user interfaces in this methodology overlaps the soft ware engineering process. Usability engineering In reference to Myers (1989), this methodology was developed in industry and is well recognized. It is a practical methodology that puts emphasis on the tasks that should be performed by the user and knowing that user. It also emphasizes on users testing prototypes of products being developed. It has an outline of eleven steps as a way to an economical and practical process for design of interfaces. These steps include; knowing the user, competitive analysis, setting of usability goals, parallel design, participatory design, total interface coordinated design and the application of heuristic analysis and guidelines. Others include proto typing, empirical testing, capture design rationale and collecting feed back from field use. Many methods in this methodology are obtained from disciplines like marketing and psychology, (Myers 1989). They combine both quantitative and qualitative techniques. They posses a high level of formality than methods applied by software engineers. An example of a step combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches is specification of the characteristics of the user. Methods for testing are more quantitative and done in labs. These methods are usually taken from human psychology lab tests. This methodology however does not clarify the relationship between the software engineer and the interface designer. It clearly focuses on product interface development and may have been designed bearing in mind human computer interaction experts, (Nunes and Cunha 2000). Participatory Design This one lacks a particularly recognized methodology but is known to advocate for methods. Methods spear as appropriate resources for designers and they are not gathered into coherent frame works. Even though Muller (2008). states that participatory techniques can be applied through the whole cycle of software development, Carmel (15) asserts that they are suitable for requirements definition phase since they enhance creativity. PD designers emphasize on communication between designers and users. This is critical in participatory design since in the design process the user is considered as a peer. This methodology expects the desired types of communication to be described and to create methods that will help designers and users to draw closer to a required design. In participatory design, communication is emphasized rather than the steps taken in designing. Several participatory design researchers observe that it wasn’t the specific techniques and methods that carried the decision in system development. Rather, it was strong political focus in participation, learning and communication. Kensing (16) states that methodologies or techniques are not the answer. He proposes the development of models that can enhance communication between interface developers and users. He puts software engineering and participatory design techniques into six distinct categories that enhance communication. Conclusion It is obvious that to some people computers and computerized systems may just be necessities that just need to be endured. However since the discovery of problematic cases with computers, software developers and HCI specialists have been at it, trying to make things work. What remains to be expected is the discovery of the all time solution to the existing problems in software development. If these problems are not taken care of, then user interfaces will remain to be the night mare they are today to some people. Myers (1989), The tricky part remains on the side of the interface designers for them to overcome the difficulties they encounter in developing the ideal interfaces. Software engineers and HCI specialists will need to find a common platform on which to address these problems. Computer technology has been advancing since the days of World War II. It is therefore highly expected that with this advancement in technology, better and more effective user interfaces are going to be developed. Wilkund 1994). References 1. Wilkund, M. E. (1994) Usability in Practice: How Companies Enhance User-Friendly Products, Cambridge, MA: Academic Press. 2. Card, S.K., Moran, T.P., and Newell, A., (1983) The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 3. Myers, B. A. (1989) "User-interface Tools: Introduction and Survey," IEEE Software, vol. 6(1) pp. 15-23. 4. Olsen, D.R. (1992) User Interface Management Systems: Models and Algorithms, San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. 5. Nunes, N. J. and Cunha, J. F., (2000), Wisdom – A UML based architecture for interactive systems, in Proceedings of DSV-IS'2000, Springer-Verla LNCS, Limerick - Ireland. 6. Carroll, John and Moran, Thomas. 1991. Introduction to This Special Issue on Design Rationale. Human-Computer Interaction, 6, pages 197-200. 7. Card, Stuart and Moran, Thomas and Newell, Allen. 1983. The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Read More