John Carroll shows how a pervasive but underused element of design practice, the scenario, can transform information systems design. Difficult to learn and awkward to use, today's information systems often change our activities in ways that we do not need or want. The problem lies in the software development process. In this book John Carroll shows how a pervasive but underused element of design practice, the scenario, can transform information systems design. Traditional textbook approaches manage the complexity of the design process via abstraction, treating design problems as if they were composites of puzzles. Scenario-based design uses concretization. A scenario is a concrete story about use. For example: "A person turned on a computer; the screen displayed a button labeled Start; the person used the mouse to select the button." Scenarios are a vocabulary for coordinating the central tasks of system development—understanding people's needs, envisioning new activities and technologies, designing effective systems and software, and drawing general lessons from systems as they are developed and used. Instead of designing software by listing requirements, functions, and code modules, the designer focuses first on the activities that need to be supported and then allows descriptions of those activities to drive everything else. In addition to a comprehensive discussion of the principles of scenario-based design, the book includes in-depth examples of its application.

This volume is based on a workshop sponsored by the editor at IBM, and includes contributions from an international group of researchers in the field of human computer interaction.

Usability engineering is about designing products that are easy to use. This text provides an introduction to human computer interaction principles, and how to apply them in ways that make software and hardware more effective and easier to use.

Scenario-Based e-Learning Scenario-Based e-Learning offers a new instructional design approach that can accelerate expertise, build critical thinking skills, and promote transfer of learning. This book focuses on the what, when, and how of scenario-based e-learning for workforce learning. Throughout the book, Clark defines and demystifies scenario-based e-learning by offering a practical design model illustrated with examples from veterinary science, automotive troubleshooting, sales and loan analysis among other industries. Filled with helpful guidelines and a wealth of illustrative screen shots, this book offers you the information needed to: Identify the benefits of a SBeL design for learners and learning outcomes Determine when SBeL might be appropriate for your needs Identify specific outcomes of SBeL relevant to common organizational goals Classify specific instructional goals into one or more learning domains Apply a design model to present content in a task-centered context Evaluate outcomes from SBeL lessons Identify tacit expert knowledge using cognitive task analysis techniques Make a business case for SBeL in your organization Praise for Scenario-Based e-Learning "Clark has done it again—with her uncanny ability to make complex ideas accessible to practitioners, the guidelines in this book provide an important resource for you to build your own online, problem-centered instructional strategies." —M. David Merrill, professor emeritus at Utah State University; author, First Principles of Instruction "Clark's wonderful book provides a solid explanation of the how, what, and why of scenario-based e-learning. The tools, techniques, and resources in this book provide a roadmap for creating engaging, informative scenarios that lead to tangible, measurable learning outcomes. If you want to design more engaging e-learning, you need to read this book." —Karl M. Kapp, Professor of Instructional Technology, Bloomsburg University; author, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction

This Handbook is concerned with principles of human factors engineering for design of the human-computer interface. It has both academic and practical purposes; it summarizes the research and provides recommendations for how the information can be used by designers of computer systems. The articles are written primarily for the professional from another discipline who is seeking an understanding of human-computer interaction, and secondarily as a reference book for the professional in the area, and should particularly serve the following: computer scientists, human factors engineers, designers and design engineers, cognitive scientists and experimental psychologists, systems engineers, managers and executives working with systems development.The work consists of 52 chapters by 73 authors and is organized into seven sections. In the first section, the cognitive and information-processing aspects of HCI are summarized. The following group of papers deals with design principles for software and hardware. The third section is devoted to differences in performance between different users, and computer-aided training and principles for design of effective manuals. The next part presents important applications: text editors and systems for information retrieval, as well as issues in computer-aided engineering, drawing and design, and robotics. The fifth section introduces methods for designing the user interface. The following section examines those issues in the AI field that are currently of greatest interest to designers and human factors specialists, including such problems as natural language interface and methods for knowledge acquisition. The last section includes social aspects in computer usage, the impact on work organizations and work at home.

Annotation Great technology alone is rarely sufficient today to ensure a products success. At Microsoft, scenario-focused engineering is a customer-centric, iterative approach used to design and deliver the deeper experiences and emotional engagement customers demand in new products. In this book, youll discover the proven practices and lessons learned from real-world implementations of this approach, including:Why design matters: Understand a competitive landscape where customers are no longer satisfied by products that are merely useful, but respond instead to products they crave using. What it means to be customer focused: Recognize that you are not the customer, understand customers can have difficulty articulating what they want, and apply techniques that uncover their unspoken needs. How to iterate effectively: Implement a development system that is flexible enough to respond to early and continuous feedback, and enables experimentation with multiple ideas and feedback loops simultaneously. How to bridge the culture gap: In an engineering environment traditionally rooted in strong analytics, the ideas and practices for scenario-focused engineering may not be intuitive. Learn how to change team mindset from deciding what a product, service, or device will do, to discovering what customers actually want and what will work for them in real-life scenarios. Connections with Lean and Agile approaches: See the connections, gaps, and overlaps among the Lean, Agile, and Scenario-Focused Engineering methodologies, and achieve a more holistic view of software development.