The seminar will provide a description of a family of interactive system design methods called oohci methods. Oohci methods are model-based interactive system design methods that are used up-front in the system design lifecycle to define interactive system scope, functionality, contents and user interface. Oohci methods integrate elements of requirements analysis, human-computer interaction design, usability engineering, and object-oriented system description techniques.

Oohci methods include:

-Early use of human-computer interaction design techniques to elicit task and object models from future users.

-The use of these models to define the scope, contents, and functionality of interactive systems while simultaneously enabling model-based design of user interfaces.

-Iterative user testing of models and user interfaces to help converge on usable systems before further effort is expended on remaining analysis, design and implementation tasks.

Where oohci methods differ from standard model-based human-computer interaction design is that oohci methods offer a much higher level of integration between early design activities and subsequent software engineering activities. Although user-understandable notations may be used early on, expression of task and object models in, typically, UML allows a very smooth and easy transition from the soft world of users and their needs to the hard world of system analysis, design, and implementation.

While there are broad variations in oohci methods, those favoured by the speaker involve both users and technical experts in participatory design. The Bridge [Dayton, McFarland, Kramer] is an example of such a method. Use of a modified form of the Bridge will be discussed in relation to current work by the author and colleagues in the design and implementation of a federated data repository for learning, teaching, and research applications.

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