CN04: Designing a Task-Focused Conceptual Model
Quick Facts
Time: Monday, 12 April 2010, 11:30 to 13:00Units: 1
Organizers: Jeff Johnson
Benefits
After completing this class, participants will:- Know the benefits of designing a task-focused, coherent conceptual model of an application before designing the application’s user interface.
- Understand the components of a conceptual model (e.g., object-action analysis), and how to create them.
- Have experience in designing a conceptual model for a software application.
Audience
Software designers and developers of all experience levels. Also: usability testers and managers.Origins
Presented at UPA 2007 and CHI 2009.Features
An important early step when designing a software user interface is to design a coherent, task-focused conceptual model. Unfortunately, many designers start sketching and prototyping the UI before they understand the application at a conceptual level. The result is incoherent, overly-complex applications that expose concepts unrelated to users’ tasks. This course covers:- What conceptual models are, and how they improve the UI design process,
- Perils and pitfalls of skipping a conceptual model,
- Object/actions analysis,
- Deliverables of Conceptual Analysis: object taxonomy, lexicon, task scenarios, object-model,
- A hands-on exercise in performing Object/Actions analysis for a simple application.
