How Assessing Plasticity Design Choices Can Improve UI Quality: A Case Study
In Proceeding of the second ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS 2010). pages 29-34. 2010.
Audrey Serna, Gaëlle Calvary, Dominique Scapin
June 19-23, 2010
Abstract
In Human Computer Interaction, plasticity refers to the
capacity of User Interfaces (UIs) to withstand variations of
context of use while preserving quality in use. Frequently,
insuring more or less smooth transition from one context of
use to the other (from the end-user perspective) is conducted
ad hoc. To support a more systematic approach for
characterizing UI tuning in terms of quality in use along
context of use variations, we present an exploratory study
focused deliberately on platform aspects. The design process
of this particular case study is detailed and all design
decisions have been recorded in terms of their influence on
UI ergonomic quality, using Ergonomic Criteria. The
interesting result is that most design choices when changing
the platform lead to the reexamination of the initial designs.
Ongoing work is done to support the insight that considering
plasticity seems to help in explicitly broadening UI design
choices and sharpening the solution.