Usability engineering approach
From BasKetUsabilityWiki
[edit] Intro
In the center of the approach there are stories about fictional users and about how they utilize Basket in their day-to-day routine. These stories help us to understand what the users are like, what for, how and why they are using BasKet and what problems they have with using BasKet. And this in turn is the basis for developing future versions of BasKet which better fit your needs.
To get abstract: the approach is derived from scenario-based design (as John Carroll and Mary Beth Rosson define it) combined with personas (as Alan Cooper describes them).
[edit] The Process
The process is planned as a cyclic progress, from analysis of the current situation (personas are born and problem scenarios developed) to design of future scenarios (activity, information and interaction scenarios) to prototyping and testing. In the meanwhile, the development of BasKet source code further advances, but there will be points of mutual exchange between the two parallel processes.
The process is not all set out completely, this project is rather an experiment of adapting processes from usability engineering theory and practice. These processes were made with commercial development in mind, which means there are defined hierarchies of decision finding (your boss tells you, "you've got to code what the usability guy says"). In contrast to this, the results of the BasKet Usability Project can be rather seen as suggestions to the further development of BasKet. There is no one-way decision-making.
There is also a roadmap.
[edit] Literature
- Carroll, John M. Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions. MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 0-262-03279-1
- Cooper, Alan. The Inmates are Running the Asylum. SAMS, 1999. ISBN 0-672-31649-8
- Pruitt, John & Adlin, Tamara. The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design. Morgan Kaufmann, 2006. ISBN 0-12-566251-3
And also some Wikipedia entries which might help you out:
