Dialogical techniques for the design of web sites

✍ Scribed by LEWIS E. ERSKINE; DAVID R.N. CARTER-TOD; JOHN K. BURTON

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 404 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.1997.0129

✦ Synopsis

In this paper, we present an empirical study of our use of scenario-based design in the evaluation and redesign of a web site. We practice a revised method of scenario-based design inferred from a theoretical perspective which treats design as inquiry, inquiry as dialogue and dialogue as the source of all tools, including mental constructs. The result is a set of techniques for using structured dialogue between users and designers to increase designers' understanding of specific domains of users' work. To the extent that the design of an artifact is grounded in the specific context of a work domain, systematic, efficient access to workplace expertise is a requirement of the design process. Because it is primarily ''content-driven'', the design of World Wide Web sites is particularly suited to the development of design rationale via structured dialogue which represents the ways of thinking and conversing characteristic of a work domain.