The UI design process

Abstract

The root cause of many user interface (UI) design deficiencies is not a lack of knowledge about human-computer interaction principles nor a lack of information on user needs. Rather, many UI deficiencies arise because the UI design process is ad hoc and the design is not communicated successfully to the programmers who will implement it. Many UI designers are seeking and discovering ways to plan, manage, and document UI design work more effectively. This workshop provided an opportunity for participants to share lessons learned and obtain advice from other participants.In the weeks leading up to the workshop, participants selected the specific topics that were of prime concern to them. As a result, we narrowed the focus of the workshop to the following topics:• Division of UI design activities into stages• Division of labor and interdisciplinary collaboration• Collaborating in geographically-dispersed projects• Writing the UI specification• Defining the maturity of the UI design process.The following sections summarize the results of the workshop activities for each of these topics.