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The Need for a Design Lexicon: Examining Minimalist, Performance-centered, and User-centered Design
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Mackenzie, Colleen |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Abstract | If you have a professional background in technical communication, human factors, usability, computerhuman interaction, human performance technology, or instructional design, you most likely believe that good designs encompass knowledge of users, their goals, the ways that they work, and the ways that they learn. The communication products we design apply these values and support users in achieving their goals, efficiently performing tasks, and learning. These are not new concepts, yet the way we talk about them is often ambiguous, especially across different disciplines. As user support becomes more closely integrated into systems, technical communicators are increasingly becoming integral contributors to the design of user interfaces. We must understand the various design strategies that contribute to effective interface design. Most of the disciplines named earlier have one or two key design strategies. Although these design strategies are unique in their details and represent the disciplines from which they emerged, they all have critical characteristics in common, the most salient being the human element at the center. As a result, the different strategies have overlapped significantly in practice. Because of this significant overlap, practitioners often use hybrid design strategies. These hybrid strategies may be similar, but their sources and core values are not. Neither is the terminology, even though the terms may mean essentially the same thing. The result is unnecessary confusion and unidentified gaps in beliefs, often to no practical purpose. Therefore, before we jump into the design of performance support systems, we must first distinguish among some key design strategies, their applications, and their goals. At the least, this approach will facilitate better communication across multi-functional design teams. At the most, it could result in more depth in design practice, and we technical communicators can contribute to this result by proposing a cross-disciplinary design lexicon and discussion. This article explores these fundamental design strategies. Specifically, it explores three key design strategies that underlie the development of electronic performance support systems: minimalism, performance-centered design, and user-centered design. Next, this article compares the three strategies and closes with observations on how the three strategies are converging. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://core.ecu.edu/engl/southards/7746S10/ftp/0536.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
