Before the first seminar I though a lot about requirements and presented the question ”Are a software project ever considered all done?”. The reading to this seminar made me think even more about requirements since they can actually help in a, for me, new way to complete a project.
It’s preferable to make a couple of evaluations during a project, either to test an idea or a user-ready product and everything in between. By doing evaluations designers can gather information about users experience, way of interacting and/or thoughts about the design. These evaluations can be done in several different ways. It can differ how much a user is involved, if a user is involved at all. The evaluation can also take place in different contexts and situation depending on the aim of the evaluation. I think it could take some practice before one knows what’s the right kind of evaluation for a specific project.
One way to evaluate without presence of users is to do an inspection, also known as heuristic evaluation. An inspection is basically an advanced checklist which an expert, who have knowledge about interaction design and different users behaviours, use while going though the interface several times. It’s also good to use different experts to make sure all problems are detected. The bullet point on the checklist are called heuristics and contain a set of usability principles. The heuristics contain specifications about e.g. error prevention and how much control and freedom the user should have.
Back to my question, the requirements for the design can be converted intro heuristics. Isn’t that amazing news? Therefore I’m even more convinced about my previous thoughts of the importance of good requirements. It will help to define a finish line for the design. You can keep a team motivated! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel! My questions for this seminar is however, when do you stop finding new requirements and when do you convert them into heuristics? Is there even a way to see a project as this linear process as I seem to do?
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