Developing information appliance design tools for designers

Abstract

This paper analyses the issues facing design teams in developing information appliances in the age of ubiquitous computing. Specifically it examines the potential of rapid design and prototyping techniques developed by the author as part of the Programme for Advanced Interactive Prototype Research (PAIPR).

Product designers generally use low-tech methods because technical solutions requiring in-depth programming or electronics knowledge largely precluded them via a skills gap and lack of complementarity with standard process. The Information Ergonomics (IE) System on the other hand is designed to blend hardware and software-based solutions with other techniques in order to create a method sympathetic to the designer’s mode of operation.

The significance of the work lies in its identification of a gap in the product development process, where design and development issues currently fall between two professions. Subsequent collaboration with the UK design industry revealed the detrimental effects of this gap and the lack of coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the problems behind it. In this paper Gill advocated a product designer-focused "systems" approach that is a mixture of hardware, software and pen & paper techniques. Other attempts have either concentrated on solving technical issues (Smart-Its, Phidgets, Buck) or low tech systems techniques (Wizard of Oz, Experience Prototyping, Paper Prototyping). Since this paper was published the field has progressed. Stanford’s DTools addresses some issues and the PAIPR team themselves, in conjunction with Lancaster University are developing faster more flexible systems based on ad hoc networking systems. In 2003 however, the work broke new ground eventually leading to the development of a team of funded research students.