Interface planning

[John Kupersmith]

re Jennifer Heise's question:
>What kinds of group techniques, organizations, etc. have proved successful in
>relatively smoothly designing interfaces?  What is the optimum group size for
>meetings on such a project (we've already established that 10 is probably too
>many and 2 is too few)? Any other tips?

I once gave a talk on this subject at ALA and was roundly criticized for
even suggesting that interface design could be done properly by a group.
Several years have passed, and I sometimes think the critics were right!

It may be that the initial creative work of bringing forth a coherent design 
is most likely to come from an individual.  But for a project on the scale 
of a university's catalog system, the considerations that go into this 
process before and after that point--user requirements, system constraints, 
data characteristics, institutional politics, etc.--are so diverse that some 
group activity and input seems inevitable.  

The group size might be determined by the need to represent various 
stakeholders (public services, tech services, systems people), but it 
seems to me that 5-7 people would be optimum.  Much depends, of course,
on the personalities involved, how the team develops, how clear the
charge is, and whether the team has the resources to accomplish the
task.

One other idea: in designing the UTCAT user interface at UT Austin 
(mid-1980s), we developed a set of design principles fairly early in 
the process.  This proved useful later on as a point of reference.  
See:  http://www.greatbasin.com/~jkup/utcat.html

--jk
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  John Kupersmith                          jkup at washoe.lib.nv.us
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