The HCI Design Foundation Study builds on the work of the Usability Foundation Study and will establish HCI Design principles for use within the JISC Information Environment and wider FE/HE sector.

HCI Design Foundation Study

Introduction  

The JISC Information Environment (IE) is working to develop an on-line environment that will enable presentation, delivery and use of on-line resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional requirements. An integral part of the IE is the Presentation Programme. To support this Programme, the JISC has commissioned two studies in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) design. 

The HCI Design Foundation Study builds on the results of the previous Usability Foundation Study href=http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_usability1] , and is complemented by a  Visualisation Foundation Study. The studies will help inform and scope the development of HCI design within the JISC Information Environment as well as raising awareness of appropriate and applicable HCI design within UK Higher and Further education. 

Aims and Objectives  

The objectives are to:

  • Identify how HCI Design Principles could assist the relevant users and other stakeholders
  • Analyse existing HCI design principles for their applicability to JISC services and resources.
  • Review current practice and directions for the support of learning, teaching and research for the UK and other relevant countries.
  • Adapt HCI design principles to JISC services and resources, and document as guidelines
  • Recommend the additional work that would be required to additional work that would be required to further develop HCI design principles for additional types of service

The deliverables are:

  • Requirements, existing HCI design principles and current practice
  • Draft design principles and recommendations
  • Final report

Overall Approach  

The work will focus on HCI design principles, but these can only be used effectively if they are part of a user centred process (such as specified in ISO 15288: Systems Engineering and ISO 13407: Human-Centred Design). The report will emphasise the importance of using HCI design methods throughout the development process (rather than designing the user interface as an afterthought). 

The approach to developing the report will itself will be user-centred, incorporating activities such as identifying users and other stakeholder groups, elaborating the requirements of users and other stakeholders, and evaluating early versions of the results. 

The early parts of the project will include speaking to the relevant experts in the field, and an extensive analysis of the existing literature on the subject, including the need for accessibility. 

Project Report  

The final report from this study is now available.  It can be downloaded either as a whole document or in sections, as follows:

In addition to the report, a website containing all the guidelines contained within the report's indexes is being maintained by the authors at http://www.usability.serco.com/guidelines/

Project Staff

Contact

Nigel Bevan
Serco Usability Services
22 Hand Court
London WC1V 6JF

Tel: 020 7421 6499
Email: nigel@usability.serco.com 

Documents & Multimedia

Summary
Start date
15 August 2003
End date
15 January 2004
Funding programme
Presentation programme
Project website
Topic