The task is to design an interactive system that allows people to communicate wirelessly. The proximity-
sensitive messenger device will be a standalone device where messages will be sent over a location-sensitive
mobile device to other people within a 100-metre radius of the sender who are also using the system.
The usability methodology being Participatory Design was beneficial when creating the prototypes as this
allowed the user to take an active role in designing solutions for themselves. Participatory Design is defined as
an approach to design strategy that brings customers into the heart of the design process. It is also known as
co-creation, co-design, or cooperative design (Olga Elizarova et al. 2017)
This approach is user centred and within the context of a corporate communications tool it is vital the user is
significantly involved during the design process. This is due to employees using the system, potentially
resulting in productivity and efficiency of communication within the workplace to either increase or decrease
depending on the success of the system. Therefore, the reason why this approach was used is due to the
ability to design with the users rather than for them we can discover integral information and ideas to solve
any challenges during designing and ensuring the system meets user’s needs.
The methods used to create the prototypes ranged from designing interfaces from sketches to iterations of
software designs. The early stages of this process involved several attempts of sketches by hand of the main
interfaces of the system, which as a group allowed us to contribute our ideas to use different aspects and
components that each group member had contributed. Upon reflection, we communicated the aspects of the
system to develop or improve from all our sketches, to then digitally designing a prototype of the main
interface. These designs being still images would then be processed improving the core components and ideas
in order to create an interactive prototype using Adobe XD which can be seen in Figure 1. During this design
process, in order to ensure the design meets the user’s expectations, the prototype was designed iteratively
whilst improving the system based on consistent feedback from users. The system, being designed with the
intention of being a corporate communications tool, would be appropriate to involve stake holders and
managers of small to medium-sized enterprises during the designing process. This can be described as our
project scope – questionnaires handed out to the appropriate individuals in charge such as any managers or
executives, as upon approval we will be able to receive data from different departments within the firms of
employees using the system. This method is continuous, with constant feedback from each iteration of
prototypes of the system, initially starting with descriptive questionnaires to eventually several variations of
interactive hands-on prototypes where the user controls the speed of the interaction. To plan when these
tasks are to be carried out a Gantt chart was produced which visually represents the tasks and dependencies
seen in Figure 2.
The benefits that these methods have when creating the prototypes is the user feedback from questionnaires,
the system requirements would then be adapted based on the results allowing the users to co-design the
system. Using questionnaires or surveys as the requirement gather method is seen as having benefits “when
stakeholders are spread out geographically, or there are dozen to hundreds of respondents whose input will
be needed to help establish system requirements” (Maamoun Eid, 2015) which is significant when using
Participatory Design when gathering and accommodating the stakeholders together.
Once the users have access to interactive prototypes, the data collected increases reliability which in turn
allows for more iterations of refining requirements and therefore enhanced prototypes. This is due to both
qualitative and quantitative feedback. For example, the users are able to suggests improvements with the
system along with the potential of statistical analysis and evaluation of data such as how frequent the system
was used, or which specific features were used more than others as well as the potential to analyse
productivity of the firm to correlate with the use of the system being used. Potential limitations of using these
methods include time spent prototyping. The initial stages sketching and iteratively digitally designing screens
is time consuming. These stages can be negated and can be reasoned to have minimal impact of the final
design of the system’s prototypes.
, The advantages of using Participatory Design is that the users sense of ownership is increased over end
product as well as increasing the likelihood the system meets user needs, are usable, feasible and meaningful
in their context (Nayna Patel, 2020) which reinforces the ideas that the method of prototyping ranging from
questionnaires to interactive systems overall allows the user to have more control over the long-term goal of
achieving a functional system which meets the users wants and needs.
However, some limitations of Participatory Design include the difficulty to manage user expectations as not all
feedback will be included in the final design. Therefore, it can be argued that Participatory Design is not
practical and seen throughout the process of the large volume of potential feedback and data gathered from
the several prototypes and questionnaires. In turn the consideration of using the Star Life Cycle methodology
should be used instead. The Star Life Cycle is defined as the methodology which is a “combination of top-down
and bottom-up activities in ‘alternative waves’ with the development of the project itself.” It can be seen that
the Star Life Cycle is more flexible as it offers the developers the freedom to direct the process of interface
creation (Valéria Farinazzo Martins, 2018).
Overall to use the usability methodology of Participatory Design with assumption that the development of this
system has no time restrictions and there is no limitation on resources, as well as ensuring user expectations
are handled outweighs the Star Life Cycle. Participatory design will allow constant detailed feedback and data
which for the long run object to develop a standalone device will be a more beneficial and overall effective
system which meets user’s needs.
2.) Application of usability engineering principles
Usability engineering focuses on the user experience and there are principles that should be satistified in order
to improve usability. Throughout usability engineering the user requirements is always considered when
designing prototypes. The requirements have been translated into the design of the prototype at each stage of
the iterations, from refining the requirements themselves from the initial questionnaires to adapting how the
users needs or expected the system to function through interactive prototypes. If a design has good usability
this means that both the design and development have met users needs. It is stated that usability itself means
user-centred design and meeting usability engineering principles will enhance the user experience (Idler,
2019).
One user engineering principle involves memory. The role of memory is signficant for the user experience as it
revolves around the sensory store of memory as well as short and long term memory. Through the actions of
rehearsal short term stored memory eventually progresses to longer term memory. Memory skills include
recognition where the brain is familiar with the knowledge. The principle of memory is satisfied to aspects of
the prototypes developed seen throughout features such as the design of icons. Users are familiar with the
icons used throughout the prototypes developed, due to the types of icons which can be seen with similar
interactions of other systems used such as social media applications. The principle of memory lead to the
interaction design seen in Figure 3 to have memorable icons similarly seen in other systems such as mobile
phone cameras and other applications which involve the use of a camera. Functionalities such as enabling the
flash light and level of zoom are also available. It is said that the types of icons involved within this principle
include symbolic icons, which is an abstract property of the object (Mark Perry, 2020). These familiar icons
utilise the memory principle effectively as it allows the user to recall and remember retained information from
other systems, overall comforting the user to use the system seamlessly with less attempts and potential
errors to learn how to use the system with no previous knowledge.
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