情境設計與使用者中心設計於發展互動系統之比較性研究

Abstract

摘要 過去使用者為中心設計一直是早期使用者介面設計的主要架構，當時資訊系統只需支援個別和特定的作業，現今的資訊系統已被要求滿足整體的業務工作，這樣的挑戰促使許多HCI的研究者提出資訊系統的發展不應只考量微觀(systematic)的變項，像是資訊處理程序，更應該包含巨觀(systemic)的變項，例如：使用者的每天生活。消費市場的新需求也顯示，系統應用若無法配合現有系統和使用者的工作方式，縱使有齊全的功能，也得不到使用者的認同。另一方面，資訊系統提供的不只有使用性的功能，也要提供使用者工作上的助益。這代表擴大使用者為中心的概念至實地使用者的經驗成為系統設計的重點。本研究的重點在於展示系統設計者如何運用情境設計的概念來發展醫院的資訊系統，以及此資訊系統如何能因此符合使用者工作的實際需求。

透過以使用者為中心設計和情境設計方法的相互比較，本研究嘗試分析兩種設計方法在使用者需求、使用者工作設計和可用性與易用性測試等構面上的差異性。研究結果發現，情境設計可以反應出使用者組織內的不同需求和不同角色的系統功能定義，比使用者為中心設計更為強調實際環境中的因素。在使用者工作設計的部分，使用者為中心設計只提供一般化的流程設計，反觀情境設計提供更豐富的合作活動關係，以及彈性化的工作流程。在可用性與易用性評估部分，情境設計的系統可用性高於使用者為中心的系統，代表情境設計系統的設計符合醫院工作者的作業慣例和程序。

本研究結論情境設計所運用的技術和程序，對於系統設計有三項優點：(1)能夠讓設計者了解使用者的實際工作環境；(2)較能符合使用者工作需求；(3)提供設計者有效的設計決策資源，能夠適切的將使用者的工作模式和系統的程式架構能夠適當的整併在一起。

Abstract Traditionally, User-Centered Design methods have been the main framework for earlier user interface designs. Once the system applications only need to support a single, bounded task, now they are expected to fulfill the whole work of the business. This challenge has raised many HCI researchers who proposed system development should not only concern micro (systematic) variables, like information processing, but also need to include macro (systemic) factors, like the user’s daily life. The new demands of the market suggest that if a system application could not fit with the existed systems or users’ way for working, even with fully functions, users won’t accept it. In other words, information systems provided not only the usability of function, but also the usefulness of users’ work. It is thus important for system design to extend from the user-centered concept to include the user’s field experience. The focus of the present study was to demonstrate and explore how a system designer applied the Contextual Design concept to develop a new hospital information system and how this system can support users’ actual work requirements.

Two design methods, User-Centered Design and Contextual Design, were compared and analyzed in terms of user requirement, user’s work design, and the measurements for the usefulness and easy of use. The study results suggested that Contextual Design can reflect the system function definitions between different requirements and different roles in the user’s organization. Moreover, Contextual Design put more emphasize on the factors in actual environments than User-Centered Design did. From the system design perspective, User-Centered Design only provided general routine design, whereas Contextual Design provided more cooperative activity relationships. In the measurements of the usefulness and the easy of use, Contextual Design system acquired higher usefulness response comparing to the User-Centered Design system, which indicated that the Contextual Design system was valued by hospital workers for its better help in their daily tasks and working procedures.

The study results concluded that Contextual Design techniques and processes could be very helpful in three ways: (1) showing designers the user’s reality in his/her working environment, (2) fitting better for users’ working environment, (3) providing designers effective decision resources to integrate the users’ working modules and the system program framework.