Informatics 121 Software Design I

Informatics 121Software Design I Lecture 12 Duplication of course material for any commercial purpose without the explicit written permission of the professor is prohibited.

Difficulty #1: problem, solution, change • The understanding of a design problem goes hand-in-hand with the understanding of its design solution • This understanding may well change, sometimes dramatically so, during the design project • The challenge is to anticipate this volatility and identify and focus on the essence of the design problem at hand

Difficulty #2: success, failure, tradeoffs • A design’s success is not absolute, but judged relative to other possible designs that could have been made • A designer must deal with tradeoffs all the time, and cannot make all stakeholders equally satisfied with the change in the world • The challenge is to identify and address key tradeoffs early

Difficulty #3: quality, cost, time • There is no optimal solution to a design problem, designers must find a solution that is good enough • The challenge is to find key quality and cost considerations early

Difficulty #4: longevity • A change in the world may last for a very long time… • …and may well need to accommodate future changes in the world • The challenge is to identify and balance present needs with future possibilities

Focus on essence and tradeoffs • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts first • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts second • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts third • …

Focus on essence and tradeoffs • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts first • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts second • Thou shall focus on the difficult parts third • … • What are the most important decision points, what are your options, and how do the options relate?

Design techniques • Brainstorm • Divide and conquer • Divergence – transformation – convergence • Envisioning cards • Research

Design techniques • Study the user • Weighted objectives • Storyboarding • Personas • …

Weighted sums

Design studio 3 • Benefactor Z has come to UC Irvine with a check for $1M to support the development of a new app for 60 to 70 year olds • Benefactor Z knows that, rather than her proposing the kind of app, she is better served by running this as a competition and getting a broad range of ideas from which she then can choose • Benefactor Z is particularly interested in forward thinking apps; apps that will really make a difference 2-5 years from now

Design studio 3 • Your team is tasked with designing a novel app that explicitly aims to address its intended audience: people 60 to 70 year old

Design studio 3 – assignment • Research existing apps for this age range, what they can and cannot do, what kinds of functionality they provide and not, and where the “holes” in this app landscape are • Talk to at least 20 different people for whom an app might be beneficial, and learn from them what they might and might not want

Today • Pick one of your three application domains • Identify the key desired factors • what are the desired decision points? • what are the options? • Brainstorm alternative solutions • Keep track of and compare the solutions using weighted sums

Informatics 121 Software Design I