Abstract

As new technologies such as wireless networking and ubiquitous computing are implemented in various application areas, it enables to form seamless technological environments to support our work and daily life. While such technologies provide possibilities for developing new categories of products and systems, understanding contexts of use is becoming increasingly important to predict how new products can be accepted, understood, incorporated, used, and valued in people's lives. The term ‘context’ has been loosely defined and inconsistently used in design practice to represent various factors and conditions surrounding and influencing the use of the system. The performance of interactive systems is determined in relation to the context in which the system performs its intended roles. The system that performs well in one context may not necessarily perform well in other contexts. While the context dynamically changes, systems are usually designed to remain the same and to be operated within a very limited context. In order to maximize the system performance particularly from users' viewpoints, therefore, the system needs to be sensitive to the change and range of the context. This research intends to introduce a representation framework for contextual information critical for developing a methodological foundation for user-centered design practice.

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Nov 17th, 12:00 AM

Context-Sensitive Design: Bridging Viewpoints for Human-Centered Design.

As new technologies such as wireless networking and ubiquitous computing are implemented in various application areas, it enables to form seamless technological environments to support our work and daily life. While such technologies provide possibilities for developing new categories of products and systems, understanding contexts of use is becoming increasingly important to predict how new products can be accepted, understood, incorporated, used, and valued in people's lives. The term ‘context’ has been loosely defined and inconsistently used in design practice to represent various factors and conditions surrounding and influencing the use of the system. The performance of interactive systems is determined in relation to the context in which the system performs its intended roles. The system that performs well in one context may not necessarily perform well in other contexts. While the context dynamically changes, systems are usually designed to remain the same and to be operated within a very limited context. In order to maximize the system performance particularly from users' viewpoints, therefore, the system needs to be sensitive to the change and range of the context. This research intends to introduce a representation framework for contextual information critical for developing a methodological foundation for user-centered design practice.

 

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