Useware

Useware is a collective term introduced in 1998 and includes all hardware and software components of a technical system that serve the use.

The term Useware combines a focus of the design of technology to human needs and abilities. The user to understand his capabilities and limitations and to align the technology in mind, the only promising method in the design of future technical products and systems. The increasing effort for user interface development based on scientific methods has led to a development component which is similar in size in traditional fields of software engineering. Useware was therefore deliberately chosen a linguistic analogy to hardware and software, as formerly only the hardware and software development costs determined. Usability is thus increasingly recognized as a value-added factor, as with constant approximation of functions similar machines, the operation is often the only unique feature.

Useware Engineering

Under Useware Engineering is understood in analogy to software engineering, the standardized engineering- production of Useware and the associated processes (see Figure 1). Useware Engineering aims to develop an easy to learn and efficiently usable interfaces to the target, which are adapted to the tasks of people and make use of the machine functionality, but do not put them in the forefront of developments. This objective of the systematic Useware Engineering is thus based on the actual user tasks a high serviceability secure, it requires action, which contain an active and iterative involvement of different groups of people. Therefore voted the appropriate professional societies GfA - Total of Ergonomics, GI - Ges for computer science, VDE - ITG - Information Technology Society within VDE and VDI / VDE -GMA - Ges for measurement and automation technology in the VDI / VDE 1998 in agreement Useware to assign as the collective term for all hardware and software components of a technical system that serve the use. In consequence of this was the analogous development in the field of engineering processes with the result of Useware engineering (see Figure 2).

Thus, the already voiced by Ben Shneiderman, central requirement is backed by structured development of humane operating systems again and initiated a focus on human capabilities and needs after years of function-oriented development. The user to understand his capabilities and limitations and express the technology in mind, the only promising method for the design of future products and systems.

The Useware development process is divided into the following phases: analysis, structural design, design, implementation and evaluation. Each of these phases is not in isolation but must be overlapped considered. The continuity of the process and the use of appropriate tools, eg based on the Extensible Markup Language ( XML), which allow avoiding loss of information and media breaks.

Analysis

Since people learn in very different ways, think and solve problems must be preceded by the development process in each case, the analysis of future users, their tasks and the work environment. In the analysis phase, the basis for a user-and task-oriented operating system are placed, both of the interaction partners of human and machine interaction partners will be considered. The study of users and user behavior achieved by different methods such as structured interview techniques, structure -laying, etc. and should have a complete picture of the work tasks, user groups and work environments arise. To carry out the methods different expertise such as engineers or psychologists need to be involved. In this phase, in particular arises the task model, which implicitly includes a functional model of the process or machine.

Structure design

In the structural design, the results collected in the analysis phase to be harmonized. Here, an abstract usage model is developed based on this information, which is largely independent of the hardware. It forms the basis of an overarching concepts and presents the re-usability of the results for the next generations safe. The use model is a formal assignment of usage contexts, tasks, and need for information on the functions of a machine and is using the language useML ( Useware Markup Language ) modeled in the context of a model-based development environment.

Shaping

Parallel to the structural design of a hardware platform for machine Useware must be selected. This selection is based both on the environment requirements of the machine operations ( pollution, noise, vibration, ... ), on the other hand to requests from a user perspective ( screen size, optimal interaction device ). In addition, costs are factors or even selling points of importance. For the user preferences, the data obtained in the analysis phase findings and the complexity of the usage model can be used. If the model is highly networked and consists of many elements, so care should be taken to optimize the display for the visualization of information contexts. These factors are partly dependent on user group and context of use.

Implementation / prototyping

Within the first prototyping a development tool has to be selected with which the Useware can be implemented and evaluated on the selected hardware platform. Provided that the selected development environment is to be able to use the developed model can be imported and the derived interaction system for further processing. Further processing concerns primarily the realization of the dynamic components of the Useware and the dialogue fine design. Since the current field of development tools is very broad and specific hardware systems also require proprietary tools, it can be assumed, that you have a media break between structural and detail design in most cases. Here, the developers need the evaluated by the user and mapped in the form of prototypes present Useware with the relevant development tool and then carry out the dialogue fine design.

Evaluation

A development process evaluation enables the early identification of problems in the product and therefore saves costs for their removal. It is especially important not only to evaluate design aspects, but include just the structural aspects into considerations with. An investigation has revealed that 60 % of all operating errors are due to lack of structuring and not to defective design. The evaluation phase is to be considered as a cross -cutting issue throughout the project and, reflecting a high level of user integration into product development. Only with an interdisciplinary project team can be a successful integration of the evaluation in the product development process. After the strong user involvement in the analysis phase, a strong feedback sought by users of future operating systems in the further course of the operating system development. During the structural design and the design phase of structural and functional models always have to be provided, by which users and developers can monitor the progress of development.