Design of interactive software

The design of interactive software (or design of IHM, or design of interface) are the activity which aims at defining the operation of a software intended to be used by one or more people. It is a particular case of the Conception of product.

One should not confuse the design of interactive software with the software design, phase which in software Génie traditional follows the specification and relates exclusively to the cutting of a program in software components. The unhappy similarity between the two denominations has inter alia historical reasons: during decades, the user interface represented a part minor and little varied in the software, and the true difficulty was in the realization and the management of a Computer program.

There exist many design methods of interactive software. The variety comes from the type of product concerned (parameter setting of an information system, design of a video game, design of a vocal waiter, etc), facets and properties of the software on which concentrates the method (IHM alone, together of the product, utilisability, reliability, cost of design, etc), and of the professional community concerned (software genius, ergonomics, designers, specialists in the Web, specialists in the IHM). Among the methods or classes of methods met in the literature, let us quote:

iterative design
design centered on the user
the participative Design
contextual design (contextual design)
design by derivation of models

There is since the middle of the years 1990 a debate between researchers in IHM on the nature of the activity of design:

some consider that it is an automatizable activity. According to them, being given a modeling of the scope of application and a modeling of the task of the users (obtained by Analysis of the tasks) it is possible to build a specification of the interactive software automatically. This approach was popular in the middle of the years 1990 then received gradually less interest, until the appearance of the cellphones with screens and personal assistants which caused a strong renewed interest.
of others affirms that the design is a creative activity which cannot be automated, and which one can as well as possible check automatically compatibility between the conceived software and tries it users. They thus prefer to stress the production of tools which facilitate the work of the originators, and make it possible for example a Designer to conceive a IHM.

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