Applying user-centered techniques to analyze and design a mobile application

Abstract

Techniques that help in understanding and designing user needs are increasingly being used in Software Engineering to improve the acceptance of applications. Among these techniques we can cite personas, scenarios and interaction models. Personas are fictitious representations of target users. Scenarios provide various types of information at different levels of abstraction. Interaction models help in design of an adequate user interaction with the system. This paper presents a research that reports a set of practical activities applied by a software team using techniques in the analysis and design phases of a mobile application. In the analysis phase, we created personas and scenarios for the extraction of requirements. In the design phase, we created interaction models for describes the behavior between user and system during the interaction. We employed these interaction models to develop other artifacts, such as prototypes. In addition, we presented a technique developed by the analysis and design team for the inspection of interaction models. This technique reduced the spread of defects in the interaction models. From the results of this research, we suggest: (i) employing personas and scenarios to understand the requirements; (ii) employing interaction models to understand the behavior between user and system; and (iii) using interaction models as basis to develop other artifacts. Through the reporting of this set of practical activities, we hope to provide support for software engineers willing to adopt techniques that support the analysis and design of applications aiming at better quality of use for their users.