Human-CenteredSoftwareEngineering: BridgingHCI,
UsabilityandSoftwareEngineering From its beginning in the 1980's, the
?eld of human-computer interaction (HCI) has
beende?nedasamultidisciplinaryarena. BythisImeanthattherehas
beenanexplicit recognition that distinct skills and perspectives are
required to make the whole effort of designing usable computer systems
work well. Thus people with backgrounds in Computer Science (CS) and
Software Engineering (SE) joined with people with ba- grounds in various
behavioral science disciplines (e. g., cognitive and social psych- ogy,
anthropology)inaneffortwhereallperspectiveswereseenasessentialtocreating
usable systems. But while the ?eld of HCI brings individuals with many
background disciplines together to discuss a common goal - the
development of useful, usable, satisfying systems - the form of the
collaboration remains unclear. Are we striving to coordinate the varied
activities in system development, or are we seeking a richer
collaborative framework? In coordination, Usability and SE skills can
remain quite distinct and while the activities of each group might be
critical to the success of a project, we need only insure that critical
results are provided at appropriate points in the development cycle.
Communication by one group to the other during an activity might be seen
as only minimally necessary. In collaboration, there is a sense that
each group can learn something about its own methods and processes
through a close pa- nership with the other. Communication during the
process of gathering information from target users of a system by
usability professionals would not be seen as so- thing that gets in the
way of the essential work of software engineering professionals.
