Conceptual Design

Conceptual design perspectives

There are three ways to approach a conceptual design.

1. Interaction mode
   Interaction mode is basically how the user produces actions to perform an activity. The set of activities determine which interaction modes to use for the product. For example, activities like creating a document or searching in a document require different kinds of modes. There are four possible interaction modes based on the type of activity being performed:

• Instructing: This describes how the user performs actions by instructing the systems what to do. For example, giving instructions to save a file, edit it, and delete it. In this mode, the system simply acts like a machine that obeys orders.
• Conversing: This describes how the user performs actions by considering the system as a dialog partner. The system is expected to respond just like a human would respond. For example, a search engine where the user could type “how to record screen on macOS?” and the system would respond with various solutions in the form of search results.
• Manipulating and navigating: This describes how the user manipulates and navigates through the system that acts as a virtual space. This mode uses the user’s knowledge of how the same action would be performed in the physical world. For example, in macOS, when a file is moved to trash, a corresponding sound is produced with a visual cue of the trash bin vibrating to indicate the task has successfully completed.
• Exploring and browsing: This describes how the user explores and browses information. This mode uses the user’s knowledge of how they explore information in existing media like magazines, TV, libraries, etc. For example, applications like web pages, e-commerce sites, and portals use this interaction mode to effectively place information allowing users to explore more different kinds of information.

In most cases, one interaction mode is not enough to support the system activity. Hence, a hybrid of interaction modes is used. The type of interaction mode may depend on the stage of activity. For example, online shopping is a combination of different modes. The user may be browsing and exploring different products or instructing the system when filling in a checkout form.

Note: Selecting an interaction mode is different from selecting interaction styles. The type of interaction style to be used depends on the type of mode being used in the product.

2. Interaction metaphor
   Conceptual designs can also be developed using interface metaphors. These conceptual models are similar to a physical object in some aspects but have their own properties and functions as well. For example, documents, trash bins, folders, and mailboxes are represented as icons of a physical object and have some properties of that object. To drag a document from one place to another on the screen is similar to picking up and dragging a paper/file from one place to another in the physical world. Dragging a document and placing it in a folder will paste the document there just like a person would pick up a physical document and place it in a cabinet. But the virtual/electronic documents have some properties that cannot be mapped in the physical world. For example, dragging a document onto the printer icon will print the document. This function is limited to electronic documents and it isn’t possible in the physical world.

3. Interaction paradigm
   Interaction paradigms are design philosophies or different approaches of thinking about the design. The first interaction paradigm was the WIMP interface. For a long time, designers used to consider applications as something that was going to be used on a computer having a WIMP interface. With time, and as technology advanced, many different paradigms were proposed. These include:

   • Ubiquitous computing: According to this paradigm, the applications and systems should seamlessly disappear into the work environment and users should be able to interact with them without really seeing and thinking about it. This means that the products should be based on the user’s pre-existing knowledge of how to perform a task rather than creating and proposing new ways. Ubiquitous computing intends to enhance human capabilities. For example, spreadsheets were designed to be used in offices in place of paper to improve user experience with much greater computational power. But the design was kept the same as paper sheets so that it’s easy to use.

   • Pervasive computing: The ideas raised in ubiquitous computing are followed up by pervasive computing. This paradigm states that information should be accessible and transferable between the user and a seamlessly integrated application at any place and time of the day. For example, a smart refrigerator is an application based on ubiquitous computing that enhances the features of a simple fridge. It keeps track of the items stored in it and notifies the user when an item is almost gone or has been finished.

   • Wearable computing: This paradigm focuses on combining multimedia and wireless technologies to create wearable devices that users can easily carry with them. For example, a smart diary that lets the user know about their daily schedule and tasks.

Below are the three concerns that need to be addressed in order to design a conceptual model.

• Which interaction mode/modes best suit the design?
• Is there an interface metaphor that can be mapped?
• Which interaction paradigm can be used?

Detailed conceptual design

Any product envisioned in the previous step requires more details before starting to prototype it. These details include the following concerns:

1. Which functions will the product perform?
   

2. How will these functions relate to each other?
   

3. What information is required to support these functions?
   

Note: The decisions being made in this step are tentative and are used as a starting point. They are prone to change during prototyping and evaluation.

Scenario-based conceptual design

This approach uses informal stories and scenarios to describe tasks and user actions. These are used to express situations that help in designing the conceptual model. These are mainly used to communicate and build an understanding of the conceptual design among users and team members. A common approach is to imagine two scenarios, plus and minus scenarios being the most positive and the most negative results of a conceptual design. Let’s see an example of an in-car navigation system. This system helps the users plan routes.

Prototyping in conceptual design

Low-fidelity prototypes of the emerging ideas and designs are used to get feedback from the users. Consider an example of a shared calendar that will be used to arrange meetings between colleagues of a company. Card-based prototyping is used to test the information requirements and task flow. Have a look at the slides down below. The first card shows the basic input form that has a field to enter meeting members, a before date field, time duration, and location fields. Please note that we haven’t yet decided on the detailed interface such as which type of input fields will be used. These details will be specified in the physical design phase. Card 2 presents the search results and the user has to select one option that best suits them. Card 3 presents the available operations on the selected option. These include provisional booking, confirm booking, and cancel options.

• Evaluation results: When this prototype is presented to some users for evaluation, the evaluation results may reveal that the users’ task flows were projected correctly into the prototype. But some considerations may get highlighted as well, as the user may suggest that there should be a range of dates in which a meeting has to be arranged.