Enhancing contextual analysis to support the design of development tools

Designing interactive computer systems involves relating informal understandings of practice to the formal language and notations of the computer. For interactive systems that support certain types of 'knowledge work', this relationship is mirrored in the user interface. For example, the users of spreadsheets, aircraft flight management systems, or even domestic heating controllers, can find themselves having to relate their informal understanding of what is required to the notations embodied in such tools. The benefit of effectively utilising these capabilities is considerable, however it requires the use of abstractions and pre-planning, which can impose considerable cognitive burdens on the user. A key design issue for such innovations is to understand how a new system can be integrated into its environment. These considerations may be critical to the uptake of the system by its intended users. In addition, such technologies commonly promote a qualitative shift in working practices that can challenge the value of traditional contextual analysis assessments. This paper reports on a study to support the redesign of a novel tool that is intended for use by authors of highly interactive DVDs. The tool provides users with powerful abstractions allowing them to radically extend the interactivity available in the medium of DVD. The investigation shows how contextual studies can be enhanced by combining them with analytic methods to provide an efficient practical framework that is suitable to support successive design assessments.