Prescriptive Study: Developing Design Support
5.9 Main Points
The main points of this chapter can be summarised as follows.
• This chapter focuses on how to develop a design support to enhance, eliminate or reduce the influence of some of the critical factors found in DS-I or DS-II.
• Design support includes all possible means, aids and measures that can be used to improve design. These are prescriptions, suggesting ways by which design tasks should be carried out.
• Support development is usually not a direct derivative of the findings from DS-I or DS-II, but involves a highly creative and imaginative design process. Design methodologies can be used in this process. When a computer tool is developed, software development methodologies can be useful.
• User aspects and interaction issues are important in support development.
User involvement at all stages is beneficial and at the latter stages often essential.
• When a support is developed for a specific domain, domain knowledge plays a major role, both in support development and testing. Methods are available for acquisition of this knowledge.
• The Systematic PS process detailed in this chapter blends two general features of product and software design methodologies: gradual detailing through steps and problem solving at each step. Its steps are: Task Clarification, Conceptualisation, Elaboration, Realisation, and Support Evaluation.
• We emphasise the need to develop a strong concept based on the generation of variants, before embarking on the elaboration.
• Three types of PSare distinguished in DRM: Initial, Comprehensive and Review-based.
• An Initial PS follows a Comprehensive DS-I or DS-II and is carried out if a Comprehensive PS is not possible. Only the Task Clarification and Conceptualisation steps of the Systematic PS process are executed, to illustrate how the results of DS-I or DS-II could be used to improve design.
The support cannot be formally evaluated.
• A Comprehensive PS includes all the steps of the Systematic PS Process.
The outcome is a support realised to such an extent that its core functionality can be evaluated for its potential to fulfil the purpose for which it was developed. How comprehensive the PS stage is, depends on the intended evaluation in DS-II.
• A Review-based PS is necessary in projects that focus on the evaluation of existing support (DS-II) that has been developed without the researcher being involved. All the steps in the Systematic PS process are carried out to reconstruct or develop the documentation needed for starting a Comprehensive DS-II.
• A distinction is made between Intended Support and Actual Support. The Intended Support is a description of the complete support as envisaged by
the researcher. Project constraints often prevent all functions of the Intended Support from being realised. The support that is realised is the Actual Support, which may be incomplete in several respects, but can be used for the purpose of evaluation – as a proof-of-concept. The focus is on the core contribution of the research project, i.e., the core functionality of the Intended Support.
• The Task Clarification step helps clarify the requirements for the support.
These must reflect the goal of the project, and help attain novel and implementable changes to be brought about by the support.
• Based on the Reference Model and Initial Impact Model, alternative Impact Models – based on alternative Key Factors, influencing factors, links or Measurable Success Criteria – should be generated, explored and evaluated before selecting the most suitable: the Intended Impact Model. The majority of links in the Impact Model are taken as assumptions.
• Based on the Intended Impact Model, project goals and the Reference Model, a list of requirements for the Intended Support is formulated. The requirements pertain to the whole life cycle of the support.
• In the Conceptualisation step, the functions of the support are identified, alternative concepts generated, a concept for the Intended Support selected, its Introduction Plan conceptualised, and the Intended Impact Model updated.
• The Intended Introduction Plan documents the intended processes of introduction, installation, customisation, use and maintenance.
• The Elaboration step starts with a literature review to identify ideas and available means to embody the functions of the support. The step results in the completed description of the Intended Support, the Intended Introduction plan and the Intended Impact Model.
• The Intended Support Description describes the support in terms of the need or problem addressed, the goals and objectives of the support, its elements, how it works, the underlying concept, theory, assumptions and rationale, and how it is to be realised.
• The Realisation step determines the core contributions and the essential functionality of the Intended Support to be evaluated, generates an Outline Evaluation Plan, consults the literature on existing ideas, means and technologies, develops the Actual Support, and develops the Actual Introduction Plan and Actual Impact Model by adapting the Intended Introduction Plan and Intended Impact Model to match the Actual Support.
• The Actual Introduction Plan describes how the Actual Support is to be customised, installed, introduced, used and – if applicable – maintained within the context in which it is to be evaluated.
• The Actual Support is the only support developed in PS and may differ from the Intended Support in: implementation, medium, functionality;
coverage; performance. Additional functionalities or features may be required for the evaluation.
• In tool development, computer implementation is a substantial portion of the research project. It is helpful to follow the design-test-debug cycle.
• It is important to remain focused, and realise only what is absolutely necessary in order to evaluate the program’s core functionality and intended impact.
• In PS, only Support Evaluation is carried out to evaluate completeness, internal consistency, etc. Users may be involved. Support Evaluation can take place throughout the PS stage.
• During the various steps of support development, assumptions are made. It is important to record these, since these can provide alternative explanations for the evaluation results.
• The deliverables of the PS stage are: Documentation of the Intended Support, Actual Support, Documentation of the Actual Support, Support Evaluation results, and Outline Evaluation Plan for DS-II . An Initial PS will only result in the Documentation of the Intended Support.