Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
“
safe
” environment. The co-design workshop is an approach which has
been successfully used in a product design environment (e.g. Gyi et al.
2005) and again has potential to be used for aspects of ICT design. Such
events allow the opportunity for citizens to give in-depth feedback on
products and to share, communicate and discuss ideas through 'designing
and making'.
9.9 Requirements Surfacing
As we note in Chapter 2, the most difficult challenge for those designing
ICT systems is to properly and fully elicit the requirements of potential us-
ers. Conventional approaches to systems design have tended to be aimed at
eliciting, and satisfying, functional (task related requirements) and have
ignored other kinds of user requirement. However, as we also argue in
Chapter 2, the non-functional requirements which users have - such as for
security procedures which are robust but which at the same time do not
place high loads on our memory or capability to enter accurate strings of
numbers on keypads - can actually be equally or even more important for
the effectiveness as well as the desirability of the system.
Robertson (2001) proposes that requirements can fall into three catego-
ries: conscious requirements, unconscious requirements, and undreamed of
requirements. Conscious requirements are those that stakeholders are par-
ticularly aware of, and which are therefore relatively easy to elicit. Uncon-
scious requirements are those that stakeholders do not realise that they
have. Reasons for having unconscious requirements might be that stake-
holders are so used to having a requirement fulfilled that it does not occur
to them to express it. These are harder to elicit because they relate to what
may be deeply ingrained beliefs about what technology 'can do' or 'should
do'. Undreamed-of requirements are those, which do not occur to stake-
holders because they cannot imagine what it might be like to have access
to a new kind of technology or product. One of the major problems with
requirements such as these is that they are hard to elicit. In many cases
they cannot be directly observed or easily articulated. They may for exam-
ple relate to our wishes and aspirations for quality of life - issues which
we are not necessarily used to discussing with others, and which may
appear to have no relevance to the design of technology. In other cases,
requirements arise as a result of seeing and exploring possibilities: new
technologies for example can offer new ways of doing things.
Unless these requirements can be elicited or brought to the surface dur-
ing the design process, there is no prospect of designing products and
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