Lessons Learned on Developing Educational Systems Using a Hybrid User Centered Methodology - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 205

users techniques allow detecting errors, thereby reducing the time execution during
maintenance and their costs [1].
With regard to the indicators of the effectiveness of User Centred Design, the three
most cited indicators are: the external satisfaction (customer/user), greater ease of use
and impact on sales [31], [35]. After evaluation and distribution of Courseware Sere,
identify ourselves with the first two indicators. However, by the end of the study and
after four years of resource availability in the market, the impact of sales has not been
evident.

5 Conclusions

Although the methods' choice depends mostly on the environment in which the
project operates and also of a set of variables that are sometimes difficult to define,
there are methods to help on software development, minimizing uncertainty, to allow
obtaining the expected result in the most efficient way possible. As Toth [4] and
Sommerville [1], we consider that the adoption of the same approach for all software
development projects is unlikely to be a good choice. Mostly if we take into account
the diversity of users, software purpose of use and constant changes in technology.
Based on the work developed we agree with Abbas, Gravell & Wills [36], which
describe software development as an unpredictable activity, that an adaptive method
to control this unpredictability is required. Regarding the development of educational
software, iterative and incremental processes, associated with prototyping procedures,
including monitoring and evaluation tools in different phases, are an efficient way for
a given process to be able to adapt itself to changing requirements and technology
[37]. In parallel, we also agree with Abras, Maloney-Krichmar & Preece [18], that
two of the disadvantages of UCD, are concerned with the projects requiring more
time to be developed and thus become more expensive. However and according to
Shneiderman & Plaisant [3], UCD methods allow the software to create fewer
problems during development and thus reducing costs in the maintenance phase that
is typically considered the most expensive on the software lifecycle [33].
Assuming that, in particular when developing educational software, all processes
require practices that lead to continuous improvement, we conclude that the Hybrid
Methodology for User-Centered Development is a very good solution for the
development of educational software. The methodology was used to develop
Courseware Sere whose quality has been recognized by end user, particularly as a
finalist of a multimedia product competition and having succeeded in arousing the
interest of a multinational company such as BP - British Petrol [37].

References

1. Sommerville: Software Engineering. Addison Wesley, Boston (2007)
2. Fowler, M.: The New Methodology, http://www.martinfowler.com/
articles/newMethodology.html
3. Shneiderman, B., Plaisant, C.: Designing the User Interface- Strategies for Effective
Human-Computer Interaction. Pearson Education (2005)
4. Toth, K.: Which is the Right Software Process for Your Problem?