Bridging User Needs to Object Oriented GUI Prototype Via Task Object Design

This chapter sketches out The Bridge, a comprehensive and integrated methodology for quickly designing object-oriented (00), multiplatform, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that definitely meet user needs. Part 1 of The Bridge turns user needs into concrete user requirements represented as task flows. Part 2 uses the Task Object Design (TOD) method to map the task flows into task objects. Part 3 completes the bridge by mapping the task objects into GUI objects such as windows. Those three parts of the methodology are done back-to-back in a single, intense session, with the same team of about five participants (notably including real users) working at a small round table through several consecutive days. The methodology is unusual in its tight integration not only of its explicit steps, but also of several pervasive techniques and orientations such as Participatory Analysis, Design, and Assessment (PANDA) methods that involve users and other stakeholders as active collaborators. This chapter describes both the underlying portions and the explicit steps of this bridge over the gap between user needs and GUI design.