Participatory Interface Design for Expert Users - Development of a design for the administrator interface of Hydra - a tool for managing document processing pipelines in enterprise search

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to investigate if participatory design is suitable when designing for expert users. The project was executed at Findwise, a company that works in the field of enterprise search. The design for an administrator interface for Hydra, a tool that manages document processing pipelines intended for in-house usage, was developed. The future users of Hydra were highly involved in the design process to take advantage of their knowledge and experience. At first their current work situation was analyzed by interviews and observations. Then ideas for the new interface were generated during participatory workshops. The best ideas were then translated in to sketches and prototypes that were tested and evaluated through paper prototyping and discussions in iterations. The work resulted in a list of requirements for the interface and a design proposal in the shape of wireframes that was intended to meet these requirements. It turned out that the design ideas the users liked the most were transparent and very close to the implementation model of Hydra, which follows the guidelines for design for experts. During the development the users expressed valuable ideas and gave input that a person without their experience would not have been able to provide. Most of the users found it hard to discuss innovative ideas since they tended to focus on implementation matters, which sometimes inhibited the creativity. This indicates that a participatory design approach did contribute to a good design, but the structure of the participatory activities must encourage the creativity if more innovative solutions should be developed by expert users. Based on the feedback from the users and stakeholders regarding the final design, they are satisfied with the result. To establish this, the interface has to be further developed into a prototype that handles real data and then be tested in an actual work situation.