Developing intuitive user interfaces by integrating users' mental models into requirements engineering

Abstract

Today, the demand for software that is 'intuitive to use' is very high. In fact, this has become a determining factor for the success of a system. However, building software that is intuitive to use is challenging. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They have to face a variety of problems to remain competitive: Usually no or just small staff is available that is specialized in user requirements engineering research, design, and testing. Furthermore, time schedules and budget are tight. All these factors require a method that delivers creative and intuitive-to-use software even with little design experience and expertise. In this paper, we address this problem by introducing a method for capturing and specifying the user's mental models with image schemas and image-schematic metaphors during the requirements engineering phase of a software engineering project. This method also enables SMEs to systematically transfer these elicited requirements into design solutions, which then result in software that is intuitive to use.