User-System Interface Design for Computer-Based Information Systems,

Abstract
For a broad range of computer-based information systems, the user-system interface (USI) can require a sizable investment in software design. In current practice, there is no coherent methodology for USI design, but efforts to establish USI design standards have begun. This report summarizes the present state of the art, including a recent survey of USI design practice (Smith, 1981b), and proposes several aids to USI design. The first step in USI software design is to decide what is needed. A structured checklist of USI functional capabilities is proposed to aid in requirements definition. This checklist updates a previously published version (Smith, 1981a). Once USI requirements have been defined, the next step is to provide design guidance for the software needed to implement those requirements. A compilation of 375 design guidelines is offered here for major USI functional areas of data entry, data display, and sequence control, revising and enlarging previously proposed guidelines (Smith, 1981a). A third step leading to good USI design is careful documentation. USI documentation is needed to permit design review before software implementation and continuing design coordination thereafter. Potential computer aids are briefly described for generation of draft USI functional specifications, the earliest stage of design documentation. (Author)

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