Convergence or Competition between Software Engineering and Human Computer Interaction

Abstract

HCI and SE share design as a common concern but have different roots in theory, processes for design and views on design representations. Models are essential for engineering approaches to design, assumed in SE and HCI. Both disciplines also use scenarios and artefacts. Models inevitably have limitations in their comprehensibility even with informal notations, but formal models have become embedded in SE. Scenarios have received much attention as an effective means of user-designer communication; in SE, they are seen as a starting point for generating models, while in HCI scenarios are used as prostheses for design inspiration. The chapter reviews different conceptions of scenarios, artefacts, theories and models with contributions they make to the design process in SE and HCI. It explores the potential for constructive contrasts between scenarios as concrete, grounded examples and generalised, abstract models in an integrated view of systems development that encompasses both HCI and SE.