BEST

Duration

2003 - 2009

Members

H. Reiterer (Teamlead), F. Gundelsweiler (Project Manager), T. Memmel (Project Manager), I. Reeps (Student Assistant), K. Ludiwg (Student Assistant), A. Söter

Description

BEST is a research cooperation of our workgroup with Daimler AG Research, Ulm (Germany). There are four fields of research:

Usability - Design - Joy of Use

In our research, we analyze how principles and practice from different disciplines such as Usability Engineering, Design, Funology or Captology can be combined in HCI development processes. The aim of this synergetic perspective is to identify design methods that allow for a development of interactive products with high quality in terms of usability and user experience. The results of our research are transferred to particular fields of application in the automotive industry.

Information Visualization

The aim of information visualization is to facilitate cognitive access to electronically stored data. On the one hand, the focus of this work package is to analyze the potential of visualizations to intuitively represent information items of multi-dimensional databases (e.g. a product catalogue with a plethora of car equipment details). On the other hand, we develop visualization frameworks in order to be able to extract critical information from statistical usage data, which allows us to evaluate and enhance the overall website usability.

Agile Modeling and Usability Engineering – Bridging the Gaps

We investigate commonalities in principles and practice of Agile Modeling, XP and Usability Engineering processes. The results of our research are fused in a combined lifecycle model that supports the development of user-centered software systems under agile project conditions. Since 2005, this field of research is continued within the INSPECTOR project.

E-Commerce: Interaction Concepts for Digital Sales Channels

In our research we investigate new possibilities of user- and task-centered access to the various applications on automotive websites. Whereas our long-term assignments focus on the very future versions of automotive websites, we as well deliver innovative interaction concepts that are incorporated in current automotive information systems. The research in this category is linked to the work package of the USER project.