Introduction

Hi, and welcome to the Software Design Smorgasbord.

This site consists of ten pages:

Visualization Multimedia
Human-Computer Interaction Usability Engineering
User Interface Design Online Information Design
Performance Support Knowledge Support
Productive Workplaces Knowledge Management

All ten present perspectives on creating easier-to-use, more effective software. If the ways the pages in the first four rows of buttons do this aren't obvious, their descriptions on the home page should establish the connection. The ninth page, Productive Workplaces, recognizes that software developers are people and deals with their real-life issues. The tenth page, Knowledge Management, addresses capturing and sharing knowledge, which in the coming years will increasingly feed back into the design of software to keep it fresh.

This entire site is a knowledge resource for a perspective on software design called "Performance-Centered Design" (PCD). This perspective originated with a group technology-oriented instructional designers who built Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) in the 1990s. Realizing that most of the systems they were building were essentially scaffolding to help users with problematic software, these people shifted their attention to improving the software itself. But they never lost sight of the need to provide support for the knowledge component required to get work done.

The PCD perspective encompasses the more widely-known User-Centered Design (UCD) perspective and goes beyond it. PCD insists not only that software be easy to use and reflect natural work contexts. It recognizes that in many situations software also needs to provide domain knowledge and best practices in ways that let its users learn while doing their work. PCD therefore complements other approaches critical of UCD, such as contextual design and usage-centered design, that focus on aligning software with work.

As an information designer, I have a special interest in how information is woven into the interactive tapestry of software. In fact, if I had to pick a single question I come back to more than any other as I do my work, it would probably be "How is information best presented within the context of software?"

I hope you find these pages helpful in your work and study.

Links to This Site

This site was originally posted on May 1, 1997.

Sites linking to the
Software Design Smorgasbord
Sites linking to
Visualization
Sites linking to
Human-Computer Interaction
Sites linking to
Usability Engineering
Sites linking to
Online Information Design
Sites linking to
Online Information Design
Sites linking to
Knowledge Management
Sites linking to
What is Performance-Centered Design
Sites linking to
Implementing Performance-Centered Design
Sites linking to
What Is the EPSS Movement and What Does It Mean to Information Designers?
Sites linking to
What Is Interaction Design and What Does It Mean to Information Designers?

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Posted May 1, 1997
Last updated December 1, 2001
© copyright 1997-2001 Craig Marion
webmaster: cmarion @ chesco.com