Strategies for Bridging the Gap between Analysis and Design for Ecological Interface Design

Abstract

Creating effective graphic displays using Ecological Interface Design (EID) can be a challenging endeavor. Thus far, there has been little guidance in the literature to decrease the gap that exists between EID analysis and design. This paper presents strategies to help bridge this gap. First, a visual thesaurus provides alternative graphic objects and display formats for showing single variables, single-variable constraints, multivariate constraints, and structural constraints (i.e., means-ends, part-whole, and causal/topological relationships). Second, a number of lessons learned have been identified to improve efficiency in the process and provide further refinements to the display design. These strategies can decrease the effort involved in creating EID displays, but do not completely remove creativity from the design process. Future research includes further developing generic and industry-specific graphic forms for the visual thesaurus, while embedding effective design practices.