Integrating field work in system design: a methodology and two case studies

Bridging the “gap” between observation of end-users´ needs and support system design is a prerequisite for any user-centered design and support system development process. The authors describe a framework, functional information and knowledge acquisition (FIKA-) modeling, that can be used both to structure observations in complex environments and to structure support system functionality. The central idea is to focus on information and knowledge types an end-user needs rather than on specific end-user actions. Two examples from industrial process control illustrate the approach. The first example demonstrates how high-level system requirements can be captured. The second example shows how to gather knowledge to generate a model specifying end-users´ information and knowledge requirements