Pact Analysis And Prototype Design Information Technology Essay

The given report is based on the PACT analysis and prototype design for an interactive system. In respect to this, the paper introduces an initial non-functioning prototype interface for the interactive system for the selected design problem. The design problem selected for this interactive system is scenario 2. This problem is related with getting information about visiting places and eating, as in this city, Emily has faced problem in accessing expert knowledge and using Google maps mainly because of unavailability no local leaflets, paid advertising links, etc. As such, the design report reflects the PACT analysis and includes observations supporting this analysis. Further, it also includes secondary research as well as reflects feedback for initial design. All in all, an interactive system design for this design problem will be helpful in giving effective and relevant knowledge to the visitors about visiting and eating.

PACT analysis is defined as a user requirement document that is used for a more detailed design brief. This analysis is a way of reflecting about people, activities, content and lastly technology (PACT Analysis). Each and every element of this analysis would be quite helpful in developing an effective interactive system that supports the users in accessing the local map. People reflect cognitive with physical characteristics, language, culture, etc. and other aspects. Activities indicate about actions and tasks including activities that support the new design. The third aspect is the context to use focuses on information about environment with acceptability of new design in relation to social, legal and ecological. Lastly, technology focuses on current technology and future technology to asses the problem in existing technology and type of technology, which will be used to solve out this technical issue. In relation to the given design problem, PACT analysis is conducted to make the information accessible to visitors.

People: In this activity, people involved are senior team members, IT engineers having a good knowledge about hardware and software technical areas, graphic and interactive design experts and research team. There is a special requirement for IT experts and research team as both affect the designing of the interactive system. The special requirement for Information Technology (IT) expert is due to the reason that they have possessed a practical technical knowledge about software and hardware. Research team members have great domains in programming, visual design and cognitive psychology. The age range for each and every person involved is different. For the senior team members, the age range is in between 35-50 years. They can play a decisive role in building an interactive environment through solving behavioural issues. All in all, senior members can build up a good coordination among the members to effectively communicate ideas. Further, team members between 20 and 30 include those, who have innovative ideas and support in completing the tasks. IT engineer, graphic engineers and research team members are between the age range 30 and 45. In developing an interactive system, they can support in the designing of prototype and non-functioning prototype interface. In the current scenario, language is a great issue as visitors have faced problems in assessing the local knowledge due to unfamiliar language.

Activities: To design an interactive system, the users have to perform activities that furnish long and in-depth information to the visitors. Additionally, they have to design a system in such an effective way that not only supports the visitors in searching local knowledge about the worth visiting and eating through providing database, but also works as a tool that freely intercommunicates knowledge to the visitors. Those activities must possess special characteristics like system should be easy to use, fast, and efficient. The new design will support in completing the activities like designing of interface, which is self teaching and also assists in gaining access to relevant and worthwhile information.

Context to use: The features of the current context are that the presentation of local knowledge was not good in this city. Besides that, the system is not quite fast and effective with which it could be easy to assess the information. The environment would be stressful as the existing system was not responsive to the needs of the users. The new system needs to be used quickly through providing training in relation to the technical issues and ways to implement and maintain. In the designing of an interactive system, it is a must to focus on the needs of society, so that the society can be able to accept this system. For the new design, ecological and social acceptability affects the system at a great extent as both play a vital role in making the system user centric.

Current technology: Technology is one of the determinative areas of concern as it directly affects the system design. Currently, notice and language are used as technology to respond to the needs of the users in a fast and efficient way without focusing on its ease to use. All in all, the current technology to serve local knowledge is mainly based on the system’s functionality instead of visitors’ needs. This is a major problem in the current technology. Besides that, the current technology does not reflect the local attraction in the station and thus; visitors have faced a great problem in knowing places for visiting and eating without any guide.

Future Technology: To solve this problem, the technology that could be used must focus on the users’ needs and also possess the characteristics of easy to use. Furthermore, books and signs are an effective technology that could be applied to cope with this problem as this will be helpful for the users in accessing knowledge about the local attractions of the particular city. Hardware helps the visitors that are looking for new attractions through informing and assisting in searching worth visiting places, whereas; software helps in making the database of local attractions in a city and also maintaining the speed and efficiency. This technology might provide opportunities like easy to access information within few minutes. Besides that, this technology might also give information about local attractions on mobile phone at low costs. For offering more functionality in the new system, new technology like books and signs might give an opportunity to attract number of visitors and also meet visitors’ needs by assisting in keeping away the problems related to access expert knowledge.

Observations supporting the PACT analysis

Based on the above discussion about PACT analysis, it is inferred that this analysis is a quite effective tool with which it could be easy to assess information in a more detailed form. Besides that, it is also reflected that PACT analysis not only focuses on the specific requirements, but also indicates key point that are quite essential for evaluation. For instance: information about people helps in knowing people involved in the tasks. Furthermore, I have learned that for designing an interactive system, this analysis is highly effective as this helps in realizing the current situation and also reflects the areas for improvement, so that the new system can easily cope with the perceived problem. All in all, it is realized that PACT analysis is an effective tool to understand the users’ needs and amend the system according to the users’ acceptability.

From the observations supporting the PACT analysis, it is learned that in this rapidly changing technological world, it is a must for an interactive system design that each and every aspect including people, activities, context and technology is properly assessed. With this, it would be easy to design a system that gives local knowledge of what is worth eating and visiting in a particular state. In addition to this, these observations will support in assessing the required changes that make the user interface effective in respect to functionality and users’ needs. Overall, PACT analysis is a tool for cooperative research, which acts as computer-aid-engineering for sharing and developing design model automatically.

In the same concern, it is also observed that PACT analysis for an interactive system should also consider the communication as this meets out the issues like speed and bandwidth. In addition to this, observations will greatly assist the web designers in knowing about the users’ context, goals and tasks that directly lead in supporting the PACT analysis. With the observations, it could also be easy to assess whether the design prototype assists the goals and tasks in an effective way (Sharp, Rogers and Preece 2008).

All the given observations in relation to the support of the PACT analysis were quite useful as they helped in getting relevant information about activities, context and technology. In response to the observations, the design visualization will add such a technology that gives a full and clear picture of area for improvement and also focuses on usability that makes visualisation easy to understand. Besides that, I will add more pictures, maps, signs, etc. as well as apply design strategies related to user interface. To make design visualisation effective, we will add all types of analyses including users, requirements and tasks. Thus, it is inferred that PACT analysis for an interactive system must be human centric, so that the required information can be easily extracted by the users.

Secondary research

Secondary research is one of the effective researches with which it could be easy to find out the solutions in context to the chosen scenario. This is because potential solutions linking with such issues are already reflected by other researchers. In helping the design of an interactive system, secondary research is quit useful as this research gives detailed information about the tourism and environment in context to the ecological, cultural, economic and language issues. Besides that, in design/visualization, secondary research will help in finding out the user requirements that are essential to design interactive system.

In this context, Jones and Greene (2000) state that in the interactive system design, it is a must to foster creative perception, users and use context. The interesting idea that helps in developing the design is “We view good system design as a three-legged stool. The legs are:

1) Understanding of technology, 2) Understanding of the users and the context in which the system will be used, and 3) A creative insight (Jones and Greene 2000).” This means that a good system design is highly based on the proper knowledge and understanding of the users and technology as this is the only means to provide local attraction information to the visitors.

It is also assessed from secondary research that for an effective design/visualisation to provide a guide to the tourists, it is a must to focus on the computing technologies with wireless infrastructure in order to provide the required information about the worth visiting sites. In support to this, Cheverst et.al state that “The system combines mobile computing technologies with a wireless infrastructure to present the city visitors with the information tailored to both their personal and environmental contexts (Cheverst et.al).” With this, it is analysed that for developing an interactive system, technology should be related with the users’ requirements.

To make the design effective, another interesting idea proposed by Wober (2003) is that the designing of interactive system has to be supported with a marketing decision support system to assess the information about the prevailing users’ demand and current technology (Wober 2003). . Based on the above reflected potential solutions for the selected scenario, it is inferred that secondary research is good means as this research refers to the information that has been collected and properly analyzed by other researchers in context to the same issue.

Feedback on the Design Visualisation

In respect to the design visualisation, most of the users have reflected that this is a good system through which users can easily access the information of local destinations as this not only provides them with the database, but also helps them communicate in relation to various issues related to environment. This system would help in getting information about the worth visiting and eating sites, so that visitors can spend their time and money in an efficient way. As per their feedback, they would expect to see mobile networking with which they can access information on global maps on their mobiles at a lower cost. After looking at visualisation, most of them have the same question that whether this system is easy to use and will be helpful in fulfilling their needs. In response to the feedback, I would like to focus on all key dimensions such as technology, context and users. In addition to this, I would like to change the technology such as books, pens, notices, etc. to make the system easy to use for the visitor. Besides that, I will implement mobile networking to change the design as most of the potential users highly require this technology in the interactive system.