Encouraging the effective use of contextual information in design

definitions o f context are o f limited value Abstract definitions of context such as the definition offered by Wixon and Raven (1994) may not be of much use to designers. Such definitions are unlikely to be able to identify all the relevant contextual factors for any paiticular design project since each currently available definition focuses on some aspects of context at the expense of other aspects, which could be just as relevant in a design project. Chapter 2 discussed the problem of scoping with respect to different contextual design methods. Cockton et al. (1995) also discussed this issue and Clarke (1996) suggests that designers must be aware of differences in scope of each definition of context so that methods and definitions can be combined, thus ensuring complete coverage of all the relevant contextual information for a particular project. Without an awareness of the differences in scope of definitions of context, designers may be unaware of potentially relevant context that the definition they are employing simply ignores. A more concrete ‘map’ of context, such as the checklist shown in Appendix A, may help avoid the problem of ignoring relevant context, since it explicitly lists different elements of context, and can be referred to at any time by designers. In contrast, abstract definitions of context do not support explicit descriptions and rely on the designers to consistently interpret the definition in terms of identifying relevant and irrelevant context.definitions of context such as the definition offered by Wixon and Raven (1994) may not be of much use to designers. Such definitions are unlikely to be able to identify all the relevant contextual factors for any paiticular design project since each currently available definition focuses on some aspects of context at the expense of other aspects, which could be just as relevant in a design project. Chapter 2 discussed the problem of scoping with respect to different contextual design methods. Cockton et al. (1995) also discussed this issue and Clarke (1996) suggests that designers must be aware of differences in scope of each definition of context so that methods and definitions can be combined, thus ensuring complete coverage of all the relevant contextual information for a particular project. Without an awareness of the differences in scope of definitions of context, designers may be unaware of potentially relevant context that the definition they are employing simply ignores. A more concrete ‘map’ of context, such as the checklist shown in Appendix A, may help avoid the problem of ignoring relevant context, since it explicitly lists different elements of context, and can be referred to at any time by designers. In contrast, abstract definitions of context do not support explicit descriptions and rely on the designers to consistently interpret the definition in terms of identifying relevant and irrelevant context. Chapter 6; Thesis Contributions The thesis has shown that relationships'exist both from context to design and from design to context. Each type of relationship conveys a different meaning and may require different actions as a result of some change to either the source or destination of the relationship. The next chapter describes the future work that has been suggested by this research. In effect, the future work is another category of contributions. Given the small amount of research that has been carried out into explicily relating context with designs, this thesis has possibly raised more questions than it has answered. The next chapter describes these questions and issues and suggests ways in which they may be addressed. 181 6.3 Chapter Summary ..... This chapter has reviewed the main contributions of this thesis. They are split into two categories. The first category concerns the contributions made with respect to explicitly recording the relationships between context and design. It demonstrates that recording and maintaining the relationships between context and design provides benefits to designers in that it encourages them to think about and discuss the ways that context has been used. Such discussion and reflection can highlight inconsistencies and omisssions within and between particular design documents. By resolving these inconsistencies and omissions, designers start to make more efficient use of contextual information in design.