Ripple: An Event Driven Design Representation Framework for Integrating Usability and Software Engineering Life Cycles

Abstract

Ripple is a database-centered, event-triggered, shared design representation framework that provides a development infrastructure within which the usability engineering and software engineering life cycles co-exist in cooperative and complementary roles. Ripple identifies connections and dependencies within each life cycle and between the two life cycles and provides a framework to represent artefacts generated at each stage of the two development life cycles. Our approach to integrating these two development life cycles does not merge them into a single life cycle; rather it coordinates each life cycle’s activities, timing, scope, and goals using a shared design representation and management for the two life cycles. Ripple incorporates techniques to accommodate communication about design insights and change. In response to design changes by either the interface or software side, Ripple sends possibly cascading messages (ripples) to inform developers on both sides, asking them to satisfy associated constraints (dependencies, relationships) affecting related other parts of the overall design. We describe the motivation, barriers, rationale, arguments, and implementation plan for the need, specification, and potential contributions of such an integrated design representation framework. We provide a high level description of this design representation framework and conclude with the usefulness and potential shortcomings of this approach.