HCI Theory & Practice - Scenarios

I came across an interesting description of the theoretical aspects of a scenario, which is a tool, that can be used to describe stories of interaction between human and computer. In Chapter 5 of Human-Computer Interaction (Beale et al, Human-Computer Interaction, 2004), it describes scenarios as being “rich stories of interaction” and being one of the “most flexible and powerful” design representation tools.

Scenarios can be wide ranging in that some can be very short, describing a small situation and some can be large, describing a situation and environment. They can be essentially used in helping the group see what is required when designing the prototype, see how the children will react to the Robot Teaching Assistant etc. and can be reused at any stage of the project.

I think when understanding scenarios and its practicality in the context of our project, we should really focus on the existing environment in which the children work and play in at school. This way we can see how the robot teaching assistant would react or participate in that particular scenario which can aid in our design & prototyping stage at a later date.

However, we can be critical in that scenarios in that they do not highlight potential alternative paths. For example, interactions involved in the real world involve choices and in scenarios it does not necessarily show these potential alternative paths.