System Integration

Instructor

Keiichi Sato

System Integration is the core task of planning and design process to compose the system structure for complex and large-scale system development based on goals and requirements identified through the phase of information inquiry.

The basis of Human-Centered Design is to develop and apply extensive information about users and use context. This requires integration of many different types of information from different disciplines and sources such as user studies, social and cultural studies, task analysis, organizational requirements, ergonomic data, and system models. Even a simple product manifests complex design problems when it is placed in contexts such as users’ daily life, societal environments, services, cultural practice, and environmental concerns. There is a major gap between information inquiry and use of the information in solving problems or developing a complex system.

This course introduces methodologies that intend to bridge this gap by introducing ways of organizing complex design information from the inquiry phase and the mechanism of transformation of the information into systems concepts from multiple viewspoints such as system operation, interaction, service, and user experience.

Methods

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Contents discussed in the class:
Design Information Framework (DIF)
Structured Planning
System models
Activities, tasks and functions
Users and use context
Cognitive, behavioral, and cultural patterns
User experience
Problems, goals, requirements, constraints and criteria
Product architecture
System architecture
Service architecture
Business architecture
Design concept development

Format & Grading

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-prerequisite: none (but “Product Architecture and Platform” and “Design Process and Knowledge” would help.)

-Expected work and output:
class participation
weekly assignments
project reports

-Grading criteria:
attendance
weekly assignments: reading and projects
final project report
class participation