TY - JOUR
T1 - Case studies as minimalist information
AU - Carroll, John M.
AU - Rosson, Mary Beth
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation (DUE-0088396 and DUE-0231111), by Virginia Tech’s Computer Science Department and Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, and by Penn State’s School of Information Sciences and Technology. We are grateful to our students in CS 3724 at Virginia Tech (Spring 2003) and in IST 413 at Penn State (Spring 2004); to our teaching assistants for those courses, Beth Yost and Bill Stevenson, respectively; to our collaborators, Con Rodi, Scott McCrickard, and Manuel Pérez-Quinones at Virginia Tech, and Cecelia Merkel at Penn State; and to the other faculty participants in our ongoing NSF DUE project, particularly those that took part in our 2003 workshop (John Gersh of Johns Hopkins University, Daryl Hepting of University of Regina, Susan Palmiter of Portland State, Daniel Suthers of University of Hawaii, and Lance Matheson, Scott McCrickard, Chris North, and Manuel Pérez-Quinones, of Virginia Tech). An earlier version of this paper was published as [28].
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Case studies are evocative narrative descriptions of a specific, real-world activity, event, or problem. Case-based learning is well established in professional education (e.g., law, business, medicine) and rapidly expanding in many other disciplines. We use cases as an instructional resource in our own teaching of usability engineering. In this paper, we analyze the proposition that cases can be a minimalist-information design technique - that is, as a design technique that (1) orients information to facilitate user action, (2) anchors information in activity, (3) prevents, mitigates, and leverages error, and (4) develops user autonomy. We discuss the next steps in a research program on case-based learning and speculate on other applications of cases as minimalist information design.
AB - Case studies are evocative narrative descriptions of a specific, real-world activity, event, or problem. Case-based learning is well established in professional education (e.g., law, business, medicine) and rapidly expanding in many other disciplines. We use cases as an instructional resource in our own teaching of usability engineering. In this paper, we analyze the proposition that cases can be a minimalist-information design technique - that is, as a design technique that (1) orients information to facilitate user action, (2) anchors information in activity, (3) prevents, mitigates, and leverages error, and (4) develops user autonomy. We discuss the next steps in a research program on case-based learning and speculate on other applications of cases as minimalist information design.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33947144351&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33947144351&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TPC.2006.885836
DO - 10.1109/TPC.2006.885836
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33947144351
SN - 0361-1434
VL - 49
SP - 297
EP - 310
JO - IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
JF - IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
IS - 4
ER -