The user interface in programs for design education: issues and criteria

Due to inexpensive mass-marketed microcomputers and CAAD software the type of “clients” we serve as CAAD educators will soon change. In addition to teaching CAAD programming to 20 students a semester, we may soon be serving a much larger group of casual users from design studios and technical courses. These casual users will require that we provide programs and hardware which allow them to design a better product more swiftly and with less effort than by hand. The most crucial factor in meeting these criteria is the quality of the user interface of the programs and equipment we provide. At Harvard, we have studied the user interfaces of more than 80 programs used in 10 areas of design. This paper is a summary of a 90 page report in which issues are raised, the answers to which determine the quality of the user interface of a program. In the summarized report, different approaches to resolving each issue are discussed, but no “answers” are provided. In our roles as authors, teachers, and now, consumers of CAAD programs, we must - explicitly or by default - address these issues before designing or purchasing programs and hardware for design education