The CounterPoint™ Interface-Design Methodology
Designing a successful user interface is one of the most challenging aspects of building an application. At RedWhale, we have developed an advanced methodology that effectively integrates the design of a user interface with the design of the corresponding application.
Key to our processes is the RedWhale CounterPoint™ Interface Design Methodology, which we created based on years of academic and industry research on user-interface design. Whereas conventional knowledge about interface design states that the interface must be "user-centered," we concluded that it must not have just that single focus. Rather, it must balance in harmony the four focal points of interaction:
- The users who will interact with the system (user-centered design)
- The decisions that users will make; for example, whether to buy or sell a specific stock (decision-centered design)
- The job functions of the users (work-centered design)
- The knowledge and data that users will view and modify (information-centered design)
Each system and each design assigns different weights to and combines in different ways these focal points. An e-business application CounterPoint™ design is substantially different from a CounterPoint™ design for a content-and-entertainment web site. The RedWhale CounterPoint™ methodology captures the different types of system requirements, and allows us to combine and balance them. The result is a useful and usable user interface --- the key to a successful application.
Click here to go to our portfolio section for examples of user-centered, information-centered, decision-centered, and work-centered CounterPoint™ designs.
The CounterPoint™ Engineering Process
Designers and developers struggle to merge the user-interface and system-development tasks into an effective software-engineering process. The RedWhale CounterPoint™ Engineering Process handles this task smoothly and efficiently. It enables us to design and build systems that are supported by the four focal points of interaction. We derive both the user interface and the system architecture from a CounterPoint™ Design, then produce the application in a unified fashion. Furthermore, the modular nature of our process offers great flexibility. We can offer to our clients any combination of services, such as
- Design a user interface that the client incorporates into an application
- Design, develop, and integrate a user interface into the client's application
- Build an entire application end to end
The RedWhale Advantage
Better methods and better processes invariably result in better designs and in systems that are both highly useful and usable. That's the RedWhale advantage! Add our CounterPoint™ methodology to our outstanding project-management capabilities and to our customer-satisfaction focus, and you have the recipe for a successful project.