Modernizing the User Interface of a Legacy System at the Swedish Police Authority : Collaborative Mental Model: A New Participatory Design Method

Abstract: IT-projects are complex and require a good understanding of the users before development starts. This is especially true for projects within large organizations, where the communication with the users might be poor or even nonexisting. Involving the users in the design process has shown positive effects and is becoming a trend throughout different IT-projects. However, there is some critique questioning whether users should act as designer. This thesis proposes a new method, the Collaborative Mental Model, with the aim of involving users in the design process without requiring any design skills. A case study was conducted at the Swedish police authority to test this new method. The underlying design process began with contextual inquiry and Card Sorting sessions in order to understand the users and the usability issues. After the problem was defined, the collaborative mental model was used to find inspiration, with the help of the users, for a design solution. The prototype was then created with this inspiration in mind. Finally, the users evaluated the prototype with the Think-aloud method. This study showed that the Collaborative Mental Model gave valuable insights about the users. These insights were translated into different features of the prototype. The evaluation showed that all the features were appreciated by the users. The collaborative mental model had a positive impact on the design process and thus, the user experience.