A context-specific interface model for architectural design in the virtual environment

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate on the success of architectural software in meeting the designers' wishes and in being familiar to the way designers design. One dominant belief is that as architectural software introduces a work environment closer to that of the paper-based techniques, the efficiency of the use of such software in the profession will increase. We argue that it is not the question of making the digital environment familiar to the paper-based, but designing interfaces through which the users will be able to customize the digital environment according to their wishes. This study introduces a context-specific transformation model to convert a state in the 'user+need space' to a digital aid in the virtual design space. This model incorporates a customization scale menu (CSM) to act with the menu options of the architectural software. In this model, the menu options are customized through the selections made on the CSM by the user. These selections will determine the required level of interaction between the software and the user, thus customizing the digital environment according to the user's needs.