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Useware is a generic term introduced in 1998 that denotes all hard- and software components of a technical system which serve its interactive use. The main idea of the term Useware is the focus of technical design according to human abilities and needs. The only promising method (Zuehlke, 2007) to design future technical products and systems is to understand human abilities and limitations and to focus the technology on these abilities and limitations. Today Useware requires its own need for development which is partly higher than in the classical development fields (Zuehlke, 2004). Thus usability is increasingly recognized as a value-adding factor. Often the Useware of machines with similar or equal technical functions is the only characteristic that sets it apart (Zuehlke, 2002). == Useware-Engineering == Similar to Software Engineering Useware Engineering implies the standardized production of Useware by engineers and the associated processes (see figure 1). The aim of Useware engineering is to develop interfaces which are easy to understand and efficient to use. These interfaces are adapted to the human work task. Also the interfaces represent machine functionality without overemphasizing it. Thus the objective of systematic Useware Engineering guarantees high usability based on the actual tasks of the users. However, it requires an approach which comprises active and iterative participation of different groups of people. Therefore, the professional associations GfA (Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft), GI (Gesellschaft für Informatik), VDE-ITG (The Information Technology Society in VDE) and VDI/VDE GMA (The Society for Measurement and Automatic Control in the VDI/VDE) agreed in 1998 on defining Useware as a new term. The term Useware was intentionally selected in linguistic analogy to hard- and software. Consequently, Useware Engineering developed in a similar way to the development of engineering processes (see figure 2). This reinforces the principal demand for structured development of user-centered user interfaces expressed e.g. by Ben Shneiderman (Shneiderman, 1998). After many years of function-oriented development human abilities and needs are brought into focus. The only promising method to develop future technical products and systems is to understand the users’ abilities and limitations and to aim the technology in that direction (Zuehlke, 2007). The Useware development process (see figure 1) distinguishes the following steps: analysis, structure design, design, realisation and evaluation. Each of these steps should not be regarded separately but rather overlapping. The continuity of the process as well as the use of suitable tools, e.g. on the basis of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) make it possible to avoid information losses and media breaks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Useware」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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