Workshop to spring from DIS2002 Critique of Scenario Use

Scenarios were not being used as effectively as they might be. In an investigation into user descriptions in scenarios "From Model-User to Character", Lene Nielsen of Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Informatics told the "Designing Interactive Systems" audience that their potential was being wasted. She criticised most current use of scenarios in system development for:
• Focus on use rather than on the user,
• Character-descriptions described as stereotypes rather than descriptions of believable characters, and
• Difficulties in creating an understanding of the user.

There was a lot of interest in the ideas Nielsen put forward. As a consequence, she is thinking of organising a workshop around scenario generation: 'I would very much like to get in contact with some of the people I met at DIS who were interested in my approach. It seems that there is some frustration about working with scenarios,' she says. 'It isn't as easy as it is described to be. I would like to arrange a workshop where for people who have worked with scenarios and would like to share their experiences. The workshop will focus on improving the writing of scenarios and their practical use in the organisation in software and web development.'

The anticipated workshop will take place at Navision and a film script writer will kick off the workshop by introducing different ways of writing engaging narratives and believable characters. Nielsen can be contacted by email at: ln.inf@cbs.dk

In her talk at DIS2002, Nielsen contrasted plot-driven and character-driven narratives and showed that the same distinctions applied to how scenarios were written. The plot-driven – or a-psychological – narrative is characterised by:
• The character having few traits.
• The traits function as a catalyst for the action.
• The characters are highly predictable.
• The character is the product of the plot.
• The characters are flat.

whereas the character-driven - or psychological – narrative can be recognised by:
• The character as a personage.
• The character creates the story development.
• The character has a number of traits and a number of voices that interact with and against each other.
• The character’s actions are non-predictable.
• The characters are rounded.

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