Mixing prototyping and data modeling for information-system design

An experiment to determine whether integrating two techniques available to designers, but normally used separately, would help in development of the right system is reported. The experiment used management-information-systems graduate students as designers and users. Measures of designers´ reactions to design strategies were included in the experiment. The results showed that designers have negative reactions to combining prototyping with data modeling. The designers using data modeling and prototyping together reported less satisfaction with the task and more stress than designers who used prototyping alone. They also saw the tasks as more complex. However, the results also show that these reactions were not great enough to degrade performance. Designers who used the combined strategy required fewer iterations and designed systems with more efficient data structures than designers who used only prototyping.<>