Investigating Knowledge Management in Human-Computer Interaction Design

Developing interactive systems is a challenging task. It involves concerns related to human-computer interaction (HCI), such as usability and user experience. Therefore, HCI design must be addressed when developing such systems. HCI design often involves people with different backgrounds, which makes communication and knowledge transfer a challenging issue. In this scenario, knowledge management can support understanding concepts from different knowledge areas and help learn from previous experiences. Aiming at investigating how knowledge management has supported HCI design and contributed to the development of interactive systems, we performed a mapping study in the literature and analyzed 15 publications reporting the use of knowledge management in HCI design. Following that, we conducted a survey with 39 HCI design professionals to find out how knowledge has been managed in their HCI design practice. In this paper, we present the studies and discuss their main findings. In summary, the results indicate that knowledge management has been used in HCI design mainly to improve product quality and reduce the effort and time spent on design activities. However, there is a need for simpler and more practical knowledge-based solutions to support HCI design. Such approaches would be capable of reaching more HCI design practitioners that could benefit from them.