Independent companion guide

Software for Use

A structured guide to the central ideas in Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood's book on usage-centered design: role models, essential use cases, task organization, interface architecture, abstract prototypes, and evaluation.

What This Guide Covers

Software for Use presents a practical design method for interactive software. The method starts from what people are trying to accomplish with a system, describes those uses at an essential level, and carries the models forward into interface structure and evaluation.

This site is a companion in original prose. It explains the topics and gives working templates, examples, and checklists, but it is not a substitute for the book.

Recommended Reading Path

1. Foundations Understand the design stance: use, intention, abstraction, and traceability. Start here 2. User Roles Model classes of participation without collapsing them into job titles or demographics. Model 3. Essential Use Cases Write task descriptions as user intentions and system responsibilities. Model 4. Task Modeling Connect individual cases into priority, workflow, and release decisions. Structure 5. Interaction Architecture Turn role and task models into navigation, workspaces, and interface objects. Design 6. Evaluation and Process Inspect designs against models and integrate the method with delivery work. Validate

Core Principles

Use before users as profiles

The method does not ignore people, but it treats their participation in work as the unit of design. A single person may play several roles, and one role may be shared by many people.

Essential before concrete

Early models deliberately avoid screen controls, page layouts, and implementation details. That abstraction preserves design freedom while requirements are still being understood.

Models before screens

The interface should be derived from role and task structure. Screens are later expressions of the model, not the first place the team negotiates requirements.

Trace decisions to use

A feature, command, workspace, or navigation path should be explainable by the role it serves and the task intention it supports.

Sources and Scope

Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood, Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Essential Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design, Addison-Wesley, 1999.
Usage-centered design overview, used to confirm the high-level description of the method and its model families.
Larry Constantine biography, used to confirm publication context and terminology.