(Illustrated above) A scientist is used to thinking about certain areas of a scatter plot graph as representing outlier data within a set of clinical results. After she changes the chemistry that her lab uses to process samples, her analysis application provides some additional cues and instruction about how to interpret the new data.

An architect expects that all communications within her studio’s building modeling application will be saved as part of the building model file. She is surprised to read that one type of communication is not saved, though the application’s stated reason makes sense to her.

A financial trader has used the same set of trading shortcut codes for years, but his group has recently decided to switch to a more efficient and all encompassing set. Now, when he accidentally enters an outdated shortcut code, his trading application suggests alternate codes that could match his intent.

What domain knowledge, existing skills, learned interaction expectations, and other background will targeted individuals likely bring to their experiences with your team’s product?

Where might peoples’ existing understandings conflict with the conceptual models that your team is attempting to communicate throughout your sketched application concepts?

In which cases might it be better to redesign certain functionalities rather than attempting to reframe targeted workers’ alternate interpretations of them?

Where might the opposite be true? Where could the value of your team’s sketched approaches to mediating work be strong enough that you may want to try to respectfully mitigate and reframe users’ alternate interpretations?

What larger design trends and advanced analogies to other products could influence your ideas about attempting to reframe certain conceptions within your computing tool?

What corrective cues, instructional content, and other design communication could reduce the incidence of potential misinterpretations?

How might your concepts for reframing alternate interpretations tie into other instructional assistance approaches in your application concepts? How might they relate to your approaches for error prevention and handling?

Do you have enough information to usefully answer these and other envisioning questions? What additional research, problem space models, and design concepting could valuably inform your team’s application envisioning efforts?