User interaction during the development of the Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer

The importance of user interaction for the design and development of Decision Support Systems is widely accepted in literature. How this interaction could best take place is however not yet common knowledge and examples of user involvement in the development of Decision Support Systems targeted at environmental policy and sustainable development are scarce. This paper provides a practical example of user involvement during the design, development and implementation of WISE, an Integrated Spatial Decision Support System for planning and policy support for the Waikato region in New Zealand. Focus will be on the process of user involvement during various development phases, the way feedback was collected and handled, and on the changes in the system this resulted in. We conclude that user interaction has had clear implications on the larger design choices as well as the details of the system development and that this interaction had impacts on choices related to the usefulness and the usability. The effort from the user organisation has been substantial and has increased over the duration of the project. The role of champions has been found indispensible in involving users and enhancing the system. The current implementation phase will show if these efforts will also lead to an effective implementation and easy adoption of WISE by the user organisation.