The phrase "conceptual model" bothered me when I started my PhD in March 2008. I encountered this phrase again today, which prompted me to refresh my understanding.
According to Johnson and Henderson (2002), a conceptual model is a high-level description of how a system is organised and operates. It specifies and describes:
- the major design metaphors and analogies employed in the design, if any.
- the concepts the system exposes to users, including the task-domain data-objects users create and manipulate, their attributes and the operations that can be performed on them.
- the relationships between these concepts.
- the mapping between the concepts and the task-domain the system is designed to support.
Game: What the game is to players?
System: What the system is to users?
What a Conceptual Model Is Not
~ is not the user interface, i.e. how the software looks or how it feels.
~ is not the user mental model of the system.
~ are not the use-cases (aka task-level scenarios), i.e. the stories about the domain tasks that users will have to carry out in their work.
~ is not an implementation architecture.
References:
Johnson, J., & Henderson, A. (2002). Conceptual Models: Begin by Designing What to Design. Interaction, 25-32.
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