During the last two decades a lot of methodology research has been conducted for the design of software user interfaces (Kirisci, Thoben 2009). Despite the numerous contributions in this area, comparatively few efforts have been dedicated to the advancement of methods for the design of context-aware mobile platforms, such as wearable computing systems. This chapter investigates the role of context, particularly in future industrial environments, and elaborates how context can be incorporated in a design method in order to support the design process of wearable computing systems. The chapter is initiated by an overview of basic research in the area of context-aware mobile computing. The aim is to identify the main context elements which have an impact upon the technical properties of a wearable computing system. Therefore, we describe a systematic and quantitative study of the advantages of context recognition, specifically task tracking, for a wearable maintenance assistance system. Based upon the experiences from this study, a context reference model is proposed, which can be considered supportive for the design of wearable computing systems in industrial settings, thus goes beyond existing context models, e.g. for context-aware mobile computing. The final part of this chapter discusses the benefits of applying model-based approaches during the early design stages of wearable computing systems. Existing design methods in the area of wearable computing are critically examined and their shortcomings highlighted. Based upon the context reference model, a design approach is proposed through the realization of a model-driven software tool which supports the design process of a wearable computing system while taking advantage of concise experience manifested in a well-defined context model.
