Chapter 1 - Introduction
HCI: Designing Effective
Organizational Systems
Dov Te’eni
Jane Carey
Ping Zhang
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Introduction
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HCI: Human Computer Interaction
Describes the scope and approach of the
book
The context of the book is organizational
work
Designer’s goal is to achieve good fit among
the user, task, and technology
Two organizing themes: multi-layer
description of HCI and analysis of the
cognitive and affective resources needed for
user activities
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
HCI (Human Computer Interaction)
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HCI –is the set of processes and
resources that users employ to interact
with computers
Building the human computer interface
requires 50-70% of systems development
effort
To users, the interface is the system
A study by Nielsen (2003) indicates that if
corporations spend 10% of their
development budget on usability, they can
improve usability by 135%
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Importance of HCI
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Another study found that 51% of major
websites violate the most basic design
guidelines.
These studies and more demonstrate
that there is a need for a more
systematic treatment of HCI in the
development process and more HCI
experts are needed.
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
When HCI fails, the system
fails
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Importance of HCI
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Organizations of HCI are growing
rapidly
There are more new journals
dedicated to HCI than any other
information systems sub-discipline
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
What constitutes a good user
interface?
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A good user interface:
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Achieves required performance by operator,
control, and maintenance personnel
Minimizes skill and personnel requirements and
training time
Achieve required reliability of person-computer
combinations (reliability, availability, security, and
data integrity)
Fosters design standardization within and
among systems (integration, consistency,
portability)
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
What constitutes a good user
interface?
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Common measurable goals for
usability
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Time to learn how to operate the system
Speed of performance
Error rate
User’s retention time of information
presented
User’s satisfaction with the system
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
How to achieve these goals?
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Achievement of these goals is no easy task
Some goals may be conflicting (speed of
performance and error rates).
What about emotions and the overall experience of
interacting with computers?
Look at the 2 web sites on the following slides.
They present similar functionality but have different
designs.
Assuming they are equally functional (easy to
navigate and find products), which do you prefer?
Why?
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Site 1 has more text and less graphics
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Site 2 is more graphic with less text
Which is more important in this context?
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Interdisciplinary nature and
scope of HCI
Human
Factors
Physical capabilities
Art
Theatre
Computer
Engineering
Software
Engineering
Cognitive
Science
Methodology
Aesthetics
Hardware
Intelligent interfaces
Drama
Dialog
Cognitive
Psychology
User modeling
Collaboration
Cost-benefit
Affective
Computing
Communications
Social
Psychology
Organizational
Psychology
Sociology
Management
Philosophy
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Organizing theme One: Multilayer model of HCI
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Fit: the match between
the computer design
and the user and task
so as to minimize the
user’s human
resources needed to
accomplish the task
Figure 1.4 The Fit of HCI Components leads to Performance
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Multi-layer model of HCI
Figure 1.6 A Multi-layer model of HCI
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Multi-layer model of HCI (TSSL)
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The task level pertains to the information
requirements that have to be met.
The semantic level pertains to the set of objects
and operations through which the computer
becomes meaningful to the user.
The syntactic level dictates the rules of combining
the semantic objects and operations into correct
instructions.
The lexical level describes the way specific
computer devices are used to implement the
syntactic level, e.g., move a mouse pointer to the
document label and click twice to open it.
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Organizing theme two: Human
Resources in HCI and their impact
User Activity
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{
=
Physical resources
Cognitive resources
Affective resources
Figure 1.7 The Relationship between User
Activity and HCI supported resources
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Context
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The general context of HIC in this book is
organizational work.
For building an application, the context must
be refined further at the specific task level.
Summary
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Our design philosophy is to develop the
technology so as to achieve a good fit between
the user, the task, and the technology, within a
given context.
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A Methodology for HCI
Development
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The methodology revolves around a
systems development life cycle that includes
4 phases: planning, analysis, design, and
implementation/operation.
Each phase focuses on 4 human concerns
of HCI: Physical, cognitive, affective, and
usefulness.
Evaluation is also key and includes both
formative (intermediary) and summative
evaluation.
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
4 phases of HCI development
methodology
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The planning phase determines the organizational
information needs.
Analysis involves several unique HCI techniques.
We believe that HCI considerations should start in
the analysis stage to uncover user needs and
opportunities. Three major analyses are conducted:
context, user, and task analyses.
The design phase specifies the user interface on
the basis of the analysis according to HCI principles
and guidelines and tested against the evaluation
metrics.
Finally, the implementation stage makes the target
system a reality.
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The HCI Methodology
Project Selection
& Planning
Analysis
Project Selection
Project Planning
Requirements
Determination
Context
Analysis
User Needs Test
User
Analysis
Task
Analysis
Human Concerns:
Physical
Cognitive
Affective
Usefulness
Design
Alternative Selection
Interface Specification
Formative
Evaluation
Metaphor Design
Media Design
Dialogue Design
Presentation Design
Coding
Implementation
Formative
Evaluation
Formative
Evaluation
Summative
Evaluation
HCI Principles & Guidelines
Evaluation
Metrics
The structure of the book –
road map
Context
Foundation
4
Physical
Engineering
1
Introduction
2
Org &
Business
Context
3
Interactive
Technologies
Application
7
Evaluation
8
Principles &
Guidelines
5
Cognitive
Engineering
6
Affective
Engineering
11
Methodology
9
Organizational
Tasks
10
Componential
Design
12
Relationship, Collaboration
& Organization
13
Social &
Global Issues
14
Changing Needs of IT
Development & Use
Additional Context
Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.