1. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks and Support
HCI: Designing Effective Organizational Information Systems
Dov Te’eni
Jane M. Carey

2. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks and Support
Chapter 4 (Cognitive Engineering) used the content of 2 (Interactive Technologies) and 3 (Cognitive Psychology) to design HCI interfaces to support tasks
This chapter looks at the specific tasks and context of managerial work
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3. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks and Support
3-step process for designer managerial systems
Analyze user and task
Determine which human limitations exist in relation to the task
Design a system that provides adequate support
This chapter covers:
Managerial work environment
Decision-making tasks
Human limitations
Taxonomy of functions that support the user
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4. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Scenario – How do we design a user-centered system to help the manager of ‘Papirus’ locate new store sites
What are the task demands?
Geographical region
Building specs
What are the human limitations?
Memory
Multiple Levels of detail
How can HCI overcome the limitations?
Input multiple decision criteria
Output maps with drill down ability
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5. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Probabilities are easy for computers to process and difficult for humans
KEY FOCUS is on the problem and decision making, not the operation of the computer (keystrokes, etc.)
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We are concerned with the fit among the user, computer system, and the task
Two principles apply to fit (see next slide for figure 5.1):
1. We must examine user activities at 4 levels of interaction:
Lexical (words)
Syntactical (correct statements (reserve words))
Semantic (logically correct)
Task (does what it is supposed to do)
2. Identify strengths and limitations of human information processing and figure out where computer support can be most beneficial
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Key activities
Tasks must be decomposed into cohesive and simple (primitive) subtasks
Subtasks must be compatible with the goals of the overall task
Analyze each level for opportunities to support user activity (example, sound may be used to draw attention on a visually loaded screen or order of presentation may be altered to help ameliorate biases caused by primacy and recency)
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9. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Office work includes:
Managerial work
Decision making
Information gathering
Communicating
Directing
Planning
Clerical Work
Filing
Communicating (receptionist work)
Data entry
Document creation
Professional work
Programming
Accounting
Research and development
Engineering
Operating
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10. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Systems that support office work include
Office Information Systems (OIS) include end-user systems such as word-processors, database management systems, spreadsheets, presentation software, desktop publishing, , etc.
Management Information Systems (MIS) include systems that support budgeting, reporting, scheduling, controlling, coordinating
Decision Support Systems (DSS) for support of individual and group decision making
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11. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support What do managers do?
Managers perform a great deal of work with little free time (34 activities per day, 44 hours per week)
Managerial jobs are characterized by brevity, variety, and fragmentation (63% of activities lasted less than 9 minutes, 5% over an hour)
Managers favor verbal over written contacts
Scheduled meetings take up more time than any other activity (four meetings per day with half involving three or more people)
Managers link with outsiders in a variety of ways
(Adapted from Kurke & Aldrich, 1983)
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12. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
What do clerical workers do?
Support managers
Work with Information:
Receiving
Filtering
Organizing
Accessing
Retrieving
Characterized by:
Fast pace
Multi-tasking
Time pressure
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Cognitive Engineering
Managers suffer from limitations and biases according to Figure 3.6
Performance is a function of several cognitive parameters. Each parameter limits performance. HCI should be designed to minimize these limitations {
Cognitive Management
Memory
Processing
Attention
Performance =
Figure 3.6 Cognitive Performance
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14. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
HCI designs that address managerial cognitive issues:
Information overload – filtering
Need for rapid processing and multitasking- multiple windows
Attention- exception alerts, sounds
Memory retention – drop-down lists and menus
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HCI Support of clerical work
More structure requires a consistent interface
More quantity of information and less analysis requires organizational and retrieval aids
Data entry requires verification and keystroke minimization to minimize errors
Interfaces tend to be single-task oriented versus multitask
Ergonomics become critical due to lengthy interactions with computers
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HCI support of professional work
Engineers
Design visualization mechanisms
Simulation support – animation and color
Virtual reality
Various graph output (e.g,Box and Whiskers)
Programmer/Analysts
Problem decomposition tools (work breakdown)
Time management (Pert, Gantt)
Logic support
Modeling support (data and process)
Graphic depictions of logical and physical entities
Accountants
Spreadsheets
Exception Reporting
Drill down
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Models of Decision Making
The rational actor (Von Neuman & Morgenstern, 1947)
Axioms of behavior that rational decision makers will follow
Preference
Dominance
Cancellation
Transitivity: If A preferred to B and B preferred to C than A preferred to C
Invariance
Says that a rational actor will choose rationally and not by biases or limitations
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18. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Table 5.5 (Decision table) illustrates the rational actor decision maker
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19. Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support
Janis & Mann (1977) Four Stage Model of Decision Making
1) Appraising a challenge  2) Surveying alternatives  3) Evaluating alternatives  4) Deliberating and committing
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Hogarth (1987) Decision-making process
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Biases and Heuristics
Biases may occur at any stage of the decision-making process
Here is a list of biases and the HCI design mechanism that can address them
1. Availability – information that is more readily available is used even if the source is less reliable (Internet vs. Databases) – HCI design dictates that intelligent agents may be used find and emphasize alternative sources and alternative information – presented in easy to read and compare formats
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Biases
Confirming information – people tend to seek and accept information that confirms their expectations – HCI design should challenge the sources and offer alternative sources (Q&A, confidence levels)
Primacy – what we see first is more important than what comes later – HCI design should offer different ways to prioritize data
Recentcy- what we just saw is more important due to short term memory limitations – HCI design should offer different ordering mechanisms
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Biases
Regression effects- extreme outliers should not be as important as they sometimes are due to regression to the mean – HCI design may focus on the total data set and means rather than individual datum
Gambler’s fallacy – believing that if something has not occurred recently (like a royal flush) that the likelihood that it will occur is greater (HCI design may offer the correct probabilities to the user)
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Levels of Interaction in DM between making decision (task) and operating the computer (keystroke)
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Levels of Interaction in DM between making decision (task) and operating the computer (keystroke)
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26. Design Methodology of Decision Support
Zachary (1988) Human decision making depends on:
Use of internal representations
Pursuit of goals
Chunking of information
And is limited by:
Working memory
Cognitive processing
Retrieval from long-term memory
Numerical operations
Projection in time and space
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27. Design Methodology of Decision Support (Zachary)
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Zachary’s Star Table
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29. Zachary’s decision decomposition protocol
Table 5.7: Decision decomposition protocol (Sample questions from "Taxonomy of Decision Support Techniques" by Zachary , 1986)
1.Situational objectives What is the DM's goal in this situation? If there are multiple goals, are they hierarchically related? What are the relationships? If not hierarchical, are they complementary or competing? What event or relationship is the DM trying to achieve?
Which goals are imposed on DM from higher authority?
What are the relative priorities among the goals involved?
2. Task dynamics
Is this decision likely to occur more than once in the current context? Under what conditions would it be repeated? Is it made repeatedly as part of a larger task? Is it one of a sequence of decisions that must be made to resolve the overall problem?
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30. Zachary’s decision decomposition protocol
3. Underlying process Is there some real world process underlying this decision situation? Is this process being managed by other people or is it a natural process (e.g., weather)? If others control the process, how do their goals relate to those of the DM? How do the DM's options/resources affect this process and how are they affected by it?
How does the DM perceive the uncertainty and its sources? How does the DM perceive the task structure or lack of it and its sources? What metaphor/mental model does the DM use to think about the process?
4. Choice criteria What criteria does the DM use? Can they be measured objectively? How? If not how can they be represented? How are criteria traded off or combined? Which are specified by higher authority and which are defined by DM? How does the DM justify decisions?
5. Information environment What data are available prior to or during the decision? What parameters distinguish this instance of the decision from other instances? Are the constructs used by the DM at the same level of abstraction as those in the external information environment? If not, how are they translated? How much prior knowledge is needed to make the decision? How does the DM access the information? How is the DM updated and how current is the update?
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31. Zachary’s decision decomposition protocol
6. Intermediate analyses What are the DM's steps in formulating the decision problem? What sub-problems does the DM resolve separately from the others?
Are there intermediate states that the DM tries to create to facilitate the overall problem? How does the DM integrate the sub-problem solutions?
Are any of the sub-problems optimization problems? Constraints? Criteria? Does the DM lack time or expertise to perform effectively in any of the sub-problems?
7. Decision representation What common visual metaphors are used by the DM or others in this domain? Is there a pictorial format commonly used to show the results/analyses of the sub-problems? How effective is the linguistic representation in describing the data and the problem? Does the DM need simulations of data? What are they? Is there a real time control aspect to the decision?
8. Required judgments What are the unstructured mental activities that qualify as judgments? How precise must the judgment be? What heuristics does the DM use? How well is the DM able to verbalize the judgmental process? Would the DM be willing to consider judgments of others (experts, expert systems)?
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32. Zachary’s Common Limitations on Decision Making
Table 5.8: Common limitations on decision-making (Zachary, 1988)
Inability to predict processes
Difficulty in combining attributes and objectives that are competing
Inability to manage information
Difficulty in analyzing and reasoning
Difficulties in visualizing
Quantitative inaccuracies in heuristic judgments
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33. Common needs of decision-making (Silver, 1991)
Fuller exploration of alternatives
Earlier detection of problems
Coping with multiple objectives
Treat risk Reduce cognitive biases
Creativity
Communication
Structure decision making process
Learning
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