Decisional Guidance for Computer based Decision support A Review by Cheickna Sylla Spring ‘97

Overview Decisional guidance Defined and Key Distinctions Providing Decisional Support: When &Why How can Designers build guidance into a DSS The Effects and Effectiveness of Decisional Guidance Critique and Conclusion

Decisional guidance Defined How a decision support system enlightens or sways its users as they structure and execute their decision.How the decision making processes can be influenced. Or how the system’s functional capabilities can help decision making: time, quality, etc

Key issues for Studying Decisional Guidance When and why to provide deliberate decisional guidance Opportunities for guiding The motives for guiding The means for guiding How to build deliberate decisional guidance into DSS The targets of guidance The forms of guidance The modes of guidance Consequences: The effects of inadvertent decisional guidance The effects of deliberate decisional guidance The effectiveness of deliberate decisional guidance

What is Decisional Guidance? Key distinctions Mechanical/Decisional Inadvertent/Deliberate Suggestive/Informative Structuring/Executing

Key distinctions in the definition of decisional guidance Mechanical versus Decisional guidance Mechanical guidance helps users with the mechanics of operating a system’s features often a matter of knowing when to push which buttons Decisional guidance helps users deal with the decision making concepts involved in choosing among and interacting with a systems information processing capabilities Inadvertent v/s Informative Decisional guidance Inadvertent decisional guidance is an unintended consequence of the systems design and is not planned by the systems designer Deliberate decisional guidance is intentionally built into a system by its designer

Key distinctions in the definition of decisional guidance Suggestive Decisional guidance v/s Informative decisional guidance Suggestive guidance makes judgmental recommendations(what to do, what input values) to the decision maker Informative guidance provides pertinent recommendations that enlightens the decision makers judgment without suggesting how to act. Decisional guidance for structuring v/s for Executing the decision making process. Guidance for structuring the decision making process affects how users choose which operators to invoke and the order in which to invoke them Guidance for Structuring the process s affects how decision makers perform the evaluative and predictive judgments necessary when executing the chosen operators

Providing Decisional Guidance when and why: Opportunities: Are there significant occasions for providing guidance Motive: Supporting Decision makers To build a more supportive DSS that helps users exercise judgment as they interact with the system and confront its complexities The greater the needs of decision makers, the greater the motivation for providing guidance

Providing decisional guidance when and why Motive: Influencing Decision Makers The objective is not to point decision makers towards specific decisions but to influence the way they reach the decision Means: Can decisional guidance be implemented

How can designers build Guidance into a DSS? Targets of Guidance: Structuring the Decision making Process Support for meta-choice, strategy selection Selecting the problem and ordering the activities Help users make decisional questions on selecting capabilities Executing the Decision making process Entails the actual performing of various information processing and problem solving activities Assist human judgment for predicting future conditions(e.g.. Inflation rate, acceptable profit level)

…Build Guidance into a DSS Forms of guidance- Suggestive Guidance : Makes judgmental recommendations to the decision maker(What to do? What inputs to use?) Structuring –recmd. Operators & inputs(data and model) Executing-recmd parameters & input values 3G-MCDSS, Pre decision support systems, Mini- Expert… Forms of guidance- Informative Guidance : Provides pertinent information that enlightens decision makers judgment and use of the system Structuring –Detailed analysis of operators Execution-clear definitions of inputs and their use Help Screens, relevant user history, application model

…Build Guidance into a DSS Modes of guidance – Predefined System designer prepares and embeds into system, a set of recommendations or informational;a displays Predefined graph, help screens(context based) Modes of guidance –Dynamic Constructing adaptive mechanisms that learn as the system is used-content not pre-defined Knowledge base constructed dynamically Self evolving dynamic sys. Defaults, Active systems(symbiotic..history recorder.. Suggestive guidance)

Form of Guidance Suggestive guidance Informative Guidance Structuring the Process Executing the process Recommended operator Set of recommended operators Ordered list of recommended operators Set of operators not recommended Recommended values Set of recommended values Ordered list of recommended values Set of values not recommended Description /analysis of operators Comparison of operators Map of relationship between operators Record of behaviors in similarity context History of activity this session Definition of required input values Descriptions of how inputs will be used Tables graphs or analysis of data Records behavior in similar contexts History of activity this session TARGET OF GUIDANCE

…Build Guidance into a DSS Modes of guidance – Participative Facilitate users deriving their own recommendations or defining themselves the information they need. Suggestive guidance for meta-choice-legitimating criteria Modes of guidance – Comments Guidance must be context sensitive Guidance should be dynamic and participative Facilitate active user participation

The Effects and Effectiveness of Decisional guidance Inadvertent guidance effect According to behavioral decision theory decisional guidance guide inadvertently Deliberate Guidance effect When is decision guidance useful and bothersome? Does guidance affect the operators and tools they select? Does guidance make system easier to use? When and how does decisional guidance bias decision maker? When are such decisions desirable and when not? When does guidance improve or degrade the decision making?

The Effects and Effectiveness of Decisional guidance Effectiveness of decisional guidance Determinants of Decisional guidance effectiveness How effective is each form to achieve its objective Does mode interact with form of guidance(informative or suggestive)? Can decisional guidance de-bias decision makers cognitive or motivational biases? What risk is involved in it? When does the cost of learning guidance exceed its benefits?

Critique of the article Behavioral approach towards guidance Technological minimization of human instinct/intuition Peter Keen in his article ‘Let us focus on action not info’ (1997) notes that its information use and not information supply that needs to be addressed. To paraphrase Keen, DSS builders need to start their analysis by identifying decision makers and the decisions they need to make and not start with choosing a technology and readily available databases

Critique of the article The paper is research oriented and only provides a framework for design without clear pragmatic approach. Clearly the effects and effectiveness of decisional guidance is more subjective and raises more questions than answers. The paper provides a base to encourage discussion on this and related important topics Author offered additional work on this topic