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

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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.) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support 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) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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, email, 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Chapter 5 Managerial Tasks & Support Table 5.5 (Decision table) illustrates the rational actor decision maker Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey Hogarth (1987) Decision-making process Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey 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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey 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) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey Levels of Interaction in DM between making decision (task) and operating the computer (keystroke) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey Levels of Interaction in DM between making decision (task) and operating the computer (keystroke) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Design Methodology of Decision Support (Zachary) Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

Copyrights Te'eni & Carey Zachary’s Star Table Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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? Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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? Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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)? Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey

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 Copyrights Te'eni & Carey