Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Chapter 2 Organizational and Business Context HCI: Developing Effective Organizational Information Systems Dov Te’eni Jane Carey Ping Zhang
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Chapter 2 sets the stage by giving the context of HCI 6 Affective Engineering 9 Organizational Tasks 4 Physical Engineering 7 Evaluation 8 Principles & Guidelines 11 Methodology 12 Relationship, Collaboration, & Organization 10 Componential Design 3 Interactive Technologies 5 Cognitive Engineering ContextFoundationApplication Additional Context 1 Introduction 2 Org & Business Context 13 Social & Global Issues 14 Changing Needs of IT Development & Use
Learning Objectives Understand the difference between the levels of individual, work group, and organization. Define and discuss individual-level systems. Define and discuss work group–level systems. Define and discuss organizational-level systems. Define and discuss inter-organizational-level systems.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Why study HCI? To help make IS users more productive, To help IS professionals develop more usable and successful systems, To enhance organizational effectiveness, To provide researchers with cohesive and cumulative knowledge for theory building, and, To apply this theoretical knowledge to enhance real information systems.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Organization of this chapter This chapter sets the stage for the study of human– computer interaction (HCI) in organizations. The levels of interaction (task, syntax, semantics, and lexical) help to organize the different sections of this chapter. Tasks are categorized as structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. We introduce the various levels of systems which are individual, work group, organizational, and inter- organizational. HCI as a means for overcoming human limitations.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Office Automation Systems Office Automation Systems: Systems designed to automate and support the work of white-collar support staff members. Interface consistency is critical to the success of these systems.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Document Preparation Systems Document Preparation Systems: Office Automation systems that are designed to support document preparation such as word processors, presentation software, publication software, and others. Examples: word processors, spreadsheets, presentation and desktop publishing software.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Document Preparation Systems (Multi- layer Model – task, semantic, syntactic, lexical) Tasks Create useful, meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing documents Easy and accurate input Management and output of unstructured data and some structured data such as tables Semantics and Syntactical Documents or Files (open, save, print) Blocks of text (cut, paste, copy, move, find) Objects (pictures, tables, charts) Tools (spell check, Thesaurus) Lexical Menus Dialog boxes Message boxes Icons
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Document Preparation Systems Figure 2.2 Screen shot of File Menu and text in Microsoft® Word® Figure 2.3 Screen shot of Edit Menu in Microsoft® Word ®
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Data Entry Systems Data Entry Systems: Systems used to support the manual processes of data entry. These systems are generally proprietary and developed in-house specifically to accomplish data entry tasks.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Data Entry Systems (TSSL) Task: to support entry of data to give the user control to eliminate redundant entries support natural navigation of the screens Semantic: save, open, update, delete, create, and append.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Syntactical: Form fields: Labels, Text-boxes, Check boxes, List boxes, Combo boxes, Command buttons, etc. Lexical: Short-cut keys Tab keys Mouse clicks Interfaces that are easy to read and easy to learn. Data Entry Systems (TSSL)
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Data Entry Systems Figure 2.5 Screen Shot from a Self-serve Internet Order Form
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Customer Account Management Systems Customer Account Management Systems: These systems support the management of customer accounts. They may be purchased as part of an “off-the-shelf” system.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Task: transfer funds, make payments, check balances, apply for new accounts, etc. Semantic: Login Retrieval of accounts Payments Transfers Syntactical: Submitting a parameter (like an account number) Retrieving information Lexical: Mouse clicks Keystrokes List selection Customer Account Management Systems (TSSL)
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Decision Support Systems Decision Support Systems: Single-user systems designed to support decision making. DSS components include: database, model- base and user interface. The user interface is critical to the success of a DSS.
Decision Support Systems (TSSL) Tasks: Sales forecasting, Resource allocation, Scheduling, Routing, Cost minimization, Profit maximization, etc. Semantic: Problem definition, Data selection, Model selection, Execution. Syntactical: Tables Mathematical functions Lexical: Input - Q&A Output - graphical format Help
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Decision Support Systems Figure 2.8 Sales Forecasting
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Individual Level Systems: Executive Support Systems Executive Support Systems: Strategic systems designed to support executives. These systems give executives the capability of viewing data from an aggregate level and they allow “drill down” to the more detailed level of data to help executives understand the nature of the aggregate level of data.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Executive Support Systems (TSSL) Tasks: monitor the critical success factors Semantic: information retrieval Find Open Extract Summarize etc. Syntactical: SQL (Structured Query Language) Predefined reports Lexical: Natural language interface Query-by-Example
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Executive Support Systems Figure 2.9 An ESS Interface
Task NatureUser TypeSystemOrganizational ConcernInterface Focus Routine, repetitive, Highly structured Office support staffDocument Preparation Technology Acceptance User Productivity User Satisfaction Document Data entry staff or Customer self- entry via Internet forms Data EntryUser Productivity User Satisfaction Flow Trust Technology acceptance Data entry form Customer service representative s or Customer self- service via Internet Customer Account Managem ent Technology acceptance Trust Motivation to use Account Intermittent, Semi- or unstructur ed Upper or middle- level managers Decision Support Systems Technology acceptance Trust Motivation to use Graphs and charts Executive Support Systems Technology acceptance Trust Motivation to use Graphs Charts Visualization Table 2.1 Summary Table for Individual User Level in the Organizational Context
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Work Group Level Systems Work Group Level: Groups of people who work together such as departments and project teams.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Work Group Level Systems: Project Management Systems (PMS) Project Management Systems: Systems designed to support the management of projects. These systems include mechanisms for decomposing large tasks into smaller, more manageable subtasks. They also include modules that help to manage resources including time, labor, and money.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Tasks: Manage Time, Cost, Resources, etc. Semantic: Activities, Durations, Dependencies, Work break down structures. Syntactical: Rules Cells Lexical: Similar to a spreadsheet. Work Group Level Systems: Project Management Systems (TSSL)
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Work Group Level Systems: Project Management Systems Figure 2.10 GANTT CHART and Work Breakdown Structure
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Work Group Level Systems: Work Flow Management Systems Work Flow Systems: Systems that are designed to manage the flow of work. These systems include routing information (the path that work follows from person-to-person or department-to-department). Other components of work flow systems include version control and work specification.
Work Group Level Systems: Work Flow Management Systems (TSSL) Tasks: Discrete activities Computer operations Rules Semantic: Workflow type definition Activity Transition conditions Invoked application Syntactical: Symbols Terms Lexical: Selection (drag and drop) Build diagrams
Work Group Level Systems: Work Flow Management Systems Figure 2.13 Work flow diagram chart.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Work Group Level Systems: Group Support Systems (GSS) Group Support Systems: Systems designed to support group processes including: decision making, communication, meetings, document control, calendaring, and others.
Work Group Level Systems: Group Support Systems (GSS) Summary Table Tasks Duration User type Technical staff System Work Flow Systems Organizational Concern Shared Workspace Interface Focus Tasks Flow diagrams Project Management Ad hocUser repsProject Management Systems Group Satisfaction, Coordination, Leadership, Motivation Work Breakdown Structures Gantt charts PERT charts Managerial Strategic Decision Making On-goingManagersGroup Support Systems Coordination, Anonymity, Leadership Graphs Charts Organization Charts Table 2.2 Summary Table of Work Group Level in the Organizational Context
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Organizational Level Systems Organizational Level: These systems are designed to support the entire organizational entity and include communications, personnel management, and organizational learning.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Organizational Level Systems: Communication Systems Enterprise Communication Systems: Systems designed to support enterprise-level communications including systems and conferencing systems.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Organizational Level Systems: Communication Systems Task: Messaging Threaded discussions Chatting Asynchronous communication Calendar-related functions Semantic: Send Open Reply Organize Delete, etc. Syntactical: time and/or date related Lexical: Mouse-clicks Keystrokes
Organizational Level Systems: Communication Systems Figure 2.15 Screen for Outlook Calendar.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Organizational Level Systems: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: Systems designed to support all the functions and activities of an organization including marketing, production management, order fulfillment, accounting, personnel management, and financial management.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Customer relationship management (CRM) systems enable organizations to better serve their customers via software in contrast to customer service systems (mentioned above). The term CRM can be used to describe either the software itself or the whole business strategy. Organizational Level Systems: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc CRM Figure 2.16 Customer recommendations from e’Gourmet.
User TypeSystemOrganizational Considerations Interface Focus Communication All levels and types of users systems and document management systems Communication effectiveness Anthony’s pyramid s Documents Calendars Personnel management Intranet human resource portal Locus of control Forms Announcements Policies Organizational learning E-trainingOrganizational learning Training modules Functional systems ERP Organizational effectiveness and efficiency Reports and data retrieval Extra- organizational CRM Revenue generation and customer service Customer service Table 2.3 Summary of Organizational Levels in the Organizational Context
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Inter-organizational Systems Inter-organizational systems are those systems that link companies with external organizations (not individual customers). Usually this link is a B2B (business-to- business) link between suppliers and business customers.
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Supply Chain Management Systems
Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc Summary This chapter is structured around four levels of information systems: the individual, the work group, the entire organization, and the inter-organizational level. At each level, various systems that support the level are presented along with the four levels of HCI (task, semantic, syntactic, and lexical).