CP684

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CP684

• Human Factors in Information Systems

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Communications models

• One-to-Many
• Many-to-One
• One-to-One
• Many-to-Many

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One-to-Many

• used in most forms of mass communication
• electronic newsletters (email)
• SPAM (email)
• non-interactive Web sites (Web)
• appropriate situations when you dont want
  discussion or dialogue

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Many-to-One

• Both archival and here-and-now type of
  communication
• Typical examples
• students to teacher communication
• surveys
• feedback

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One-to-One

• here-and-now type of communications
• Transactions of any kind
• queries
• (but not always - newsgroups are many-to-many)
• personal information
• secure Web sites

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Many-to-Many

• Archival type of communication
• Examples
• on-line forums
• real-time chat rooms
• discussion lists
• Groupware - more about this later
• ability to exchange ideas and experiences

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Human-to-computer communications

• natural language and gestures are the primary
  means of human-to-human communication
• people interact differently with each other than
  they do with computers
• speech and non-speech audio, and natural language
  technologies are user interface issues currently
  being researched

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• natural language and gestures are (as yet) not
  part of human-to-computer communication.
• changing how we interact with machines to
  resemble more how we interact with people is
  believed to be the universal solution to the
  problems man experiences with the current
  human-computer interaction
• For some applications, the natural language
  technologies are both practical and useful
• speech-driven word processing
• it is as yet not possible to converse with your
  computer, as with a friend or colleague
• BUT, would you - in most cases - want to?

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• Computer-mediated human-human communication is
  one of the more valuable speech technologies
  available
• voice mail, and voice annotation of documents.
• no speech recognition or synthesis required.
• speech is often far more effective when coupled
  with gestures such as pointing and marking
• face-to-face conversation is much richer due to
  the ability to see the accompanying body language
• interacting with computers has none of that
  richness or effectiveness at this point in time

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• audio is a powerful and well known mode of
  communication
• all current computers come with sound
  capabilities
• sound is attention grabbing
• why is it not more commonly used in
  human-computer interaction?
• humans can only be attentive to one stream of
  spoken instructions at a time.
• often we need to control more than one process
  simultaneously, speech (alone) is generally not
  an effective mode of communication

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And because...

• it is faster to speak that to write but
• it is faster to read than to listen to speech.
• good for input, bad for retrieval
• imagine scanning the spoken word!
• Practical considerations
• open plan offices speech oriented software add
  to the noise polution

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An interesting finding...

• Karl, Pettey and Shneiderman (1993), when
  comparing speech versus mouse specification of
  commands to a word processor, found that the use
  of speech to issue commands interfered with
  short-term memory tasks related to the experiment
  at hand
• speech and linguistic memory compete for the same
  cognitive resources

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So where is it used...

• Human-human audio based interaction
• answering a ringing telephone
• responding to a whistle
• Human-computer audio based interaction
• Windows startup sound
• different levels of sound concerned with
  successful/unsuccessful actions
• limited use of sound is effective
• overuse of sound - reaction diminishes

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Usefulness of sound

• users of graphical interfaces. Sound can provide
  extra information not displayed on the screen
• visually disabled people - sound used as a guide
  
• users of telephone-based interfaces
• totally dependent on sound
• portable computer users, where sound can
  compensate for lack of screen space

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Types of sounds

• Auditory icons Earcons
• Auditory icons - natural everyday sounds to
  represent objects and actions on the interface.
• For example, as a file is dragged across the
  screen the noise of paper scraping can be heard.
• Earcons are audio messages that use musical
  sounds
• eg. page scrolling high pitched sound at the top
  decreases to a much lower pitch as the user
  scrolls down .

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Computers Language

• Verbal component - usually no problems
• Non-verbal component
• changes in tone and volume - non existent
• tempo, pitch, sounds - pitch and sounds are
  possible but not concurrent with the words
• gaze, touch etc - touch is possible via gadgets,
  but not concurrent

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Emoticons

• Approximation of non-verbal components of
  language
• emoticon dictionary required for initial
  interpretation
• best-known emoticons -) and -( and the toc
  one -)
• combined with chat shorthand requires some
  getting used to!
• lgttns -)

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Groupware

• A class of software that helps groups of
  colleagues (workgroups) attached to a local-area
  network organize their activities Webopedia.
• designed to improve worker communications and
  productivity
• Groupware integrates messaging, collaborative
  work processes, and workflow management .

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Strengths

• Deferred communication
• Real-time communication
• Workflow management
• Secure transactions
• Authentication of participants

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Key elements

• Email
• Calendaring and scheduling
• Shared documents
• Task and workflow management
• Forms creation, processing, and routing
• Database access
• Development tools
• Remote support

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The Players

• Lotus Notes (now IBM)
• ITMS Notes
• UoB LearningSpace
• Exchange (Microsoft)
• Microsoft Schedule
• GroupWise (Novell)
• SMB
• All are client/server based - expensive
• Latest player Netscapes Communicator -
  Web-based

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Why use Groupware?

• Communication
• make it faster, clearer, more persuasive
• to enable communication where it wouldn't
  otherwise be possible
• to enable new modes of communication, such as
  anonymous interchanges or structured interactions
  
• to bring together multiple perspectives and
  expertise
• to form groups with common interests where it
  wouldn't be possible
• to facilitate group problem-solving

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Groupware Research

• Groupware has been around long enough for some
  definitive findings to be produced
• The findings on the following slides have been
  obtained from the research detailed in peter
  Hinssens book What difference does it make?
  The use of Groupware in Small Groups.
• The aim of the research Gaining insight into the
  conditions under which a groupware application
  influences cooperative work in small groups.

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• 1993 Valacich, J.S., Paranka, D., George, J.F.,
  Nunamaker, J.F. (1993)
• Groups using electronic communication are more
  effective at generating ideas than groups using
  verbal communication.
• Ku (1995) reported
• E-mail is used most frequently by the
  respondents for routine tasks, such as exchanging
  routine information with others and scheduling
  meetings It is not often used for complex tasks
  (e.g., resolving disagreements) and seldom used
  for socioemotional purposes (e.g., getting to
  know someone, non-work related purposes).