HCI

• The paper discusses the difference between "user" focus and a human-centered focus in technology design
• It argues that current approaches to designing information systems preclude an examination of issues central to human-centered design
• Recent approaches to user-centered IS design are criticized for focusing on the closure of technology-centered problems rather than investigating suitable changes to a system of human activity supported by technology
• A dual-cycle model of human-centered design is presented, balancing systemic inquiry methods with human-centered implementation methods
• IS design is suggested to be viewed as a dialectic between organizational problem inquiry and the implementation of business process change and technical solutions
• The paper critiques recent developments in IS design from the perspective of human-centeredness, including participatory design, interaction design, use-cases in UML approach, and agile software development
• Each of the discussed approaches focuses on user-centeredness at the expense of human-centeredness due to an implicit IS focus on technical problem closure rather than inquiry
• An alternative "dual cycle" model of IS design is presented, focusing on problem definition jointly with problem closure based on a longitudinal study of stakeholder design
• The paper emphasizes the need for a dialectic process to achieve a balance between human-centered system outcomes and the design of an effective, formal technical IS solution
• Human-centered design advocates for the design of flexible systems that allow people to shape and manage their work
• Technology is influenced by and influences social expectations, with the form of technology derived from the effect of social expectations on the design process
• Human-centered design questions normative expectations of technology and opposes the traditional, technology-oriented approach
• Human-centered systems production should consider both what is technically feasible and what is socially desirable
• Explicit, rule-based knowledge in computer-based systems is complemented by tacit and skill-based knowledge in human-centered design
• Human-centered design aims to avoid separating "planning" tasks from "doing" tasks to support meaningful, enriched work
• Human-centered design is based on enlightened self-interest and challenges assumptions about work processes and technology
• Design of technology is influenced by improvisational adaptation and technological decision-making processes
• Many assumptions and interests are embedded into technical artifacts during system design, affecting their potential role and use in organizational work
• The design process for Information Systems (IS) is not a single stage but involves collaborative action situated in a social and political context
• The traditional Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) has limitations in guiding the design of organizational information systems
• IS design involves emergent goals that are political, subjective, and negotiated throughout the design process
• Design strategies for IS are often improvisational or opportunistic in practice, challenging the assumption of goal-directed behavior in design
• In IS design, individuals are guided by locally-contingent and partial plans to resolve problems that are subjectively-defined, interrelated with other problems, and have many incompatible solutions
• Problem definition is guided by the designer's experience of or exposure to suitable complete or partial solutions
• Problem and solution are conceived together and are inextricably intertwined
• IS design involves problem-exploration jointly with problem closure
• The socio-technical perspective is evident in the analysis of prototyping and participatory design
• Participatory design methods are classified by the position of the activity in the development cycle and by who participates with whom in what
• Participatory development has the potential to be politically disruptive and contentious due to a wide variety of interests with differing objectives and perspectives
• User choice in participatory design is constrained by organizational managers, affecting the potential to achieve a human-centered system design
• Interaction design considers a much deeper set of concepts than traditional HCI interests of user-interface affordance and usability
• Interaction design examines how people will work with a technical artifact and designs the artifact to reflect these specific purposes and uses
• Interaction design has the potential to consider a "space of possibilities" that encompasses many different and subjective definitions of the organizational problem
• Interaction design appears to be limited by the tradition of HCI discourse, focusing on how a single user might use a predefined technical artifact
• HCI research into user-centered design has had a significant impact on software development practice, leading to the emergence of Use-Cases in UML approaches and "agile" software development
• Use-Cases in UML:

  • Use-cases are absorbed into the Unified Modeling Language (UML) approach to formal system representation and modeling
  • They represent interactions between different classes of users and a computer system
  • From use-cases, formal object-oriented models and specifications can be defined to enable the production of a technical system
• Example of a Use-Case Model:

  • Special cases (extensions) of associations between objects or business processes are shown with a dotted line, while normal associations are shown with a solid line
  • Use-case models are encouraged to be based on the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders
• Agile Software Development:

  • Agile software development is a practitioner-initiated approach to human-centeredness in IS design
  • It emphasizes an adaptive approach to defining system goals and requirements as the design proceeds
  • Agile software development focuses on individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change
• Agile Manifesto (Fowler and Highsmith, 2001) argues for:

  • Valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Valuing working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Valuing customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Valuing responding to change over following a plan
• Traditional IS design approaches focus on goal-driven decomposition