socio-cognitive engineering an approach to the design and deployment of usable, useful and enjoyable...
TRANSCRIPT
Socio-cognitive Engineering
An approach to the design and deployment of usable, useful and enjoyable socio-technical systems
Socio-technical system
An combination of people and interactive technology, e.g.:
•An engineer inspecting a plane using a wearable computer
•Students studying a distance learning course on the Web
•People meeting by videoconference
The ProblemHow to design successful technologies that support people in everyday, cognitively demanding, activities, e.g.
managing knowledge, communicating at a distance, organising work, learning, shopping, interactive entertainment
If the telephone were designed nowadays it would…
•have a Windows™ interface•be controlled by a mouse•require a complex series of operations
to make each call•be packed with unnecessary features•be almost unusable
A badly designed socio-technical system can…•Make life more complex and frustrating
Telephone call centres
•Put people off using a new type of technology Camera phones
•Waste money Computerisation of the Inland Revenue, cost £2.4 billion - £1 billion higher
than estimated
•Kill people USS Vincennes (293 deaths) London Ambulance Service (unknown) Therac-25 radiation therapy (3 deaths)
Why are systems so bad?
• Because they are badly designed “We can create powerful and pleasurable
software-based products by the simple expedient of designing our computer-based products before we build them” Alan Cooper, The Inmates are Running the Asylum.
• Because they are developed by technologists rather than for users
• Because they are not based on a deep understanding of how people interact
• Because they do not use a human-centred design method
The Product Triangle (Cooper)
ProductW
HA
T’S V
IAB
LE
(Business)
WH
AT’
S C
AP
AB
LE
(Eng
inee
ring)
WHAT’S DESIRABLE(Design)
The goals of human-centred system designThe system must be:•usable•useful•enjoyable•cost effective
Need to design, implement, deploy and evaluate to these goals
‘Complex’ does not necessarily mean ‘unusable’…
Example Design Brief
Design a controller for the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning
Home15.12.99 16:44
Local Lecture
Local Discussion
Video Conference Lecture
Video Conference Discussion
Shutdown roomEngineering
Controls
What it is versus what people want to do
‘Complex’ does not necessarily mean ‘unusable’…
… and ‘simple’ does not necessarily mean ‘usable’.
An unusable water machine!
HOT WATER:- PRESS & HOLD HOT BUTTON,THEN PRESS THE DISPENSE BUTTON
Design approaches
•Market-driven
•User-centred
•Human-centred
Market-driven designDevelop technology to fit the market Advantages:
–sell on features
Problems:–Feature bloat–Diminishing returns–Problems of usability, compatibility,
training, maintenance
Results:– traditional technology plus features
6
7
15
17
21
25
30
42
53
55
66
Grammar checkers
Bibliographicsoftware
Outliners
Notebooks
Footnoting
Indexing
Databases
Thesauri
Style sheets
Spell checkers
Word count
Ever use
% of Wordprocessor Features Used by Professional Writers
From a survey by Jane Dorner
Market-driven Design
...over the years, each succeeding generation of word processors has been able to do more, and consequently has been less useful.
MacUser, August 2, 1996
Human-Centred Design
Involve studies of human cognition and social interaction in the design processInvolve users as participants in the designAdvantages:
design support for human learning, skill development, styles and strategies of working, individual and cultural differences
Problems: can be time consuming: detailed analysis of cognitive
processes and social interactions designing radically new products, where we can’t
easily predict how people will think, work and interactResults:
human centred technology
Human-Centred Design•Cognitive Engineering
To understand the fundamental principles behind human action and performance that are relevant for the engineering principles of design. Don Norman, 1986
•Socio-cognitive Engineering To analyse the complex interactions
between people and technology so as to inform the design of usable, useful and enjoyable socio-technical systems
Human-centred design includes user-centred design
Related approaches
•User Engineering (IBM) Combination of human-centred design
process with rigour and metrics to ensure quality control
•Contextual Design (Beyer and Holtzblatt) Customer focused human centred design