Illustration of immature HCI engineering: Carry forward in the development of military planning systems

In recent years, a number of difficulties in designing interactions between military personnel and their command and control (C2) systems have been identified. These difficulties are persistent and have been attributed to a lack of carry forward between procurement projects. In response to these difficulties, this thesis attempts to realise and then illustrate carry forward in a manner that is characteristic of a particular form of the discipline of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) - informal HCI Engineering. In essence, informal HCI Engineering is different from current best practice in that design work addresses general classes of design Problem and instances of general classes of design Problem, rather than just problem instances which are related to other instances in some, unspecified way. Consequently, in principle, informal Engineering offers additional opportunities to develop and apply knowledge to design work. Specifically, it offers additional opportunities to support; (i) the abstraction of general requirements from instance requirements; (ii) the production of general specifications in response to general requirements; and (iii) the instantiation of general specifications for particular instances. Further, the knowledge applied in support of design may concern classes of design Problem, rather than just instances or a poorly specified range of instances. In addition, informal Engineering provides an additional way of reasoning about the completeness and/or selectivity with which design Problem instances are addressed - reasoning with respect to a relevant class. In this thesis, carry forward in the desired manner is enabled by acquiring the minimum amount of knowledge necessary for carry forward of some kind - a preliminary conception of the domain of C2. Carry forward is then realised by using this preliminary conception to evaluate and specify selected aspects of military planning systems reconstructed in a laboratory for purposes of research. To highlight the distinctive characteristics of carry forward in informal HCI Engineering, and to monitor its potential effectiveness in practice, each attempt to realise carry forward is compared to the current best practice equivalent. Two attempts are made to realise carry forward in the desired manner, first, in late evaluation, and second, in specification. Of these, the second attempt is judged to be more satisfying than the first, since: (i) carry forward is fully carried through; (ii) both a general requirement and a general specification are developed; and (iii) in the case reported, the value of the specifications produced are judged likely to outweigh the costs of their development. Future work may seek to scale-up and transfer to actual design Problems, the manner of carry forward illustrated here

The feasibility of electronic journals: some studies in human–computer interaction

Computer-based tools for communication are a recent technological development. They promise to provide new routes by which to communicate with others and to transform some communications that have hitherto been dependent on media such as paper. One example is the possibility of supporting scholarly communication by the use of electronic systems, which also promises a method by which the information explosion might be handled. The research is an examinat4on of whether or not the support of scholarly communication in this way is feasible. To investigate communication systems requires a large scale study over a long period. Accordingly the research rests on a study programme on 'electronic journals', BLEND, which ran from 1980 to 1984, funded by the British Library Research and Development Department. The feasibility of ielectronic journals is investigated by exploring the usability, utility, likeability and cost-effectiveness of the communications system. An analysis of the frequency and distribution of the use of the computer-based communications system showed that many things seemed to get in the way of accessing it. Several techniques were used to examine this: transaction recording, interviews, telephone surveys, questionnaires and analysis of requests for help. Once the system was accessed, a comparison of users' aims with actual use shows that different forms of the journal should be explored in the future. Two reasons for the access rate and type of use made of the system was the degree to which researchers were able to accommodate the use of a new communications system into existing patterns of work and the level of usability of the system. One area in usability that is explored in detail is the way that text can be read easily on a screen. The cost-effectiveness of the system is examined by projecting from actual costs and patterns of use. The final chapters bring together the studies in a 'Barrier' framework for understanding the use of a communications system and look forward to the future of electronic journals

A systematic approach for the analysis, design and implementation of Telecommunications-Supported Training (TST) systems

The objetive of the present thesis is to develop and test out a systematic approach to the analysis, design and implementation of Telecommunications-Supported Training (TST) systems. The Literature Review offers a set of approaches to similar problems in the field of Information Systems. Several other disciplines have also been considered: Psychology of Human Factors, Organizational and Innovation Theory, and applied research being currently carried out under the EU DELTA Programme. A global User-Centred Model of TST has been developed, based on the wellestablished principles of Systems Engineering and Soft Systems Methodology. The theoretical basis for this model is the concept of TST Architecture, conceived as a functional arrangement of technical components which are introduced in order to improve the performance of the actors involved in the system. The other key aspect is the design of a set of Adoption Strategies, aiming for the creation of the necessary conditions to achieve user acceptance of the technologies implemented. Following these principles, the ADAM (Architectural Design and Adoption Model) systematic approach is developed. It is structured in five stages: Context Analysis, System Analysis, System Design, System Implementation and System Maintenance. Each stage is structured into steps and activities, described in terms of key points, outcomes, deliverables, and roles involved. The ADAM approach has been tested out in its twofold dimension of analyzing already implemented TST systems and designing new ones. The first case discusses the application of ADAM to the EU Multimedia TeleSchool (MTS) TST system. The test is completed by discussing the design and implementation, performed by the author, of a TST system at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. The results confirm the usefulness of ADAM both for practitioners and researchers in the field. Also, the TST model is extended as regards the components of acceptance and adoption, and their impact on the introduction of technologies in organizations

Design Methods Movement, 1944-1967

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-282).In the mythic construct of the West, nature, for a considerable era, has served as a seminal broker in basal underpinning discourse. This is despite nature's commutative, convertible and contradictory disclosures. As the antithesis of socio-culture, nature has been the arena of the given, of necessity and compulsion, and a zone of constraint. As "Nature" it has worked as the precipitate of humanity and ministered as the model for human activity. To violate the norms of nature, to be unnatural, has been considered unhealthy, amoral and illegal.Following the Second World War, constructs of nature, socio-culture and norms were altered in design education and practice. Postwar, an emerging discourse of computer-related technologies contributed to reconfiguring representations of architecture, engineering, product and urban planning in the US and UK. The collective driving these changes became known as the Design Methods movement. Together with trajectories of thought in psychology and psychiatry, discourses materializing from such fields as cybernetics, operations research, information theory and computers altered design processes and education.This dissertation ranges from examining the politics of funding surrounding an urban planning research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts to elucidating conferences concerning, architecture, engineering, urban planning and product design in the UK. Taking from media theorist Friedrich Kittler that technologically possible manipulations condition what can become a discourse, this dissertation is structured around two threads.(cont.) One thread concerns how computer-related technologies configured a re-conceptualization of nature and socio-culture in design practice and education. A second thread examines how psychology and psychoanalytic concerns were reworked for design through a lens of computer related technologies. A line between the natural and the normative is questioned concerning concepts of abnormality and deviation.by Alise Upitis.Ph.D

Developments in predictive displays for discrete and continuous tasks

The plan of the thesis is as follows: The introductory chapters review the literature pertaining to human prediction and predictive control models (Chapter 1), and to engineering aspects of predictive displays (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 describes a fundamental study of predictive display parameters in a laboratory scheduling task, Chapter 4 attempts to verify these findings using test data from an actual job shop scheduling problem. Chapter 5 branches into the area of continuous control with a pilot study of predictive displays in a laboratory simulated continuous stirred-tank chemical reactor. Chapter 6 uses the experience gained in the pilot study as the basis for a comprehensive study of predictive display parameters in a further laboratory study of a simplified dual-meter monitoring and control task, and Chapter 7 attempts to test the optimal design in a part-simulated semi-batch chemical reactor using real plant and experienced operators in an industrial setting. The results of the experimental programme are summarized for convenience in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 draws together the threads from the various experiments and discusses the findings in terms of a general hierarchical model of an operator's control and monitoring behaviour. Finally, Chapter 10 presents conclusions and recommendations from the programme of research, together with suggestions for further work