DECISIONAL GUIDANCE - Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations - page 94

User Behavior
Since decisional guidance is defined in terms of features that affect users' discretionary behavior
as they interact with a computer-based system, the most fundamental question is this:
• How does guidance affect the discretionary choices people make—that is, how does it affect
the way they choose and use the system's functional capabilities?
This is not an outcome issue but a process question. What is the substantive connection
between a system's decisional guidance mechanisms and the actions people take in choosing and
using the system's functional capabilities? Answering this question fully will require addressing
these more specific questions:
• When do people invoke guidance that is not provided automatically?
• Do people follow the recommendations of suggestive guidance? Of quasi-suggestive guid-
ance? Are people more likely to follow suggestive guidance than quasi-suggestive guidance?
• Does informative guidance succeed in enlightening people's discretionary choices? If so,
does such enlightenment alter their choices?
While decisional guidance may focus on choices, the consequences of those choices—the
outcomes—do matter. Even within the DSS realm, defining task performance is sometimes diffi-
cult. As one moves to interactive systems other than DSS, defining task performance may be still
more difficult or may not even be meaningful. Where possible, however, the effects of guidance
on task performance need to be studied. This leads to the next question:
• For tasks where one can identify a measure of quality, does guidance improve performance
quality? Do the effects on user choices—if any—lead to improved performance quality?
Finally, questions of efficiency are probably the least important for our agenda, but nonethe-
less have value:
• How does guidance affect the amount of time people spend performing a task with the
system?
Together, these questions identify the primary research agenda for studying deliberate deci-
sional guidance.
User Perceptions
Dhaliwal and Benbasat (1996) make an important point in their discussion of explanations in
knowledge-based systems: “While perceptions are weak surrogates for decision effectiveness or
efficiency, they also represent an important set of effects in their own right” (p. 357). In particu-
lar, negative perceptions of one kind or another about any information system may lead to non-
use. For instance, Davis (1989) identified perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as
factors that contribute to intent to use an information system. In the case of decisional guidance,
negative perceptions might lead to non-use at three levels: (1) users may eschew the entire system,
(2) users may use the system but disregard the guidance, or (3) users may fail to demand guidance