Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Management Information Systems
Use of data was a key management concern. Business graphics emerged as an important application
even before the graphical user interface. Remus (1984) contrasted tabular and graphic presentations,
Benbasat and Dexter (1985) added color as another factor, and many studies built on their work. The
concept of cognitive fit was introduced in this context (Vessey and Galletta, 1991) and extended to
other tasks. Results could be applied to online or printed reports, and studies were done online and
with paper. In practice, color displays were rare in the 1980s; most managers dealt with printed reports.
Information system organization and strategy were not part of the HCI focus, but the division
of labor around computing is relevant to HCI. Involvement of internal end users in the develop-
ment process was actively discussed (Friedman, 1989; Bjerknes et al., 1987). Full consideration
of the management of programming is beyond the scope of this study. Briefly, management hoped
to increase predictability and control by routinizing programming, despite the ill-understood
nature of the complex activity and the exploratory impulses that had attracted people to program-
ming. Studies focused on in-house programming foresaw routinization; studies from the emerg-
ing, exploratory shrinkwrap software industry did not (Friedman, 1989).
Hands-on managerial use was atypical but central to group decision support systems research,
which emerged from decision support systems and evolved into group support systems. Computer-
supported meeting facility research was active from the mid-1980s (DeSanctis and Gallupe, 1987;
Dennis et al., 1988). Key design and development was in MIS, not in computer science depart-
ments or software companies. The initial focus on decision makers and the expense of acquisition
and operation set this apart from mass-market, discretionary use applications.
The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) introduced by Davis (1989) focuses on perceived
usefulness and perceived usability to improve “white collar performance” that is “often obstructed
by users' unwillingness to accept and use available systems” (p. 319). “An element of uncertainty
exists in the minds of decision makers with respect to the successful adoption,” wrote Bagozzi,
Davis, and Warshaw (1992, p. 664). This managerial view of individual behavior was influenced
by early CHI usability research (see Davis's chapter in this volume).
High interest in TAM through the 1990s showed that the MIS focus, in which hands-on use was
primarily non-discretionary operation, data entry, and data retrieval activity, was leavened as hands-
on use spread to white-collar workers who could refuse to play. Contrast MIS with CHI: Because no
one would choose to use a technology perceived to be useless, CHI rarely if ever considers utility.
TAM researchers considered utility more important than usability. Usability being central to discre-
tionary use, CHI focused on it a decade before TAM, albeit on measures of usability more than
on measures of perceived usability. Perception was a secondary “user satisfaction” measure to CHI
researchers, who believed that measurable reduction in time, errors, questions, and training would,
over time, translate into positive perceptions. The MIS/CHI linguistic divide reappears: “Acceptance”
is not in the CHI vocabulary. A discretionary user chooses or adopts, rather than accepts.
At the close of this span, the Harvard Business Review published “Usability: The new dimen-
sion of product design” (March, 1994). In concluding that “user-centered design is still in its
infancy,” it made no mention of CHI or the workshop titled “User-oriented design of interactive
graphics systems” 4 that preceded it eighteen years earlier, in 1976 (p. 149).
Computer-Human Interaction
Studies of database use, speech recognition, natural language processing, and traditional task
analysis and human factors remained largely absent from CHI. However, the nature of what was
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