HCI AS MIS - Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations - page 25

expenditures, the reduced importance of leading in development/research, and finally, the need to
focus on vulnerabilities rather than IS opportunities. However, in order to accept the validity of
these rules, one must assume that there is no room for competitive advantage due to advances in
interaction and interface design. In a marketplace that continues to be very competitive and where
technology has progressed from being necessary to being mandatory for business, this assumption
is questionable. In many cases, a well-designed system is required just to maintain a position in the
market. Therefore, it is still very important to consider HCI issues in order to ensure systems are
well designed and meet market needs. Therefore, we believe HCI will continue to be an impor-
tant topic within MIS research.
Finally, some would say that HCI has little importance, as we already know enough about
humans and instead should be focusing more on technologies. In other words, we already know the
basics about individuals, and it is impossible to meet every individual's needs. Therefore, some
would question whether the technology can really change enough to meet the person's needs and
interests. In addition, some would argue that if a person really wants an application, he or she will
learn how to use it (i.e., the person will adapt to the technology). While we do not disagree that
these arguments have some validity, we would rather see end users concentrate less on learning
technologies and more on simply doing their work-related tasks. Furthermore, in a competitive
marketplace, where consumers are demanding interfaces that minimize disorientation and are
pleasurable to use, the need to ensure that interfaces meet consumer expectations is crucial to sur-
vival. Thus, this perspective fails to recognize the potential benefit of improved human-computer
interaction in today's competitive marketplace.
CAN WE SPEED PROGRESS IN HCI?
With the sharp increase in consumer-based systems, HCI will continue to become more important
to organizations. Thus, one view would be that HCI will progress on its own, with no assistance
needed to accelerate its progress. This option has the advantage of drawing on the unique strengths
of Computer Science and Psychology that may not be matched by researchers in other areas, like
Business departments. With this option, MIS could stay in its traditional role of evaluating technolo-
gies in organizational contexts, once computer scientists have developed these systems. However, we
propose that MIS researchers should not remain at the back end of development but need to help
guide development.
Another option would be to create cross-disciplinary educational programs. Undergraduate
majors in academic areas signal the importance and maturity of an area, bring in alumni funding,
and help meet the demands of the marketplace. Because HCI is multidisciplinary, perhaps all that
needs to be done to speed progress of HCI as a discipline is to create educational programs that
cross disciplines. Therefore, one option would be to create undergraduate partnerships between
computer science and psychology. A few universities have set up such programs: for example, the
psychology department of Rutgers-Newark has partnered with the computer and information sci-
ence (CIS) department at New Jersey Institute of Technology to jointly offer an HCI undergradu-
ate program. They clearly ground HCI at the individual level of analysis: “The main purpose of
this field is to understand the nature of human-computer interaction and the constraints on design
of such systems from understanding perceptual and cognitive aspects of humans” (HCI, 2004).
Although this partnership represents a positive step, we argue that such programs require an even
wider contextual focus.
A third option, providing this wider contextual training, would be a three-way teaching partner-
ship. One could envisage a typical undergraduate business school degree with a concentration in MIS,
strengthened with HCI courses as well as specialized courses in cognitive psychology and computer