Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
consider the privacy surrounding an electronic transaction between a bank and its customer that
later may be visible to a third party as part of an audit or legal action. Similarly, the contents of
electronic conversations within a work team may be copied and posted to other electronic spaces;
or the sidewalk conversation of a romantic couple may be recorded and then pod-cast. HCI expe-
riences have the potential to extend far beyond the time and space confines of when and how a
user interacts with a particular system.
Electronic trails provide traces of user activities long into the future. In this context, privacy is
desirable yet elusive—especially if the user consists of an amorphous group of people from
unknown, far-flung places (see Gurak, 1997). The challenge of transparency is to design systems
that allow users to anticipate and trace HCI experiences within an extensive fabric of information
and communication systems. Transparency is important not only as it relates to user privacy but also
for user search, anticipation, and exploration of systems, for accountability and control, and for
learning. In sum, whereas the technical functioning of the computer may be accepted by users of
today as a black box, the data modification and network sharing capabilities of computers will
require visibility and clarity so that users can “see into” HCI experiences of past, present, and future.
Cultural Transcendence
Cultural transcendence refers to design demands for information systems to incorporate the cross-
cultural needs of multinational work teams, offshore workers, distributed communities, and, in gen-
eral, the cultural diversity of user groups. The HCI design challenge is to provide multilingual
capabilities and, even more, to support the more subtle needs associated with varying customs, pref-
erences, and cognitive perspectives of user groups. Te'eni (2001) describes this as the challenge of
communication complexity, that is, the need to provide a sense of context for users in order to facil-
itate mutual understanding during HCI experiences. Cultural transcendence requires reduction in
complexity, creating a sense of common ground among a diverse set of participants. It may be that
the time has come to revisit the study of individual differences, including demographic and other
background characteristics, and how they shape HCI needs within diverse user communities.
HCI RESEARCH CHALLENGES
The transformation of user from sole individual to interacting groups, organization, and commu-
nity implies a broader, more diffuse agenda for HCI research. The HCI field is exploding in the
range of its concerns, creating a conundrum regarding the locus of research attention. What are
the boundaries of the field in the new, amorphous arena of human-computer interaction? Where
should research energies be directed? Insights into these questions are provided in the emerging
literature, including the papers contained in this volume. Given the complex and dynamic needs
of users, research boundaries are probably best left open and flexible. At the same time, each
researcher should take care to scope the bounds of particular projects so that contributions of any
one study to cumulative knowledge are clear. Three vital scoping challenges are briefly described
here. These illustrate some of the important choices that researchers must address when partici-
pating in today's HCI research landscape.
Variation Across Collectives
Users as collectives, whether groups, organizations, or communities, vary in their properties and
thus their particular HCI needs. The dimensions that distinguish these collectives include more than
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