Brian Shackel

Human-computer interaction—whence and whither?

In this article, an overview is presented of the growth of work in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) over the last 40 years. Inevitably much must be omitted, but the referenced papers may fill some of the gaps. Various formative influences and contributing disciplines are noted. Aspects of research and human factors knowledge are prominent, but attention is also given to technology, applied problems, and design for usability. Finally, after summarizing the growth in three age-group partitions, some of the major threads of development are noted under the heading of continuities from the past and perspectives into the future.

Plans and initial progress with BLEND—an electronic network communication experiment

BLEND (the Birmingham and Loughborough Electronic Network Development) is an experimental system supported by the Research & Development Department of the British Library as one of the projects in its programme to study the relevance and potential usage of new technology in the world of libraries and related information systems. The initial and principal aim of the project is to develop and gain experience of an “Electronic Journal” and Information Network in order to assess the cost, efficiency and subjective impact of such a system; the further aim is to explore and evaluate alternative forms of user communication through the system. The background and the plans for this experimental programme are outlined, and the progress during the first 6 months of the BLEND system usage is briefly reviewed.

Dialogues and language—can computer ergonomics help?

Languages are probably the most flexible tools that humans have evolved. Dialogue is the interactive usage of a mutually agreed language between the communicators to exchange information. However there are many problems and even barriers to successful human communication, and still more for man-computer dialogue. In the past computer ergonomics had tended to concentrate more upon hardware and environment issues, but in the last 3 to 5 years there has been growing attention to the software, organizational and cognitive aspects. Some of the relevant studies will be mentioned to illustrate the nature and flexibility of human conversation, the types of contribution available from computer ergonomics, and the prospect towards guidelines for dialogue design.

The BLEND system: Programme for the study of some “electronic journals”†

This article describes a three-year experimental programme organised jointly by the two Universities as the Birmingham and Loughborough Electronic Network Development (BLEND). The aims are to assess the cost, efficiency, and subjective impact of such a system, and to explore and evaluate alternative forms of user communication through an electronic journal and information network. Using a host computer at Birmingham University, a community of initially about 50 scientists (the Loughborough Information Network Community—LINC) will be connected through the public telephone network to explore various types of electronic journal. The concept of the electronic journal involves using a computer to aid the normal procedures whereby an article is written, refereed, accepted, and “published.” The subject of this experimental programme will be “Computer Human Factors.” Each member will contribute at least one research article and one shorter note in each year of the project, and will also use other forms of communication such as newsletter, annotated abstracts, workshop conferences, cooperative authorship, etc. Throughout the project relevant data will be gathered to enable the assessment of system and user performance, cost, usefulness, and acceptability.

Human-computer interaction - Whence and whither?

In this article, an overview is presented of the growth of work in human-computer interaction (HCI) over the last 40years. Inevitably much must be omitted, but the referenced papers may fill some of the gaps. Various formative influences and contributing disciplines are noted. Aspects of research and human factors knowledge are prominent, but attention is also given to technology, applied problems, and design for usability. Finally, after summarizing the growth in three age-group partitions, some of the major threads of development are noted under the heading of continuities from the past and perspectives into the future.

The BLEND system Programme for the study of some ‘electronic journals’∗

The paper describes a 3-year experimental programme organized jointly by the two universities as the Birmingham and Loughborough Electronic Network Development (BLEND). The aims are to assess the cost, efficiency and subjective impact of such a system, and to explore and evaluate alternative forms of user communication through an eletronic journal and information network. Using a host computer at Birmingham University, a community of initially about 50 scientists (Loughborough Information Network Community (LINC)) will be connnected through the public telephone network to explore various types of electronic journal. The concept of the electronic journal involves using a computer to aid the normal procedures whereby an article is written, refereed, accepted and ‘published’. The subject of this experimental programme will be ‘Computer Human Factors’. Each member will contribute at least one research article and one shorter note in each year of the project, and will also use other forms of communication such...

Factors influencing the application of ergonomics in practice

To improve the application of ergonomics is not easy. Six specific influential issues, concerned with the scope of ergonomics and the characteristics of ergonomists, are first suggested. Six factors believed to be more influential are then discussed, ranging from the structural situation to total system-life costing. The relative value of these and other suggested factors needs to be studied, so that our methods can be improved.

Towards a computer interview acceptable to the naïve user

This paper reports an analysis and three experiments in the field of man-computer interviewing. To explore the importance of the linguistic format of the questions in a computer interview, four history-taking interviewing programs were analysed. These programs had already been used successfully in a computer system to carry out friendly and natural interviews. In this analysis the major variations in phraseology were found to be represented by two variables, namely Encouragement and Chattiness. Three experiments are then described aiming to test the usefulness of these two variables in a man-computer interviewing situation and to compare this with the man-man interviewing situation. The conclusions from these experiments are: (a) during a computer interview context-free Encouragement and Chattiness, used randomly and to a moderate extent, seem to provide an optimum format for acceptability, but (b) in human interviews random Encouragement and Chattiness seem to have no effect on peoples acceptance, while the random Encouragement might even have a negative effect.

Designing for people in the age of information

Some characteristics of the Information Age and the importance of human factors issues are outlined. Immediate questions for the next 7years or so are discussed, including nine substantive areas needing research (from a recent survey) and the development and better implementation of design procedures. Longer term questions discussed are -- the passing of paper, the reduction of writing, the victory of voice, the wired society and the expert in the system. Finally, some of the important broader issues are mentioned and the need for synergy by human and information engineers is emphasised.

Using RAAJ for real

This article describes an individual case study using the BLEND References, Abstracts and Annotations Journal (RAAJ) for a literature search with limited time available. The results, giving relevance ratios between 25 and 84 per cent, depending upon the method of calculation, were considered very cost-effective by the user.