Randall Whitaker

Work-centered support systems: a human-centered approach to intelligent system design

The work-centered support system approach to human-centered computing focuses on analyzing and supporting the multiple facets of work. The WCSS for global weather management developed to support weather forecasting and monitoring in an airlift service organization, exemplifies this approach. A hallmark of human-centered computing (HCC) is its focus on domain practitioners and their field of practice. Human-centered design depends on a deep analysis of a fields cognitive and collaborative demands and how people work individually, in groups, and in organizations to meet those demands. The objective is to leverage what we know about human cognitive and collaborative processes to create systems that optimize the affordances (direct perception of meanings) and effectivities (knowledge-driven actions) for humans. The WCSS paradigm offers an approach for incorporating software agent technology in a manner that helps the user keep the head in the work and reduces the possibility that software agent states or actions surprise the user.

Work-Centered Design and Evaluation of a C2 Visualization Aid

Command and Control (C2) operators increasingly need to assimilate large amounts of near-real time data distributed across multiple sources to identify, interpret, and mentally fuse the information necessary to accomplish their work. We have been developing and applying work-centered design and evaluation methodologies to design advanced visualization and support tools intended to more effectively support C2 cognitive and collaborative work. The paper reports the results of a work-centered evaluation assessing the usability and usefulness of an innovative work-centered visualization aid (a graphic mission timeline display) we developed to support mission replanning during execution in a C2 airlift service. The evaluation compared performance with the work-centered visualization to performance using the existing information technology system. The work-centered visualization produced statistically significant improvement in task completion time, errors, workload and situation awareness. The results point to the value of taking a work-centered analysis and design approach.

Work Centered Support System Design: Using Frames to Reduce Work Complexity

We have been developing user interface clients as fully integrated support systems. A Work Centered Support System aids work by using direct and indirect, passive and active methods. An important property of WCSS systems is the use of form representations as passive devices to help reduce work complexity while simultaneously aid users in adaptive problem solving. Based on our experience implementing the design of three WCSSs we have distilled a set of three form-based design principles that help insure a work-centered perspective is expressed in the interface and that aid problem solving. These principles connect problem-solving objects with work domain objects at different levels of abstraction, utilize a first-person work ontology, and organize information selection and layout based on problem relationships. This paper describes the principles and uses illustrations from our designs to indicate how they reduce work complexity.

Using Software Agents in a Work Centered Support System for Weather Forecasting and Monitoring

There has been a growing interest in developing system architectures and human-software agent interaction paradigms that deploy software agents in the service of effective support for human task performance. This paper describes an agent-based system for a weather forecasting and monitoring application, called Work Centered Support System for Global Weather Management (WCSS-GWM), that takes this approach. WCSS-GWM exemplifies and extends Cognitive Engineering (CE) principles for effecting human-software agent interaction and Work Centered Support System (WCSS) concepts. Two fundamental CE principles are observability and directability. Users need to be able to ‘see’ what the software agents are doing and be able to re-direct the software agents as task demands change. The WCSS brings an additional, complementary perspective, emphasizing the need to support the multiple facets involved in individual cognitive and collaborative work (decision-making, product development, collaboration, and work management). The WCSS-GWM agent-based architecture is explicitly designed with these objectives in mind.

Conveying Work-Centered Design Specifications to the Software Designer: A Retrospective Case Analysis

It has been noted that there is a gap between the analysis and products produced by cognitive engineers (CEs) and what is needed by software engineers who must implement CE-based requirements in the final product medium. In this paper, we report on a retrospective analysis of intermediate design artifacts that were produced from a CE and work-centered design perspective during the course of developing a successful work-centered support system software application. The analysis involved an examination of design analysis and synthesis artifacts produced by the development team that were made available to the software engineers. It concentrated on how work-centered information and requirements were conveyed and made useful to the software engineering staff. Based on this analysis, we suggest that a work-centered specification package needs to contain at least three classes of information: (1) work-centered descriptions of the work context, work activity, and support requirements, (2) principles and guidance specifying “work centeredness” and (3) detailed specifications of the aiding solution with links back to the support requirements.

Using Work-Centered Specifications to Integrate Cognitive Requirements into Software Development

As Cognitive Engineering (CE) becomes mainstream, methods are needed to better integrate the unique cognitive requirements of the target users of a Human Computer Interface (HCI) into software development requirements and testing. This paper discusses a preliminary work-centered specification describing the key cognitive HCI elements of a complex work system that enhance situation awareness (SA) and decision making. The specification provides traceability from the cognitive requirements obtained during knowledge acquisition to specific display elements in the final design. This specification approach can be applied to any CE methodology. We are applying it to a working prototype currently being integrated into an operational system. We have elicited feedback from developers of the operational system regarding the content and usefulness of the specification as it applies to their software development processes. This paper highlights critical aspects of our inaugural work-centered specification.