Stephanie Wilson

Emergency department status boards: user-evolved artefacts for inter- and intra-group coordination

Large, easily viewed status boards are commonly used in some healthcare settings such as emergency departments, operating theaters, intensive care units, and inpatient wards. Because these artefacts were developed by front-line users, and have little to no supervisory or regulatory control, they offer valuable insights into the theories of work and hazard held by those users. Although the status boards case were locally developed over many years for within-group coordination, they have also become useful for between-group coordination across organizational boundaries. In this paper, we compare and contrast the use of such status boards in two disparate settings: a US emergency department, and a UK pediatric ward, and note striking similarities in their form and usage, despite the large differences in setting.

Helping and hindering user involvement — a tale of everyday design

The importance of an early and on-going focus on users in interactive system design is widely accepted. However, in practice, involving users poses many problems and requires designers to balance conflicting demands. Various factors can hinder or ease the involvement of users. This paper reports a case study involving the design of a bespoke application and gives a detailed account of the obstacles and facilitators to user involvement encountered during the design activity. The obstacles and facilitators are presented in terms of issues such as contacting and selecting users, motivating users, facilitating and mediating meetings and offering points of focus for user contributions. We report and contrast the views of various stakeholders in the design process, and supplement these with our own observations as non-participant observers. Finally, we discuss issues raised by the study and draw out a number of lessons for the CHI community.

ADEPT: Advanced Design Environment for Prototyping with Task Models

ADEPT MODELS AND TOOLS ADEPT is a novel design environment for prototyping user interfaces which allows the designer to construct an explicit model of the tasks that the user and computer witl perform jointly. ADEPT incorporates task and user modelling components with a rapid prototyping user interface design tool to provide a user-task centred design environment. ADE~ encompasses design from task analysis to the generation of a run-time system through a number of modelling stages (Figure 1). The environment provides editors, browsers, interpreters and generators that atlow each of the models to be functionally employed in user interface design. The task modelling component of ADE~ provides the designer with a graphical editor which allows the designer to construct and browse models of the existing and proposed tasks described in terms of Task Knowledge Structures [1]. The output from the task modelling component feeds directly into the Abstract Interface Model (AIM) component. The AIM provides the designer with a high-level specification of the interaction, expressed in terms of the dialogue structure and abstract interaction objects. The designer can edit and elaborate the AIM using the editors and browsers of ADEIT. The Concrete Interface Model (CIM) is a platform independent description of the interface design at a detailed level of interaction objects, their behaviour and screen layout. A generator tool creates a default CIM which the designer can edit using the CIM tools. The generator is influenced by input of user centred design characteristics from the User Model. The user model is a rule base of design principles which are tailored by the designer with facts concerning the details of the intended user group. The interaction between the CIM generator and the User Modelling components is in the form of question/answer dkdogues which are carried out automatically during the generation process. The CIM may be translated into a platform dependent implementation which makes use of a standard widget set such as Open Lookm. Other platforms can be accommodated by writing alternative translators. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of tha publication and ite date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fea and/or specific permission.

Not all sharing is equal: the impact of a large display on small group collaborative work

Large, shared displays are used in support of many forms of col-laborative work and are generally assumed to benefit the work. We investigate this in a qualitative study of an intervention to introduce such a display to support the work of shift handover in a medical setting. Results suggest that the consequences of introducing a shared display can be more subtle than expected. In particular, we highlight the fact that the common distinction between private and public information is too coarse-grained and discuss the importance of considering how access to public information is initiated. We briefly touch upon implications for interaction design.

Making Useful and Useable Geovisualization: Design and Evaluation Issues.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an introduction of methods and research questions associated with user-centered geovisualization tool design, bridging the gap between developers and users. To stimulate the development of geovisualization theory, issues from Computer Science, Information Visualization, Geoinformation Science, Geography, and Cartography are discussed. Influenced by recent developments within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community developers of geovisualization environments are becoming increasingly concerned with the usability of their tools. Currently, most geovisualization is based on accumulated experience codified in procedures, written design rules, and unwritten individual and group knowledge. Geovisualization theory can be divided into two broad categories: that comes from other disciplines such as Perceptual Science, Cognitive Science, or applied disciplines such as Human-Computer Interaction. There is also theory developed specifically in the context of geovisualization. Although theory may originate from some other disciplines, the role of geovisualization researchers will be to extend it in ways that are specific to geovisualization. Nowadays geovisualization tools are applied in and developed for a broader geosoftware market with the goal of providing useful and usable geovisualization.This chapter provides an introduction of methods and research questions associated with user-centered geovisualization tool design, bridging the gap between developers and users. To stimulate the development of geovisualization theory, issues from Computer Science, Information Visualization, Geoinformation Science, Geography, and Cartography are discussed. Influenced by recent developments within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community developers of geovisualization environments are becoming increasingly concerned with the usability of their tools. Currently, most geovisualization is based on accumulated experience codified in procedures, written design rules, and unwritten individual and group knowledge. Geovisualization theory can be divided into two broad categories: that comes from other disciplines such as Perceptual Science, Cognitive Science, or applied disciplines such as Human-Computer Interaction. There is also theory developed specifically in the context of geovisualization. Although theory may originate from some other disciplines, the role of geovisualization researchers will be to extend it in ways that are specific to geovisualization. Nowadays geovisualization tools are applied in and developed for a broader geosoftware market with the goal of providing useful and usable geovisualization.

Adept-a task based design environment

Modern user interface development environments are based on fast prototyping which as a methodology does not incorporate any theory or design principles. Adept (advanced design environment for prototyping with tasks) incorporates a theory of modelling users and user task knowledge known as task knowledge structures and extends it to a theoretical framework for modelling user, task and interface characteristics. The paper introduces the underlying framework, and discusses how this can be used to support task based user interface design.<<ETX>>

Cognitive Artifacts in Support of Medical Shift Handover: An In Use, In Situ Evaluation

Abstract Technologies introduced to support complex and critical work practices merit rigorous and effective evaluation. However, evaluation strategies often fall short of evaluating real use by practitioners in the workplace and thereby miss an opportunity to gauge the true impact of the technology on the work. This article reports an in use, in situ evaluation of 2 cognitive artifacts that support the everyday work of handover in a healthcare setting. The evaluation drew inspiration from the theoretical viewpoint offered by distributed cognition, focusing on the information content, representational media, and context of use of the artifacts. The article discusses how this approach led to insights about the artifacts and their support of the work that could not have been obtained with more traditional evaluation techniques. Specifically, the argument is made that the ubiquitous approach of user testing with its reliance on think-alouds and observations of interaction is inadequate in this context and set an initial agenda for issues that should be addressed by in use, in situ evaluations.

Beyond handover: supporting awareness for continuous coverage

Hospitals are required to operate as a continuous system because patient care cannot be temporarily suspended and handover is seen as a key method for enabling this. This paper reports a study of handover in a medical admissions unit. We draw on the notion of awareness as conceptualised within the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work literature to explore the role played by a variety of cognitive artifacts in supporting continuous coverage. While such awareness is typically characterised as being ‘effortless’, our study reveals that maintaining awareness in a context such as the medical admissions unit is effortful due to invisible work. We suggest that the notion of awareness is beneficial for exploring the practices of continuous coverage because it moves attention away from the moment of handover, instead encouraging consideration of the variety of practices through which clinicians display their work to, and monitor the work of, colleagues on different shifts. We argue that efforts to support continuous coverage should focus on improving awareness by increasing the visibility of information.

Web navigation for individuals with dyslexia: an exploratory study

In this paper, we present an exploratory study of the web navigation experiences of dyslexic users. Findings indicate that dyslexics exhibit distinctive web navigation behaviour and preferences. We believe that the outcomes of this study add to our understanding of the particular needs of this web user population and have implications for the design of effective navigation structures.

The importance of the verbal shift handover report: a multi-site case study.

OBJECTIVE Shift handover is seen as a key tool in ensuring continuity of care yet a number of studies have highlighted the role of shift handovers in adverse events. This, combined with the increased frequency of shift handovers, has led to interest in providing technological support for handover to enhance safety. The aim of this paper is to describe current practices for the conduct of shift handovers and to use this as a basis for considering the role that technology could play in supporting handover. METHODS A multi-site case study of handover was conducted. Data included observations of 15 medical shift handovers and 33 nursing shift handovers across three case sites. FINDINGS The findings highlight the way in which the verbal shift handover report is practically focused, displaying the healthcare professionals ability to know what information is required and where further explanation is needed. As well as supporting teaching and team cohesion, shift handover can provide an opportunity to reflect on the previous shift and for discussion with patients and their families. CONCLUSIONS The benefits provided by a face to face handover suggest that technology should focus on supporting rather than replacing the verbal shift handover report, providing a flexible solution that allows handover participants to gather more information as it is required.