New Frontiers in Usability for Users' Complex Knowledge Work
Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 3, Issue 4, August 2008, pp. 149-151
Article Contents
Implications for usability raised by all the studies commonly highlight the need to further explore the following:
- Situational awareness: Designing and testing for situational awareness are vital for adequately supporting complex work. Yet current notions in human-computer interaction about what needs to be cued in designs for situational awareness and how to do so only begin to scratch the surface for cues required for complex work.
- Methodology: A mixed methodology for user studies and usability evaluations is necessary. The mixture may take diverse forms but it must fit the purposes of the research - and be sensitive to demands of numerous stakeholders.
- Visual communication: Visual communication needs to be exploited more than it is today.
Many other issues not raised here are also important for improving usability. The following include some of these issues for further exploration:
- Cognitive models: We need more domain-based cognitive models of complex work, a better understanding of what they provide that personae cannot, and how to better apply them to design.
- Evaluation: We need more formative testing of actual designs that purposefully aim to support complex work.
- Rationales: We need specifications, rationales and evidence of core user requirements and design criteria for systems that are useful and usable for complex work.
These issues are compelling and far from resolved. They intrigued and engaged the group of us who reviewed the submissions and helped to put this special issue together - Mike Albers, Whitney Quesenbery, Ginny Redish, and myself. The insights presented in the submitted manuscripts sparked many conversations among us about the multiple scales of complexity, about designing for usability, and about strategically evaluating systems. We hope that JUS will consider more special issues dedicated to this fascinating topic and professional challenge.