Trends in Human Factors Evaluation of Work Support Systems

Abstract

Society is becoming increasingly integrated, effects of disturbances and design deficiencies propagate rapidly and widely, and work is becoming increasingly dynamic. Furthermore, organizations have to face an increasingly competitive environment, where success very likely is granted those operating at the border of established practice. This raises new requirements for the design and evaluation of work systems. For discretionary tasks in a dynamic work environment, a map of the deep structure of the work content is more effective than a route instruction. Rather than an interface matching the mental models of the users, the interface should make visible the affordances and the internal constraints of the workspace, including the boundaries of acceptable conditions. That is, the interface should induce a proper mental model. Design and evaluation then cannot be based only on user involvement and empirical evaluation tests. In addition, intimate knowledge of the deep structure of the workspace is necessary and domain experts must be involved in an analytical evaluation, which is outlined.