Human error and information systems failure: the case of the London ambulance service computer-aided despatch system project

Human error and systems failure have been two constructs that have become linked in many contexts. In this paper we particularly focus on the issue of failure in relation to that group of software systems known as information systems. We first review the extant theoretical and empirical work on this topic. Then we discuss one particular well-known case — that of the London ambulance service computer-aided despatch system (L) project — and use it as a particularly cogent example of the features of information systems failure. We maintain that the tendency to analyse information systems failure solely from a technological standpoint is limiting, that the nature of information systems failure is multi-faceted, and hence cannot be adequately understood purely in terms of the immediate problems of systems construction. Our purpose is also to use the generic material on IS failure and the specific details of this particular case study to critique the issues of safety, criticality, human error and risk in relation to systems not currently well considered in relation to these areas.     

The influence of personality factors on visitor attitudes towards adaptivity dimensions for mobile museum guides

In this work, we present a study on adaptation in a mobile museum guide, investigating the relationships between personality traits, and the attitudes towards some basic dimensions of adaptivity. Each participant was exposed to two simulated systems—one adaptive, the other not—on each of the dimensions investigated. The study showed that the personality traits relating to the notion of control (conscientiousness, neuroticism/emotional stability, Locus of Control) have a selective effect on the acceptance of the adaptivity dimensions.     

弹性界面的设计与实现

在参阅现有的信息可视化技术的基础上,设计并实现了一种新型的可浏览和导航大规模信息空间的可视化交互技术——弹性界面,通过该界面用户可以灵活地设置和控制多个焦点的显示。     

Representations in Human–Computer Systems Development

When system developers design a computer system (or other information artefact), they must inevitably make judgements as to how to abstract the domain and how to represent this abstraction in their designs. Over the years human–computer interaction, or more generally information systems design, has had a history of developing competing methods and models for both the process and products of its development. Various paradigms have been suggested, often trying to keep pace with the changing nature of the design problem; from batch processing to interactive systems to work situations and most recently to designing for household environments. It appears timely, then, to review the nature of the design problem that faces the developers of human–computer systems and to consider some of the impact that different representations and different conceptualisations may have on their activities. Green (1998) has suggested that a single model of developing human–computer systems is not desirable, instead arguing for a number of limited theories each of which provides a useful perspective. The aim of this paper is to place competing methods side by side in order to see their strengths and weaknesses more clearly. The central tenet of the paper is that different views of both the human–computer system design process and the different abstractions, or models, that are produced during the design process have varying degrees of utility for designers. It is unlikely that any single method or modelling approach will be optimal in all circumstances. Designers need to be aware of the range of views that exist and of the impact that taking a particular approach may have on the design solution.     

Ferret: Reviewing Tabular Datasets for Manipulation

How do we ensure the veracity of science? The act of manipulating or fabricating scientific data has led to many high-profile fraud cases and retractions. Detecting manipulated data, however, is a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. Automated detection methods are limited due to the diversity of data types and manipulation techniques. Furthermore, patterns automatically flagged as suspicious can have reasonable explanations. Instead, we propose a nuanced approach where experts analyze tabular datasets, e.g., as part of the peer-review process, using a guided, interactive visualization approach. In this paper, we present an analysis of how manipulated datasets are created and the artifacts these techniques generate. Based on these findings, we propose a suite of visualization methods to surface potential irregularities. We have implemented these methods in Ferret, a visualization tool for data forensics work. Ferret makes potential data issues salient and provides guidance on spotting signs of tampering and differentiating them from truthful data.     

Cluster-based predictive modeling to improve pedagogic reasoning

This paper discusses a predictive modeling framework actualized in a learning agent that uses logged tutorial interactions to discover predictive characteristics of students. The agent automatically forms cluster models that are described in terms of student–system interaction attributes, i.e., in terms of the student’s knowledge state and behaviour and system’s tutoring actions. The agent utilizes the knowledge of its various clusters together with a weighting scheme to learn predictive models of high-level student information, specifically, the time it will take the student to respond to a problem and whether the response is correct, that can be utilized to support individualized adaptation. We investigated utilizing the Self-Organizing Map and AutoClass as clustering algorithms and the naïve Bayesian classifier and single layer neural network as weighting algorithms. Empirical results show that by utilizing cluster knowledge the agent’s predictions are acceptably strong for response time and accurate at the average for response correctness. Further investigation is needed to validate the scalability of the framework given other datasets and possibly migrate to other approaches that can obtain more meaningful cluster models, detect richer attribute relations, and provide better approximations to further improve prediction of response behaviour for a more informed pedagogical decision-making by the system.     

People, Information Systems and Change

Information systems are the glue between people and computers. Both the social and business environments are in a continual, some might say chaotic, state of change while computer hardware continues to double its performance about every 18 months. This presents a major challenge for information system developers.  The term user-friendly is an old one, but one which has come to take on a multitude of meanings. However, in today’s context we might well take a user-friendly system to be one where the technology fits the user’s cognitive models of the activity in hand. This article looks at the relationship between information systems and the changing demands of their users as the underlying theme for the current issue of Cognition, Technology and Work.  People, both as individuals and organisations, change. The functionalist viewpoint, which attempts to freeze and inhibit such change, has failed systems developers on numerous occasions. Responding to, and building on, change in the social environment is still a significant research issue for information systems specialists who need to be able to create living information systems.     

Human factors in information technology: The socio-organisational aspects of expert systems design

This paper looks beyond the mostly technical and business issues that currently inform the design of knowledge-based systems (e.g., expert systems) to point out that there is also a social and organisational (a socio-organisational) dimension to the issues affecting the design decisions of expert systems and other information technologies. It argues that whilst technical and business issues are considered before the design of Expert Systems, that socio-organisational issues determine the acceptance and long-run utility of the technology after it has been implemented. It shows how four issues within the organisation can affect the design or the after-effects of the design and implementation of the technology. It also shows how the four issues can be considered within the structured phases of expert system development.     

一种基于双特征的联合脑-机接口系统设计

与传统基于单一脑电信号的脑-机接口相比,基于多种特征信号的联合脑-机接口能有效提高脑-机接口性能.在基于稳态视觉诱发电位和P300诱发电位的联合使用的可行性基础上,提出了新的刺激编码方式,构建了一种基于两种特征的联合脑-机接口系统.通过设计3×3字符刺激矩阵,矩阵中纵列按各自设定频率闪烁诱发稳态视觉诱发电位,横行随机出现蓝色框诱发P300.实验表明,当受试者注视并关注目标字符,两种特征脑电信号能够被同时诱发,且对脑电信号中两种特征进行识别能够检测出受试者选取的字符.与传统基于P300的字符脑-机接口相比,刺激诱发时间减少了一半,从根本上提高了脑-机接口的速度.在以后工作中,系统可以扩展到更大矩阵(如6×6),构建更为实用的联合脑-机接口系统.     

信息安全人力资源管理问题探要

通过对信息安全隐患的分析,从人力资源管理的角度考虑,针对目前信息安全管理方面存在的问题,提出一系列的应对措施,最终构建一道坚强有效的人力防火墙。     

人力资源管理信息系统的设计

针对企业人力资源管理信息系统自身设计缺点和实践应用中出现的问题,将论述如何加以改进：第一,突破传统人事管理信息系统功能相对单一的模式,扩展并完善人力资源六大业务模块信息管理功能;第二,改进并优化现代人力资源管理信息系统,加强六大业务模块信息之间的彼此关联和相互引用.从而为人力资源部门高效、科学工作提供依据,同时,便于企业领导及时掌握人员的动向,并根据内外环境和条件的变化做出科学的决策,使得人力、物力、财力等多种资源得到有效整合和最佳匹配.     

Human centricity and information granularity in the agenda of theories and applications of soft computing

Soft computing is an interdisciplinary area that focuses on the design of intelligent systems to process uncertain, imprecise and incomplete information. It mainly builds on fuzzy sets theory, fuzzy logic, neural computing, optimization, evolutionary algorithms, and approximate reasoning et al. Information granularity is in general regarded as a crucial design asset, which helps establish a better rapport of the resulting granular model with the system under modeling. Human centricity is an inherent property of people's view on a system, a process, a machine or a model. Information granularity can be used to reflect people's level of uncertainty and this makes its pivotal role in soft computing. Indeed, the concept of information granularity facilitates the development of theory and application of soft computing immensely. A number of papers pertaining to some recent advances in theoretical development and practical application of information granularity in soft computing are highlighted in this special issue. The main objective of this study is to collect as many as possible researches on human centricity and information granularity in the agenda of theories and applications of soft computing, review the main idea of these literatures, compare the advantages and disadvantages of their methods and try to find the relationships and relevance of these theories and applications.     

A semiotic engineering approach to user interface design

Designing software involves good perception, good reasoning, and a talent to express oneself effectively through programming and interactive languages. Semiotic theories can help HCI designers increase their power to perceive, reason and communicate. By presenting some of the results we have reached with semiotic engineering over the last few years, we suggest that the main contributions of semiotic theory in supporting HCI design are: to provide designers with new perceptions on the process and product of HCI design; to bind together all the stages of software development and use, giving them a unique homogeneous treatment; and to pose innovative questions that extend the frontiers of HCI investigations.     

Telescreens, keypens, and the expert: A 60 year snapshot

Brian Shackel was responsible for initiating the first international conference on human–computer interaction, INTERACT ’84. This was in the same year to which George Orwell referred in the now-classic book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both texts share the common theme of being concerned with information and its effects on the individual. In Professor Shackel’s paper (the focus here), both aspects are considered over a 60-year lifespan – with a particular emphasis on his interest on “Designing for People in the Age of Information”. This keynote address at the INTERACT conference is reviewed and the accuracy of his many predictions for the future considered. It is concluded that despite Professor Shackel’s preoccupation with designing for humans some quarter of a century ago, there still is much work to do.     

一种基于设计模式的GIS HCI复用框架

基于特征数据模型的GIS软件开发是一个重要方向。这就需要建立符合其特征的软件平台,以提高开发效率,减少重复应用。该文从软件框架的角度,利用设计模式分析了特征模型的软件结构,提出了GIS HCI框架,并进行了分析。     

A web spatial decision support system for vehicle routing using Google Maps

This article presents a user-friendly web-based spatial decision support system (wSDSS) aimed at generating optimized vehicle routes for multiple vehicle routing problems that involve serving the demand located along arcs of a transportation network. The wSDSS incorporates Google Maps^™ (cartography and network data), a database, a heuristic and an ant-colony meta-heuristic developed by the authors to generate routes and detailed individual vehicle route maps. It accommodates realistic system specifics, such as vehicle capacity and shift time constraints, as well as network constraints such as one-way streets and prohibited turns. The wSDSS can be used for “what-if” analysis related to possible changes to input parameters such as vehicle capacity, maximum driving shift time, seasonal variations of demand, network modifications, and imposed arc orientations. Since just a web browser is needed, it can be easily adapted to be widely used in many real-world situations. The system was tested for urban trash collection in Coimbra, Portugal.