User-System Interfaces: An Important Element of Information Systems Strategies

Hartson, H. Rex (1988) User-System Interfaces: An Important Element of Information Systems Strategies. Technical Report TR-88-18, Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Abstract

A successful human-computer interface is one that exhibits high usability. This paper discusses several key development issues involved in attaining high usability: dialogue independence; an evaluation-centered methodology and support tools for developing the interface, and rapid prototyping. It relates each of these issues to the critical cooperative work that must occur between the two major developer roles: computer scientists (and the software engineering role) and behavioral scientists (and the human factors role). In particular, it examines the need for human factorable human-computer interfaces, rather than ones that are simply human factored, and discusses how each of the key development issues can help achieve human factorable interfaces.