Social Implications of Computing; Usability Management with University of Tampere Computer Science Department

Proposal Overview

This proposal presents a plan to work with the University of Tampere Department of Computer Science and the affiliated Tampere Unit for Computer Human Interaction (TAUCHI). My objective is to both develop and teach a History and Social Implications of Computing course for the TAUCHI center. In addition, I intend to conduct research on usability management – i.e. how product development can be best managed to create usable products. I am seeking a three month award for Fall of 2007. I will conduct research and teach the course during that time.

Lecturing

The course will provide upper-level undergraduate students with a broader understanding of computing technology and industry in the social/global context. This course will use a multidisciplinary approach to explore historical, contemporary, and future implications of computing, respecting numerous facets of human experience.

My Ph.D. is in Science and Technology Studies (STS), a multidisciplinary program that examines science and technology by drawing on social science and humanities disciplines such as history, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. I currently work as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Weber State University (WSU) in Ogden, Utah. WSU is principally an undergraduate, teaching-oriented university. My pedagogical style takes advantage of my business experience. I integrate real-world examples and anecdotes and require students to deal with real customers to promote customer-centered design.

I co-authored an introductory computer science textbook, Connecting with Computer Science (Thomson Learning, 2005) and a social history of computing, Computers: The Life Story of a Technology (Greenwood Press, 2005). Both books place computing and computer development into social and historical context. These books have informed many courses I have taught in and outside of my own department, including a “Social Implications of Computing” (CS4830) seminar I created.

By learning about the history of computing, especially from the U.S. perspective, I believe the Finnish students will be able to reflect on their own unique computing history and culture and share that with the class. Even if technologies today are global, their use always takes place in a particular cultural context, which further shapes their future development. Additionally, both Computer-Human Interface Design and placing computing in social and historical context are part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degrees in Software Engineering (see http://www.acm.org/education/curricula.html).

Research

My research goal concerns usability design in information technology product development. Understanding how usability in a corporation is and can be managed and result in desirable products and services deserves examination. I would like to explore product usability in information technology (IT) cross-culturally. Particularly, I want to compare between the U.S. and Finland the extent to which user interface guides can enhance product usability.

Usability design in information technology constitutes a fairly young academic field, and the integration of the findings into corporate settings an even younger one (Carroll, 2003). Many well-designed products have been created world-wide. In fact, Scandinavia has a tradition of considerable user participation and user-oriented design in product development (Greenbaum and Kyng, 1991) as well as an established understanding of the importance of usability (Vredenburg et al., 2002). However, there remains a need to investigate the management of product usability and, ultimately, its impact on the bottom line (Donahue, 2001). How usability is managed varies across corporations. In some organizations, usability experts are centralized and lend expertise to various product development and marketing efforts. In others, usability design is distributed among product development, management, marketing, and other departments. Various engineering development methods, such as the Rational Unified Process and eXtreme Programming (Beck, 2000) and engineering cultures (Bucciarelli, 1996) that exist within corporations also play a role in product usability.

To explore product usability in IT cross-culturally, I particularly want to compare the extent to which user interface style guides can enhance product usability between the U.S. and Finland. A user interface guide potentially offers a cost effective approach to aspects of user interface design. Encouragement for this approach has come from research on the role of aesthetic appeal in user interface design. Kurosu & Kashimura (1995), Tractinsky (1997), and Norman (2004) have shown how standardizing the emotional response of users to the aesthetics of a technology is critical for customer satisfaction. I have co-created and used usability guides in the past. In fact, the voice activated development process I helped create at Unisys in 1999 had been submitted for a patent. However, the usefulness of the guides in practice have been mixed. In addition, extant research in participatory design implies that a user interface guide may not work without other strategies in place. For example, there may be organizational resistance to usability (Rosenbaum et al., 2000) or lack of attention to particular user needs in system development (Harris and Henderson, 1999). Furthermore, the need for active user involvement at all stages of product development (Clegg et al., 1997) may not be satisfied by a usability guide.

I propose to conduct a qualitative study that will focus specifically on how usability guides contribute to the development of information technology and to what extent they enhance product usability. I will first contact a small number of organizations that have created and implemented user interface guides in the U.S. and in Finland. Following an action research approach (e.g., Gulliksen et al, 2003), I plan to use focus groups and face-to-face interviews with work teams, individuals in technical, marketing, and management roles, and users concerning their experiences. I would also like to create multidisciplinary teams at the subject organizations (Goransson and Sandback, 1999) to review current practices in order to improve the usability design process. I will analyze the interview data employing the principles of usability processes established in user-centered, participatory, contextual, goal-directed engineering design (Norman, 1986; Beyer and Holzblatt, 1998; Nielsen, 1993; and ISO 13407, 1999).

I anticipate that my research findings will lead to presentations and papers for the Assoca`iation of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interfaces Conference proceedings and the journal Interactions as well as other business and software engineering journals.

Lecturing/Research in Finland

For both lecturing and research, residence in Finland is critical for meeting students and research subjects. I met with Jyrki Nummenmaa and Kari-Jouko Räihä in the offices of the University of Tampere in July 2006 to discuss this proposal. The principals believe it feasible:

Present – April 2007: Solicitation for access to study organizations that use interface guides.

May 2007 – August 2007: Research. Develop Social Implications of Computing course.

September 2007 – December 2007: Data gathering in Finland. Teach course.

Finland is an excellent location for my project, given the growth of information technology as a part of GDP, its generally tech-savvy population, and its status as economically competitive nation. My host institution, TAUCHI, also represents world-class investigation into computer usability. This project will allow me to begin a new research program, deepen my scholarship, and broaden my connections with other scholars. Finally, I believe I will be an excellent cultural ambassador to Scandinavia.