Getting around the task-artifact cycle: how to make claims and design by scenario

ABSTRACT

We are developing an “action science” approach to human-computer interaction (HCI), seeking to better integrate activities directed at understanding with those directed at design. The approach leverages development practices of current HCI with methods and concepts to support a shift toward using broad and explicit design rationale to reify where we are in a design process, why we are there, and to guide reasoning about where we might go from there. We represent a designed artifact as the set of user scenarios supported by that artifact and more finely by causal schemas detailing the underlying psychological rationale. These schemas, called claims, unpack wherefores and whys of the scenarios. In this paper, we stand back from several empirical projects to clarify our commitments and practices.

REFERENCES

• 1: ARGYRIS, C. The Inner Contradictions of Rigorous Research Academic Press, New York, 1980.
• 2: AUSUBEL, D. P, The use of advance organizers m the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material. J. Educ Psychol. 51, (1960), 267 272.
• 3: BASALLA, G. The Evolutzon of Technology. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1988.
• 4: Rachel K. E. Bellamy , John M. Carroll, Re-structuring the programmer's task, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, v.37 n.4, p.503-527, Oct. 1992 [doi>10.1016/0020-7373(92)90007-8]
• 5: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., The mythical man-month (anniversary ed.), Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1995
• 6: Stuart K. Card , Allen Newell , Thomas P. Moran, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 1983
• 7: CAF~RCmL, J.M. What's i~ a Name? An Essay in the Psychology of Re/~rence. W. H. Freeman, New York, 1985.
• 8: CARROLL, J. iV{. Evaluatmm description and invention: Paradigms for human-computer interaction. In Advances in Computers, Vol. 29, M. C. Yovits, Ed. Academic Press, Orlando, Fla., 47-77.
• 9: John M. Carroll, The Nurnberg funnel: designing minimalist instruction for practical computer skill, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990
• 10: John M. Carroll, Infinite detail and emulation in an ontologically minimized HCI, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.321-328, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97303]
• 11: CARROLL, J. M., AND C^MPBELL, R.L. Softening up hard science: Reply to Newell and Card. Human-Comput. Interactmn 2, (1986), 227-249
• 12: CARROLL, J. M., AND CAMpe~LL, R. L. Artifacts as psychologacal theories: The case of human-computer interaction. Behav. Inf. Tech. 8 (1989), 247 256.
• 13: J. M. Carroll , W. A. Kellogg, Artifact as theory-nexus: hermeneutics meets theory-based design, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Wings for the mind, p.7-14, March 1989
• 14: CARROLL, J. M., AND ROSSON, M.B. Usability specification as a tool m interactive development. In Advances in Human-Computer Interactior~ 1, H. Hartson, Ed. Ablex, Norwood, N.J, 1985, 1-28.
• 15: CARROLL, ~J. M., AND ROS$ON, M. B. Human computer interactions scenarios as a design representation. In Procee&ngs of HICSS-23. Hawatt Internatzonal Conference on System Sciences. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, Calif., 1990, 55-561.
• 16: CARROLL, J. M., AND ROSSON, M.B. Deliberated evolution: Stalking the Vmw Marcher in design space. Hum -Comput. Interactton 6 (1991), 281 318
• 17: John M. Carroll , Wendy A. Kellogg , Mary Beth Rosson, The task-artifact cycle, Designing interaction: psychology at the human-computer interface, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1991
• 18: CARROLL, J M., S1NGLEY, M. K., AND ROSSON, M.B. Toward an architecture for instructional evaluation In Proceedings of the International Con/krence on the Learning Sciences 1991 (Chicago, Aug, 4-7). Association of Computing in Education, New York, 1991
• 19: CONKLIN, J., AND YAKEMOVIC, B. K. C. A process-oriented paradigm for design rationale. Hum.-Comput. Interactwn 6 (1991), 357-391.
• 20: Brad J Cox, Object oriented programming: an evolutionary approach, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1986
• 21: E~IN, P. Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J, 1988.
• 22: ESPER, E. A A technique for the experimental investigation of associative interference in artificial linguistic material Lang. Monographs I (1925), 1-47.
• 23: FESTINGER, L. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Harper & Row, New York, 1957.
• 24: FmCaER, G., LEMKE, A. C., MCCALL, R., AND MORCH, A. I. Making argumentation serve design. Hum.-Comput. Interaction 6 (1991), 393-419.
• 25: Christiane Floyd , R. Keil-Slawik , R. Budde , H. Zullighoven , C. Weiler-Kuhn, Software Development and Reality Construction, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 1992
• 26: FODOR, J.A. Could there be a theory of perception? J. Philosophy 63 (1966), 375-395.
• 27: Peter Freeman, Software perspectives: the system is the message, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1987
• 28: GAGNE, R. M., AND BRIGGS, L. J. Prmczples of Instructional Design. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1979.
• 29: GARNER, W.R. The Processing' of Information and Structure. Erlbaum, Potomac, Md., 1974.
• 30: GENTNER, D., AND STEVENS, A. Mental Models. Erlbaum, Hil}sdale, N.J., 1983.
• 31: Tom Gilb, Principles of software engineering management, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1988
• 32: GraCE, H. P. Logic and conversation. In The Logic of Grammar, D. Davidson and G. Harmam Eds. Dickenson, Encino, Calif., 1967.
• 33: Frank G. Halasz , Thomas P. Moran, Mental models and problem solving in using a calculator, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p.212-216, December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/800045.801613]
• 34: HEmEGGER, M. BeLng and Ttrne. (Trans. by J. Macquarrle and E. Robinson.) Harper & Row, New York, 1962.
• 35: JEWKES, J., SAWERS, D., AND STILLERMAN, R. The Sources of Invention. Macmillan, New York, 1958.
• 36: IgAEaAS, D. E., AND POLSON~ P.G. An approach to the formal analysis of complexity. Int. J. Man-Mochme Stud. 22, (1985), 365 394.
• 37: KAHNEMAN, D. Attention and Effort. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973.
• 38: KOaLER, W. Gestalt Psychology. Liveright, New York, 1929.
• 39: KUttN, T.S. Comment. In The Rate and Dtrection of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors. Universities-National Bureau Conference Series, 13. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 450-457.
• 40: Thomas K. Landauer, Psychology as a mother of invention, Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI conference on Human factors in computing systems and graphics interface, p.333-335, April 05-09, 1987, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 41: Thomas K. Landauer, Let's get real: a position paper on the role of cognitive psychology in the design of humanly useful and usable systems, Designing interaction: psychology at the human-computer interface, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1991
• 42: LAVE, J. Cognltmn in Practice: Mind, Mathematics, and Culture. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1988.
• 43: LEE, J., AND LAL K.-Y. What's in design rationale. Hum.-Comput. Interaction 6 (1991), 251-280.
• 44: Clayton Lewis , Peter G. Polson , Cathleen Wharton , John Rieman, Testing a walkthrough methodology for theory-based design of walk-up-and-use interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.235-242, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97279]
• 45: LEwIs, C. H., RIEMAN, J., AND BELL, B. Problem-centered design for expressiveness and facility in a graphical programming system. Hum.-Comput. Interactzon 6 (1991L 319 355.
• 46: LEWIS, M. L., AND ANDERSON, ,J. R. Discrimination of operator schemata in problem solving: Learning from examples. Cognitive Psychol. 17 (1985), 26-65.
• 47: Robert L. Mack , Clayton H. Lewis , John M. Carroll, Learning to use word processors: problems and prospects, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.1 n.3, p.254-271, July 1983 [doi>10.1145/357436.357440]
• 48: MACLEAN, A., YOtTN(~, R., BELLOTTI, V., AND MORAN, T.P. Questions, options and criteria: Elements of a design rationale for user interfaces. Hum.-Comput. Interaction 6 (1991), 201-250.
• 49: MmGRA~L S. Some conditions on obedience and disobedience to authority. J. Abnormal Social Psychol. 6 (1968), 259 276.
• 50: MORmSON, E. From Know-How to Nowhere. Blackwell, Oxford, 1974.
• 51: MULTHAUF, R.P. The scientist and the improver of technology. Tech. Culture (1959), 38 47.
• 52: NELSON, R. The link between science and invention: The case of the transistor. In The Rote and D~rectlon of Inventive Actwlty: Economzc and Social Factors. Universities-National Bureau Conference Series, 13. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1962.
• 53: William M. Newman, The representation of user interface style, Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the British Computer Society on People and computers IV, p.123-143, October 1988, Univ. of Manchester, United Kingdom
• 54: Jakob Nielsen , Rolf Molich, Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.249-256, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97281]
• 55: NORMAN, D.A. Cognitive engineering In User Centered System Design, D. A. Norman and S. W. Draper, Eds. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J., 1986, 31 62.
• 56: Susannah Ravden , Graham Johnson, Evaluating usability of human-computer interfaces: a practical method, Halsted Press, New York, NY, 1989
• 57: RITTEL, H. W.J. Second-generation design methods. In Developments ~n Design Methodology, N. Cross, Ed. Wfiey, New York, 1984, 317 327.
• 58: Teresa L. Roberts , Thomas P. Moran, The evaluation of text editors: methodology and empirical results., Communications of the ACM, v.26 n.4, p.265-283, April 1983 [doi>10.1145/2163.2164]
• 59: ROSCH, E., MERVIS, C. B., GRAY, W., JOHNSON, D., AND BOYES-BRAEM, P. Basic objects in natural categories. Cognztzve PsychoI 7 (1976), 573 605.
• 60: RoSSON, M B., AND CARKOLL, J M Extending the task-artifact framework In Advances in Human Computer Interaction 4. H. R. Hartson and D. Hix, Eds. Ablex, Norwood, N J., 1992.
• 61: Mary Beth Rosson , John M. Carrol , Rachel K. E. Bellamy, Smalltalk scaffolding: a case study of minimalist instruction, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.423-430, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97319]
• 62: Mary Beth Rosson , John M. Carroll , Christine Sweeney, A view matcher for reusing Smalltalk classes, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Reaching through technology, p.277-283, April 27-May 02, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States [doi>10.1145/108844.108916]
• 63: SCHON, D.A. The Reflective Proctztloner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books, New York, 1983.
• 64: Herbert A. Simon, The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996
• 65: SIN(~LEY, M. K., CARROLL, J. M., AND ALPERT, S. R Psychological design rationale for an mtelhgent tutoring system for Smalltalk. In Empirical Studies of Programmers, IV, S. R. Robertson, Ed. Ablex, Norwood, N.J., 1991, 196-209.
• 66: SMITH, D C., IRBY, C., KIMBALl,. R, VERPLANK, B., AND HARSLEM, E. Designing the Star user interface. Byte 7, 4 (Apr. 1982), 242 282.
• 67: Lucy A. Suchman, Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1987
• 68: TAYLOR, F.W. The Prznclples of Sctentiflc Management. Harper and Row, New York, 1911.
• 69: TERRACE. H. Errorless transibr of a d~scrimmation across two continua. J. Exper. Anal. Behav 6 (1963), 223-232.
• 70: THORNDIKE, E.L. Educational Psychology. Lemke & Buechner, New York, 1903.
• 71: TORBERT, W. Creating a Communzty oflnq~iry. Wiley, New York, 1976.
• 72: WEINER, B Humar~ Mot~vatzon. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1980.
• 73: John Whiteside , Dennis Wixon, Improving human-computer interaction—a quest for cognitive science, Interfacing thought: cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987
• 74: Dennis Wixon , Karen Holtzblatt , Stephen Knox, Contextual design: an emergent view of system design, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, p.329-336, April 01-05, 1990, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/97243.97304]
• 75: WRIGHT, P. Feeding the interface eaters: Suggestions for integrating pure and apphed research on language comprehension. Instr. Sci. 7 (1978), 249 312.
• 76: Peter Wright , Andrew F. Monk, Evaluation for design, Proceedings of the fifth conference of the British Computer Society, Human-Computer Interaction Specialist Group on People and computers V, p.345-358, February 1990, Univ. of Nottingham

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human factors

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.1 Requirements/Specifications
          Subjects: Methodologies (e.g., object-oriented, structured)

  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
design rationale, planning, user interfaces