Electronic calendars in the office: an assessment of user needs and current technology

ABSTRACT

Manufacturers of integrated electronic office systems have included electronic versions of the calendar in almost every system they offer. This paper describes a survey of office workers, carried out to examine their use both of paper calendars and of electronic calendars that are commercially available as part of integrated office systems. It assesses the degree to which electronic calendars meet the needs of users. Our survey shows that the simple paper calendar is a tool whose power and flexibility is matched by few, if any, of the current commercially available electronic calendars. Recommendations for features that should be included in electronic calendars and automatic schedulers are included.

REFERENCES

• 1: ENGEL, G. H., GROPPUSO, J., LOWENSTEIN, R. A.., AND TRAUB, W. G. An office communications system. IBM Syst. J. 18, 3 (1979) 402-431.
• 2: Irene Greif, The user interface of a personal calendar program, Proc. of the NYU symposium on user interfaces on Human factors and interactive computer systems, p.207-222, November 1984, New York, United States
• 3: J. F. Kelley, An empirical methodology for writing user-friendly natural language computer applications, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p.193-196, December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/800045.801609]
• 4: KELLEY, J. F., AND CHAPANIS, A. How professional persons keep their calendars: Implications for computerization. J Occup. Psychol. 55 (1982), 241-256.

INDEX TERMS

Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: User interfaces

  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors