Comp 15 Usability and Human Factors Unit 3

Comp 15 - Usability and Human Factors Unit 3 c - Cognition and Human Performance This material was developed by Columbia University, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under Award Number 1 U 24 OC 000003.

Mental Models Psychological construct for describing how individuals form internal models of systems • Reason about possible outcomes resulting from actions (e. g. , clicking on this link) • Retrieve episodes from memory to understand a new situation (e. g. , last time my hard disk failed) Mental models can • Representations of parts in a system be used to • Understanding of how different parts of a characterize an system connect individual‘s: Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 2

Mental Models (cont. ) Running of a model corresponds to a process of mental simulation which can be used to generate possible future states of a system from observed or hypothetical state Use of a mental model engage temporal and spatial reasoning Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 3

Mental Models (cont. ) How people form internal models of systems • Predict/Anticipate and Explain Running a model a process of mental simulation to generate possible future states • “If I click OK on a dialogue box button, what will happen next”? Can be used to explain what happened • “Why didn’t the program print” Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 4

ATMs Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 5

Limitations of Conventional Information Processing & HCI Waysworld people adapt • Limitations in application Limitations in to • real and make use of tools contexts application to is poorly understood • People don’t fly solo world – Ways peoplereal adapt and make use of tools is (teams, contexts poorly understood collaborations) – People don’t fly solo (teams, collaborations) Theories too • Theories too low level, limited in scope Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 6

Limitations of Conventional Information Processing & HCI Narrow focus on • Narrow focus on the rational/cognitive Distributed the Cognition rational/cognitive processes of the solitary individual – processes of the Knowledge in the solitary individual head as opposed to in the world Knowledge in • Distributed Cognition the head as External representations to in – Externalopposed representations the world – Cognition as distributed in the social world Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 7

Insert Clip Art Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 8

To Sit or Not to Sit? • • • Chair Schema Legs: 4 Surface affords sitting: Yes Availability status: Empty Awesome! Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 9

Distributed Cognition Intelligence as interwoven processing of internal and external information Component 15/Unit 3 c Focus on the interplay between internal and external representat ions Emphasis on real-world settings and ethnography Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 The role of artifacts in task completion Version Organization of mind as an emergent property of interactions among internal and external resources 10

Affordances Gibson: World is directly perceived based upon abundant sensory information • Perceive the possibilities for action (physical property) Attributes of objects that allow people to know how to use them User needs to learn the meaning and function before knowing how to act • Door handles, water faucets, elevator panels, post-it notes, menus, buttons, lists, hypertext, scroll bars The way structures in the environment invite people to do something • Coordination, sequencing, feedback Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 11

Distributed Cognition Coordinating internal (user’s mind) and external (interface, environ) resources Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 12

Nurse Case Manager Workflow Component 15/Unit 3 c Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2. 0/Spring 2011 Version 13