A Call for Engaging Context in HCI/MIS Research with Examples from the Area of Technology Interruptions

Abstract

This paper contributes to the discussion on future directions of Human-Computer Interaction in Information Systems (HCI/MIS) research by explicating the role of task-and social context. We show that context has not been sufficiently engaged, and argue why it is important to pay more attention to it in theory and design of future HCI/MIS research. Drawing on examples from the core HCI area of technology interruptions, we formulate a set of general research questions and guidelines, which allow us to represent the context of multiple users in continuous collaboration with multiple tools while working on tasks that are intertwined within business processes. These guidelines will generate new insights for HCI/MIS research and allow us to develop research that captures the changing nature of the computing environment. INTRODUCTIONThis research commentary contributes to the discussion on future directions of Human-Computer Interaction research in Information Systems (HCI/MIS), which was spawned by the keynote panel discussion at the 2009 SIG HCI workshop. Specifically, this paper explicates the concepts of task context and social context as critical factors to be considered in both HCI/MIS theory development and design, and develops a set of guidelines that can be used to frame a research agenda. To achieve this objective, the paper first briefly discusses the state of HCI/MIS research. Then, to make the analysis more concrete, it draws upon the core HCI area of technology-based work interruptions (hereafter referred to as technology interruptions) to show how such research can gain from explicating the complex context, in which multiple individuals are simultaneously interacting with multiple technologies to perform a set of intertwined tasks. With help from this analysis, the paper concludes with a set of research questions and guidelines for future HCI/MIS research. A Call for Engaging Context in HCI/MIS Research with Examples from the Area of Technology Interruptions Research Commentary THE NEED FOR CONTEXT IN HCI/MIS RESEARCH What is HCI/MIS research?HCI research is multidisciplinary by nature, incorporating a vast number of efforts from fields such as computer science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ergonomics, and engineering, among others. In this paper, we restrict our focus on HCI research from an IS perspective (HCI/MIS), which is mostly published in IS journals, IS conference proceedings, and specialized HCI journals. We adopt Zhang and Li's definition of HCI/MIS research as research that is "concerned with the ways humans interact with information, technologies, and tasks, especially in business, managerial, organizational, and cultural contexts" (Zhang and Li, 2005, p. 228). This definition distinguishes HCI/MIS research from other HCI research areas by virtue of its focus on business tasks, and particularly their meaningfulness from an organizational perspective (Galletta et al., 2003, Zhang et al., 2002. As Zhang and Galletta stated, "The MIS researcher's perspective affords special importance t...

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