Work Centered Support System Design: Using Frames to Reduce Work Complexity

Abstract

We have been developing user interface clients as fully integrated support systems. A Work Centered Support System aids work by using direct and indirect, passive and active methods. An important property of WCSS systems is the use of form representations as passive devices to help reduce work complexity while simultaneously aid users in adaptive problem solving. Based on our experience implementing the design of three WCSSs we have distilled a set of three form-based design principles that help insure a work-centered perspective is expressed in the interface and that aid problem solving. These principles connect problem-solving objects with work domain objects at different levels of abstraction, utilize a first-person work ontology, and organize information selection and layout based on problem relationships. This paper describes the principles and uses illustrations from our designs to indicate how they reduce work complexity.

Applying Phenomenology and Hermeneutics in IS Design: A Report on Field Experiences

“…These projects' outcomes have been sufficiently successful to motivate description and promotion of their origins in terms of both a new type of IS product (work-centered support systems) and a novel form of IS design practice (work-centered design) (e.g., Eggleston, 2003;Eggleston & Whitaker, 2002;Eggleston, Young & Whitaker, 2000;Scott et al, 2005). Grateful as I am for these developments, I cannot claim they reflect more than isolated tidbits about my actual design praxis and tactics in the course of the referenced projects.…”

“…These peripheral tools comprise a frame for the vantage display. Because this design strategy progresses from problem to vantage to frame, it has been labeled the Problem-Vantage-Frame approach (Eggleston & Whitaker, 2002).…”

An Ontology-Based Architecture for Adaptive Work-Centered User Interface Technology

“…The success of this collaboration will depend upon shared semantics and upon a shared model of the work to be done. This vocabulary should be that of the system's users, as espoused by the First-Person principle of WCSS (Eggleston & Whitaker, 2002). To be adaptive, a user-interface must be driven by evolving models of the work domain and of the human user of the system.…”

“…2.5 An Introduction to the APVF Ontology Eggleston and Whitaker (2002) propose the Problem-Vantage-Frame principle as a general guide in designing work-centered support systems, as follows:…”

“…In the ACUITy architecture, we explicitly characterize domain concepts and relationships in a hierarchy of ontologies, associated with upper level ontological constructs that enable adaptive reasoning and extensibility. Our core ontology is derived from three work-centered design principles introduced by Eggleston and Whitaker (2002), including:…”