ICS 463, Intro to Human Computer Interaction Design: 8. Social and Organizational

1. ICS 463, Intro to Human Computer Interaction Design: 8. Social and Organizational Dan Suthers

2. Analyzing Conversation Social interaction mediated by language Does it help to model this interaction formally? First some background

3. Language as Action Perspective • Language not just about the literal content of the utterance (locution) Utters(S, "It's cold in here." ) • Also the intended effect of the utterance (illocution) Intends(S, acts(H, closeWindow)) // or openWindow if in POST • This may be different than the effect actually achieved! (perlocution) "Do it yourself lazybones!"

4. Grice’s Maxims • Interlocutors make their contributions just as informative as they need to be, and no more • For example, “Don't state the obvious” • If the maxim is violated, we assume the speaker is trying to communicate something (rather than that the speaker is ignorant of the maxim) • ”The door is behind you"  duh!  must be telling me to leave

5. Speech Act Theory • Looks at language as another way of acting on/in the world • Categorizes simple utterances into categories of acts (Inform, Request, Promise, Accept, Decline ...) Application • "Conversation for action" - a genre of conversations for coordinating actions • Captured in finite state automata form

6. The Communicator • Winograd built the Communicator to keep track of where interlocutors are in the conversation • Assumes that explicit speech acts make for better outcomes: a cultural assumption! • Mixed reviews • Best in stable authoritarian organizations, pairs of interlocutors • Not so good in heterogenous creative organizations, more than 2 interlocutors

7. Utility of Categorizing Acts? • Others experimenting with • message categories, sentence openers, dialogue models • in asynchronous and synchronous CSCL • Labeling of acts problematic in general • takes time • labels used inconsistently or arbitrarily • Discourse is too flexible

8. Computer Mediated Communication • Studies effects of computers as communication channel on communication • Active research area • In general, major differences compared to face to face (F2F) …

9. Roles of nonverbal communication • Nonverbal deixis (referencing or picking out) • Gaze (implicit) • Pointing (explicit) • Attitude and Turn Taking Cues • Gaze • Nodding • Facial expressions, etc. • We lose much of this in CMC

10. Does the medium matter? • Yes and no • Generally, CMC more difficult than face to face in problem solving tasks • These are usually controlled studies • Yet many studies of online learning fail to show outcome differences against F2F • CMC does have some advantages • if asynchronous, more reflective • shy people more likely to participate in online discussion

11. Threaded Discussion • Coherence • Conversational moves get out of turn • Multiple threads intermix • Awareness of other’s activity (when synchronous) • Convergence • inherently divergent representation • no way to bring threads back together • Artifact Centered Discourse • no support for discussion in context of mutually shared artifact and reference to that artifact • Suthers has some solutions …

12. Video: Mutual Awareness • Mutual awareness and orientation to shared artifact • What are the others seeing? How do I know you are seeing the same thing? • How are my gestures perceived? Is my manual deixis effective? • Misdirection of gaze disconcerting (put camera 'inside' display? • What is he looking at? • Why isn’t he looking at me?

13. Video: Social Interaction • Studies of talking heads • Generally no value added ... • except in negotiation situations, development of personal relationships (attitude cues) • Coordinating control: loss of cues makes it hard to know when turn is being passed. • Group conversation harder: need mediator or protocols

14. Organizations • When studying an organization, consider • the people, their roles, their attitudes, motivations, expectations • the organizational structure and how work is allocated within this structure • the organizational culture - the implicit aspects of the way the organization is structured and functions • the technology used and created • ... and particularly how the above are perceived by different participants

15. Impact of IT in Workplace Positive: • Enriching: takes care of routine jobs, letting people focus on creative aspects, higher level tasks. • Democratic: Distributes workload power more evenly. • Communication channels open up.

16. Impact of IT in Workplace Negative: • Deskilling: people become dependent, forget how to do things themselves, or are reduced to mechanized 'operators' of automated systems. • Detracting: people spend too much time maintaining and fixing technology rather than primary tasks (cost of usability article) • Disrupting: Useful patterns of communication disrupted. • Inequities: Managers may benefit more than workers (power and workload).

17. Ethnographic Studies Show ... • Critical role of representations and artifacts in coordinating work • Importance of • Mutual access to representations and artifacts • Overhearing conversations • Casual conversations (coffee machine effect) • New technologies can either enhance or disrupt these informal and implicit ways of learning and coordinating work

18. Theoretical Approaches • Ways of understanding (and designing?) the role of technology in the workplace

19. Scientific Management • separate planning and working • design efficient procedures • train workers to carry them out • design reward structure • monitor to be sure procedures are followed • OK for mass production in industrial age.... • Problem: people don't work that way, especially in fast changing modern world. • Example: Copy machine repairmen: "they don't need cell phones, they should just follow the manual."

20. Sociotechnical, Ethnomethodology • Sociotechnical systems • Studies how social systems and technical systems interact • Attempts a structured methodology (see text) • Ethnomethodology • No assumed theoretical model • Observe social practices with and about technology in work setting • Both have tended to focus on identifying problems rather than methods for designing to avoid these problems. (But a good idea.)

21. Activity Theory • Examines relations between Subject, Object, Mediating Artifact and extension to Rules, Community, Division of Labor (the triangles …) • Artifacts are used in work and are products of work  dynamically mediate group activities, not just acted on by individuals • Breakdowns (what is expected does not happen) and contradictions (inability to break out of undesirable situations) resolved by the users and practitioners by identifying, reflecting on, and reconceptualizing the problematic activity

22. Assignment 6 (individual) Kukakuka Considering the material of chapters 8-10, discuss one or more of the following (your choice): • The role of the software in the learning process and implications for its design • How might the introduction of Kukakuka into ICS classes affect the “work practices” of ICS faculty and students? How should the design be adjusted to improve the impact? • This will be assessed based on the depth of thinking and quality of writing