End-user computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:50, 1 June 2006

Revision as of 14:04, 1 June 2006

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In the former sense of EUC, it appears easier to teach factory workers, for example, how to read dials, push buttons, pull levers, and log results than to teach them the manufacturing process and mathematical models. The current computing trend is to [[simulate]] a console with similar dials, sliders, levers, and switches, which the end user is taught to use. To further reduce end user training, computer consoles all contain components which are shaped, labled, coloured, and function similarly.

In the latter sense of EUC, it has been argued that '''a''' (teaching programming and computing concepts to a ___domain expert (say, one of the sciences or engineering disciplines) and letting the expert develop rules (this type of action can be subsumed under the topic of business rules)) is easier than '''b''' (teaching the intricacies of a complex discipline to a computer hackerworker (need to clarify this further, but, for now, read IT/IS)). '''ab''' is the normal approach of the IT-driven situation. '''ba''' has been the reality since day one of computing in many disciplines. One may argument that resolving issues of '''a''' and '''b''' is not unlike the interplay between centraldistributed and distributedcentral processing (which is an age-old concern in computing).

In the former sense of EUC, computer developers assume that once the end user knows what and how a particular lever works, they will quickly identify it when it appears in a new console. This means that once staff learnlearns one console, they will be able to operate all consoles. Admittedly each console will have new components, but training is limited to those, not the whole console. This approach requires more than just [[Pavlovian]] responses as the console content will have meaning that is of use and power to the particular computing ___domain. One aspect of EUC research addresses issues related to [[man-machine]] interface.

In the latter sense of EUC, there may be computer scientists supporting decisions about architecture, process, and GUI. However, in many cases, the end user owns the software components. One thrust related to this sense of EUC is a focus on providing better languages to the user. [[ICAD]] was an example in the [[Knowledge-Based_Engineering|KBE]] context. Of late, this discipline has moved to a co-joint architecture that features advanced interactive ___domain visualization coupled with a complicated API accessed via [[VBA]], [[C++]], and the like. This type of co-jointness is an example of a ___domain tool augmented with non-trivial extensibility.

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Other studies range from website [[accessibility]] to [[pervasive computing]], with the focus ranging from the human to the computer. The issue centres around how much the human can safely and reliably adjust to the computer's [[I/O device]]s on the one hand, and how unobtrusively the computer can detect the human's needs on the other.

Too, issues related to computing ontologies (example: [[Language/Action_perspective]] has found some success in [[CRM]], etc.) continue to be of interest to EUC.

==Analysis==