End-user computing: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
m elevate role of 'Duck testing' and its ilk into visual/analysis method
m EUC Ranges: missing parens (probably a reason not use them - but I love Lisp)
Line 9:
EUC might work by one type of approach that attempts to integrate the [[human interface]] [[ergonomics|ergonomically]] into a [[user centered design]] system throughout its [[technology lifecycle|life cycle]]. In this sense, EUC's goal is to allow unskilled staff to use expensive and highly skilled knowledge in their jobs, by putting the [[knowledge]] and expertise into the computer and teaching the end user how to access it. At the same time, this approach is used when highly critical tasks are supported by computational systems ([[FAA|commercial flight]], [[nuclear plant]], and the like).
 
Another approach to EUC allows end users ([[Subject_Matter_Expert|SME]]s, ___domain experts) to control and even perform [[software engineering]] and development. In this case, it can be argued that this type of approach results mainly from deficiencies in computing that could be overcome with better tools and environments. But, high-end roles for the computer in non-trivial domains necessitate (at least, for now) a more full interchange (bandwidth for conversation) that is situational and subject to near exhaustive scrutiny (there are [[limits]] influencing how far we can go (bringing up, the necessity for a [[Duck_test|behavioral]] (also, see [[Black_box_%28systems%29|black box]] below) framework)). Such cannot be filled by a pre-defined system in today's world. In a sense, the computer needs to have the same [[credentials]] as does a [[cohort]] ([[scientific method]] of [[peer review]]) in the discipline. Needless to say, this type of computing falls on the more 'open' side of the fence where scientific knowledge is not wrapped within the cloak of IP.
 
In the first type of approach of EUC described above, 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. EUC 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 learns 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. That is, there may be training that reduces the time between sensor reading and action (such as the situation for a pilot of a commercial plane) however, the meaning behind the reading will include other sensor settings as well as whole context that may be fairly involved.