Issue
Article
Vol.30 No.1, January 1998
Article
Issue
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.1, January 1998 |
Article |
Issue |
Researchers, practitioners, and educators in the field of human-computer interaction are engaged in endeavors as dynamic and colorful as the variety of people who contribute to the body of knowledge we have come to know intimately as CHI. The knowledge base amassed by our community has been painstakingly constructed by experts from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds who share a common goal: to know the truth about the interactions that define mankind's relationship with the computer. Our strength lies in our ability to draw upon the collective wisdom of this knowledgeable and diverse group of people.
The objective of this article is to enable the CHI community as a whole to gain a bird's eye view into one of the commonly represented disciplines in the CHI community: Industrial Engineering (IE). As is the case in most disciplines, CHI is a relative newcomer to the IE discipline. This poses challenges and opportunities for people within IE to pursue solutions and extend inquiries within the CHI domain. This article explores these challenges and opportunities by first providing a historical perspective of the IE discipline. The role of CHI in IE will be pondered, and then an opportunity will be discussed that challenges researchers and educators in the IE discipline to infuse CHI into the more traditional areas of IE so the discipline can finally realize its goal of being both systems- and solutions-oriented.
The IE discipline has its roots in the Midvale Steel Company. As early as 1881, an employee, Frederick W. Taylor, used a stopwatch to determine the proper output per man after analyzing and defining their jobs. His interest was in finding a means by which one could determine how much a worker could produce without experiencing excessive fatigue. At that time, management believed that an employee had to speedup their work to produce more output. Taylor recognized that jobs could be redesigned and work methods could be revised to realize more output in less time without unduly fatiguing the worker. Taylor's contributions were complemented by those of Frank Gilbreth, a bricklayer's apprentice who ultimately became one of the best known building contractors in the world. Gilbreth divided the motions of the industrial worker into eighteen types and called the collection of motions Therbligs. Gilbreth's motion studies and Taylor's time studies were the foundation for the contemporary discipline referred to as Industrial Engineering.
Taylor is also credited with instigating the first undergraduate curriculum in Industrial Engineering by recommending to James Beaver, President of the Board of Trustees of Pennsylvania State University, that Mechanical Engineering be taught from the vantage point of manufacturing rather than from the perspective of power plants and higher mathematics. In 1908, the first course of study was offered to juniors and seniors in Mechanical Engineering that reflected this new paradigm. In 1909, Pennsylvania State University became the first institution in the world to offer a baccalaureate program in Industrial Engineering (Emerson & Naehring, 1988).
The IE undergraduate curriculum has evolved from that time into one that is traditionally composed of three main areas: manufacturing, operations research, and human factors and ergonomics. Within these areas, courses are offered in work design and measurement, plant location and layout, material handling, engineering economy, production planning and inventory control, statistical quality control, linear programming, and operations research. At first glance, this curriculum seems to be an unlikely place where one could find courseware related to the study of human-computer interaction. Yet, in addition to these traditional courses of study, HCI is realizing a stronger and stronger presence. In the early days of computing, researchers and educators in IE were mainly interested in human-computer interaction from a productivity and efficiency standpoint. This focus is not surprising given the history of our profession and its roots in industrial productivity. Today, researchers and educators in IE are seeking solutions to inquiries that concern every facet of the human-computer interaction.
The study of human-computer interaction is generally found within the human factors and ergonomics area of a typical undergraduate IE curriculum. Human factors and ergonomics are two different areas of study and yet the terms are often used interchangeably. Human factors focuses on understanding human information processing and how human cognitive capabilities, limitations, and preferences affect how humans use machines. Ergonomics is more centered on the physiological aspects of fitting the design of machines and workspaces to accommodate the physiological dimensions of the humans who are attempting to accomplish work.
HCI is a topic that may be covered within an undergraduate course in human factors engineering. Basic principles of visual, tactile, and auditory displays are covered along with basic programming techniques. However, the study of HCI is much more pervasive at the graduate level in IE. In programs where there are faculty with the appropriate expertise, courses have been developed and are being developed that reflect the very essence of HCI. For example, courses in interface architecture, human aspects of information systems, artificial intelligence, cognitive engineering of interactive software, and interactional aspects of expert systems, are a few of the courses that may be offered at the graduate level in IE programs. Often, the course offerings at the graduate level are defined by the research areas of the faculty within the human factors area. To round out a student's plan of study, these courses may be coupled with offerings in cognitive psychology, and computer science.
This approach to HCI education is consistent with the ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human Computer Interaction (Hewett et al., 1992) which stresses the importance of course offerings in HCI reflecting the interdisciplinary flavor of the HCI profession. Thus, HCI has a formidable presence in graduate level IE programs. Surely, HCI can play a larger role in undergraduate IE programs while still maintaining the ability of the programs to be accreditable.
The discipline of Industrial Engineering prides itself on having a systems perspective. This translates to blurring the lines between specific areas of endeavor and integrating considerations of multiple subdisciplinary objectives into single designs. For example, an undergraduate design project principally concerned with plant layout should also include considerations of work design, ergonomics, quality control, material handling, and production planning while using techniques learned in engineering economy and systems simulation to validate the design. Yet, considerations of how humans interact with the computerized components of systems within these areas has been largely overlooked. For example, in the systems modeling and simulation area, students are engaged in constructing models of a multitude of systems ranging from transportation systems to banking systems. Construction of these models and the resulting simulations are done using computers and requires considerable interaction with the computer. Yet, principles of HCI are not discussed nor incorporated into such endeavors. Similarly, in the undergraduate IE curriculum, students are tasked with constructing and implementing linear programs to optimize sets of parameters given certain constraints. This is accomplished using computers and yet no thought is given to the interaction that must occur between humans and the machines they use. More specifically, a good interface can be linked to increased productivity and increased productivity can be linked to increased revenues. Thus, interface design is an application area that can be focused on when teaching students how to mathematically optimize the behavior of computerized systems.
In our technological society, human-computer interaction is an intrinsic component of the designs our students will be tasked with developing and implementing. Computers play a pervasive and critical role in the majority of products on the market today. In addition, the manufacturing processes required to produce these products are to a large extent computerized. Consider flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), a favorite topic in undergraduate manufacturing courses in IE. Consideration must be given to the design of the FMS' interfaces to ensure optimal use of such systems. This is a facet of FMSs that has been overlooked both in practice and in the classroom.
The impetus for adopting a total system's approach to undergraduate IE education that incorporates HCI, must come from the top. We are at a crossroads in the IE discipline. We can either continue with the status quo, ignoring the fact that humans must actually use the machines students are tasked with designing or we can educate our students about how to enable computers to be as usable as possible.
For the undergraduate student who wishes to be learn about HCI, IE curricula as they currently exist, will be a disappointment if modifications like the ones proposed in this article are not enacted. At the graduate level, students have the opportunity to engage in the study of HCI within IE curricula as they currently exist. However, graduate students should be strongly encouraged to investigate the interests of faculty in the IE program to verify that they possess the background and expertise necessary to instruct courses and advise theses related to HCI.
In order to infuse HCI at every level of the undergraduate IE curriculum, we must be prepared to educate our non-HCI oriented faculty on the merits of HCI. We must be willing to go into the classroom and share our expertise in domains outside of our own. We must challenge our department chairs to think critically about `the system perspective' and what it means in the information age. We must draw strength from our colleagues in the HCI community who share our value for seeking knowledge about the ways humans interact with machines in a multitude of environments. We must communicate to our students the importance of considering the human being in our designs. Finally, we must continue to model ourselves after our forefathers, Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth, by challenging the ways things are currently done and extending ourselves beyond what is accepted today as a "system's perspective".
Hewett, T., Baecker, R., Card, S., Carey, T., Gasen, J., Mantei, M., Perlman, G., Strong G., and Verplank, W. (1992). ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction. New York: The Association For Computing Machinery.
Emerson, H. P., & Naehring, C. E. (1988) Origins of Industrial Engineering: The Early Years of a Profession. Industrial Engineering & Management Press.
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.1, January 1998 |
Article |
Issue |