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Vol.30 No.4, October 1998

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HCI Solutions for Managing the IT Infra-structure

A CHI 98 SIG Report

Introduction
Design Challenges and Solutions
Comments and Discussion
Future Meetings
About the Authors
Authors' Address

Introduction

In a kick-off Special Interest Group (SIG) at CHI 97, participants focused on key design challenges in the domain of network and system management. At the conclusion of the CHI 97 SIG the group decided it would be helpful to continue to meet and to provide a forum for exploring solutions to these key design challenges.

The CHI 98 SIG provided an opportunity for over 30 HCI practitioners and researchers in the management domain to share information about work in several key areas.

Design Challenges and Solutions

The CHI 97 SIG generated nine key areas of interest (For more information see the write up of the CHI 97 SIG in the CHI Bulletin, October, 1997). At CHI 98 three presenters covered work they had done in the following areas:

Catherine Plaisant (U. of Md.) used two demonstration videos to examine visual Information management of large networks. She covered the focus areas of information visualization, inadequacies of the window paradigm, and managing relationships among domain objects.

Larry Wood (Brigham Young University) described user-centered design methods applied in the design of a Telecommunications support application. This talk described one solution to the problem of inadequate product engineering in the design of management systems.

Tom Graefe (Compaq Corp.) described work on Information design for a network product technical support group. He focused on issues related to the capture and access of trouble shooting information, and education and training.

Comments and Discussion

The three talks covered widely different topics, and the audience reactions reflected this. Feedback was gathered by asking for comments on note cards, which were collected at the end of the SIG. Overall, the solutions described touched on key problems the group was facing in their current work. Comments ranged from quite detailed issues of implementation to broad statements of commonality. Almost everyone felt more time was needed for discussion. Also, some people would prefer exclusive focus on HCI design areas like visualization.

Future Meetings

The attendees were enthusiastic about continuing the SIG at CHI 99. There was general agreement that the SIG format of only 90 minutes did not allow sufficient time for the depth of discussion desired. A workshop-type format was suggested as one option. The SIG organizers noted previous attempts to pursue this venue had not succeeded. This raised the question of where in-depth, somewhat specialized discussion, fits within the CHI conference format.

About the Authors

Tom Graefe has been in the Usability Design Center at Digital Equipment (now Compaq Corp.) since February 1995. He has worked on HCI design and issues in networking and system management since 1981

Dennis Wixon has been working in User Interface design for over 20 years. He is currently program manager for usability at Digital Equipment Corporation (now part of Compaq Corp.)

Authors' Address

Thomas M. Graefe
Compaq Corporation
550 King St.
Littleton, MA 01540 USA

email tom.graefe@digital.com
tel 1+978-506-7335

Dennis Wixon
Compaq Corporation
110 Spitbrook Rd.
Nashua, NH 03062 USA

tel +1 603 881 2276
email dennis.wixon@digital.com

Issue

Article

Vol.30 No.4, October 1998

Article

Issue