The American Society for Information Science & Technology
2005 Annual Meeting:
“Sparking Synergies: Bringing Research and Practice Together”
October 28 - November 2, 2005
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Seminar
Theory and Practice of Cognitive Work Analysis: Designing Ecological Information Systems (separate fee)
Relevance of Cognitive Work Analysis to Information Science It is generally recognized that the design of information systems is complex and that it should involve the potential users of such systems. This tutorial presents Cognitive Work Analysis as a framework that guides the design of information systems. Cognitive Work Analysis embraces complexity by providing for multi-dimensional analyses of the use of information systems and their contexts.
The Cognitive Work Analysis framework can be applied to analyze the work people do, the tasks they perform, the decisions they make, their information behavior, and the context in which they perform their work - all for the purpose of systems design. The framework is one of the few tools, which offer a mechanism to transfer results from an in-depth analysis of human-information-work interaction directly to design requirements. The framework was developed in the 1970s at the Department of System Analysis at Risø National Laboratory, Denmark to facilitate the human-centered design of systems that people use in their work.
Cognitive Work Analysis is useful for the study of human-information interaction and for the design of information systems because: It provides for a holistic approach that makes it possible to account for several dimensions simultaneously. It facilitates an in-depth examination of the various dimensions of a context. A study of a particular context is an interdisciplinary investigation with the purpose of understanding the interaction between people and information. It provides a structure for the analysis of human-information interaction, rather than subscribing to specific theories, models, or methods. One can employ a wide variety of conceptual constructs or tools that may be deemed helpful for the analysis of a specific situation. This flexibility turns the focus of an investigation to the situation under study, rather than to the testing and verification of models and theories.
The Cognitive Work Analysis framework is a powerful guide for the design of information systems for specific situations because many aspects--personal, social, technological, and organizational--play a role simultaneously and interdependently and the framework provides a means for capturing these and translating them into requirements for systems design.
The framework’s theoretical roots are in General Systems Thinking, Adaptive Control Systems, and Gibson’s Ecological Psychology, and is the result of the generalization of experiences from field studies which led to the design of support systems for a variety of modern work domains, such as process plants, manufacturing, hospitals, and libraries. To date, the framework has been used both for academic research and for the design of actual information systems.
The tutorial The tutorial gives an overview of the Cognitive Work Analysis framework including discussions of its historical, methodological, and theoretical position in relation to other movements in Information Science, particularly with respect to Human Information Behavior research.
It then explains the applicability of the Cognitive Work Analysis framework to the design of information systems, introducing some of the specific methods and templates that are employed in the framework. The tutorial is highly interactive and the participants will have opportunities to discuss their own work and relate that to the Cognitive Work Analysis framework.
During the tutorial, the participants will: Be given an overview of the Cognitive Work Analysis framework Be introduced to basic concepts of Cognitive Work Analysis Apply various tool of Cognitive Work Analysis Discuss the application Cognitive Work Analysis to particular information systems design issues
After completing the tutorial, the participants will be able to: Understand how to develop requirements for an information system to satisfy the actors’ needs Understand how to conduct an evaluation of an existing, or proposed, information system guided by Cognitive Work Analysis Apply a few basic Cognitive Work Analysis tools to their own work and research Start thinking about applying the full Cognitive Work Analysis framework to their work and research agenda.
Raya Fidel and Jens-Erik Mai
Center for Human-Information Interaction Information School
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
Time and Fees: tba
American Society for Information Science and Technology
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA
Tel. 301-495-0900, Fax: 301-495-0810 | E-mail: asis@asis.org
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Information Science and Technology