In reading this article I tried to keep context in mind. This article was published in the third quarter of 2003, which means the development of this idea probably started in 2001-2002. I say this because I read this article the first time and said, "So what?" There is plenty of research and our own real-life experience to tell us that generally graphical interfaces will create enhanced user experiences, satisfaction, and performance; that is why I believe DOS as a primary PC interface died so early on in the computer age. Although there seemed to be some decrease in accuracy on the visual interface in this study, I would question how the visual interface was set up rather than discount the overall results. Still, in 2001-2002 we were well on our way to front-ending just about everything with an easy-to-use graphical interface. Perhaps Speier & Morris just needed to validate it in another manner. From my understanding of how the practice of social research is accomplished, this is a text book research project when you analyze the structure, data collection method, etc. I did appreciate the framework they built for evaluating end user performance in the test. Thinking of relationships like spatial recognition proficiency when evaluating the differences between text and graphical interfaces was spot on. There was certainly some significant thought put into the variables they accounted for and evaluation criteria for their samples. I still struggle with the value this research can bring to education or industry. I bet you all can help me with that though.
Keywords: Speier and Morris
Posted by Tom Babineau
Comments
I think the value that this research brings to industry is to establish a foundation upon which other researchers can extend their experiments. If one of their hypotheses was disproved by their current sample of data, perhaps others can find a population more representative to test the hypothesis again. And if it gets disproven again, other researchers should start to look for other factors that could have caused that result. For example, what other factors could affect decision accuracy on the visual interface? That's just one way I think the article provided value.
Karen Lum on Friday, 15 September 2006, 14:07 Pacific Daylight Time # |
Hey Tom, I enjoyed reading your blog. Your opinion is thorough and humble... It made me realize the suttle values of the artice. Good job.
Rosemary Kim on Monday, 18 September 2006, 11:35 Pacific Daylight Time # |
Beyond the benefits of the use visualization techniques in the decision-making area, they show us the methodology that they used to perform their study, which could help us in the future.
Jesus Canelon on Monday, 18 September 2006, 14:22 Pacific Daylight Time # |
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Comments
Beyond the benefits of the use visualization techniques in the decision-making area, they show us the methodology that they used to perform their study, which could help us in the future.