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15 Papers

Evaluating Interactive Visualizations for Supporting Navigation and Exploration in Enterprise Systems

Topics: HCI on Enterprise Information Systems; Interface Design

Authors: Tamara Babaian , Wendy Lucas , Alina Chircu and Noreen Power

Affiliation: Bentley University, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0005770203680377

Proceedings of ICEIS 2016, ISBN: 978-989-758-187-8

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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems pose usability challenges to all but the most sophisticated of users. One such challenge arises from complex menu structures that hinder, rather than aid, system navigation. Another issue is the lack of support for discovering and exploring relationships between the data elements that underlie all transactions and processes performed with the system. Two dynamic, interactive visualizations, the Dynamic Task Map and the Association Map, were designed to assist users in ERP system navigation and data exploration activities. In this paper, we describe a laboratory study comparing the use of these visual components to standard SAP interfaces. Results from an initial empirical evaluation revealed that all users were able to complete tasks more quickly and with the same or a lower number of errors when using the visual components than when using SAP. Answers to questions comparing the standard SAP interface with visualizations also revealed an overall preference for the visual interfaces. Suggestions for improvements to the visualizations from study participants provided valuable feedback for future development.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (4)
Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

Interface Design
HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

User Control of Force-directed Layouts

Topics: Programming Languages; Human- Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering

Authors: Wendy Lucas and Taylor Gordon

Affiliation: Bentley University, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0006008600910099

Proceedings of ICSOFT-EA 2016/ICSOFT, ISBN: 978-989-758-194-6

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Force-directed layouts are typically used for minimizing overlaps in node-link graphs. This can make it easier to interpret and derive meaning from the resulting visualization. Once such a layout is put in motion, however, the person interacting with it has little control over the “final” layout. This paper describes an approach that puts even inexperienced users in charge of force-directed layouts that are not limited to network diagrams. The visual interface to a powerful but relatively easy to use visualization grammar has been augmented with sliders for controlling the strength of constraints applied to visual objects. Users can change the balance of power between constraints while the visualization is running, specify different constraints for groupings of visual objects, turn off all or some of the constraints affecting the layout, or return a layout to its pre-constraint-solving specification. This approach is a step towards addressing the need for tools with which all users can control and interact with force-directed layouts.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (2)
Programming Languages

Software Engineering

Applying Design Principles for Enhancing Enterprise System Usability

Topic: User Modeling and HCI

Authors: Tamara Babaian , Jennifer Xu and Wendy Lucas

Affiliation: Bentley University, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0005099001620169

Proceedings of ICSOFT-EA 2014/ICSOFT, ISBN: 978-989-758-036-9

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Experienced users learn the “tricks of the trade” that allow them to make effective and efficient use of enterprise systems. New users and even experienced ones accessing unfamiliar parts of the system, however, are stymied by the lack of navigational cues, the ubiquity of tabbed pages, and the sheer number of fields that may be required. In earlier work, we documented the usability issues users are facing in the field, derived four design principles for guiding the design of systems that collaborate with their users, and implemented a database framework for supporting those principles. In this paper, we present two interventions targeted at the design principle that calls for providing navigational and progress guidance, while supporting the principle requiring that the system make use of contextual information in presenting data and choices to the user. Using visualizations in conjunction with a playback mechanism, users can learn about system-supported processes, find detailed information on the particular process instances on which they are working, and view automated playbacks of users completing the same and other types of tasks. This paper is the next step in designing enterprise systems that help, rather than hinder, their human partners by sharing their knowledge.

Visualizing ERP Usage Logs in Real Time

Topics: HCI on Enterprise Information Systems; Interface Design

Authors: Wendy Lucas , Jennifer Xu and Tamara Babaian

Affiliation: Bentley University, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0004440000830090

Proceedings of ICEIS 2013, ISBN: 978-989-8565-61-7

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We present a prototype system that visualizes business process models extracted from usage logs for providing support to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system users in real time. While process mining and visualization techniques are commonly applied to off-line data analytics and process management, far less attention has been focused on how they can be applied in real time to assisting users of complex system interfaces. The approach described in this paper demonstrates the application of interactive visualizations to providing ERP system users with process-, task-, and context-related information during active system use. Such information is vital to the users’ understanding of the supported processes and affects their ability to make the most effective use of the system, yet it is typically hidden behind opaque interfaces. Dynamically-generated interactive process visualizations that draw on data captured to usage logs are one way to open a much needed window for ERP users.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (4)
Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

Interface Design
HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Leveraging Usage History to Support Enterprise System Users

Topics: HCI on Enterprise Information Systems; Interface Design

Authors: Tamara Babaian and Wendy Lucas

Affiliation: Bentley University, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0004001100350044

Proceedings of ICEIS 2012, ISBN: 978-989-8565-12-9

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Users of Enterprise Information Systems face considerable challenges in relating the generic, all encompassing system interfaces to the vocabulary and business practices of their organizations. The help functionality is often too general to be of much use, and employees typically prefer to ask a colleague or a help-desk consultant for directions on how to proceed rather than turn to a user manual. A more direct, less resource-intensive approach than person-to-person assistance is to have the system itself provide the guidance the user is seeking in how to navigate and use its interface. We have implemented a playback interface that aids users of our Enterprise Resource Planning prototype in learning to perform an individual task or a multi-task business process. Our algorithm creates dynamic visualizations of previously occurring system-user interactions for demonstrating the system interface. The demonstrations are constructed in real time based on usage log data aggregated from multiple, pertinent user sessions. We discuss the challenges of identifying and aggregating relevant usage log records for task demonstrations and highlight the components of our data model designed to overcome these challenges. The playback interface offers a natural, low-cost alternative that is more flexible than pre-recorded tutorials, as the user can select a tutorial from a variety of options. In addition, it has the advantage of representing the actual business practices within the organization, which may differ from those prescribed by the system.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (4)
Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

Interface Design
HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

A REASONED APPROACH TO ERROR HANDLING - Position Paper on Work-in-Progress

Topics: Intelligent User Interfaces; HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Authors: Tamara Babaian and Wendy Lucas

Affiliation: Bentley College, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0001727304200423

Proceedings of ICEIS 2008, ISBN: 978-989-8111-40-1

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It is widely acknowledged that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are difficult to use. Our own studies have revealed that one of the largest sources of frustration for ERP users is the inadequate support in error situations afforded by these systems. We propose an approach to error handling in which reasoning on the part of the system enables it to behave as a collaborative partner in helping its users understand the causes of errors and, whenever possible, make the necessary corrections. While our focus here is on ERP systems, this approach could be applied to any system for improving its error handling capabilities.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (5)
Artificial Intelligence

HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Intelligent User Interfaces
Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

A DATA-DRIVEN DESIGN FOR DERIVING USABILITY METRICS

Topics: Information Systems Development; Data Warehouses and Data Mining; Management Information Systems

Authors: Tamara Babaian , Wendy Lucas and Heikki Topi

Affiliation: Bentley College, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0001334701540159

Proceedings of ICSOFT 2007, ISBN: 978-989-8111-07-4

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The complexity of Enterprise Information Systems can be overwhelming to users, yet they are an often overlooked domain for usability research. To better understand the ways in which users interact with these systems, we have designed an infrastructure for input logging that is built upon a data model relating system components, user inputs, and tasks. This infrastructure is aware of user representations, task representations, and the history of user interactions. The interface components themselves log user inputs, so that timing data and action events are automatically aligned and are linked to specific tasks. The knowledge gained about user interactions at varying levels of granularity, ranging from keystroke analysis to higher-level task performance, is a valuable resource for both assessing and enhancing system usability.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (9)
Business Analytics

Data Warehouses and Data Mining

Enterprise Information Systems

Communication and Software Technologies and Architectures

e-Business

Information Systems Analysis and Specification

Data Engineering

Engineering Information System

Management Information Systems

A LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFYING INFORMATIONAL GRAPHICS FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES

Topic: Declarative Languages

Authors: Stuart M. Shieber 1 and Wendy Lucas 2

Affiliations: 1 Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, United States , 2 Bentley College, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0001326300050012

Proceedings of ICSOFT 2007, ISBN: 978-989-8111-05-0

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Information visualization tools, such as commercial charting packages, provide a standard set of visualizations for tabular data, including bar charts, scatter plots, pie charts, and the like. For some combinations of data and task, these are suitable visualizations. For others, however, novel visualizations over multiple variables would be preferred but are unavailable in the fixed list of standard options. To allow for these cases, we introduce a declarative language for specifying visualizations on the basis of the first principles on which (a subset of) informational graphics are built. The functionality we aim to provide with this language is presented by way of example, from simple scatter plots to versions of two quite famous visualizations: Minard’s depiction of troop strength during Napoleon’s march on Moscow and a map of the early ARPAnet from the ancient history of the Internet. Benefits of our approach include flexibility and expressiveness for specifying a range of visualizations that cannot be rendered with standard commercial systems.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (3)
Declarative Languages

Programming Languages

Software Engineering

VISUALIZING THE PROCESS - A Graph-Based Approach to Enhancing System-User Knowledge Sharing

Topics: HCI on Enterprise Information Systems; Human Factors; User Needs

Authors: Tamara Babaian , Wendy Lucas and Heikki Topi

Affiliation: Bentley College, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0002352401230128

Proceedings of ICEIS 2007, ISBN: 978-972-8865-92-4

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Our research is concerned with developing design guidelines aimed at improving the usability of enterprise-wide information systems by employing collaborative problem solving as a model for user-system interaction. In this paper, we present our approach to addressing a critical design issue that we identified through our field research: namely, system-to-user communication involving components of a complex process flow. This approach uses a dynamic process graph and a set of related task links that are displayed alongside the traditional ERP task interfaces. We outline the collaborative framework and position our solution within it. This solution can benefit other application areas, especially those that involve protracted processes that are not familiar to the user.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (6)
Enterprise Information Systems

Human Factors

Physiological Computing Systems

HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

User Needs

IDENTIFYING USABILITY ISSUES WITH AN ERP IMPLEMENTATION

Topic: HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Authors: Heikki Topi , Wendy Lucas and Tamara Babaian

Affiliation: Bentley College, United States

Digital Object Identifier: 10.5220/0002522301280133

Proceedings of ICEIS 2005, ISBN: 972-8865-19-8

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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems hold great promise for integrating business processes and have proven their worth in a variety of organizations. Yet the gains that they have enabled in terms of increased productivity and cost savings are often achieved in the face of daunting usability problems. While one frequently hears anecdotes about the difficulties involved in using ERP systems, there is little documentation of the types of problems typically faced by users. The purpose of this study is to begin addressing this gap by categorizing and describing the usability issues encountered by one division of a Fortune 500 company in the first years of its large-scale ERP implementation. This study also demonstrates the promise of using collaboration theory to evaluate usability characteristics of existing systems and to design new systems. Given the impressive results already achieved by some corporations with these systems, imagine how much more would be possible if understanding how to use them weren’t such an overwhelming task.
Collapse Button Related Ontology Subjects/Areas/Topics (3)
Enterprise Information Systems

HCI on Enterprise Information Systems

Human-Computer Interaction

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