Group chairs: Michael Lesk and Gio Wiederhold.
Other major contributions: Ben Shneiderman and Jim Hollan.
| Dan Atkins | (Univ. of Michigan) |
| Charles Billings | (NASA Ames - retired) |
| Jack Breese | (Microsoft) |
| Bruce Croft | (Univ. of Massachusetts) |
| Jim Foley | (Mitsubishi Electronics Research Laboratory) |
| Jim Hollan | (Univ. of New Mexico) |
| Susanne Humphrey | (National Library of Medicine) |
| Tom Huang | (Univ. of Illinois) |
| Takeo Kanada | (Carnegie-Mellon Univ.) |
| Ron Larsen | (DARPA) |
| Michael Lesk | (Bellcore) |
| Larry Rosenblum | (Naval Research Laboratory) |
| Ben Shneiderman | (Univ. of Maryland) |
| Peter Stucki | (Univ. of Zurich) |
| Alex Waibel | (Carnegie-Mellon Univ.) |
| Gio Wiederhold | (Stanford Univ.) |
| Maria Zemankova | (National Science Foundation) |
The United States faces major societal and economic issues such as health care delivery, education reform, support of democratic institutions, national security, and crime prevention. Computing and information technology can help with these problems, but solutions must center around the people who deal with these problems. Too often in the past we have focused on the enabling hardware and distanced ourselves from the human aspects. We have built massive databases and high-speed networks without considering the information needed by people coping with societal problems.
The participants in this workshop were united in their belief that new research initiatives could make a difference in developing tools to enable people to address societal and economic issues by better utilizing the computational methods and the information resources we have today. We first of all have to recognize and understand the characteristics of the gulf between our resources and a future where these resources can serve societal objectives in an effective and human-centered manner.
Well-oriented research can develop the tools needed to bridge this gulf, by shifting attention to providing information to people and improving communication between them. These tools also need intuitive interfaces, through which people view and manipulate the information provided. To judge the effectiveness of the tools and interfaces, potential adopters need evaluations, to assess when and how well the tools are working.
Human-centered systems involve people who are using technology to solve
problems. People should feel a sense of mastery over the problem while
using the tool, not a sense of frustration. They should be able to achieve
a result that satisfies them, and they should feel that they
have solved
the problem, not that they turned it over to a black box. In our view,
a human centered system is the result of a human centered process. To be
human centered, a system should be
To accommodate these criteria the feedback loops needed to keep the systems effective have to involve humans at all levels, from the technical support to the people who are affected by the information being handled (Shneiderman 1990).
As an example of what we envisage, imagine that if you were brought to any emergency room in the country, your most recent tests results, such as EKG, blood chemistry, CAT scan, etc., could be on a screen in fifteen seconds, even if the tests had been performed elsewhere. Backup information would list effective treatments for cases such as yours, and the expected outcomes and risks for alternative treatments, based on current data from a large population. Shortly thereafter, your personal physician and specialists could consult about your situation remotely. How could we build tools that let the medical and nursing staff use a capability like that to improve health care for you? (NAS 1991).
We can create similar scenarios for reducing threats and costs to society in applications such as disaster relief in which scarce resources can be appropriately be applied in a time-critical life-critical situations. Other goals might be crime prevention by monitoring juvenile delinquents, criminals, and parolees, or reduction of the flows of illicit drugs into our suburbs and illicit funds to the underworld.
To serve a wide population such Human-centered systems must be universally available and adaptable to the needs of members of the diverse communities found in this country. Some are expert computer users; some have never used computers before. They vary demographically from young to old, they speak various languages, and an increasing fraction has limited mobility, eyesight, and hearing. Designers of human-centered systems must consider all the possible customers and provide the effective services to all. To make universal access a reality, the systems must have flexible controls to allow adaptation to general models of the customers' objectives and background as well as to individual desires.
For instance, the physician in the emergency room will require patient information in a different formulation than the home-health nurse. The policeman on the beat will require rapid access to uncertain data, while the prosecutor will need deep and validated information to avoid errors and waste. Furthermore, if our industry is to function in a global world, it needs to have product help available for speakers of many different languages.
Experience is demonstrating that just having an unstructured the Web is not a sufficient solution to the delivery of knowledge to people. Librarians are tired of being asked whether the Web has made their collections obsolete. While the Web is enormous -- today about 2 terabytes, or the equivalent of 2 million books according to Brewster Kahle (Markoff 1997) -- the right information needed in to solve a problem is not always accessible, relevant, and even when retrieved, not obviously valid. The Internet, consisting of autonomous and largely voluntary contributions, is intrinsically not organized. It contains an imbalance of information in different subject areas (there are 9,000 references to Elvis Presley, and 756 to Sam Rayburn). It is crucial to work on complementary methods of delivering relevant and correct information to people, with a background that includes the trail of sources and evaluations. A steam shovel is only more effective than a hand shovel if you know where to dig. See Borgman (1996).
We need principles for dealing with information, principles which will let us make generalizable results. Research must be based on realistic problems and testbeds, but solutions to any particular problem are not the end, but only a contribution to the knowledge that can be applied to all problems. Today far too many projects (and commercial products) are judged only by intuitive feeling, and not by scientific assessment. While intuition is important, it can also reinforce prejudices and errors. Research should produce principles of how people deal with information, and how information systems can be comprehensible, predictable, reliable, and controllable (Shneiderman 1997).
People need to be studied as well (`the noblest study of mankind is man'). As a result of earlier work in social anthropometry we know things like the weight and reach of the average and 95th percentile person. We do not know equivalent facts about the ability of people to absorb information, read dials, operate an on-screen menu, or parse a complex screen display. Some years ago Christine Borgman found that 25% of Stanford students had great difficulty learning to use a particular library software package which had been in use for some time (Borgman 1986). Lack of flexibility and adaptability prevented improvement through feedback. What must we know so we can build software that everyone can use? How can we test systems, especially those for unskilled users? If it takes a year for a user to become fully proficient, the world and the tasks will have changed and we cannot determine if the systems have been effective in aiding the humans. We'd like systems to adapt more rapidly to humans, than it takes for humans learn the vagaries of the computer and the information structures they they present.
Computation is perhaps most useful as a medium to support new forms of communication between people. Essential communication will always be between people, while communication between people and machines is an intermediate facility bridging time, language, and volume. This realization leads us not to construct human-like systems but to build human-centered systems. The point is to use machines as tools, not as substitutes. For instance, the radio and the phonograph let us hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra whether or not we can travel to Commonwealth Avenue (or Tanglewood). They do not replace the skill of the composer or the musicians with algorithms, but the quality of the intermediate transmission and recording crucially affects our enjoyment. Human-centered systems for information delivery, similarly, amplify the power and force of a librarian, or a pilot, or a mayor -- they do not attempt to replace them with silicon circuitry (Wiederhold 1997).
To place human-centered technology on a sound basis it will be important to develop theories and principles to understand information in context and assure effective delivery of this information to human consumers and decision-makers. We need to establish and validate principles of interaction. Research is also needed on understanding the information itself, its structure, the relationships among data from different sources, at different granularities, covering diverse scopes. Progress in modeling and organizing information, for instance through improved indexing, linking, integration, and processing, will pay off in better applicability of information to real problems. Models that can drive computations that integrate and summarize data in response to users needs and tasks will be important to guide the users through the resources. The models must be perspicuous so that the customer not only feels in control, but actually is in control of the information and its interaction with the problems being faced.
A science of helping people model and adapt information and the ontologies that support them should be developed. To be effective, the information cannot only exist of documents for presentations and study, but must directly present active graphics, action diagrams, meaningful icons, and solicit interactions with the humans.
We need to support community building and creativity. Our model (courtesy of Ben Shneiderman) for using information to support creativity involves four steps.
Creativity involves producing text, software, images, symbols, or any form that conveys information. Support of collaborations and communities reflects the recognition that few if any problems can be attacked by only one person in the world; people need to work together to solve important problems.
Tools are needed to help at all aspects of this process. For example, the first step, access, is similar to the digital library problem, but must be extended to resources that are not yet documented, as actions by collaborators, observations from sensing devices (as in medicine, traffic, etc.), and simulations that project the effect of ongoing or proposed actions into the future. All kinds of information analysis and retrieval are relevant. Visualization of information is needed so that resources can be perceived and effectively employed in problem solving. An example of admirable work in this area is the `perspective wall' at Xerox PARC (Robertson 1993) or the `starfield display' at the University of Maryland (Ahlberg 1994).
Fostering the creative environment include controlling simulation tools and design software, as well as writing tools. Some simple tools, as Visual Basic, have greatly simplified the job of creating user interfaces. Software can be effective when it codifies procedural knowledge and allows sharing of processes with others.
Consultation with other experts creates many opportunities as well, ranging from conferencing systems to people-finders. The University of Michigan Collaboratory is an example of using technology to let experts and novices work together on problem-solving from widely separated locations (Clauer 1994; NRC 1993). Being able to create networks that include interacting human resources as well as computational resources will better mimic effective social enterprises than assigning both routine and creative tasks to machinery (Bromley 1996, Wiederhold 1996a).
Dissemination of new information back into the community must become more flexible than it is now. We should not only present final results, but allow inspection and support insight into intermediate results and the process of obtaining them so that all collaborators can follow and understand the work. Tools for indexing and organizational display and manipulation can help the right people get examples of the work. An example of software that tracks intermediate stages of research is Jim Hollan's `readware' software to display the history of creating a program (Hill 1992).
Other technologies in human-centered systems that can foster creation of new applications are information visualization, virtual environments, and 3-D imagery. Aiding human perception is a powerful means to manage simulations or other aspects of human problem solving. Human perceptual abilities are underutilized with the current limited graphical user interfaces. Far greater information densities and rapid user-controlled displays could increase useful information rates a thousand-fold. Animation and video creation systems can help as well in the viewing and understanding of existing information and the dissemination of new results.
All of these tools are important to gain deeper insights and interactions than are now available when searching the literature and the world-wide web. For all of them, we need to be sure that we understand their interfaces, the boundaries between the information delivered by the tool and the humans using it. Understanding the principles of user interfaces is a critical research need for building better systems. Foundations have been laid from human factors and early human-computer interaction research, but ambitious goals should be set for improved predictive and explanatory theories, plus practical guidance for designers.
We also need evaluation to allow researchers and consumers to assess progress and effectiveness. Although our goals are societal benefits such as improved health care, a better-educated populace, increased industrial productivity, and reduced crime and fear of crime, we need ways of finding intermediate metrics that are easier to measure quickly. Research is needed on techniques for measuring rapid access to remote sources, the relevance and information density of obtained material, and the clarity of presentation; and then for validating the relationship between these techniques and socially desirable ends (whether educational efficiency or increased rates of software production). In all instances, projects should be designed from the start to include evaluation (Wiederhold 1995).
A further broad concern is the training of people to build human-centered systems, which is only now being addressed by some innovative universities (such as the new School of Information at the University of Michigan). Since interdisciplinary programs are difficult to establish, support for such programs should be part of a development plan. Funding for faculty, staff, and graduate students plus hardware, software, and communications services should be included. Relevant disciplines include computer science, information science and systems, library science, business, psychology, communications and media studies, graphic design, education, and more.
There are many national problems where better information could let people solve them more readily. Widespread availability of better information in the following areas would be suitable for human-centered research systems:
Vast amounts of medical imagery, patient records, health care literature, and devices producing test results are available. Their heterogeneity and dispersion makes the information less effective than it should be. Unifying these resources under the control of health care personnel has potentially large benefits for the health care system. Combining this information with processing tools that can consider relevance, context, and utility, while leaving room for personal choice would reduce the information overload now experienced by health care personnel and their patients. Preserving privacy and keeping costs low are further challenges. See for example (North 1996) and (Barnett 1993).
Education is a critical need for the US in the future, and we can view part of this problem as helping schoolchildren and college students as getting the information they need. All kinds of information are relevant to education and should be made available. The Library of Congress (as an example) is scanning millions of historic photographs for use in school, colleges, and beyond. We need human-centered technology usable by children to explore, select, and understand such material in context, and then to use it in creative authentic projects in individual and collaborative situations (Atkins 1996).
NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other groups have vast quantities of imagery of the Earth, which is vital for environmental, agricultural, and planning purposes. Delivering information based on this vast archive in relevant form to people has been difficult because of its enormous quantity. Knowledge about its significance in terms of agricultural production, environmental restoration, and human and animal habitation must be employed to create information relevant to societal objectives.
Innovative research is needed on how to build human-controlled systems that allow effective access to far more than raw terabytes of data, but extract the information hidden in this treasury. See (NASA 1997).
The American manufacturing economy now relies on vast quantities of electronic drawings of parts and machines. Human designers need new methods of retrieving pictures of parts and integrating existing parts into their new designs based on function and utility. An ability to share parts and processes among American products could help the American manufacturing economy in general, and reduce stocking and maintenance costs.
Today access to materials base data is dispersed over many suppliers in incompatible formats, so that engineers in practice rely on their past experience and just select adequate materials from standard catalogs. Providing integrated access, and computational tools that can enable engineers to design task-optimized materials to order for advanced products could greatly reduce waste due to over-specification, the cost of trimming in manufacturing, and the resulting pollution (NRC 1995, Wiederhold 1996b, Chu 1992).
Government information itself is vast and hard to cope with. To assist citizens in dealing with the government, both to respond to government requests and to understand what Congress is doing and how an individual can communicate his views effectively. There are lengthy trails of records leading to legislation and rulings that are even hard for a dedicated expert to follow. Not having access to the public and private diverse inputs and the compromises they engender leads to misunderstandings and distrust.
The volume of information and the complexity of governmental information is now such that even a free and active press has difficulty coping with it. A human-centered computer system that provided access to Federal budget data and diverse background information would be extremely valuable for the support of our democratic processes (Grossman 1994).
Substantial information resources could be applied to crime prevention, whether analysis of suspicious currency flows, processing of data from public space video cameras, tracking or monitoring of convicted criminals, especially parolees, or simply better crime information systems. For most non-felony criminals and juveniles, being tracked while being productive participants in enterprises, would be preferable to incarceration. Dealing effectively with crime prevention requires strong social skills and tact, so that here any automation has to be designed in a strongly human-centered way, involving a mix of technological, psychological, and legal expertise. A central problem is coordinating information from multiple and diverse sources such as schools, hospitals, police, and the courts.
Managing help and supplies at times of disaster requires quick adjustment of allocations based on incomplete information. Better information visualization could significantly improve decision-making in crisis situations. The military uses advanced command-and-control information systems to decide what to do with scarce resources in rapidly changing situations. Civilian applications could benefit similarly.
In many of the application areas listed a great deal of image material exists which is relevant to different national needs. Image and video databases must complement traditional textual material. If handled well such material will have impacts on the new generation of information customers that cannot be achieved by traditional means. Advancing the technology for managing, indexing, accessing, selecting, and comparing images could help in all of these areas. The design of systems to let people browse or search large image files based on content and relevance as relevant in many of the application contexts. For video data, ancillary information, such as object motion, observer position, and narration provide aspects that of value in determining relevancy, but are today not accessible in an integrated manner (ISU 1993).
This report has only scratched the surface of a very large potential for technological progress. The design of human-centered systems, particularly systems that support creative use of information by groups of people, can revolutionize problem-solving in the United States. NSF should support work in this area that offers new ways of handling information with testbeds and evaluations, focusing on how information is used by people in different contexts, and on how to expand the performance of people as much as possible.
NSF can help with the creation of infrastructure to support development and evaluation of human-centered systems. This should include
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