User-oriented graphics systems for decision support in unstructured tasks

Abstract

The quality of graphic interaction languages may be examined in terms of what the user sees at each interaction point, what he has to know in order to interpret what he sees, and what actions he oan take at the interaction point. These guiding questions are of special importance in designing graphic facilities to be used by managers in solving unstructured problems found in business and industry. Three principles for design respond to the guiding questions and represent a partial synopsis of what we have learned in our work. I. Design the context presented to the user at each interaction point to suggest the actions which a user can take upon that context. II. When processes are indeterminate (e.g., in unstructured problems), focus design on particular displayable data representations (e.g. tables, graphs, charts) rather than on the processes in which representations may be used. III. Design the system to have an explicit framework so that a user working out a solution to an unstructured problem can take the graphics system structure for granted as he concentrates on discovering problem structure. These principles will continue to be developed, revised, and expanded in our Decision Support Systems project.