| SIGHCI Home | AMCIS'03 HCI Minitrack | BIT |
Ping Zhang, Syracuse University
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Jenny Preece, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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HCI in MIS, Editoral Introduction
Ping Zhang, Syracuse University
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is gaining momentum in many IT fields as computing
technology increasingly impacts individuals, businesses, society, commerce and
government throughout the world. More recently, the Association for Information Systems
(AIS, http://aisnet.org) recognized the need to
promote HCI in the Management Information Systems (MIS) field.
The first step taken by AIS was to approve the creation of the
Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction (AIS SIGHCI, HCI HOME ).
This group was established in 2001 and has run successful tracks and workshops at major MIS conferences
since then. A recent conference was the Americas Conference on Information Systems
(AMCIS'03) at which the organizers of the HCI mini-track proposed publishing extended
versions of the best papers in this special issue.
There are three reasons for producing this special issue. The first is to make BIT
readers aware of the work of the AIS SIGHCI members; the second is to tell readers
about some of this work; and the third is to encourage future collaboration between
AIS SIGHCI and the international HCI community. To achieve these goals and to
position the group and its work, we will first briefly describe the historical
development and current status of the Management Information Systems discipline
and the kind of Human-Computer Interaction research that is being conducted in MIS.
We then describe the AMCIS conference from which the papers were selected.
Finally, we conclude by calling for better communication and collaboration among HCI scholars in different disciplines.
Minhee Chae and Jinwoo Kim, Human Computer Interaction Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul Korea
The small screens of mobile Internet devices, combined with the increasing complexity
of mobile tasks, create a serious obstacle to usability in the mobile Internet.
One way to circumvent the obstacle is to organize an information structure with
efficient depth/ breadth tradeoffs. A controlled lab experiment was conducted to
investigate how screen size and information structure affect user behaviors and perceptions.
The moderating effects of task complexity on the relationship between screen size/information
structure and user navigation/perceptions were also investigated.
Study results indicate that both information structure and screen size significantly affect
the navigation behavior and perceptions of mobile Internet users.
Task complexity was also found to heighten the influence of information structure on
user behavior and perceptions. The paper ends with a discussion of theoretical and practical
implications, among them a key implication for mobile Internet businesses:
for corporate intranet systems as well as m-commerce transaction systems,
the horizontal depth of information structures should be adapted to task complexity and anticipated screen size.
Richard H. Hall, University of Missouri - Rolla
The purpose of this experiment was to examine the effect of web page text/background color
combination on readability, retention, aesthetics, and behavioral intention.
One hundred and thirty-six participants studied two Web pages, one with educational
content and one with commercial content, in one of four color-combination conditions.
Major findings were: a) Colors with greater contrast ratio generally lead to
greater readability; b) Color combination did not significantly affect retention; c) Preferred colors (i.e., blues and
chromatic colors) lead to higher ratings of aesthetic quality and intention
to purchase; and d) Ratings of aesthetic quality were significantly
related to intention to purchase.
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Web users often face a long waiting time for downloading Web pages.
Although various technologies and techniques have been implemented to
alleviate the situation and to comfort the impatient users, little research
has been done to assess what constitutes an acceptable and tolerable waiting
time for Web users. This research reviews the literature on computer response time
and users' waiting time for download of Web pages, and assesses Web users' tolerable
waiting time in information retrieval. It addresses the following questions through
an experimental study: What is the effect of feedback on users' tolerable waiting time?
How long are users willing to wait for a Web page to be downloaded before abandoning it?
The results from this study suggest that the presence of feedback prolongs
Web users' tolerable waiting time and the tolerable waiting time for information
retrieval is approximately 2 seconds.
Papers in the Special Issue
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Jenny Preece, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Patrick Hanna, Matrikon Corporation
A study on tolerable waiting time:
how long are Web users willing to wait?