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1. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): The Perfect Topic for Information Systems Researchers!
   By Jenny Preece, Ph.D.
   
   Information Systems differs from its cousin, computer science, in being application oriented. We require graduate students to know some programming and networking, to be proficient in systems analysis and design, to design and implement data bases, to have a broad knowledge of management information systems and human-computer interaction and many other topics, such as e-commerce, e-government, AI, health informatics.
   
   Computer science curricula, in contrast, tend to emphasize programming languages, system architecture, algorithms and data structures. Information Systems takes a socio-technical perspective, whereas computer science takes an engineering and science perspective. Information Systems recognizes both the social and technical components of any system involving computers. Socio-technical systems are composed of: people, the social and physical environment in which technology is used and the technology itself. In order to develop successful socio-technical systems all of these components must be taken into account early and throughout system development.
   
   Human-computer interaction (HCI) is about people interacting with computer systems and with each other via computer systems. Consequently HCI fits within a socio-technical philosophy well. In fact, I will argue that HCI should be part of all information systems graduate programs and department research profiles. This is particularly important now that HCI has matured and broadened beyond just the human-computer interface – or man-machine interface as it used to be known. New areas such as computer-supported co-operative work (CSCW) and more recently, online communities (OCs) and Internet and society research, push the boundaries of HCI even further in the socio- direction.
   
   In my presentation I will suggest, as I argue above, that HCI should be represented in all information systems departments. In addition, it is the duty of HCI faculty in information systems departments to promote HCI by encouraging cross-disciplinary research within information systems departments and with other associated departments. I will illustrate this point by first mapping out a research agenda for HCI in information systems and showing how our department at UMBC contributes to this vision. Finally, I will use my own research in online communities as an example of a strongly socio-technical research area that bridges across a number of disciplines in information systems, social psychology, sociology, medical informatics, and education. I even have interesting opportunities to work with students in a language, literature and culture (LLC) program.
   
   
2. Web site delays: How slow can you go?
   By Dennis Galletta, Ray Henry, Scott McCoy, and Peter Polak
   
   Web page loading speed continues to vex users, even as broadband adoption continues to increase. Several studies have addressed delays both in the context of web sites as well as interactive corporate systems, and a wide range of "rules of thumb" have been recommended. Some studies conclude that response times should be allowed to grow to no greater than 2 seconds while other studies caution on delays of 12 seconds or more. One of the strongest conclusions was that complex tasks seemed to allow longer response times. This study examined delay times of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 seconds using 196 undergraduate students in an experiment. The subjects were randomly assigned a constant delay time and were asked to complete 9 search tasks, exploring a familiar and an unfamiliar site. Plots of performance, attitudes, and behavioral intentions suggested the use of non-linear regression, and the explained variance was in the neighborhood of 2%, 5%, and 7%, respectively. Focusing only on the familiar site, explained variance in attitudes and behavioral intentions grew to about 16%. A sensitivity analysis implies that decreases in performance and behavioral intentions begin to flatten when the delays extend to 4 seconds or longer, and attitudes flatten when the delays extend to 8 seconds or longer. Future research should include other factors such as expectations, variability, and feedback, and other outcomes such as actual purchasing behavior, in more fully understanding the effects of delays in today's web environment.
   
   
3. A Unified Model of IT Use Choices: Contributions from TAM, TTF, and CSE
   By Diane M. Strong
   
   An MIS approach to HCI (MIS/HCI) addresses a key aspect of users’ interactions with computer systems, namely usefulness. While the usability focus of traditional HCI research encourages us to ask “Usable by whom?”, usefulness encourages us to ask “Useful for what?” Since a person in an organization interacting with a computer system is typically trying to accomplish some organizational task, a focus on the tasks users are performing is a critical part of MIS/HCI. Furthermore, the concept of “task” differs between the traditional HCI approach and the MIS/HCI approach. In the traditional HCI approach, “task” means computer activities, e.g., insert data, query a table, insert a column. From an MIS/CHI approach, “task” refers to a business or organizational task, e.g., manage a budget, decide how much inventory to order, process a customer order.
   
   These observations about the role of task in an MIS approach to HCI support our belief that models of Task-Technology Fit are core to MIS/HCI research. Task-Technology Fit (TTF) models, as well as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), have been used in the MIS literature to help us understand user choices about software utilization. In these models, the extent to which individuals in organizations choose to use an information technology is explained by usability, usefulness, and in general, how well the technology fits or supports the needs of the users’ tasks.
   
   The research described in this talk is part of a stream of research exploring the similarities and differences among models and constructs that help MIS researchers understand users’ choices about the software to use. The goal of this research stream is to propose and test unified models that help us understand better users’ choices about software. Specifically, we have proposed and tested a model combining the TAM with a TTF model. TAM captures beliefs about usability and usefulness. To this, the TTF model adds constructs for task, technology, and the fit between the two. Together, this unified model provides better explanatory power than either model alone.
   
   To the combined TAM/TTF model, we are exploring the addition of constructs that capture individual abilities. Users’ choices about information technology are not only influenced by task needs and technology functionality, but also by their experience and abilities related to the task and to the technology. Specifically, we are testing the addition of Experience and Computer Self-Efficacy (CSE) constructs to the combined TAM/TTF model.
   
   As we move toward a unified model of Task-Technology Fit, we need to address some key research questions including: How should we conceptualize and model information technology? How should we conceptualize and model organizational tasks and processes? What are the key dimensions of fit between task and technology? What are the critical dimensions of user abilities? How can we re-conceptualize models developed from individual-level theories so that they can be applied to organizational-level tasks, technologies, and fit?
   
   
4. Communication Theory as a Basis for Designing Adaptive Websites: Levels of Abstraction and Scope
   By Dov Te’eni
   
   Websites such as professional web-books, online tutorials and other information intensive websites have traditionally been designed on the basis of an augmented book metaphor. In this talk, I take an alternative view in which the website is an active agent of communication that adapts to the needs of the reader (who is seen as a partner to the communication). This leads to a notion of adaptation on two dimensions: scope and levels of abstraction (high levels are abstract representations and low levels are detailed and concrete).
   
   People communicate at different levels of abstraction, depending on the task at hand and the complexity of the communication. Models of communication can predict these moves across levels and can therefore serve as a basis for websites that adapt to the needs of the reader (user). Similarly, if the system can be informed (by the reader or otherwise) of the current area of the reader’s interest, the scope of website can be adapted accordingly.
   
   In order to examine these ideas empirically, we studied the use of websites that could adapt the presentation of materials to different levels of abstraction and different scopes. In one study, we constructed a website from a 100-page article that was reorganized as a Web-book built around four levels of abstraction, i.e., low levels consist of specific and concrete descriptions of reality, while high levels consist of general principles abstracted from specific cases. A field study of unsolicited readers, as well as a group of solicited readers who were assigned specific problems, tapped their access patterns. The findings suggest that users vary their allocation of attention to different levels of abstraction and choose to hide or ignore lower levels for certain reading tasks. An experiment further investigated under what conditions users move from one level to another and found that complexity triggers transitions between levels. A second study looked at the effects of adapting the scope of a webs te on the effectiveness and satisfaction of users. It turned out that the effects of adaptation are mixed and may be time dependent. I hope to involve the participants in a discussion of these issues.
   
   
5. Knowledge-based Support in a Group Decision Making Context: An Expert-Novice Comparison
   By Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah and Izak Benbasat
   
   Knowledge-based systems (KBS), which represent the knowledge and problem-solving expertise of human experts as well as other sources of expertise in narrow knowledge domains, have been used to support group decision-making. This research studied the use of a KBS and its explanation facilities to support group decision-making of experts versus novices in a laboratory setting. Consistent with predictions from social judgment theory, the results indicate that experts exhibit a higher level of criticality and involvement in their area of expertise; this not only decreases their likelihood of being persuaded by the KBS, but also accounts for a lower group consensus among experts as compared to novices. Novices benefit more from KBS use and find KBS to be more useful than experts do. In terms of theoretical contributions, this research integrates social judgment theory from the persuasion literature into research on group use of KBS.
   
   
6. Designing Business-To-Consumer (B2C) Interface Metaphors: An Empirical Investigation
   By John Wells and William Fuerst
   
   The emergence of electronic commerce has pushed information technology to an increasingly heterogeneous set of users (e.g., customers) who interact with a wide variety of user interfaces. As a result, the need for user-friendly, intuitive interfaces has become an urgent issue in electronic commerce. Interface metaphors are a popular means for facilitating user interaction via familiar, concrete objects or attributes. This research explores the use of concrete attributes derived from the physical business domain as a technique for designing business-to-consumer (B2C) interface metaphors. A laboratory experiment was designed to test the effectiveness of a concrete interface metaphor for presenting both textual and graphical information, as compared to an abstract interface metaphor. The retention/recall of the information was measured for two different interface metaphors, with subjects being tested both the day of the treatment and after a two-day lag. Results revealed that the concrete interface metaphor stimulated higher levels of retention and recall of information, particularly for customers who possess a weak mental model of the business domain. In addition, it was observed that the concrete interface metaphor stimulated a higher level of graphical information retention without adversely affecting the retention of textual information.
   
   
7. The Impact of Cognitive Mapping on Effective Website Design
   By Hui Kun Neo, Gek Woo Tan, and Kwok Kee Wei
   
   For Internet retailers to survive, it is important for them to design effective Websites. In surveys conducted by CommerceNet and GVU, the inability to find and access information in the Website was cited as main concerns in obstructing e-commerce, causing user dissatisfaction and hindering user performance. In this study, we proposed that a molar perspective of Website design dimensions facilitates the cognitive mapping of user's mental model of the Website to the Website environment and consequently improves user performance. The main contribution of this study lies in the proposal of a parsimonious framework for measuring these dimensions in relation to user performance, to be carried out through experimentation. This would give us insights as to the formulation of guidelines that would assist designers to better identify the areas for improvement and ultimately, create genuine effective Websites.
   
   
8. Management Information Space (MIS*)
   By Arkalgud Ramaprasad and Kevin Desouza
   
   This paper extends the connotation of MIS (Management Information System) to MIS* (Management Information Space). Structurally MIS* consists of information objects, information processing agents, and information flow media. Functionally if extends the manager's sensory space digitally and seamlessly to wherever and whenever necessary within the manager's organization and its environment. It also sustains the semiosis in an organization and extend the semiotic capability and capacity of the manager by: (a) using different semiotic agents, (b) using a variety of information objects, and (c) by facilitating the information flowamong these agents and objects via avariety of media. The overall question for the HCI reserach in MIS* is to be able to make the MIS* pervasive and ubiquitous and yet make the manager feel omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent - the God of his or her universe, and not feel overwhelmed. The manager should be able to imagine the MIS* but it should not become an illusion; the manager should be able to immerse himself or herself in the MIS* without getting lost; and the manager should be able to interact with the logical and physical organization through the MIS* without loss of control.
   
   
9. Seal of Approval and Multidimensionality of Perceived Trustworthiness in Online Service Adoption
   By Kevin Kuan and Judith Olson
   
   This paper examines the concept of perceived trustworthiness and its effect on adoption of online service. Perceived trustworthiness has been argued as a higher-level concept reflected by three distinct beliefs: (1) perceived ability (the extent to which the trustee is perceived as competent), (2) perceived integrity (the extent to which the trustee is perceived as being adherent to a set of dependable and reliable principles), and (3) perceived benevolence (the extent to which the trustee is perceived as caring beyond an egocentric profit). An experiment based on an online service was conducted with 112 subjects at a major mid-west university. Modeled as a second-order factor, perceived trustworthiness was found to have a significant effect on intention to adopt the online service. Consistent with TAM, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were found to have significant effects on intention. Furthermore, perceived usefulness was found to have a significant effect on perceived trustworthiness. This paper also examines the effect of seal of approval by TRUSTe on the three beliefs of trustworthiness. It was found that TRUSTe seal improved perceived integrity but not perceived ability and perceived benevolence. The multidimensionality of perceived trustworthiness, and its relations with perceived usefulness and seal of approval, provide new insights on understanding adoption of online service.
   
   
10. Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies
    By Ben Shneiderman
    
    Recent research on computer user frustration with 111 experienced users has revealed that 30-45% of user time is wasted. This appalling record should push developers to dramatically improve the usability of existing systems. The potential productivity gains are enormous. Second, future designs can and should address the need for universal usability: device independence, user independence, and knowledge independence. Third, the largest opportunity is in new products and services that are truly in harmony with user needs. The Activities and Relationship Table is one guide for innovation. This talk proposes Leonardo da Vinci as an inspirational muse for the "new computing." The old computing is about what computers can do; the new computing is about what users can do. http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/newcomputing | http://mitpress.mit.edu/leonardoslaptop
    
    
11. The Impact of Internalization and Familiarity On Trust and Adoption of Recommendation Agents
    By Sherrie Xiao and Izak Benbasat
    
    We postulate that the relationship between a customer and a recommendation agent (RA) in agent-mediated electronic commerce will affect customer trust in an RA and RA adoption. The relationship between a customer and an RA is a relationship of representation and delegation, which is personal and close. Our research model conceptualizes that both internalization and familiarity will affect customer trust in an RA (including both cognitive trust and emotional trust), and that customer trust in an RA will affect the intentions to adopt an RA as a delegated agent or as a decision aid. Internalization refers to a customer's perception of how well an RA understands and represents her real needs. New measures of cognitive trust, emotional trust, the intention to adopt an RA as a delegated agent, and the intention to adopt an RA as a decision aid have been developed. The empirical study finds that internalization significantly and positively affects both cognitive trust and emotional trust in an RA. We are surprised to find that familiarity decreases emotional trust in an RA, and that it does not significantly influence cognitive trust in an RA. We also observe that both cognitive trust and emotional trust in an RA significantly and positively affect the intention to adopt an RA as a delegated agent or as a decision aid. Finally, it is interesting to learn that emotional trust fully mediates the impact of cognitive trust on the intention to adopt an RA as a delegated agent, and that emotional trust partially mediates the impact of cognitive trust on the intention to adopt an RA as a decision aid.
    
    
12. A Motivational Theory Of Evaluation For Information Seeking Environments
    By Jeff Stanton, Ping Zhang, and Gisela von Dran
    
    In this paper, we develop a framework that emphasizes the role of motivation and emotion on user evaluation and future behavior. We suggest that the hedonic outcomes of a user's experience with an artifact, such as an information-seeking environment, influence the likelihood of his or her future goal-oriented behavior pertaining to that artifact. By synthesizing two current theories from the behavioral science research literature we have developed a framework that we hope will enhance understanding of the processes underlying user evaluation of an artifact as well as the likely future behavior toward the artifact. We focus this framework on the level of the immediate experiences of individuals as they use an artifact rather than on the larger contexts of social and organizational influences on artifact use.
    
    We reinterpret results from two previous studies in light of the new framework. We also present results of a preliminary study designed to refine and develop the framework. The artifact in this study was a set of web-based information-seeking environments that allowed users to conduct a brief information search and self-tutorial. We hope that the framework can eventually be generalized to other artifacts (e.g., smart-phones, PDAs) with which people interact for achieving a particular goal.