Brittleness in the design of cooperative problem-solving systems:the effects on user performance
Smith, P.J.; McCoy, C.E.; Layton, C.
Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, IEEE Transactions on
Volume 27, Issue 3, May 1997 Page(s):360 - 371
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/3468.568744
Summary:One of the critical problems in the design and use of advanced
decision-support systems is their potential “brittleness”.
This brittleness can arise because of the inability of the designer to
anticipate and design for all of the scenarios that could arise during
the use of the system. The typical “safety valve” to deal
with this problem is to keep a person “in the loop”,
requiring that person to apply his/her expertise in making the final
decision on what actions to take. This paper provides empirical data on
how the role of the decision support system can have a major impact on
the effectiveness of this design strategy. Using flight planning for
commercial airlines as a testbed, three alternative designs for a
graphical flight planning tool were evaluated, using 27 dispatchers and
30 pilots as subjects. The results show that the presentation of a
suggestion or recommendation by the computer early in the person's own
problem evaluation can have a significant impact on that person's
decision processes, influencing situation assessment and the evaluation
of alternative solutions
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