Interface design issues in the future of business training

Business Horizons, Nov-Dec, 1993 by Elizabeth Boling, Gerald A. Sousa

In the race to remain competitive in the global economy, many companies see the training and retraining of workers--and giving workers critical information when and where they need it--as key strategic imperatives. These companies hope to use distance learning and multimedia technology to deliver more training and more "just-in-time" information to more workers in more locations more efficiently than has ever been possible.

Most organizations converting their resources to an innovative technology-based program try to foresee issues related to hardware capabilities, software features, maintenance costs, and technical support requirements. Far less frequently considered are the range of human experience issues encompassed in the emerging discipline of interface design. These issues have great potential impact on the effectiveness of distance learning and multimedia systems.

A glance through the trade publications shows that companies in almost every type of business are already either using or experimenting with innovative methods for keeping workers current and competent. To facilitate their efforts they use a host of technologies ranging from the fairly simple and well-known, such as videotape and telephone help systems, to the more complex: hypermedia, knowledge systems, and video teleconferencing.

In an excellent overview of these emerging technologies, Alan Chute and his colleagues (1991) codify them along a continuum, creating an instructional technology model divided into three hierarchical stages (see the Figure). Stage 1, classroom learning, provides information delivery in traditional methods that include voice, print, and video. Stage 2 incorporates distance learning technologies that range from voice mail to video teletraining. At the top of the continuum, Stage 3 includes methods that deliver just-in-time performance support systems that range from computer-based training (CBT) through hypermedia applications, knowledge systems, and artificial intelligence. Most organizations move along the continuum, adding technologies as the need or cost factors dictate. Regardless of their degree of complexity, these technologies all share one fundamental feature with the potential to enhance or confound any implementation of that technology-interface.

INTERFACE AND INTERFACE DESIGN

What does interface mean? What is interface design? The word "interface" technically describes the communication between two disparate entities. For example, the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), which many personal computers use to exchange data with certain other devices, is a system protocol that allows one computer to "talk" to a device or another computer. Interface and interface design, however, more commonly refer to the interactions of humans with computers.

Consider the common video cassette recorder (VCR). One of its obvious interface elements is its "Play" button, marked with a right- or left-facing arrow, which signals the machine to begin playing a tape. A less obvious interface element, but one included in our definition, is the slight whirring sound of the spindles as they turn inside the machine. The whirring sound might not have been designed into the product consciously--it may even be an element designers tried to eliminate--but when it serves as a clue to the user that the machine has started to play the videotape, it functions as part of the interface. In addition, a particular videotape player may have been manufactured with a loose connection; as such, it occasionally has to have its power cord jiggled to start it. As far as the user of the system is concerned, jiggling the power cord is a message to the machine to "Start already!" and thus is a part of its interface. From a user's perspective, a system's interface includes all the ways in which it communicates and is communicated to, whether or not those elements were part of the system's intentional design.

The emerging discipline of interface design concerns itself with the human experience of using technological products in all contexts, and with designing into products the greatest probability of a satisfying and successful experience for the people who use them. Interface designers or engineers are drawn from a combination of existing disciplines: product design, cognitive science, graphic design, engineering (especially information engineering), human factors, and instructional design. Because the nature of their work is interdisciplinary, the most effective designers enter the field with multiple areas of expertise, although a firm may need to hire more than one individual to ensure that its interface team has the full range of skills required to do the job correctly.

Where can interface designers be found? It is still difficult to find people whose education and experience are specifically in interface design, particularly for instructional products. Until recently, most interface designers focused on the creation of applications software; thus, the software industry is one source for experienced designers. Designers of museum exhibits, film and television animation, educational simulations, public information systems, and other products requiring coordination of multiple media for delivering information are all possible candidates for transition to interface design in business training. It is more important to look for a designer who understands product design than it is to look for an expert in the particular delivery technology being used. A technical expert will design to exploit the features of the delivery system. An interface designer will work to enhance the experience--and the performance--of learners who will use the final product.