Interface Modes Styles U sers Reaction

7.3 Interface Modes Styles

 Interface or interactive Mode: the combination of presentation and action languages  Determines how information is entered and displayed  Determines the ease and simplicity of learning and using the system – Menu interaction – Command language – Questions and answers – Form interaction – Natural language processing – Graphical user interface object manipulation Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Menu Interaction  Includes Pull-down Menus in GUI  Command Language  Questions and Answers  Computer asks, user answers  Form Interaction Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Natural Language  Mainly with keyboard  Some with voice input and output  Major limitation  Inability of the computer to understand natural language  AI advances are improving it Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Interface GUI  Icons or symbols are directly manipulated by the user  Most common PC GUI OS: Windows 95  Usability of four styles along four dimensions Table 7.1  Hybrid Modes – NLP + Hypermedia – Command + Menu – GUI + Menu Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Dimensions Menu Interaction Fill in the Blanks Forms Command Languages GUI Questions and Answers Speed Slow at times Moderate Fast Could be slow Slow at times Accuracy Error free Moderate Many errors Error free Moderate Training time Short Moderate Long Short Short Users preference Very high Low Prefer, if trained only High High Power Low Low Very high Moderate- high Moderate Flexibility Limited Very limited Very high Moderate- high High if open ended Control The system The system The user The system and the user The system Source: Based on Majchrzak et al. [1987]. Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ Importance  Interface cost can be 60 to 70 of the total DSS cost  Ideally, interface adaptable to different users’ needs and communicate consistent commands internally Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Efraim Turban and Jay E. Aronson Copyright 1998, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ

7.4 Graphics