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From: Barry <we...@i1...> - 2005-10-06 20:33:31
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Hi All -
Given the recent uptick in support by Open Country for webmin, and Paul
Cubbage's recent call for ideas into what the future Webmin might look
like, I thought this is on topic...
Paul - I am not sure if you are in the Bay Area or not, but if you are,
these seminars are generally open to attend in person...there might be a
wealth of info for OC's own products there too.
Best,
Barry
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Stanford Seminar on People, Computers, and Design (CS547)
http://hci.stanford.edu/seminar
Gates B01 (HP Classroom) and SITN, 12:30-2:00pm PDT (UTC 19:30)
Video: http://scpd.stanford.edu/scpd/students/courseList.asp CS547
*************************************************************
Friday, October 7, 2005
Luke Kowalski, Oracle
v12...@ya...
TITLE: Administrators Anonymous - UCD, TCO, LCM, and other interventions
ABSTRACT:
The lack of focus on administrative interfaces often comes from
management's mandates to prioritize end user facing screens ahead of
anything else. The number of "eyeballs" is greater for the end user
screens than admin screens. It is also easier for all stakeholders,
including interaction designers to understand the domain of an e-mail
application than it is to grasp things like complex system monitoring,
visualization of clickstream data, or the tools needed to bridge
interdependent systems. However in more complex software, this initial
emphasis on the end user turns out to be a short lived priority. The
more significant costs of running software are often associated with
installation, configuration, deployment, maintenance, and upgrade.
Often, this is referred to as LCM, or Lifecycle Change Management.
Industry estimates state that the budget for LCM can be 2-4 times as
large as the initial license cost of enterprise software. More
information is needed about how administrators work to manage these
systems and what business and integration problems they are trying to
solve. UCD, or user centered design can help answer these questions.
The administrator is often a misunderstood user type. Experts have
recently started to shed light on this subject. As reported in this
forum by Rob Barrett of IBM Almaden, administrators cling to their
shells, scripts, and other command line utilities. We create GUI tools
for them, but is that what they really need to lower the Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) of software, or to be more efficient when communicating
with each other? What are the real frustrations in a given admin's day
and how can Human Computer Interaction practitioners help them?
This talk will focus on better understanding administrators and what
design solutions and techniques work. I will present more information
about the latest user classifications I found in mid-to large scale
companies. Their user profiles vary in terms of technical skill,
breadth, and responsibility. I will also talk about a study of only
DBAs, where my team saw a large difference between self reported and
observed data concerning their real tasks.
Practical case studies of software ecosystems that these admins inhabit
will be showcased throughout this talk. While sometimes unexpected, the
tools and techniques that an HCI practitioner, or any software designer,
can deploy will decrease the frustration, complexity, and cost
associated with enterprise software deployment. The bridging of
technical and organizational silos will often be required, and designers
will need to extend their role in order to bring about any significant
change and make life (and command line withdrawal) easier for
Administrators Anonymous.
**********************************************************
Luke Kowalski is the Corporate UI Architect at Oracle Corp. His role
serves to bridge the user interface design groups at Oracle and he works
as an evangelist for effective UI technology, on legal aspects of user
interfaces, business context, and cross-divisional information
architecture integration. Prior work includes begging for money at
startups as director of UI and Web, a longish stint at Netscape's Server
User Interface Group, as well as other odd HCI jobs to fill out the 15
years in practice. He holds several UI patents, a CPE Certification, and
two Masters Degrees, one from Pratt Institute, and another from Columbia
University. His PhD in Divinity cost him $5 from http://www.ulc.org/ and
allows him to park in the minister spot in front of hospitals. He has
also published book chapters and articles and spoke at the Nielsen
Norman Group conference in Sydney in 2002.
**************************************************************
NEXT WEEK: October 14, 2005 - Jeffrey Heer, UC Berkeley Computer Science
he...@cs...
Presiding Over Accidents: Techniques for Designing Directive Interfaces
http://hci/seminar/abstracts/05-06/051014-heer.html
**************************************************************
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