Archive for category decision making

Book Review: Working Minds

Posted by jasonwong in decision making, good design, user testing on August 31st, 2009

Working Minds: A Practitioner’s Guide to Cognitive Task Analysis is a book designed to introduce the domain of Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to those who have an interest in learning how to document cognitive expertise. In today’s information-heavy, cognitive-dependent world, determining how experts think (specifically, how they make decisions) is important to capture when training novices or designing systems that will aid that expert in his or her work.

WorkingMinds

Beth Crandall, Gary Klein, and Robert Hoffman all have a great deal of expertise in the field, and the book certainly represents that wealth of knowledge. The book is structured into three broad sections: an overview of CTA methods, a section the authors call “Finding Cognition”, and a section on specific applications of CTA. This is all followed by an appendix entitled “Guidance for Data Collection.”

I found the book organized in a confusing manner. The “Finding Cognition” section of the book laid out some of the problems that CTA is designed to solve, such as the rise of new information technologies. Additionally, the authors discuss their theory of macrocognition, which takes a broader, real-world view of cognition (versus the localized, specific cognitive phenomenon studied in the laboratory). I found this useful and wish the book started off with these chapters.

Cognitive Task Analysis relies on expert interviews in order to document aspects of macrocognition, and the interviews are often difficult to conduct. I kept wondering how to conduct an effective interview only to find those tips and tricks stuffed into the appendix. I would have rather had the appendix made an actual chapter and tied in with the first section that gave an overview of CTA methodology.

A downside I felt regarding the author’s expertise is that they have completed many successful CTA projects using their specific techniques, and those are the primary focus here. The book is not a survey of CTA methods, but instead a detailed description of a subset of methods that have worked well for the authors. This is disappointing, but understandable in that it allows for the authors to explore a few techniques deeply and ensures that the authors speak from experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed the final section of the book, which detailed applications of CTA from training, systems engineering, market research, and more. A convincing case is made for the usefulness of CTA when dealing with decision making in any context, and the rest of the book is designed to give the reader the tools with which to understand how decisions are made.

One final note: the authors often discuss conducting interviews that can take place for several hours or over the course of several days. This is realistic for these researchers, who run a company that is consulted by other agencies when they really need a CTA completed for a project. However, for someone like myself, there is no way on Earth that I am going to be able to conduct two-hour long interview sessions with any sailor. Therefore, the tools and methods presented in the book would have to be adapted for anyone working in a realistic environment. Despite this, the book provides an excellent starting point for learning about CTA and conducting CTA studies.

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Recession to reduce number of consumer choices

Posted by jasonwong in decision making, marketing on June 20th, 2009

First: I am finally settled in Rhode Island and mostly unpacked. My job with the Navy as a Human Factors Scientist begins this Monday, June 22. Now that I’m mostly back to normal, hopefully I will be able to post here more often. Thanks for your patience and continuing to read this blog. And now, to the content.

The recession has hit everyone hard, of course, and the New York Times has an article detailing how big chain stores (Wal-Mart and Target, of course, but also Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s) may drastically change the way they operate in order to respond to how consumers shop these days.

This is a human factors blog, so a majority of the article (while interesting) does not apply here. Except for one snippet that has to do with too much choice, which has been dealt with on this blog here and is the subject of an entire book by Barry Schwartz (The Paradox of Choice). It all boils down to decision making, and anyone who has been overwhelmed by the number of cereal, laundry detergent, or new car choices has experienced this crippling cognitive/decision-making process.

However, due to the recession and the fact that stores cannot keep as much stock on hand at any given time (because money is tied up in unsold products), soon consumers will have less choice. From the article:

Another change is that consumers will have fewer brands from which to choose. Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, and PetSmart are just a few of the chains winnowing their brands. As Home Depot’s executive vice president for merchandising, Craig Menear, put it: consumers are “time-starved” and “looking for simplification in the entire shopping experience.”

That may delight minimalists, because it will be easier to find items on the shelves. But it also limits choice.

In the case of the cereal aisle, fewer choices may not be a bad thing.

cereal_aisle

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Summer Reading List

Posted by jasonwong in consciousness, decision making, robots on June 3rd, 2009

It has been an insane few weeks with moving from Virginia to Rhode Island, and then travel to the Midwest for family events, which is why there have been no new posts. However, I have been doing a lot of reading since I have not had much Internet access recently either.

Wired for War

Wired for War by P.W. Singer is a book about the coming robotic revolution in warfare. The author is a young analyst at the Brookings Institute, which is a political think tank. I was pleasantly surprised that the author was not a gung-ho military man nor was he an anti-military hippie. He is, however, a geek. The first part of the book details all the current and up and coming robots used by the military, and there is a sense of awe as he describes these military machines that, for a science fiction geek like myself, are really cool.

The second part of the book is also a fascinating read, but not in the same way as the first. Here, Singer discusses the implications of the robotic revolution, and there are many. A section of the book is dedicated to traditional human factors, discussing usability issues and the like. The discussion of who should be held responsible if a flying drone fired a missle on the wrong target is especially chilling. If the pilot entered the right coordinates and the machine messed up, should the programmers and engineers be held responsible? In a military trial?

wiredforwar

There are also discussions of how drone pilots live in Nevada, work a shift where they kill enemy combatants, then make it home in time for family dinner and a PTA meeting. It is a totally different experience from a Marine actually on the ground, but they are both soldiers, right?

All in all, the book is a great read. From whiz-bang technology to psychological and societal implications, this book is well-researched and considers all facets of the issues. The second half of the book could have used a more thorough editor, in my opinion, as I felt that the author repeated points across chapters and lost a natural flow of ideas because ideas where not contained in their own chapters.

If you can get past a mildly sloppy second half, however, the entire book is worth reading for anyone in the military (like myself as a civilian Human Factors Scientist) or anyone who has interests in military technology or even technologically-oriented science fiction buffs.

Blink

Blink by Malcom Gladwell has been out for a while, so I will keep my review short. The book is fantastic. Gladwell focuses on the idea of rapid cognition. He is careful to not call this intuition, which he feels is more emotional. Rapid cognition is more about near-instant unconscious thought. That split second decision that something is not quite right bit you are not sure what. Or what love at first sight is. Or how unconscious prejudices can affect our social interactions despite our conscious attitudes on race.

The topic itself is interesting, and so is Gladwell’s writing style. He weaves in appropriate and engaging stories that introduce his point and then often goes into psychological research the further illustrates his points. Finally, he talks about how these ideas have real-world implications for how to better live our lives.

In short, the book argues that our rapid cognition is a useful tool as long as we know where it can go wrong. Blink is the perfect example of an engaging pedagogy, and I definitely plan to incorporate this book the next time I teach my Cognitive Psychology class.

blink

Books Still on the List

I also plan on reading the human factors design classic The Design of Everyday Things. Donald Norman, the author, is a giant in the field (especially with regards to design) and this book is one of his earlier writings but remains one of the best. Considering I have my PhD in human factors, it is one of those books that I should read.

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Windows Vista: The “Mojave Experiment” Campaign

Posted by jasonwong in decision making, marketing on August 16th, 2008

Microsoft’s Windows Vista has been generally panned by the tech community, and the perception is likely hurting sales (though Microsoft says sales are fine). Nonetheless, Microsoft recently launched this Net-based ad campaign. Here’s a snapshot from the teaser site:

There are several different reasons for why this is a bad marketing campaign. For example, fooling your customers and making them appear stupid (“You idiot, this is Vista!”) is not a good way to sell a product. Another reason includes the fact that Vista is already set up on this computer with reasonable specs, so any system incompatibilities or installation difficulties have been ironed out. Finally, customers get a 10 minute “demo” of Vista – that’s hardly enough time to make a judgment about an operating system. Wil Shipley put it best in his blog,

Vista is known for people initially liking it, then after a while discovering it’s not working for them, and “downgrading” to XP. This study has told us exactly what we already knew: that, initially, people like Vista.

There is one major psychological error in this ad that I have not seen discussed, though. People are being told that they are seeing a next-generation operating system, and their expectations are instantly set to be more prone to liking the product. This is similar to the New Yorkers going to a fancy restaurant and raving over the Pizza Hut pasta dishes. These people are being set up to like something because it’s fancy or next-generation. Therefore, they are more likely to be impressed.

I’ve actually blogged about research that has shown this effect in people by having them drink the same wines but telling them one is priced higher than another. Not only do people rate the pricier wine as better tasting, but the emotional and pleasure center of their brains are more active when they drink the pricier wine! It’s a deep-rooted effect, and Microsoft is taking full advantage of that here.

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Product line confusion and too much choice

Posted by jasonwong in clutter, decision making, marketing on July 12th, 2008

The Problem:

One of the most exciting areas in mobile computing today is the “netbook.” It is an incredibly small, lightweight, inexpensive machine that runs either Linux or Windows XP. It’s generated a lot of buzz because it is one of the first truly take-everywhere laptops due to its weight of under 3 pounds. The Asus Eee PC is one of the first models of this new laptop class. The Asus Eee PC website has some mention of the different models currently available, but these are all about to be replaced by a new model line. The UK division of Asus recently published a handy chart.

By handy, I meant the most confusing product chart ever. What’s wrong with this? An examination of other big laptop manufacturers can shed some light on the issue.

The Analysis:

Dell’s website has nice big labels for Home users and a drop-down menu for “Laptops.” Within that, there are different labeled categories for each of the different laptop classes, each with descriptions of what each category of laptop is good for. The one issue: the category names are not very self-explanatory – the difference between Inspiron and XPS is not immediately clear. But the descriptions are informative, at least.

Continuing to the Apple website, the homepage has a big label for “Store.” Within that, there are large graphics that list all the Mac products. There are three lines of Apple laptops, and they are reasonably labeled: MacBook, MacBook Air (not totally descriptive), and MacBook Pro (the professional version).

When one of the laptop models, is chosen there are a few options that are ordered Good, Better, and Best. It’s not spelled out exactly, but it is implied.

The Research:

What’s the human factors lesson here? Keep the product lines simple (like Dell and Apple), put multiple configurations in a hierarchy (Apple), and give the product lines either easily identifiable names (Apple) or easy-to-understand descriptions (Dell). What Asus is doing with the Eee PC violates every one of those principles and can only lead to confusion.

The problem of too many options is the subject of Barry Schwartz’s book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. The central thesis is that too much choice leads to stress about the purchase and then the onset of buyer’s remorse. The book is from 2004, but some companies have not learned their lesson.

Barry Schwartz gave a talk at the 2006 TED conference and, while long, is very interesting.

This, by the way, is one of the major problems when Windows Vista was released. Four major editions with a few other variations here and there. Confusion and (some) panic.

Which led Apple to post an attack ad based entirely on this issue!

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