Stupid bloody system

Jonas SöderströminUse AB

”Stupid bloody system!”

Cognitive stress from today’s fragmented digital work

environment – the users’ view

Consequences of new computer systems introduced:

• Swedish National Passport Authority:– “Break-down chamber” for workers

• Swedish Television– “People were crying themselves to

sleep”

• Regional Health Service, Uppsala, Sweden– “Dangerous to nurse’s health”

It’s not always a total catastrophe, but …

How bad?

• 42 percent of workers say IT-related problemsmake them angry, stressed and frustrated.

• Women up to age 29: 60 percent have adverse reactions from trouble with IT.

• 73 percent lose up to two work hours a day.

SIFO/Koneo mars 2006

In UK, too:

• Workers spent 10 per cent of their time battling

against computer programmes or getting to grips

with phones, handheld devices and other gadgets.

• Thirty-seven per cent say they are frustrated

by not being able to handle the technology.

• 32 per cent of workers say they have failed to

receive training from their company to teach them

to use the technology in the office.

• (City & Guild, 2006)

Stress is the main problem

• ”Stress is the big problem facing employers up and down the

country as rates of sick leave soar. (...) Work-related stress has

reached record levels, with 13.4 million lost days a year blamed

on the pressures of office life.

• Stress has replaced backache as the biggest cause of

absenteeism, and the financial burden is enormous. Cases of

stress, depression and anxiety are said to have doubled in the

past seven years, with one in five employees reporting that

they feel stressed.

• Yet no one can come up with a proper definition

of what it is.”

(Health and Safety Executive, in Guardian, Oct 12 2003)

What has happened?Eight concurrent reasons

why the users are becoming frustrated and stressed-out

1: Explosion of systems used

• The sheer number of applications (systems, sites) we must use in the workplace has exploded– General store: 20-25 different systems to

manage store – Office: 30-50

• Many “small” systems introduced by different stakeholders in the organization– No idea of the total load on the individual

Small and irritating differences

• Grocery store:

– Prize as ”54.50” and ”54:50”

• Service company: two systems used in parallel in same workstation

– System 1: Ctrl-O is “Execute”

– System 2: Ctrl-O is “Shut down and close”

• Cognitive load: “How did this system work?”

Built-in differences

• Created by different generations of consultants/developers

• Built on succeeding generations of technological platforms

• Web based design: lack of standards

Many systems are used infrequently…

• … but some system is used each day, week, month.

• Difficulties in learning!

2: Chores – not “real” work

• Many new tasks, not related to what is perceived as “my real work”– Cuts in administration– Ever-growing demand for

documentation and statistics

• The (supposed) benefits of these chores are often not clear to the individual worker

3: Inflexibility

• Technical view of work as process(not interaction between humans)

• Systems does not admit improvisation, flexible solutions

• Service sector: – Pressure on workers from two sides:

• Poorly designed systems• Irate customers

Inflexibility means control

• … over how tasks can /should be done

• Very limited space for worker’s own initiatives

• Very hard to adapt the tool to fit yourself– Improvement suggestions often

subject to very slow “change request”-systems

• More power to middle management, less to workers

4: Poor interfaces and bad interaction design

• Many systems still shockingly bad

• Interaction design and interface design not well understood

• Excuses: “It’s only a small system” …

• … yet another one added to the many!

• “Integrated” or “standard” systems not ideal for any special given task– “Swiss army knife-syndrome”

Examples:Complicated structure

Too much information

5: Ever increasing speed

• Fast changing business goals

• Re-organizations

• New technological platforms

• Individuals report: – “…less time to learn”– “…new systems introduced

before we learned the previous one”

6: The burden of vigilance

• New systems reduce some tasks …

• … but also add new:– Virus protection updates– System updates – Identification, authorization– Administration of access levels

• These are seldom mentioned to users in advance

• Significantly reduces promises of time saved

• Yet another “not my real work”-chore

7: Systematic neglect of training

• Often too early on unfinished systems

• Again: “It’s just a small system”

• Unrealistic expectations for “user-friendly” “intuitive” systems

• Web based systems still perceived as inherently “easy”

• “Curse of knowledge” of project managers etc:

• Underestimates time for learning

8: Blame the user

• Project managers and developers often have a mutual interest in keeping a good relation

• User’s as scape-goats for bad systems:– “Not computer literate”

… it’s all about the digital work environment

What has happened? (1)

• Technological shift mid-nineties

• Web technology– Rapid development– Rapid distribution– Utopian expectations and promises– Many young developers and project managers

without experience of working life

What has happened? (2)

• Web technology– Weak interaction– Lack of standards– Micro-stress from waiting time (reloading

pages)

Consequences

• Learning problems on a different scale

• Control of work on a different scale

• Increase in stress from cognitive load

• Reasonable cause behind part of increasing stress in the work place

Suggestions for future research

• Cognitive load of applications and systems

• Surveys of total digital work environment– Number of applications– Frequency of use– Differences between systems– Frequency and speed of introduction of new

systems– Education and training in new systems

Change of focus

• Traditional ergonomics– Monotonous computer work– Physical strain– Repetitive tasks, same

system

– Single application

• New focus– Ever-changing computer work– Cognitive stress– Multi-tasking with

infrequently used applications– Many applications

• Traditional usability– One application at a time

– Focus on interface and functions

• New focus– The application in its

digital context in the workplace

– Focus on introduction, training, support

Wider implications

• Questioning the effects– Cutting administrative staff

• Questions of power in the workplace

jonas.soderstrom@inuse.se

Questions?

Thank you!