Visualizing Complexity: Getting from Here to There in Complex Problem Landscapes

Barbara Mirel
visiting associate professor and research investigator in the School of Information at the University of Michigan

and

Leif Allmendinger
associate professor of visual communications
and design division head at Northern Illinois University

7:00pm
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
411 West Hall (Ehrlicher Room) directions...

Software for complex problem solving often dazzles people with its advanced features and alluring displays, but when put to the test in everyday workplaces, it often comes up short- rarely capturing or evoking user's own models of their work in context. Nor does it give users the control they need to arrive at solutions with confidence.

In this talk we look at experienced problem solvers who are experts in their own domains. We describe basic processes people use when they solve problems- the interdependent data ordeals, wayfinding, and sensemaking activities that make up task landscapes, surrounding various main phase actions in specific patterns of inquiry.

In a case study, we present a series of diagrams describing pattern-based models of user work to show how an expert works with large volumes of multidimensional data to arrive at answers that increase the efficiency, productivity and profitability of her firm.

We focus on a major problem in designing for complex problem solving: How to visually depict models of work so they capture the ways in which problem solvers vary in the tasks, emphasis, and sequencing they configure for specific investigative goals and contextual conditions. We describe how designing models of work as patterns of inquiry (socio-technical patterns) and framing them as task landscapes can lead to useful software designs for complex problem solving, a dire need in today's market.

Unlike diagrams of task sequences, hierarchies, or workflows, landscapes of inquiry patterns bring out the drama (interactive narrative), synergy and bounded openness of complex problem solving. By creating them with their teams, interaction and information designers recognize that software needs to give users the freedom to put different faces on similar landscapes and traverse them without interrupting the completeness and coherence of their inquiry. It needs to evoke and create available moves and strategies at the level users conceive of them and give users enough autonomy and ease of choice to allow them to function in real world situations.

About the Speakers

Barbara Mirel, a visiting associate professor and research investigator in the School of Information at the University of Michigan, is the author of Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving: Designing Useful and Usable Software (Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann,2003) and is the co-editor of Reshaping Technical Communication.

After 12 years as a university professor, she joined the Visual Insights group at Lucent to lead the design and usability efforts for commercial applications with interactive data visualizations. With her teammates, she holds a patent for the Visual Discovery design. She has worked as the lead human factors specialist in other companies and healthcare organizations, as well. She has published numerous articles and book chapters and received the ACM-SIGDOC Rigo award for lifetime achievement in 2000.

Leif Allmendinger is associate professor of visual communications and design division head at Northern Illinois University. His areas of research include visual human-computer interface, interactive exhibits, and interactive diagrams.

Professor Allmendinger holds a Master of fine arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design and has completed special studies in computer graphics at Brown University