Ecological interface design and computer network management: the effects of network size and fault frequency

This article describes an experiment investigating the impact of ecological interface design (EID) on human performance in computer network management. This work domain is more dynamic than those previously studied under EID because there is a constant potential for the addition and removal of devices, as well as changing configurations, making it important to study the generalizability of the framework. Two interfaces were created for the University of Toronto campus network consisting of 220 nodes: a P interface based on existing design practices which presented primarily physical information and a P + F interface based on EID which presented both physical and functional information identified by an abstraction hierarchy analysis. Participants used one of the two interfaces to detect and diagnose faults or disturbances in the simulated network in real-time. Network size and fault frequency were both manipulated as within-participants variables. The P + F interface led to faster detection times overall, as well as improved fault detection rate and more accurate fault diagnosis under higher fault loads. These results suggest that the EID framework may lead to more robust monitoring performance in computer network management compared to existing interfaces.