Providing human factors knowledge to non-specialists: a structured method for the evaluation of future speech interfaces

Many system developers face the following problem: designing effective human-computer interfaces requires human factors expertise, but specialists possessing such expertise are not always available to contribute to development. This paper identifies a particular instance of the problem: that faced by military procurers who are not human factors experts when they assess whether speech-based computers will be suitable for specific future battlefield applications. The paper describes a method enabling the procurer systematically to develop simulations of future systems (task, device, and user) and to perform empirical evaluations on them. The method is modelled on the structured analysis and design methods employed by software engineers, the scope, process, and notation of which are explicit and proceduralized. A preliminary test suggests that the method has the potential to improve the quality of early speech interface assessments by procurers. However, some difficulties remain in representing declarative knowledge of device user-interaction, and in deciding an appropriate level for describing procedures to support such assessors. The implications of the work are considered for the more general transfer of human factors knowledge to non-specialists