INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOING GREEN

Information Technology Going Green

Information Technology Going Green

Introduction

Since the early days of Frederick Taylor and scientific management, technology's role in improving business processes has exponentially grown in both influence and quality with the advancements of the microcomputer, the Internet, and wireless technologies. While still considering the scientific aspects of technology development and delivery as a primary area of study, in the late 1960s researchers and practitioners began to acknowledge that the human factor could no longer be ignored. As Jonathan Grudin noted in a 2005 review of the field, there was a marked shift in examining the support systems for operations and management functions from solely a technical or engineering perspective to a more multidisciplinary focus on the organizational and human consequences of such technology.

Discussion

Furthermore, John and Clare-Marie Karat noted in 2003 that since the first academic and industry conference devoted to human factors occurred in 1982, the human-computer interaction field has developed a broader net of topics and social settings that represent the multidisciplinary nature of studying the interaction between humans and computers. Among the numerous research streams devoted to human-computer interaction over the years, user-centered design and user acceptance have become central themes examined in organizational settings.

User-Centered Design

As the personal computer replaced the typewriter and no longer was a privileged tool for engineers and scientists, computer designers recognized that improving the human experience for all users should be a central theme in research and development. The concept of user-centered design in human-computer interaction refers to the extent to which the technology, including hardware and software, enables users to successfully complete their tasks. This involves both the interface and interaction aspects of design. First, with regard to interface design, software and Web site developers pay close attention to visual factors such as color, spatial display of objects, and text layout, as noted by Patricia Chalmers in her 2003 examination of interface design issues in humancomputer interaction.

One of the most influential communication tools for organizations in recent years has been e-mail technology. Current research suggests that the design of e-mail software, and more specifically the way in which information is displayed, can have a positive effect on the usability and maneuverability within the e-mail program. Dov Te'eni and Zohar Sani-Kuperberg, in a 2005 empirical examination of e-mail software design, found that using levels of abstraction offers an alternative way for users to process information and provide greater discretion when reading e-mails. Using the level of abstraction is a strategy for presenting e-mails with various degrees of information specificity based on issues and topics identified in the e-mail by the software. Users essentially decide which information in the e-mail is most important to them and view the desired selection. Using a folding and unfolding communication structure that users can click to hide or show information, the initial level provides the most basic information, with the each level providing incrementally more detail on the topic. Te'eni and Sani-Kuperberg's innovative experiment with altering e-mail program design yielded relevant findings for ...