Peter C. Wright
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Publications by Peter C. Wright (bibliography)
» 2008 «
Wright, Peter C., Blythe, Mark and McCarthy, John C. (2008): Editorial. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 12 (5) pp. 343-346
» 2006 «
Blythe, Mark A. and Wright, Peter C. (2006): Pastiche scenarios: Fiction as a resource for user centred design. In Interacting with Computers, 18 (5) pp. 1139-1164
“Pastiche scenarios draw on fiction as a resource to explore the interior 'felt-life' aspects of user experience and the complex social and cultural issues raised by technological innovations. This paper sets out an approach for their use, outlining techniques for the location of source material and presenting three case studies of pastiche scenario use. The first case study is an evaluation of the Apple iPod that explores the socio-cultural meanings of the technology. The second case study focuses on the participatory design of Net Neighbours, an online shopping system where volunteers shop as intermediaries for older people who do not have access to computers. The third is an in depth consideration of a conceptual design, the 'cambadge' a wearable lightweight web cam which, upon activation broadcasts to police or public websites intended to reduce older people's fear of crime. This design concept is explored in depth in pastiche scenarios of the Miss Marple stories, A Clockwork Orange and Nineteen Eighty-four that reflect on how the device might be experienced not only by users but also by those it is used against. It is argued that pastiche scenarios are a useful complementary method for designers to reason about user experience as well as the broad social and cultural impacts of new technologies.”
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McCarthy, John C., Wright, Peter C., Wallace, Jayne and Dearden, Andy (2006): The experience of enchantment in human-computer interaction. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 10 (6) pp. 369-378
» 2005 «
Blythe, Mark, Reed, Darren J., Wright, Peter C. and Monk, Andrew F. (2005): Critical perspectives on dependability: an older person's experience of assistive technology. In: Bertelsen, Olav W., Bouvin, Niels Olof, Krogh, Peter Gall and Kyng, Morten (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Decennial Conference on Critical Computing 2005 August 20-24, 2005, Aarhus, Denmark. pp. 169-172. Available online
Wright, Peter C., Blythe, Mark and McCarthy, John C. (2005): User Experience and the Idea of Design in HCI. In: Gilroy, Stephen W. and Harrison, Michael D. (eds.) DSV-IS 2005 - Interactive Systems, Design, Specification, and Verification, 12th International Workshop July 13-15, 2005, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. pp. 1-14. Available online
» 2004 «
Blythe, Mark, Wright, Peter C. and Monk, Andrew F. (2004): Little brother: could and should wearable computing technologies be applied to reducing older people's fear of crime?. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8 (6) pp. 402-415
» 2000 «
Wright, Peter C., Fields, Robert E. and Harrison, Michael (2000): Analyzing Human-Computer Interaction as Distributed Cognition: The Resources Model. In Human-Computer Interaction, 15 (1) pp. 1-41
“In this article we present a new approach to interaction modeling based on the concept of information resources. The approach is inspired by recent distributed cognition (DC) literature but develops a model that applies specifically to human-computer interaction (HCI) modeling. Of course, there are many approaches to modeling HCI, and the motivation of this article is not to offer yet another approach. Rather, our motivation is that the recent developments in DC are so obviously relevant to HCI modeling and design, yet the ideas have lacked visibility in the HCI community. By providing a model whose concepts are rooted in DC concepts, we hope to achieve this visibility. DC research identifies resources for action as central to the interaction between people and technologies, but it stops short of providing a definition of such resources at a level that could be used to analyze interaction. The resources model described in this article defines a limited number of resource types as abstract information structures that can be used to analyze interaction. We demonstrate how these abstract types can be represented differently in an interface. The resources model uses the concept of interaction strategy to describe the way in which different configurations of resources can differently shape users' actions. These 2 components of the resources model (information structures and interaction strategies), through the process of coordination and integration, provide a link among devices, representations, and actions that is not well articulated in the DC literature.”
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Dearden, Andy, Harrison, Michael and Wright, Peter C. (2000): Allocation of Function: Scenarios, Context and the Economics of Effort. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 52 (2) pp. 289-318
“In this paper, we describe an approach to allocation of function that makes use of scenarios as its basic unit of analysis. Our use of scenarios is driven by a desire to ensure that allocation decisions are sensitive to the context in which the system will be used and by insights from economic utility theory. We use the scenarios to focus the attention of decision makers on the relative costs and benefits of developing automated support for the activities of the scenario, the relative impact of functions on the performance of the operator's primary role and on the relative demands placed on an operator within the scenario. By focussing on relative demands and relative costs, our method seeks to allocate the operator's limited resources to the most important and most productive tasks within the work system, and to direct the effort of the design organization to the development of automated support for those functions that deliver the greatest benefit for the effective operation of the integrated human-machine system.”
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Wright, Peter C., Dearden, Andy and Fields, Bob (2000): Function Allocation: A Perspective from Studies of Work Practice. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 52 (2) pp. 335-355
“Function allocation is a central component of systems engineering and its main aim is to provide a rational means of determining which system-level functions should be carried out by humans and which by machines. Such allocation, it is assumed, can take place early in design life cycle. Such a rational approach to work design sits uneasily with studies of work practice reported in the ACI and CSCW literature. In this paper we present two case studies of work in practice. The first highlights the difference between functional abstractions used for function allocation decision making and what is required to make those functions work in practice. The second highlights how practice and technology can co-evolve in ways that change the meanings of functions allocated early in design. The case studies raise a number of implications for function allocation. One implication is that there is a need for richer representations of the work context in function allocation methods. Although some progress has been made in function allocation methodologies, it is suggested that the method of Contextual Design might offer useful insights. A second implication is that there is a need for better theories of work to inform function allocation decision making. Activity Theory is considered as a possible candidate since it incorporates a cultural-historical view of work evolution. Both Contextual Design and Activity Theory challenge assumptions that are deeply embedded in the human factors and systems engineering communities. In particular, that functions and tasks are an appropriate unit of analysis for function allocation.”
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Fields, Robert E. and Wright, Peter C. (2000): Editorial: Understanding Work and Designing Artefacts. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 53 (1) pp. 1-4
» 1998 «
McCarthy, John C., Wright, Peter C., Monk, Andrew and Watts, Leon (1998): Concerns at Work: Designing Useful Procedures. In Human-Computer Interaction, 13 (4) pp. 433-457
“The conceptual basis for designing procedures is confused by the problematics of characterizing a relation between procedures and work practices. As they emerge from scientific management theory, procedures connote a means of rationalizing and controlling work. However, interpretations of the use of procedures reveal differences in emphasis on the work required to relate procedures to practice, from comprehending to evaluating appropriateness or reasonableness. These evaluations point to a moral character in this work, which we characterize in terms of workers' concerns. Moreover, as conceptual differences in emphasis such as these can prove intractable, we argue that a more productive approach to resolving the problematics would be to evaluate the usefulness of a sensitivity to concerns in designing procedures. Three brief case studies of the use of procedures in safety-critical settings point to workers making judgments when relating procedures to their practice, including judgments of the value of the procedures they were using. These cases also demonstrated the complexity of concerns that were multiple and interacting and that had spatial and temporal characteristics. A review of approaches to work that inform HCI design suggests that activity-based approaches, which contextualize goals and actions in terms of both origins and personal investment, provide the minimum meaningful context required to accommodate concerns. Finally, we present an analysis of the implementation of medical guidelines in Britain that exemplifies the transformation in thinking required to design practically useful procedures: from models of work that emphasize control to those that emphasize commitment, and from conceptualizations of procedures as rationalizing and controlling to conceptualizations of procedures as educational. This analysis features the sensitivity to concerns in this particular case and draws some suggestive lines from what this case reveals about concerns to the kind of contributions a sensitivity to concerns would make to a contextual design process.”
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» 1997 «
McCarthy, John C., Healey, Patrick G. T., Wright, Peter C. and Harrison, Michael (1997): Accountability of Work Activity in High-Consequence Work Systems: Human Error in Context. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 47 (6) pp. 735-766
“Organizational context is now accepted as a central concept in attempts to understand error in human-machine systems. However, accounts which emphasize the processes of everyday organizing, such as accountability and work activity, are needed in order to establish organizational requirements for design. In this article, we provide a framework for the consideration of organizational contexts of human error in high-consequence work systems, with a view to integrating empirical insights and supporting practical design work. We draw on computer-supported cooperative work conceptualizations of the process of everyday organizing, particularly the notion of "accountability for work activity" which is pivotal to our organizational account of error. The conceptual framework is characterized here as a set of dimensions which are expressive concerning the relationship between accountability and work activity in different contexts: (1) explicit-implicit; (2) global-local; (3) stable-transient and (4) dependent-independent. The framework is demonstrated with respect to everyday work practices in a radiology department and its analytical utility validated with respect to two documented aviation system failures. Applying the framework has enabled us to identify and define, in terms of the dimensions, a number of contexts for vulnerability in high-consequence systems: contexts for collusion, violation, deference, loss of control, buck passing and complacency. These are discussed in terms of requirements for error-tolerant design. In the final section of the article, links between the various contexts for vulnerability and the design process are explored.”
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McCarthy, John C., Wright, Peter C., Healey, Patrick, Dearden, Andrew M. and Harrison, Michael D. (1997): Locating the Scene: The Particular and the General in Contexts for Ambulance Control. In: Payne, Stephen C. and Prinz, Wolfgang (eds.) Proceedings of the International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work 1997 November 11-19, 1997, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. pp. 101-110. Available online
“Ambulance control involves distributed group work using a mix of computer and communications technologies. The implementation of computer technologies has had mixed results in this area, evidenced by serious failures in the London Ambulance Service in 1992. Often failures are due to inadequate attention to integration of organisational and technical aspects of work. We report a field study of the organisation of one aspect of the work of ambulance control, locating the scene of an emergency. The study was carried out in two ambulance control centres, one predominantly urban and highly computerised and the other largely rural and minimally computerised. Our analysis shows that the particulars of 'locating the scene' are best seen in terms of the use of different technologies to link representations and represented. This research has implications for understanding task and context and the integration of technology and organisation in design, particularly with respect to using similar computer-based technologies in both ambulance control centres.”
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» 1995 «
Brewster, Stephen A., Wright, Peter C. and Edwards, Alistair (1995): Parallel Earcons: Reducing the Length of Audio Messages. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43 (2) pp. 153-175
“This paper describes a method of presenting structured audio messages, earcons, in parallel so that they take less time to play and can better keep pace with interactions in a human-computer interface. The two component parts of a compound earcon are played in parallel so that the time taken is only that of a single part. An experiment was conducted to test the recall and recognition of parallel compound earcons as compared to serial compound earcons. Results showed that there are no differences in the rates of recognition between the two groups. Non-musicians are also shown to be equal in performance to musicians. Some extensions to the earcon creation guidelines of Brewster, Wright and Edwards are put forward based upon research into auditory stream segregation. Parallel earcons are shown to be an effective means of increasing the presentation rates of audio messages without compromising recognition rates.”
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Fields, Bob, Wright, Peter C. and Harrison, Michael D. (1995): A task centered approach to analysing human error tolerance requirements. In: Second IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering 1995 March 27 - 29, 1995, York, England. pp. 18-26. Available online
» 1994 «
Fields, Bob, Harrison, Michael D. and Wright, Peter C. (1994): Modelling Interactive Systems and Providing Task Relevant Information. In: Paterno, Fabio (ed.) DSV-IS 1994 - Design, Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems94, Proceedings of the First International Eurographics Workshop June 8-10, 1994, Bocca di Magra, Italy. pp. 253-266.
» 1993 «
Brewster, Stephen A., Wright, Peter C. and Edwards, Alistair (1993): An Evaluation of Earcons for Use in Auditory Human-Computer Interfaces. In: Ashlund, Stacey, Mullet, Kevin, Henderson, Austin, Hollnagel, Erik and White, Ted (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 93 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 24-29, 1993, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. pp. 222-227. Available online
“An evaluation of earcons was carried out to see whether they are an effective means of communicating information in sound. An initial experiment showed that earcons were better than unstructured bursts of sound and that musical timbres were more effective than simple tones. A second experiment was then carried out which improved upon some of the weaknesses shown up in Experiment 1 to give a significant improvement in recognition. From the results of these experiments some guidelines were drawn up for use in the creation of earcons. Earcons have been shown to be an effective method for communicating information in a human-computer interface.”
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McCarthy, John C., Miles, Victoria C., Monk, Andrew, Harrison, Michael, Dix, Alan J. and Wright, Peter C. (1993): Text-Based On-Line Conferencing: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis Using a Minimal Prototype. In Human-Computer Interaction, 8 (2) pp. 147-183
“This article is concerned with an analysis of the requirements for text-based on-line conferencing. From a system perspective, text-based on-line conferencing can be viewed as either message passing or data sharing. These complementary views give rise to different design dimensions. For example, the message-passing view is concerned with granularity, channels, message labels, and so on. The data-sharing view is concerned with the access different individuals have to the text: read only, appending, editing, pointing, and so on. A deliberately sparse prototype was built and placed in this design space. This minimal prototype has limited functionality so that the real problems experienced by users can show through. Relevant literature from disciplines such as social psychology, conversational analysis, and linguistics is briefly reviewed in terms of three generic communication tasks: synchronizing communication, maintaining structural coherence, and maintaining referents. An empirical analysis of subjects' use of the sparse prototype was analyzed to establish the relevance of the generic communication tasks to text-based on-line conferencing. Possible forms that support for these tasks might take are discussed.”
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» 1992 «
Harrison, Michael D., Monk, Andrew and Wright, Peter C. (1992): The Human-Computer Interaction Group at the University of York. In: Monk, Andrew, Diaper, Dan and Harrison, Michael D. (eds.) Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of the British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Specialist Group - People and Computers VII August 15-18, 1992, University of York, UK. pp. 499-501.
» 1991 «
Wright, Peter C. and Monk, Andrew (1991): A Cost-Effective Evaluation Method for Use by Designers. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 35 (6) pp. 891-912
“A strong case has been made for iterative design, that is, progressing through several versions of a user interface design using feedback from users to improve each prototype. One obstacle to wider adoption of this approach is the perceived difficulty of obtaining useful data from users. This paper argues that quantitative experiment methods may not be practical at early stages of design, but a behavioural record used in conjunction with think-aloud protocols can provide a designer with the information needed to evaluate an early prototype in a cost-effective manner. Further, it is proposed that a method for obtaining this data can be specified which is straightforward enough to be used by people with little or no training in human factors. Two studies are reported in which trainee designers evaluated a user interface by observing a user working through some set tasks. These users were instructed to think aloud as they worked in a procedure described as "cooperative evaluation". The instruction received by the designers took the form of a brief how-to-do-it manual. Study 1 examines the effectiveness of the trainee designers as evaluators of an existing bibliographic database. The problems detected by each team were compared with the complete set of problems detected by all the teams and the problems detected by the authors in a previous and more extensive evaluation. Study 2 examined the question of whether being the designer of a system makes one better or worse at evaluating it and whether designers can predict the problems users will experience in advance of user testing.”
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Monk, Andrew and Wright, Peter C. (1991): Observations and Inventions: New Approaches to the Study of Human-Computer Interaction. In Interacting with Computers, 3 (2) pp. 204-216
“Dissatisfaction with the traditional model of HCI research borrowed from experimental psychology has lead to a number of interesting new approaches. One is the so-called 'hermeneutic approach' based on field research methods. Another is to apply existing theory from cognitive psychology. This paper is mainly concerned with a third discernible approach based around a study of the artifacts or inventions built to facilitate human-computer interaction. The effectiveness of different system features is explained by reference to the user's task. The investigation of 'observation-invention pairs' is suggested as a way of providing generalisations about user behaviour consistent with this approach. The observation part is a statement about the behaviour of users with some specific generality. The invention serves to illustrate the observation's implications for design and provides a heuristic for further inventions. The paper relates observation-invention pairs to other analyses of artifacts and concludes that they have a place as general statements of knowledge for HCI design.”
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McCarthy, John C., Miles, Victoria C., Monk, Andrew, Harrison, Michael D., Dix, Alan J. and Wright, Peter C. (1991): Four Generic Communication Tasks which Must be Supported in Electronic Conferencing. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 23 (1) pp. 41-43
“In this paper we describe and discuss the design implications of four Generic Communication Tasks which must be supported in electronic conferencing.”
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Monk, Andrew and Wright, Peter C. (1991): Claims, Observations and Inventions: Analysing the Artifact. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 23 (1) pp. 52-54
“This paper describes the use of observation-invention pairs to illustrate important general points about the way that users interact with computers. The technique can be viewed as a form of artifact analysis.”
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Wright, Peter C. and Monk, Andrew (1991): The Use of Think-Aloud Evaluation Methods in Design. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 23 (1) pp. 55-57
“This paper reports on two studies in which teams of two or three trainee designers evaluated a user interface by observing a user working through some set tasks. These users were instructed to think aloud as they worked. The instruction received by the designers took the form of a brief how-to-do-it manual. Study 1 demonstrates that this method is effective. Study 2 found that more problems were detected by the designers of the system than other groups. Also, designers cannot predict the problems users will experience in advance of user testing.”
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» 1990 «
Nielsen, Jakob, Dray, Susan M., Foley, James D., Walsh, Paul and Wright, Peter C. (1990): Usability Engineering on a Budget. In: Diaper, Dan, Gilmore, David J., Cockton, Gilbert and Shackel, Brian (eds.) INTERACT 90 - 3rd IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction August 27-31, 1990, Cambridge, UK. pp. 1067-1070.
“This panel will discuss how to get the "most bang for the buck" in usability engineering. What should one do when the budget is restricted and it is impossible to do everything by the book? How can one introduce usability methods in companies that currently have no systematic usability efforts?”
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» 1989 «
Good, Michael, Campbell, Robert, Lynch, Gene and Wright, Peter C. (1989): Experience with Contextual Field Research. In: Bice, Ken and Lewis, Clayton H. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 89 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 30 - June 4, 1989, Austin, Texas. pp. 21-24.
Wright, Peter C. and Monk, Andrew (1989): Evaluation for Design. In: Sutcliffe, Alistair and Macauley, Linda (eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of the British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Specialist Group - People and Computers V August 5-8, 1989, University of Nottingham, UK. pp. 345-358.
“In an iterative design methodology prototypes or mock-ups are built and evaluated by having typical users work through realistic tasks. Data are elicited from users in order to refine the prototype. This paper is concerned with the types of data which may be obtained and how they may be used. Two commonly used forms of data are compared, a behavioural record of system use, in the form of a time stamped system log, and verbal protocols. In each case the objective is to illustrate practical methods of data collection and the kind of usability problems likely to be revealed. It is argued that an account of system usage alone provides insufficient data for the identification of many important usability problems.”
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» 1984 «
Wright, Peter C. and Lickorish, Ann (1984): Ease of Annotation in Proof-Reading Tasks. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 3 (3) pp. 185-194
“Two models of proof-reading tasks are explored by varying the procedures for annotating a text. One model assumes that the processes of detecting errors, recording annotations and resuming proof-reading are sets of serial processes. The other model assumes that annotation processes may overlap with reading the text. Performance when proof-reading a vertically displayed text (as on a CRT) and recording the errors on a separate sheet was compared with reading a horizontal text (as on a desk top) and recording annotations in the margins. The data supported the serial model and showed that variations in annotation procedures can yield differences in proof-reading speed of comparable magnitude to those found in an earlier study where CRT and printout displays were contrasted and the differences were attributed to legibility factors. The implications of these findings and this model of proof-reading are related to the wider issues of using electronic texts.”
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» 1983 «
Wright, Peter C. and Lickorish, Ann (1983): Proof-Reading Texts on Screen and Paper. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 2 (3) pp. 227-235
“This study examined the speed and accuracy of proof-reading a text presented on a CRT, relative to performance with print on paper. Two groups of 16 people each proof-read four published texts, roughly 1500 words per text. For all readers, half the texts were presented as print on paper and half were presented on a 12 in. CRT screen. The two groups differed in whether the errors found in the screened text were recorded on the screen or on paper. The results suggested that the method of recording errors on the screen was quickly learned, but that both speed and accuracy were impaired when the text was presented on the screen. The implications of this for refereeing electronic journals is discussed.”
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Mar 20th, 2010
Changes to this page (author)
18 Feb 2010: Enabled abstracts to be shown on Peter C. Wright's author page.20 Jul 2009: Author was edited 20 Jul 2009: Author was edited
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