Many scientific fields share common interests for research and education. Yet, very often, these fields do not communicate to each other and are unaware of the work in other fields. Understanding the commonalities and differences among related fields can broaden our understanding of the interested phenomena from various perspectives, better utilize resources, enhance collaboration, and eventually move the related fields forward together. In this article, we present a conceptual framework, namely the Information-Model or I-model, to describe various aspects of information related fields. We consider this a timely effort in light of the evolutions of several information related fields and a set of questions related to the identities of these fields. It is especially timely in defining the newly formed Information Field from a community of twenty some information schools. We posit that the information related fields are built on a number of other fields but with their own unique foci and concerns. That is, core components from other fundamental fields interact and integrate with each other to form dynamic and interesting information related fields that all have to do with information, technology, people, and organization/society. The conceptual framework can have a number of uses. Besides providing a unified view of these related fields, it can be used to examine old case studies, recent research projects, educational programs and curricula concerns, as well as to illustrate the commonalities and differences with the information related fields.

Human-Computer Interaction or Human Factors studies in MIS are concerned with the ways humans interact with information, technologies, and tasks, especially in business, managerial, organizational, and cultural contexts [11]. Although HCI studies in MIS share common interests and concerns with HCI studies in other disciplines such as Computer Science, Psychology, and Ergonomics [12], HCI studies in MIS are also distinctive in its own ways. An MIS researcher’s perspective affords emphasis and special importance to managerial and organizational contexts by focusing on analysis of tasks and outcomes at a level that is relevant to organizational performance and effectiveness. The two main distinctive features of MIS when compared to other ‘homes’ of HCI are its business application and management orientations [9, 15]. MIS-oriented HCI issues have been addressed since the earliest studies in the MIS discipline. Culnan [4] identified nine factors or subfields in early MIS publications (1972-1982). Of these nine, three are related to issues in humans interacting with computers. In a second study of a later period of MIS publications (1980-1985), Culnan [5] found the MIS field to be composed of five areas of study, one of which, individual

(UE) and Participatory Design (PD) are the common Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) approaches that are practiced in the software development process, focusing towards issues and matters concerning user involvement. It overlooks the organizational perspective of HCI integration within the software development organization. The Management Information Systems (MIS) perspective of HCI takes a managerial and organizational context to view the effectiveness of integrating HCI in the software development process. The Human-Centered Design (HCD) which encompasses all of the human aspects including aesthetic and ergonomic, is claimed as to provide a better approach in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process. In determining the effectiveness of HCD in the software development process, this paper presents the findings of a content analysis of HCI approaches by viewing those approaches as a technology which integrates user requirements, ranging from the top management to other stake holder in the software development process. The findings obtained show that HCD approach is a technology that emphasizes on human, tools and knowledge in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process in the quest to produce a sustainable, usable and useful software product.