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ABSTRACT Towards Understanding IT Security Professionals and Their Tools
"... We report preliminary results of our ongoing field study of IT professionals who are involved in security management. We interviewed a dozen practitioners from five organizations to understand their workplace and tools. We analyzed the interviews using a variation of Grounded Theory and predesigned ..."
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Cited by 26 (11 self)
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We report preliminary results of our ongoing field study of IT professionals who are involved in security management. We interviewed a dozen practitioners from five organizations to understand their workplace and tools. We analyzed the interviews using a variation of Grounded Theory and predesigned themes. Our results suggest that the job of IT security management is distributed across multiple employees, often affiliated with different organizational units or groups within a unit and responsible for different aspects of it. The workplace of our participants can be characterized by their responsibilities, goals, tasks, and skills. Three skills stand out as significant in the IT security management workplace: inferential analysis, pattern recognition, and bricolage. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.6.5 [Management of Computing and Information
Guidelines for Designing IT Security Management Tools
- In CHIMIT ’08: Proceedings of the 2008 symposium on Computer Human Interaction for the Management of Information Technology
, 2008
"... An important factor that impacts the effectiveness of secu-rity systems within an organization is the usability of secu-rity management tools. In this paper, we present a survey of design guidelines for such tools. We gathered guidelines and recommendations related to IT security management tools fr ..."
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Cited by 13 (5 self)
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An important factor that impacts the effectiveness of secu-rity systems within an organization is the usability of secu-rity management tools. In this paper, we present a survey of design guidelines for such tools. We gathered guidelines and recommendations related to IT security management tools from the literature as well as from our own prior studies of IT security management. We categorized and combined these into a set of high level guidelines and identified the relationships between the guidelines and challenges in IT security management. We also illustrated the need for the guidelines, where possible, with quotes from additional in-terviews with five security practitioners. Our framework of guidelines can be used by those developing IT security tools, as well as by practitioners and managers evaluating tools.
Realist Activity Theory for Digital Library Evaluation: Conceptual Framework and Case Study
, 2003
"... In this article, I use the term digital library (DL) in a very relaxed and inclusive manner, borrowing Elliott and Kling’s (1997) definition of digital libraries as “information systems (IS) and services that provide electronic documents — text files, digital sound, digital video — available in dyna ..."
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Cited by 7 (0 self)
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In this article, I use the term digital library (DL) in a very relaxed and inclusive manner, borrowing Elliott and Kling’s (1997) definition of digital libraries as “information systems (IS) and services that provide electronic documents — text files, digital sound, digital video — available in dynamic or archival repositories ” (p. 1023). The Flora of North America (FNA) project entails the construction of a
Non-universal usability?: A survey of how usability is understood by Chinese and Danish users
- In Proc. of CHI 2009
, 2009
"... ABSTRACT Most research assumes that usability is understood similarly by users in different cultures, implying that the notion of usability, its aspects, and their interrelations are constant across cultures. The present study shows that this is not the case for a sample of 412 users from China and ..."
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Cited by 4 (1 self)
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ABSTRACT Most research assumes that usability is understood similarly by users in different cultures, implying that the notion of usability, its aspects, and their interrelations are constant across cultures. The present study shows that this is not the case for a sample of 412 users from China and Denmark, who differ in how they understand and prioritize different aspects of usability. Chinese users appear to be more concerned with visual appearance, satisfaction, and fun than Danish users; Danish users prioritize effectiveness, efficiency, and lack of frustration higher than Chinese users. The results suggest that culture influences perceptions of usability. We discuss implications for usability research and for usability practice.
Studying Law Students ’ Information Seeking Behaviour to Inform the Design of Digital Law Libraries
"... In this paper, we describe our ongoing work which involves examining the information seeking behaviour of legal professionals. This work involves studying the behaviour of both academic and practicing lawyers with the long-term aim of integrating user-centred legal information seeking support into d ..."
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In this paper, we describe our ongoing work which involves examining the information seeking behaviour of legal professionals. This work involves studying the behaviour of both academic and practicing lawyers with the long-term aim of integrating user-centred legal information seeking support into digital law libraries. We report preliminary findings from the initial phase of the study, which comprised a series of semistructured interviews and naturalistic observations of academic law students looking for information that they require for their work. This group of academic lawyers often found it difficult to find the information that they were looking for when using digital law libraries. A potential symptom of this difficulty was that hazy and incorrect knowledge of the digital library system and information sources within the system were rife. This suggests the need for students to understand more about the digital library systems that they use (within-systems knowledge). We also found that although this group of academic lawyers often used several electronic resources in a complementary fashion to conduct legal information seeking, they often chose to rely primarily on one of either the LexisNexis or Westlaw digital law library platforms. Their preference was often based upon vague or sometimes flawed rationale and suggests the need for students to appreciate the situations in which different electronic resources might be useful (between-systems knowledge).
NICHOLS:A Survey of Applications of CSCW for Digital Libraries
, 1998
"... This paper is a review of the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) with respect to digital libraries. The literature surveyed covers both library & information science and computer science. An overview of the field of CSCW is provided including requirements capture, ethnography, i ..."
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Cited by 2 (0 self)
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This paper is a review of the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) with respect to digital libraries. The literature surveyed covers both library & information science and computer science. An overview of the field of CSCW is provided including requirements capture, ethnography, interfaces, toolkits, organisational memory etc. Collaboration is interpreted in a wide sense and systems supporting user-staff (e.g. remote reference) and user-user (e.g. collaborative filtering) interactions are described.
Information technology support for communities of practice: How public defenders learn about winning and losing in court,
- Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
, 2007
"... Abstract The aim of this article is to examine the role of information technologies (IT) in supporting practice and professional identity formation, both major axes for communities of practice. The article uses an ethnographic case study to understand how public defenders learn to improve their cou ..."
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Abstract The aim of this article is to examine the role of information technologies (IT) in supporting practice and professional identity formation, both major axes for communities of practice. The article uses an ethnographic case study to understand how public defenders learn to improve their court performance. The concept of "communities of practice" helps to illuminate how the attorneys in a public defender's office share knowledge in order to practice effectively in court. This article presents findings that a community of practice serves as effective scaffolding to support professional development; this is especially true for the practice component. Further, this case study indicates that information technologies, such as listservs, are not very effective social integrators for professionals who work at different sites. In particular, today's IT forums are most effective when used for sharing technical information about work, and least effective for sharing important cultural meanings about how professionals should approach their work and develop professional identities. This research advances our understanding about the complexity of organizing communities of practice to support professional groups of colleagues and IT-enabled support for various activities.
Studying Academic Lawyers’ Information Seeking to Inform the Design of Digital Law Libraries
- TCDL Bulletin
"... We report findings from the initial phase of our study on legal information seeking, which comprised a series of semi-structured interviews and naturalistic observations of academic law students and staff looking for electronic legal information. This study has the long-term aim of informing the des ..."
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Cited by 1 (0 self)
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We report findings from the initial phase of our study on legal information seeking, which comprised a series of semi-structured interviews and naturalistic observations of academic law students and staff looking for electronic legal information. This study has the long-term aim of informing the design of digital law libraries. Participants found it difficult to use digital law libraries, arising from poor knowledge of the digital library system rather than from poor general electronic research skills. Hazy and faulty system-related knowledge were rife, suggesting the need for academic lawyers to understand more about the digital library systems that they use (within-systems knowledge). These lawyers chose to rely primarily on one major digital law library for legal information seeking. Their preference was often based upon vague or flawed rationale and suggests the need for academic lawyers to appreciate the situations in which different electronic resources might be useful (between-systems knowledge). Introduction and motivation for research Our work is motivated by the desire to support digital library users in ‘getting to grips ’ with electronic resources. More specifically we are motivated by the wish to support users in understanding how to use, and in which situations it is
Preprint version Images of Usability
"... Abstract. The term usability is ubiquitous in human-computer interaction, so much so that it is commonly used without definition. Rather than one established meaning of usability, there are, however, multiple images of usability. While each image provides a partial view, the partiality remains impli ..."
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Abstract. The term usability is ubiquitous in human-computer interaction, so much so that it is commonly used without definition. Rather than one established meaning of usability, there are, however, multiple images of usability. While each image provides a partial view, the partiality remains implicit unless confronted with alternative images. This study delineates six images of usability: universal usability, situational usability, perceived usability, hedonic usability, organizational usability, and cultural usability. The different foci of the images provide opportunities for becoming sensitized to manifold aspects of the use of a system and thereby acquiring a genuine understanding of its usability. The six images differ, for example, in the extent to which they include aspects of the outcome of the process of using a system or merely the process of use, whether they involve collaborative use or merely individual use, and in their view of usability as perceived by individuals or shared by groups. Several challenges result from recognizing that usability is a set of images rather than a coherent concept, including a risk of misunderstandings in discussions of usability because participants may assume different images of usability and a need for supplementary methods addressing the collaborative and long-term aspects of usability. Moreover, the images call for extending the scope of practical usability work to include the effects achieved by users during their use of systems for real work.
Preprint version How Do Usability Professionals Construe Usability?
"... Abstract. Usability professionals have attained a specialist role in systems-development projects. This study analyzes usability professionals ’ operational understanding of usability by eliciting the constructs they employ in their thinking about system use. We approach usability broadly and withou ..."
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Abstract. Usability professionals have attained a specialist role in systems-development projects. This study analyzes usability professionals ’ operational understanding of usability by eliciting the constructs they employ in their thinking about system use. We approach usability broadly and without a priori distinguishing it from user experience. On the basis of repertory-grid interviews with 24 Chinese, Danish, and Indian usability professionals we find that they make use of more utilitarian than experiential, i.e. user-experience related, constructs. This indicates that goal-related performance is central to their thinking about usability, whereas they have less elaborate sets of experiential constructs. The usability professionals mostly construe usability at an individual level, rather than at organizational and environmental levels. The few exceptions include effectiveness constructs, which are evenly spread across all three levels, and relational constructs, which are phrased in terms of social context. Considerations about users ’ cognitive activities appear more central to the usability professionals than conventional human-factors knowledge about users ’ sensorial abilities. The usability professionals ’ constructs, particularly their experiential constructs, go considerably beyond ISO 9241 usability, indicating a discrepancy between this definition of usability and the thinking of the professionals concerned with delivering usability. Finally, usability is construed similarly across the three nationalities of usability professionals.
