Anais do IHC'2001 - Departamento de Informática e Estatística - UFSC

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Anais do IHC’2001 - IV Workshop sobre Fatores Humanos em Sistemas Computacionais
all his/her accounts, and types in the password without looking at the account number,
he/she is no longer able to retrieve it when the desired information is provided. This
problem reflects a violation of Grice’s Maxim of Quantity, because not all required
information is presented at one conversational exchange.
Another issue we may notice in this example is the early selection of
displayed/printed information. After the user reaches some information displayed on video,
the only way for him/her to get the same information printed on paper is to start over, and
follow the alternative “print” path.
4.3 Web System
Although the web-banking system offers the widest range of functionalities among the
investigated systems, we observe that interaction is brief. This is possible because of the
openness of web pages. We no longer have limitations due to the linearity of the channel or
small display space. This makes it possible not only to offer a wide range of options at
once, but also to explicitly provide the topic of the conversation, i.e. the account number, at
each interaction step. If the user needs to recall it, no effort is required but that of
perceiving a small piece of information that is consistently presented at the same location
on the pages throughout the system.
System User
Institutional info
Fields for account #
and password
links to 11 products &
services +
quick links
links to 11 products &
services +
links related to
checking account
(in printable version)
types in
and
clicks on “checking
account”
clicks on “account
balance”
user closes browser
Task GetAccountBalanceViaWeb
(Domain Information)
sequence
{
Dialog AccountNumberPassword (Information Request)
}
Dialog ServicesSelection (Selection)
Dialog AccountServices (Selection)
Dialog AccountBalance (Domain Information)
Figure 3: Web interaction for getting a checking account balance, and the
corresponding interaction specification.
We have also observed a large amount of institutional information and
advertisement of additional products and services on the web system. Considering most
users’ purposes of checking an account balance or accomplish some other transaction, this
additional information constitutes a violation of the Maxim of Relation.
One characteristic of web applications is the ability to open more than one window,
i.e. to carry out simultaneous conversations. Whereas, in natural conversation, we are
constrained to a single thread of conversation at any given moment (with the possibility of