Human elements in information system design for knowledge workers

摘要

Irrespective of the frequency to which it is referred, the concept of “knowledge work” remains surprisingly ill-defined and generally not well understood. In this paper we look at a case study of a legal team presented with a system to automated routine aspects of documentary evidence analysis. The difficulties experienced reveal important lessons for the way analysts address the design of systems to support knowledge work. Initiatives popular in the 1980s and 1990s, which encourage process perspectives, fail to highlight the human elements adequately, preferring to concentrate on synchronicity and effectiveness of the process. In contrast we argue a need for a more holistic and interpretivist approach. In particular, the needs to avoid conceptualisation through simple task analysis; to gain an understanding of core activities; and to identify informing activities and implicit links between tasks. Knowledge workers are informed by their work and capturing the “wrong” tasks forces them to bypass the IS.