Project Title: Modeling User Disengagement in Socio-Technical Systems (STS) for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Designer

Supervisor: Prof Anirudha Joshi

The research is aimed at exploring how users’ disengagement from a socio-technical system (STS) can be envisaged and controlled by a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Design practitioner. The research involves, firstly, an attempt to study the various ways in which a user of an STS does not participate in the very practice for which the system has been created. Secondly, the empirical observations from this kind of study would be used to build a model, which, in turn, would be tested to predict future disengagement. And, finally it will be investigated if the model can produce tools for HCI designers to work with. Generally, how a user disengages can be and is predicted using contextual user surveys like ethnographic methods etc. However, models hold some advantages of their own. Firstly, using models are faster and cheaper. Secondly, models do not need a working system and can be operationalised on the basis of systemic description. Thirdly, models are based on theoretical foundations and, therefore, hold explanatory and rhetorical power. Fourthly, they can come handy in case of low expertise.

A typical application of this research would be in the design of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) systems, which are essentially complex STS. In the case of ICT4D system, success would depend, to a good extent, on the social, political and cultural issues. Talking about disengagement would help in the examination of these issues beforehand, and that, in turn, can help not only in devising the specifications for a project, but more importantly, asking right questions regarding what happens even before the specifications are formed.

The definition of (dis)engagement is done from the perspective of Activity Theory [ Bannon, 1997]. According to Activity Theory, the set of interrelated individual tasks geared towards a singular group level objective is called activity. The breakdown at activity level is considered as disengagement. Thus, using an oft-used example, in a hunting game if the drum beater walks out (along with his drum) from the game, it would be called his disengagement from the activity.

We plan to use the STS approach [Tryst, 1980], which recognizes the interrelatedness of social as well as technical aspects of organizations. Thus, a socio-technical system denotes a bounded system (situated within a larger context/environment) of interlinked people and artifacts. It is of great help that the STS approach considers Activity as the unit of analysis rather than task.

Contact details:
Industrial Design Centre,
IIT Bombay ,
Powai, Mumbai 400076

Telephone:
091-022-25767812

E-mail: devanuj[at]iitb.ac.in