Decisional guidance and end-user display choices

Abstract

Powerful desktop computers with commercial spreadsheet and presentation software empower computer users to produce their own data displays, choosing from an ever-increasing variety of display formats. Although previous research has explored some organizational risks involved in end-user computing little is known, first, about the effects of shifting control over display choices from trained specialists to mainstream computer users and, second, whether end-users would benefit from decisional guidance in this area. We conducted an experimental study to gain insight into these issues by studying the display preferences and performance of student subjects in two different kinds of tasks. We found subjects performed certain tasks no better with their preferred display than with a randomly assigned display. Theory-based decisional guidance improved subjects' overall performance substantially, and subjects welcomed decisional guidance as long as it did not limit their options.