Animation in User Interfaces Designed for Decision Support Systems: The Effects of Image Abstraction, Transition, and Interactivity on Decision Quality

Animation in User Interfaces Designed for Decision Support Systems: The Effects of Image Abstraction, Transition, and Interactivity on Decision Quality

Including animation in the design of user interfaces is a natural extension of graphical user interfaces. Moreover, animation seems particularly well suited for representing many real-world situations, and the conventional wisdom is that animation makes the user interface easier to use, more enjoyable, pleasurable, and understandable (Baecker & Small, 1990; Chang & Ungar, 1993; Robertson, Card, & Mackinlay, 1993; SIGGRAPH 94, 1994). Despite this evidence, very little is known about the efficacy of animation for decision support. In fact, the efficacy of animation in user interfaces designed for decision support systems has not been studied directly.

The term decision support systems (DSS) is used here as defined by Scott Morton (1984) to include all forms of information systems and technologies designed to assist one or more users in making better decisions. Although the nature of the decision support provided by DSS range from passive to active (Henderson, 1987; Humphreys, 1986; Keen, 1987; Luconi, Malone, & Scott Morton, 1986; Remus & Kotteman, 1986) and from individual to group (DeSanctis & Gallupe, 1987; Olson & Olson, 1991), the goal in designing all decision support systems is to improve “decision quality” (Ginzberg & Stohr, 1982, p. 12).

According to Daft (1991), a decision is “a choice made from among available alternatives” (p. 180). Choosing from among alternative courses of action lies at the heart of decision making (Payne, 1982). Decision quality is a measure of the goodness of this choice.

A user interface both supports the mechanics of the interaction and facilitates the broader notion of a dialogue between human and computer. As used here, a user interface is an “observable two-way exchange of symbols and actions between human and computer” (Hartson & Hix, 1989, p. 8). In this way, the study of [Page 46]animation in user interfaces emphasizes the symbols and actions of images, the effects of images and images in action, and the user's actions and reactions to these images and their actions.

In the film industry, animation is defined as movement that brings characters to life (Solomon, 1983). In psychology, animation has been referred to as “apparent movement which is actually a series of still pictures” (Goldstein, 1989, p. 277). In education, animation is “a series of rapidly changing computer screen displays that represent the illusion of movement” (Rieber & Hannafin, 1988, p. 78). In the human-computer interface literature, animation is a “sequence of static images changing rapidly enough to create the illusion of a continuously changing picture” (Baecker & Small, 1990, p. 252). Some writers contend that animation must create the illusion of movement (Baecker & Small, 1990; Keller & Keller, 1993; Park & Hopkins, 1992), and others argue that animation includes change such as zooming, dissolving, fading, coloration, shading, and other transition and alteration effects (Magnenat-Thalmann & Thalmann, 1985). For some, animation is simply another way of displaying images (Palmiter, Elkerton, & Baggett, 1991; Rieber, Boyce, & Assad, 1990); others contend that the user interface should be designed to support interactivity (Ginzberg & Stohr, 1982) so that the images of animation change in ways guided by user actions (Robertson et al., 1993).

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