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Cognitive Engineering Practice
Case Studies:
Developing a User-Centered Telephone Operator Workstation
___________________________________________________Challenge
Pacific Bell, a regional Bell operating company, was making rapid changes in its operating practices. It was moving away from dedicated operator jobs that offered only directory assistance to integrated services jobs in which operators performed many functions on one or sequential calls.
This new way of working required a redesigned workstation. Due to budget constraints, the new workstation had to minimize training for novice operators and for the thousands of single-function operators transferring to these positions. The integrated services operators also had to perform as efficiently as the single-function operators.
Result
CHI Systems Cognitive Engineering Practice helped Pacific Bell Operator Services meet this challenge by using our Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and COGNET analysis methods to capture and model the different types of knowledge needed by an integrated services operator.
The Cognitive Engineering team then used this model to create and prototype an award-winning design for the integrated services workstation user interface. We then transferred the design to a customer-selected system integrator for implementation, and supported the system integrator during usability testing of the final product.
As a result, CHI Systems received the Pacific Bell Quality Partner award for producing this solution.
Reference
Ryder, J., Szczepkowski, M., Weiland, M., & Zachary, W. (1998). Cognitive engineering of a new telephone wperator workstation Using COGNET. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 22(6):417-429.
