From Command to Control: interface design for customer handling systems

摘要

This paper describes interface design activity which focused on the tasks perfomed by call centre advisers, The advisers' work is supported by a large database, which offers them a command line interface. Contextual observation revealed that more effort was needed to interrogate the database than to communicate with the customers. A subset of advisers' tasks was used to provide scenarios for the design of a 2D/3D graphical user interface, which was prototyped in Macromind Director~TM and evaluated by a user group. Initial feedback indicated that the design metaphor and dialogue style have the potential to readically improve the advisers' interaction with the system.