ABSTRACT
The Ionia project is a multi-disciplinary applied research venture within the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences and the School of Human Sciences of The Liverpool John Moores University to improve contemporary (and primarily existing) administrative and business systems. The project requires a broad examination of the many diverse factors (e.g. technical, economic, business, social, psychological., legal, ethical etc.) which influence the development of these systems. The research areas of the project include investigating:
• business aspects of systems analysis; • the effects of IT implementation on business organisations; • IT improvement strategies; • the ergonomics of systems investigation; • the psychological aspects of systems development and operation; • the impact of new working practices (e.g. teleworking, CSCW) on business systems
design; • the effects of non-computer IT (e.g. mobile phones) on business systems development;
and by offering a critique and possible revision of existing design and systems development methodologies and techniques. For example, current systems analysis techniques are often primarily concerned with merely the information flow in a system. This project is deliberately wide-ranging as the long term intention is to identify a possible framework for integrating all the factors and trends which should influence business systems development and maintenance. As a preliminary stage of this wide ranging research, this present paper reviews the past and current state of conventional business systems development and how they impact with general HCI and Human Factors issues and the increasing use of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) in particular.
