Improving Dynamic Decision Making through HCI Principles

CSBILEs allow the compression of time and space and provide an opportunity for practicing managerial decision making in a non-threatening way (Issacs & Senge, 1994). In a computer simulation-based interactive learning environments (CSBILEs), decision makers can test their assumptions, practice exerting control over a business situation, and learn from the immediate feedback of their decisions. CSBILE’s effectiveness is associated directly with decision-making effectiveness; that is, if one CSBILE improves decision-making effectiveness more than other CSBILEs, it is more effective than others. Despite an increasing interest in CSBILEs, empirical evidence to their effectiveness is inconclusive (Bakken, 1993; Diehl & Sterman, 1995; Moxnes, 1998). The aim of this article is to present a case for HCI design principles as a viable potential way to improve the design of CSBILEs and, hence, their effectiveness in improving decision makers’ performance in dynamic tasks. This article is organized as follows: some background concepts are presented first; next, we present an assessment of the prior research on (i) DDM and CSBILE and (ii) HCI and dynamic decision making (DDM); the section on future trends presents some suggestion for future research. This article concludes with some conclusions.