| Abstract | Reviews theoretical models of personality: "Cattell (1965), for example, proposed the existence of 16 distinct traits such as "cool- warm", "practical-imaginative", "shy-bold", "submissive-dominant", etc. which he derived through factor analysis of rater intercorrelations. The California Psychological Inventory (Gough 1958) suggests there are 22 basic traits such as "dominance", "sociability", etc. Eysenck (1947) claims that only 2 orthogonal dimensions truly differentiate individuals: introversion- extraversion, and neuroticism-emotional stability. In later years he added a third dimension dealing with psychoticism. Recent re-analyses in this field have led to proposal of the "Big Five" personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openess to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Digman, 1990)." "A recent review of this work by Landy et al (1993) concluded that it is still too early to draw any reliable inferences on this characterisation, though it hardly inspires confidence that Hough (1992) suggests that these five factors really ought to be extended to nine" ABSTRACT User analysis is a crucial aspect of user-centered systems design, yet Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has yet to formulate reliable and valid characterisations of users beyond gross distinctions based on task and experience. Individual differences research from mainstream psychology has identified a stable set of characteristics that would appear to offer potential application in the HCI arena. Furthermore, in its evolution over the last 100 years, research on individual differences has faced many of the problems of theoretical status and applicability that is common to HCI. In the present paper the relationship between work in cognitive and differential psychology and current analyses of users in HCI is examined. It is concluded that HCI could gain significant predictive power if individual differences research was related to the analysis of users in contemporary systems design. |
