LESSONS LEARNT FROM AN HCI REPOSITORY

This paper describes how repository concepts have been put into practi ce in the Inland Revenue - the UK Tax Office - which has a managed net work of 45,000 MS-Windows PCs. In 1993, the organisation started to im plement a comprehensive HCI Programme. An HCI Framework and a Style Gu ide were written, usability evaluation techniques were tried out, and an HCI repository implemented. The repository includes interlinked MS Windows Help Files of the HCI documents, the organisation's Data Strat egy documents and various HCI information such as usability metrics by project, examples of completed HCI work, typical resource requirement s and costs for HCI methods, standard keyboard assignments, toolbar ic ons, etc. The format proved so effective that it has become the recogn ised vehicle for many of the organisation's strategy documents and pro cedure manuals and is now accessible to several thousand staff via 30 Local Area Networks. The purpose of the repository is to provide stand ards, guidance, methods, templates, checklists, etc., to help people d o their work more effectively; and to enable people to feedback their experiences to improve its contents. The Inland Revenue implementation indicates that it is best to start small and simple and respond to us er requests for information and functionality. However, the need to mo tivate people to take the time and trouble to feedback their experienc es to the repository is recognised as a major cultural challenge. Repo sitories can be useful to any community which undertakes purposeful ac tivity. This includes Ergonomics/HCI specialists within an organisatio n, within a country, and across the world. However, to exploit the pot ential of a respository a community must adjust its organisations and intitutions; and community members must come to a new understanding of their role. Individuals must learn to place greater priority on worki ng together and on feeling back their experiences into the improvement cycle.