ECOLOGICAL INTERFACE DESIGN FOR NETWORK MANAGEMENT

This paper describes an experimental investigation of Ecological Interface Design (EID) in computer network management. The constant potential for the addition and removal of devices, as well as change of configurations, makes this work domain more fluid than those previously studied under EID. Two interfaces were created for the University of Toronto campus network consisting of220 nodes: a P interface based on existing design practices which presented primarily physical information and a P+F interface based on EID which presented both physical and functional information identified by an abstraction hierarchy analysis. Participants were required to use one of the two interfaces to detect and diagnose faults or disturbances in the network in real-time. Network size and fault load were both manipulated as within-participants variables. The P+F interface led to faster detection times, improved rates of detection under higher fault loads, and more accurate diagnoses under higher fault loads. These results suggest that the EID framework may lead to more robust monitoring in computer network management compared to existing interfaces