Interface Effects on Data Input Performance Using Web Forms

The dramatic growth in Web-based data input interfaces by businesses, organizations and governmental entities, has in a few short years produced a paradigm shift in the manner in which individual data makes its way into data stores. The potential increase in error resulting from that change is unaccounted for in the Information Systems literature. In this study, a theory is presented in which the connection between the individual, the interface, and the context (or task) is explicitly modeled, building on the person-artifact-task theory of Finneran and Zhang (2003). Particular attention is paid to complex data constructs, conceptualized as data objects within the computer system and mapping to latent cognitive representations held by the user, which may be represented using graphical and/or audible paradigms within the Web-based data input interface. It is expected that such representation will increase the accuracy of data, reduce input errors, and improve performance.