In a country where you find 6.5 million cell phone users
(96% penetration), 640,000 subscribers to high-bandwidth
Internet connection (at 30% of households, the third
largest number of users in the world), and 1.5 million
digital TV subscribers (70% of households), you’d expect
to find human-computer interaction (HCI) to be an
integral part of product development. Despite this
impressive data, this is not the case in Israel, whose
total population of 6.8 million people obviously uses
computers and communication devices without hesitation.
When you ask an Israeli HCI professional how Israeli
cultural characteristics affect user interface and
software design, you get two answers – one flattering
and the other less so. The flattering answer is that
Israelis are highly innovative and intelligent. The
not-so-flattering answer is that they are too
action-driven, looking for development shortcuts and as
a result not considering HCI to be an integral part of
technological development.
The high-tech industry has the most promising growth
potential in the Israeli economy. In 2003, 48% of
Israeli exports were high-tech related. The industry is
characterized by three phenomena:
Intensive entrepreneurship activity. There are
hundreds of start-up companies.
A deep understanding of the importance of
information technology products and services in big
private-sector companies.
Capital investments from abroad that are attracted
to Israel’s high-tech industry because of a
potentially high return on investment.
During the hype times, Israel was known as the Silicon
Wadi. This nickname was appropriate because Israel’s
high-tech industry ranked third in importance behind
only Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley. Today things have
changed but the spirit is still there. Thirteen
high-tech parks are spread throughout Israel. They
provide top quality software, hardware, biotechnology
and communications products and services.
The Birth of Usability
The research and practice of HCI and usability in Israel
have a relatively long history. Human factors research
goes back 35 years. Cognitive psychologists were
involved in engineering development back in 1970. Dr.
Michael Brickner, the general manager of Pamam – a user
interface design and human factors engineering company –
says that the Israeli Air Force initiated HCI activities
in 1972, and other army research and development
organizations followed. In the 1980s, the first civilian
body began HCI-related activities. Dr. Avi parush, an
associate professor in the department of psychology at
Canada’s Carleton University, recalls that the first
project was also military-oriented and was part of the
Lavi project, Israel’s attempt at manufacturing an
advanced fighter jet that was canceled for budgetary
reasons in 1987. although the government’s bottom line
was not a new Israeli fighter jet, its investment in the
Lavi project paved the way for the significant
development of many technological skills, including HCI.
Later in the ‘80s, human factors, usability and HCI
professionals began to get involved with commercial
software development. HCI and usability companies were
founded. Today, many large organizations, such as banks,
communications enterprises and high-tech corporations,
use their services – even better is the fact that many
companies have internal groups of usability and HCI
professionals.
Dr. Norman Schwalm, a Haifa University researcher, says
that the army is highly influential in the field. Dr.
Parush agrees that the defense industry was a pioneer in
integrating human factors and usability professionals
into development and deployment projects. Many of the
leaders of this discipline came from within the industry
as employees or consultants. But the military-oriented
industry wasn’t good at following its own lead. A leader
of a human factors group of a government
military-oriented enterprise says that there was a time
during the Internet bubble when the civilian high-tech
industry pushed the HCI field forward, and then the
military-oriented industry followed when it realized it
lagged behind.
Attitude and Advancement
Israelis are characteristically action-driven, good
improvisers, highly innovative and have a lot of
Chutzpa. Because the Israeli culture is highly
practical, extra emphasis is placed on the functionality
of things at the expense of the human factor. According
to HCI researcher Dr. Noam Tractinsky, this attitude is
reflected in the lack of support for the handicapped in
government buildings and in the weak HCI education
included in the computer science academic programs.
Among software developers there is an indifference to
user needs and violations of elementary guidelines. Dr.
Tractinsky expects the situation to improve as the world
market makes greater demands.
He notes that the Israeli approach also has its
advantages. Compared to other cultures, Israel is
enormously gifted in its ability to improvise. The
willingness to innovate and invent is an advantage in
all aspects of the software development industry.
According to Dr. Schwalm, the typical Israeli has no
time, wants answers rather than more questions, and has
no patience to fool around with a software product. The
high-tech and defense industries in particular have no
patience for an unfriendly software product. And the
expectations for high-tech systems are high in Israel.
Dr. Parush provides an example: the Automatic Teller
Machine (ATM) appeared in Israel much earlier than in
other places in the world. The use of mobile devices in
Israel also predates that of many other countries.
Dr. Parush points out that among the challenges that
Israeli HCI professionals face is that much of the
software industry is export-oriented. This introduces
difficulty in both understanding the target end users
and the need to work more with surrogate users –
stakeholders within the company including marketers,
project managers, and, too often, software engineers.
Many applaud these HCI activities, which include
developing concepts, building prototypes, job and task
analysis, and usability testing.
Short on Industry Support
When talking about usability, one important issue is
whether those wielding the power really think they need
HCI. In his March 2004 Alertbox, Jakob Nielsen noted
that today there are 2.3 million programmers in the U.S.
and current best practices call for allocating 10% of
development staff to usability to achieve the minimum
standards for good design. Nielsen doubts that there are
30,000 usability professionals in the U.S.
In Israel, there are 160,000 employees in the high-tech
industry and an estimated number of 200 usability
professionals. Why is the number so small? It may be as
simple as this: Many Israeli corporations that should
invest in HCI activities have never even heard of it.
It’s simple economics – the supply and demand are in
balance, but are balanced at a very low level.
HCI in Universities
If Israeli HCI professionals need to increase the demand
for their expertise, it’s time to understand what
happens in Israeli universities. Israel has eight major
universities and dozens of private colleges, none of
which offers a full HCI academic program. Of all the
technology programs offered, only four are somewhat
HCI-related. These are master’s programs in information
systems or industrial engineering that include a
specialization in HCI, but none that is dedicated to it.
Dr. Brickner explains that even though the market demand
is growing, the market is still relatively small.
Universities are lagging behind the demand in the
market, but because there is such a small market for HCI
professionals, universities don’t want to establish a
program that would attract too few students. Dr. Parush
agrees that it’s a question of supply and demand. When
the industry demands more HCI professionals,
universities will offer more relevant programs.
Local HCI organizations
The Israeli usability professionals’ community has about
200 members (true for time of writing - TS). They meet five times annually to mingle,
network and participate in interesting presentations
given by key members of the community and in the
high-tech industry. Dr. Parush, who founded this
community, explains that it was born from a slowly
evolving demand to have an HCI-related professional
community in Israel. The need kept coming up among those
very few Israelis who attended international conferences
and lamented the lack of such events in Israel. The
response from people in the field has been overwhelming.
There is high attendance in the meetings, which reflects
the interest in it, the desire to be a part of the
community and the readiness to be involved.
The bottom line: yes, there is a live and kicking
community of usability and HCI professionals in Israel.
But no, there is not enough recognition, education and
cultural basis for the profession… yet.
About Tomer Sharon
Tomer Sharon is a
usability expert at Check Point Software Technologies, based in
Ramat Gan, Israel, and the chairman of
the Israeli usability community. He can be reached at
tsharon@checkpoint.com.
