A case study of user evaluation of information characteristics for systems improvement

This paper reports on a case study of user evaluation of information characteristics as a basis for the improvement of an information system. Branch-managers of a large bank were asked to evaluate the output of the system according to four information characteristics: accuracy, content, frequency, and recency. The findings of this study indicate that the users at the bank had a holistic perception of their information, and that content was a dominant characteristics which spilled over other characteristics. This case study casts doubts about the use of evaluations of users of information characteristics as the only basis for improving existing systems.