Usability of a hyperknowledge-based executive support system for financial benchmarking

Hyperknowledge is a new, ideal computer-based environment for working, learning and decision-making. In this environment, different and contrasting views of a domain of interest are internalized by the user, enabling the development of a comprehensive understanding of the domain. A financial benchmarking application has been created as a part of an executive support system. It has been verified and validated that the application is a functional hyperknowledge environment. However, the application cannot be employed to its full potential unless it is highly usable, since otherwise the users would spend too much of their time and cognitive capacity in learning to use the system instead of in learning to better master the domain of interest. This paper therefore focuses on the usability of the benchmarking application. The results show that the application has only a few usability defects, is fairly easy to learn and remember, and is relatively efficient to use