Trust as an underlying factor of system administrator interface choice

Abstract

System administrators are the unsung heroes of the information age, working behind the scenes to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot the computer infrastructure that underlies much of modern life. While Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are being offered as system administration tools, they mostly continue to use Command-Line Interfaces (CLIs). Based on an extensive survey of system administrators, we provide insights regarding this preference, analyze why many of these power users perceive CLIs as more effective than GUIs, and discuss findings as supported by observations from our parallel field studies. Our analysis indicates that cognition-based trust and monitoring play major roles in the interface preference for CLIs vs. GUIs. We also propose next steps for further exploration of trust in human-computer interfaces.