U

Unstructured Decisions

This type of decision situation is complex and no standard solutions exist for resolving the situation. Some or all of the structural elements of the decision situation are undefined, ill-defined or unknown. For example, goals may be poorly defined, alternatives may be incomplete or non-comparable, choice criteria may be hard to measure or difficult to link to goals.

User-Friendly

An evaluative term for a Decision Support System's user interface. The phrase indicates that users judge the user interface as to easy to learn, understand, and use.

User Interface

The component of a computerized support system that allows bi-directional communication between a system and its user. This component is also called the dialogue component or Human-Computer Interface of a DSS. An interface is a set of commands or menus through which a user communicates with a program. See graphical user interface.