Jens Rasmussen - Böcker

The first comprehensive guide to designing highly usable, fully integrated computer-based information systems. Traditional human-computer interaction (HCI) and system design models have proven too narrow to adequately assess user needs and to design usable and efficient computer-based information support systems. Taking modeling concepts from engineering, psychology, cognitive science, information science, and computer science, cognitive systems engineering (CSE) provides a much broader, more dynamic framework. This book is the first comprehensive guide to the emerging new field of cognitive systems engineering. Throughout, the emphasis is on powerful analytical techniques that enhance the systems designer's ability to see the "big picture," and to design for all crucial aspects of human-work interaction. Applicable to highly structured technical systems such as process plants, as well as less structured user-driven systems like libraries, these analytical techniques form the basis for the design and design evaluation guidelines that make up the bulk of this book. The authors also provide a chapter-length case history in which they chronicle the success of their approach when applied to a full-scale software design project.

Frequently (and often inappropriately) decision making in the work environment has been analyzed and modeled in terms of isolated decisions made by one person. In reality, decision making is a continuous, interpersonal process usually involving several ``decision makers'' aiming at dynamic and cooperative control of the state of affairs at work. Based on original contributions from researchers and research teams, this book provides an urgently needed cognitive approach to models of distributed decision making, exploring the basis for design of decision support systems in various complex, collective, modern work environments. It identifies the state of the art of modeling distributed decision making and the problems imposed by modern high-tech systems. A also formulates promising research avenues.

The monograph presents the proceedings of the Third Symposium on Empir­ ical Foundations of Information and Software Sciences (EFISS) held at the Riso National Laboratory in Roskilde, Denmark, 23-25 October 1985. The EFISS series of meetings was initiated with the express purpose of explor­ ing subjects and methods of scientific inquiry of empirical nature which are of common interest to information and software sciences. Furthermore, these meetings were expected to provide a cross-disciplinary forum for discussion of problems and exchange of research results of importance for the design and application of advanced information systems. The previous two EFISS symposia took place at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The first meeting in 1982 focused on methods of experimental design and measurement techniques in information and software sciences. The second meeting was held in 1984 and its main theme was the value of information in prescriptive contexts, such as value of information for understanding and implementation of these messages, instructions, and commands. Specific examples of problems of this kind are the value of comments for the enhancement of understanding of computer programs, the value of information in assisting and guiding users of on­ line interactive systems, and the value of lexical aids in information retrieval. In both symposia, contributed papers were considered on any other valid subject of empirical foundations of the said two sciences.

This book includes all of the papers presented at the NATO Symposium on Human Detection and Diagnosis of System Failures held at Roskilde, Denmark on August 4-8, 1980. The Symposium was sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO and the Rise National Laboratory of Denmark. The goal of the Symposium was to continue the tradition initiated by the NATO Symposium on Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control held in Berchtesgaden, F .R. Germany in 1976 and the NATO Symposium on Theory and Measurement of Mental Workload held in Mati, Greece in 1977. To this end, a group of 85 psychologists and engineers coming from industry, government, and academia convened to discuss, and to generate a "state-of-the-art" consensus of the problems and solutions associated with the human IS ability to cope with the increasing scale of consequences of failures within complex technical systems. The Introduction of this volume reviews their findings. The Symposium was organized to include brief formal presentations of papers sent to participants about two months in advance of the meeting, and considerable discussion both during plenary sessions and within more specialized workshops. Summaries of the discussions and workshop reports appear in this volume.