Abstract
The design of a system does not stop when the finished product is ready to be shipped to the retailer or end-user; in fact, one could say that system design really begins when the User first encounters the product. This statement might appear confusing or misguided to many readers. However, if one remembers the assumption that a system comprises people and objects in a work domain, then it is possible to See some sense in it. Clearly any product (and the focus of this book has been on computers) functions in response to human activity. While computers are designed to Support human activity in the pursuit of some goal, it is less likely that human activity will be performed to aid a computer in its pursuit of a goal. This latter statement is true, partly because computers cannot really be said to hold goals, and partly because of the avowed aim of software and computer engineering to allow users control over the interaction. Having said this, there are countless examples of computer Systems that appear to require people to perform pointless, unnecessary or silly actions in order for the computer to function. In such cases, it often feels to users that they are responding to the demands of the computer and helping the computer to perform some work activity.
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References
Alphonse Chapanis wrote in 1965b (p. 124) that ‘it would be ideal if the engineering psychologist could turn to handbooks of human data... much as an engineer can turn to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the Radio Engineer’s Handbook, or any of a dozen others’. Such books are listed here.
Mark Sanders and Ernest McCormick (eds.), Human Factors in Engineering and Design, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993.
Although this is not a handbook as such, it is one of the key texts, currently in its seventh edition. It provides a very manageable overview and discussion of the main human factors topics in 790 pages.
Martin Helander, Thomas Landauer and Prasad Prabhus (eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1997.
This weighty tome was first published in 1988 and was completely revised in 1997. It covers all imaginable aspects of human-computer interaction in 62 chapters covering 1582 pages, with over 7000 references. This book has to be one of the primary information sources currently in this field.
Gavriel Salvendy (ed.), Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Wiley, New York, 1997.
This book first appeared in 1987, but has been revised as a second edition, and covers virtually all aspects of physical, cognitive and social ergonomics in 60 chapters, spanning 2137 pages. Like the Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, this book must be one of the seminal texts in this area.
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag London
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Noyes, J., Baber, C. (1999). How Will the System Be Used in the Workplace?. In: User-Centred Design of Systems. Applied Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0537-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0537-4_11
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76007-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0537-4
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