Supporting knowledge-based behavior through ecological interface design

Many issues pertaining to the design of interfaces for complex human-machine systems remain to be investigated. A theoretical framework, called Ecological Interface Design (EID), was developed to address some of these topics. EID is based on Rasmussen's skills, rules, knowledge taxonomy and consists of three prescriptive design principles. The objective of these principles is to exploit the powerful capabilities of perception and action, while at the same time, providing the necessary support for more effortful and error-prone problem solving activities. This research evaluated how well an interface based on the principles of EID allows operators to cope with problem solving activities associated with unfamiliar and unanticipated events. According to EID, to properly support such knowledge-based behavior, an interface should display the physical and functional properties of the work domain in the form of a multilevel representation based on Rasmussen's abstraction hierarchy. A review of the literature in this area revealed that no experiment has ever compared a multilevel interface based on an abstraction hierarchy representation with another type of interface. An experiment was undertaken to address this important research need.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Vicente, Kim J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sanderson, Penelope M.

• Engineering, Industrial
• Psychology, Experimental

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1991 Vicente, Kim J.

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9136758
(UMI)AAI9136758

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/20135