[Sigia-l] Can UI designers kill people?

[Lord, Ralph]

You're right, more capable BUT more complex.

And the even MORE interesting thing IMHO is how while the computers are flying (or operating whatever kind of complex system) the humans can get so tuned out to what's going on that when something does go wrong, oftentimes it takes them a long time to get "up to speed" on the situation and correct it.  So sometimes the systems are designed to require periodic or ongoing low-level input from the humans just to keep them involved and aware of any parameters that may be creeping towards an out-of-bounds state.

Ralph Lord
System Analyst
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
770.234.6562



> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] 
> On Behalf Of Jonas Söderström
> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 11:11 AM
> To: sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] Can UI designers kill people?
> 
> 
> >There's a huge amount of work done on these issues and has been for 
> >many years.  In light of that, the press release cited makes 
> a pretty 
> >simplistic claim: "gosh, flying an airplane can be pretty darn 
> >complicated sometimes...we should design the cockpit better".
> 
> The most interesting part with this study is not the "kill" 
> factor. That deadly accidents can occur from poor design in 
> high-risk environments is well known, of course.
> 
> I say this is the passage with broad implications.
> 
> "At the same time, onboard computers started to manage a 
> number of functions and modes aiming at increasing safety and 
> reducing workload. Unfortunately, the workload is still very 
> high and the complexity of the cockpit has dramatically increased."
> 
> This is the insight that is missing in so many (other) 
> systems; certainly not just in airplanes. New, promised 
> "simpler" systems that turns out to be more complicated than 
> previous ones...
> 
> /jonas
> 
> -- 
> 
> Jonas Söderström
> senior information architect
> Sweden
> 
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