Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!emory!hubcap!gatech!prism!rc7
From: rc7@prism.gatech.EDU (Richard Catrambone)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Human Factors or also called Ergonomics
Message-ID: <31211@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 12 Jun 91 15:23:20 GMT
References: <1991Jun12.091705.2823@actrix.gen.nz>
Organization: Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 21

In article <1991Jun12.091705.2823@actrix.gen.nz> keith@actrix.gen.nz (Keith Stewart) writes:
> a personal interest in whether designers of programme interfaces
>ever use the principles that have been derived from psychology and are used
>in amny places when designing instruments , control panel etc.
>
The issue of whether academic-type research on human-computer
interaction can actually be applied to real-world issues
is an important one.  Each year there are workshops and
panels at conferences (such as the Computer-Human Interaction
[CHI] Conference) that discuss this issue.  To the best of
my knowledge, research by psychologists in this area has
had at best a relatively modest impact on interface designs
and the design process.  Part of the problem is that the
research findings and the theories used to drive the
research (such as the GOMS model, for those of you who
are familiar with that area) are often not presented in
ways that suggest clear guidelines to a person/group
designing an interface.  A second factor may be an
unwillingness of companies/design teams to involve
HCI researchers in the design process at an early enough
stage to make a real contribution.