Giving meaning to measurement

Measurement provides the transformation that represents the relationship between one domain and another. Measurement in isolation is meaningless. It must fit into the understanding of a system, which has relational, interacting components. Measurement always has a reference from which it establishes a relationship between domains. We have a colloquial expression in America, “Don´t miss the forest for the trees.” It means that by focusing on the details, we tend to overlook the big picture. Sometimes scientists and engineers can see the details but miss the overall perspective. This does not have to be. We can overcome this failing and thereby build more useful instruments. We need to understand who uses measurement, why we measure, and how we measure. Upon this basis we can use basic principles of human interactions to construct better, more useful instruments. You might call these basic principles ergonomics, user interface, human factors; I would call it common sense