Cognitive engineering computer interfaces. II. An objective design process

Much is being written about “cognitive engineering,” the process by which psychology and human factors engineering data are applied to human interface design. Most of this literature is strong on theoretic advocacy of such a process but weak on implementation details. The present paper is an attempt to describe a process that will combine 1) knowledge acquisition, 2) human cognitive data, 3) human engineering data, 4) hardware and software constraints, and 5) aesthetics to derive a set of interface specifications whose details can be justified based on objective cognitive engineering criteria. An example based on efforts to assist development of the next generation Command Tactical Information System (CTIS), the command and control system of the Air Force´s Alaskan Command, is presented