John M. Flach

Technological advances in hardware and software provide powerful tools with the potential to design interfaces that are powerful and easy to use. Yet, the frustrations and convoluted "work-arounds" often encountered make it clear that there is substantial room for improvement. Drawn from more than 60 years of combined experience studying, implementing, and teaching about performance in human-technology systems, Display and Interface Design: Subtle Science, Exact Art provides a theoretically-based yet practical guide for ecological display and interface design.Written from the perspective of cognitive systems engineering and ecological interface design, the book delineates how to design interfaces tailored to specific work demands, leverage the powerful perception-action skills of the human, and use powerful interface technologies wisely. This triadic approach (domain, human, interface) to display and interface design stands in sharp contrast to traditional dyadic (human, interface) approaches. The authors describe general principles and specific strategies at length and include concrete examples and extensive design tutorials that illustrate quite clearly how these principles and strategies can be applied. The coverage spans the entire continuum of interfaces that might need to be developed in today's work places. The reason that good interfaces are few and far between is really quite simple: they are extremely difficult to design and build properly. While there are many books available that address display design, most of them focus on aesthetic principles but lack scientific rigor, or are descriptive but not prescriptive. Whether you are exploring the principles of interface design or designing and implementing interfaces, this book elucidates an overarching framework for design that can be applied to the broad spectrum of existing domains.

Technological advances in hardware and software provide powerful tools with the potential to design interfaces that are powerful and easy to use. Yet, the frustrations and convoluted "work-arounds" often encountered make it clear that there is substantial room for improvement. Drawn from more than 60 years of combined experience studying, implementing, and teaching about performance in human-technology systems, Display and Interface Design: Subtle Science, Exact Art provides a theoretically-based yet practical guide for ecological display and interface design.Written from the perspective of cognitive systems engineering and ecological interface design, the book delineates how to design interfaces tailored to specific work demands, leverage the powerful perception-action skills of the human, and use powerful interface technologies wisely. This triadic approach (domain, human, interface) to display and interface design stands in sharp contrast to traditional dyadic (human, interface) approaches. The authors describe general principles and specific strategies at length and include concrete examples and extensive design tutorials that illustrate quite clearly how these principles and strategies can be applied. The coverage spans the entire continuum of interfaces that might need to be developed in today's work places. The reason that good interfaces are few and far between is really quite simple: they are extremely difficult to design and build properly. While there are many books available that address display design, most of them focus on aesthetic principles but lack scientific rigor, or are descriptive but not prescriptive. Whether you are exploring the principles of interface design or designing and implementing interfaces, this book elucidates an overarching framework for design that can be applied to the broad spectrum of existing domains.

This textbook provides a tutorial introduction to behavioral applications of control theory. Control theory describes the information one should be sensitive to and the pattern of influence that one should exert on a dynamic system in order to achieve a goal. As such, it is applicable to various forms of dynamic behavior. The book primarily deals with manual control (e.g., moving the cursor on a computer screen, lifting an object, hitting a ball, driving a car), both as a substantive area of study and as a useful perspective for approaching control theory. It is the experience of the authors that by imagining themselves as part of a manual control system, students are better able to learn numerous concepts in this field. Topics include varieties of control theory, such as classical, optimal, fuzzy, adaptive, and learning control, as well as perception and decision making in dynamic contexts. The authors also discuss implications of control theory for how experiments can be conducted in the behavioral sciences. In each of these areas they have provided brief essays intended to convey key concepts that enable the reader to more easily pursue additional readings. Behavioral scientists teaching control courses will be very interested in this book.

This textbook provides a tutorial introduction to behavioral applications of control theory. Control theory describes the information one should be sensitive to and the pattern of influence that one should exert on a dynamic system in order to achieve a goal. As such, it is applicable to various forms of dynamic behavior. The book primarily deals with manual control (e.g., moving the cursor on a computer screen, lifting an object, hitting a ball, driving a car), both as a substantive area of study and as a useful perspective for approaching control theory. It is the experience of the authors that by imagining themselves as part of a manual control system, students are better able to learn numerous concepts in this field. Topics include varieties of control theory, such as classical, optimal, fuzzy, adaptive, and learning control, as well as perception and decision making in dynamic contexts. The authors also discuss implications of control theory for how experiments can be conducted in the behavioral sciences. In each of these areas they have provided brief essays intended to convey key concepts that enable the reader to more easily pursue additional readings. Behavioral scientists teaching control courses will be very interested in this book.