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Perceptual
Principles
1. Make displays
legible (or
audible)
2. Avoid absolute
judgment
limits
3. Similarity
causes
confusion: Use
discriminable
elements
Principles
Based on
Attention
6. Minimizing
information
access cost
7. Principle of
multiple
resources
8. Proximity
compatibility
principle
Memory
Principles
Mental Model
Principles
9. Principle of
consistency
12. Principle of
pictorial
realism
13. Principle of
the moving
part
10. Principle of
predictive
aiding
11. Replace
memory with
visual
information:
knowledge in
the world
4. Top-down
processing
5. Redundancy
gain
Use multiple parameters to code something (shape, size, tone, loudness, etc)
and be careful with pushing the edges of humans ability to differentiate
similar qualities.
3. Similarity causes confusion: Use discriminable elements
Similar appearing signals are likely to be confused. The ratio of similar
features to different features is what causes signals to be noted as similar.
For example, JLM456 is more similar to JLM457 than 56 is to 57. Unnecessary
similar features should be removed and dissimilar features should be
highlighted.
Looking at the switches below, the only differentiation is 1A and 7A, and
depending on where you are standing and looking up to read, the differences
might not be noticeable at all.
4. Top-down processing
Signals are routinely perceived and interpreted based on an operators past
experience. Humans see and hear what they expect. If the presentation of a
signal is contrary to expectations, or is the result of some unlikely or rare
event, then more physical evidence of that signal must be presented to
ensure that it is interpreted correctly.
Relay or line trips during a thunderstorm will usually immediately drive an
operator to perceive things that are related to impacts associated with that
weather phenomena (such as lightening strikes). Signals that can be
associated with certain phenomena will drive that type of decision making
even if the signal might not be associated with that impact. The context that
MS Power Point
10.
The above sign examples are useful when driving if they are presented in
advance of the actual required action, allowing a driver to anticipate or
prepare.
11.
the need to reference some type of knowledge in the world (e.g. an expert
computer operator would rather use direct commands from memory than
refer to a manual). The use of knowledge in a users head and knowledge in
the world must be balanced for an effective design.
Principles Based on Mental Models
12.
A display should look like the variable that it represents (e.g. high
temperature on a thermometer shown as a higher vertical level). If there are
multiple elements, they can be configured in a manner that looks like it
would in the represented environment.
13.
Moving elements should move in a pattern and direction compatible with the
users mental model of how it actually moves in the system. For example,
the moving element on an altimeter should move upward with increasing
altitude.
Reference:
Wickens, Christopher D., John D. Lee, Yili Liu, and Sallie E. Gordon Becker. An
Introduction to Human Factors Engineering. Second ed,. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 185193.