In the field of forensic human factors, experts are often called upon to assess and evaluate the adequacy of new or existing products' warnings or warnings systems. The usual goal of this evaluation is to arrive at a simple binary decision regarding the warning in question (i.e., does it "pass/fail", or is it "adequate/inadequate"). However, such a warning assessment process may in fact be quite complex and multidimensional in its execution. The existing warnings research literature has identified a fairly large number of warnings features or factors likely to have an impact on a given warning's effectiveness or adequacy. The tool addressed in this article is intended for use by a warnings expert (as opposed to one less knowledgeable and informed about complex warnings issues), and can serve as a reminder checklist to help ensure that the expert has taken into consideration the most relevant features or factors during such a warnings adequacy assessment.
A recurrent problem in designing interactive computer systems is the inability of system designers, users, and implementors to observe the system's external behavior until implementation has occurred. This, in turn, often results in failure to detect design deficiencies until a point when corrections are costly or impractical. A simulation tool is described which allows a systems designer to interactively specify, implement, demonstrate, evaluate, and iteratively modify an operational simulation of the proposed system's user-computer interface. The tool is intended for hands-on usage by an applications-oriented systems designer with little or no formal training in computer software programming. The capabilities and characteristics of the tool are described along with an economical and efficient approach to its design and implementation.
Various single-rider open vehicles, such as lawnmowers, are susceptible to overturning on slopes that are too steep for them. Warnings have included separation from the vehicles and avoiding slopes that are too steep. A recommended maximum slope is commonly 15 degrees. However, many individuals cannot evaluate slopes just by sight. Some mower manufacturers have warned about too steep slopes and have provided slope gauges for users to determine the slopes in natural settings. This article evaluated the usefulness of such gauges for users who might be expected to need to evaluate slopes and the efficacy of a separation procedure for avoiding injuries. It was concluded that neither of these were likely to be successful and suggestions are made for alternative approaches.
The design and development of user interfaces to interactive computer systems is enhanced by permitting designers to easily express their design concepts in concrete, comprehensive, and comprehensible working models.
A set of prototyping and simulation tools has been developed to be used as an integral part of the specification and design process. These include an interactive display building utility and a syntax-driven interactive dialogue controller. The display builder is used to develop initial conceptual snapshots of system display appearance at selected points in the user/system dialogue. The dialogue controller interprets a grammatical description of input tools and system logic, using predrawn and dynamically constructed displays to simulate the external appearance of the desired end system.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.