On the design of man-machine systems: Principles, practices and prospects (Q1106783)

The authors, starting from the consideration that often complex systems failure can be attributed to human operators, address the problem of how the design of man-machine systems might be improved, so that the human operators role can be evaluated from the beginning as a component of the design itself. The practical design methods are substantially bottom up; the top down academic design methods aren't followed in practice: as is shown through an interview to 35 designers in industrial organizations, the solution of a problem arises more frequently from the face to face interaction with colleagues and other people than from the application of optimization algorithms and models. The authors propose an approach to improving man-machine system design, considering both the academic view and the practical view. The first proposed step involves reorienting top-down conceptual design to make it user-centered; the second step stresses the necessity of providing facilities to support the bottom-up design.