European conference on cognitive ergonomics

Much is talked about cognitive ergonomics and how it is used in new technologies and designs. The process of getting there is just as important as it sets the tone for all the research. As time has gone methods and theories have been refined. First there was Hierarchical Task Analysis which was published in 1992 by Kirwan and Ainsworth. Also in the 90s works published included Hutchins “Distributed Cognition” and “Activity Theory” by Nardi. Now in the 2000s we have seen more works pop up including the “Cognitive Task Analysis”.

An interesting study in how novice cell phone users found their way around the keypad while trying to send text messages. New users were studied as they tried to find keys on the keypad and write coherent thoughts. Users were eventually asked memorize the keypad and repeat the tasks. Significant changes in time were observed from the first study to the next. As users became more adapt to the keypad their speed in typing vastly improved. This study goes a long way into helping cell manufactures understand the needs of new cell phone users in today technological society.
Article by: mobiles5 - free ringtones for your mobile phone.

Engineering and design students were given an design outline for a automobile and asked to find images that would inspire their final product. When the student came back with their image searches the whole process was studied to see how they derived at the images rather than the images themselves. The research showed that the search results were a direct co-relation to the search terms used to get there. It seems great emphasis needs to be brought to the inspirational search terms rather then the sorting of the results.