European conference on cognitive ergonomics

Especially in industrialized countries of the Western World, work has become a substitute for private life and leisure time. Although people state, that they love being workaholics, they become chronically tired, stressed and thus depressed. Such a state may be extremely harmful not only for the worker himself, but in the long run also damages the performance of the company, where he is employed, and, last but not least, the worker’s personal environment – his family and friends. Certainly, one question arises – what to do in order to fight enduring stress and fatigue? The answer is obvious – take more time-outs. More time for one self: Whether it’s about spending more time with one’s family, at home or outdoors, going to the pub with friends, simple flower bed edging in the garden or watching some TV at night – the possibilities are unlimited. All that matters most is a variety in everyday life!

It was very interesting to read about European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2008) and materials that they spread on their site but then I got tired with such serious theme as cognitive ergonomics and decided to distract from reading these smart things and watch some movies. I was surfing through Internet when suddenly found this great resource where I could buy movie downloads and download tons or most famous and wonderful films! For example, I downloaded my favorite movie The Godfather: Part II, watched it with great pleasure and only then continued to drown in the world of cognitive ergonomics.

Implementing cognitive ergonomics requires an appropriate framework. The matches and the mismatches of the cognitive processes can only be determined by an analytic conceptualization which is termed as framework here. The framework is made up of nothing else but the concepts, ideas and planning of the cognitive ergonomics. Not only the ideology or the concepts would complete the framework of the cognitive ergonomics rather it also requires the developing processes and the help used, to be included.

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.