The Design of Future Things (24 page)

To avoid interrupting the flow of reading, material used within the text is acknowledged by using the modern technique
of invisible footnotes; that is, if you wonder about the source of any statement, look in the notes section at the end of the book for the relevant page number and identifying phrase, and most likely you will find it cited there. Note, too, that over the course of my last four trade books, I have weaned myself from footnotes. My guiding rule is that if it is important enough to say, it should be in the text. If not, it shouldn't be in the book at all. So the notes are used only for citations, not for expansions of the material in the text.

The invisible footnote method does not support citations to general works that have informed my thinking. There is a vast literature relevant to the topics discussed in this book. In the years of thought and preparation for this book, I visited many research laboratories all over the world, read much, discussed frequently, and learned much. The material cited below is intended to address these issues: here, I acknowledge the leading researchers and published writings and also provide a good starting point for further study.

Gavriel Salvendy's massive compilation of research on human factors and ergonomics is a truly excellent place to start. The book is expensive, but well worth it because it contains the material normally found in ten books.

 

Salvendy, G. (Ed.). (2005).
Handbook of human factors and ergonomics
(3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

There is an extensive literature on how people might interact with machines. Thomas Sheridan at MIT has long pioneered studies on how people interact with automated systems and in the development of the field called supervisory control. Important reviews of automation studies have been provided by Ray Nickerson, Raja Parasuraman, Tom Sheridan, and David Woods (especially in his joint work with Erik Hollnagel). Key reviews of people and automation can be found in these general works. In this list, I omit classic studies in favor of more modern reviews, which, of course, cite the history of the area and reference the classics.

 

Hollnagel, E., & Woods, D. D. (2005).
Joint cognitive systems:
Foundations of cognitive systems engineering
. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Nickerson, R. S. (2006).
Reviews of human factors and ergonomics
.
Wiley series in systems engineering and management. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Parasuraman, R., & Mouloua, M. (1996).
Automation and human
performance: Theory and applications
. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Sheridan, T. B. (2002).
Humans and automation: System design and
research issues
. Wiley series in systems engineering and management. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Sheridan, T. B., & Parasuraman, R. (2006). Human-automation interaction. In R. S. Nickerson (Ed.),
Reviews of human factors and ergonomics
. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Woods, D. D., & Hollnagel, E. (2006).
Joint cognitive systems: Patterns in cognitive systems engineering
. New York: Taylor & Francis.

A good review of research on intelligent vehicles is the book by R. Bishop and the associated website. Also search for the websites of the American Department of Transportation or the European Union. With internet search engines, the phrase “intelligent vehicle” works well, especially if combined with “DOT” (Department of Transportation) or “EU” (European Union).

John Lee's chapter on automation in the Salvendy volume (referenced above) is excellent, but while you are there, also look at David Eby and Barry Kantowitz's chapter on human factors and ergonomics in motor vehicles. Alfred Owens, Gabriel Helmers, and Michael Sivak make a strong case for the use of user-centered design in the construction of intelligent vehicles and highways in their paper in the journal
Ergonomics
. They made their plea in 1993, but the message is just as cogent now as it was then—actually, it is even more cogent because of the many new systems that have been introduced since the piece was written.

 

Bishop, R. (2005).
Intelligent vehicle technology and trends
. Artech
House ITS Library. Norwood, MA: Artech House.

———. (2005). Intelligent vehicle source website. Bishop Consulting,
www.ivsource.net
.

Eby, D. W., & Kantowitz, B. (2005). Human factors and ergonomics in motor vehicle transportation. In G. Salvendy (Ed.),
Handbook of human factors and ergonomics
(3rd ed., 1538–69). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Lee, J. D. (2005). Human factors and ergonomics in automation design. In G. Salvendy (Ed.),
Handbook of human factors and ergonomics
(3rd ed., 1570–96, but see especially 1580–90). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Owens, D. A., Helmers, G., & Sivak, M. (1993). Intelligent vehicle highway systems: A call for user-centered design.
Ergonomics
,
36
(4), 363–69.

Trust is an essential component of interaction with machines: without trust, their advice will not be followed. With too much trust, they will be relied upon more than is appropriate. Both cases have been the cause of numerous accidents in commercial aviation. Raja Parasuraman and his colleagues have done essential studies of automation, trust, and etiquette. John Lee has studied the role of trust in automation extensively, and the paper by Lee and Katrina See has been very important to my work.

Etiquette
refers to the manner of the interaction between people and machines. Perhaps the most popular work in this arena is the book by Byron Reeves and Cliff Nass, but also see the paper by Parasuraman and Chris Miller. These topics are also covered in the general references on automation.

Situation awareness is a critical issue here as well, and the work of Mica Endsley and her collaborators is essential. Start with either of Endsley's two books or her chapter with Daniel Garland in the book edited by Parasuraman and Mustapha Mouloua.

 

Endsley, M. R. (1996). Automation and situation awareness. In R. Parasuraman & M. Mouloua (Eds.),
Automation and human performance: Theory and applications
, 163–81. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Endsley, M. R., Bolté, B., & Jones, D. G. (2003).
Designing for situation
awareness: An approach to user-centered design
. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Endsley, M. R., & Garland, D. J. (2000).
Situation awareness: Analysis
and measurement
. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hancock, P. A., & Parasuraman, R. (1992). Human factors and safety in the design of intelligent vehicle highway systems (IVHS).
Journal of Safety Research
,
23
(4), 181–98.

Lee, J., & Moray, N. (1994). Trust, self-confidence, and operators' adaptation to automation.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
,
40
(1), 153–84.

Lee, J. D., & See, K. A. (2004). Trust in automation: Designing for appropriate reliance.
Human Factors
,
46
(1), 50–80.

Parasuraman, R., & Miller, C. (2004). Trust and etiquette in high-criticality automated systems.
Communications of the Association for
Computing Machinery
,
47
(4), 51–55.

Parasuraman, R., & Mouloua, M. (1996).
Automation and human
performance: Theory and applications
. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Reeves, B., & Nass, C. I. (1996).
The media equation: How people treat
computers, television, and new media like real people and places
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

The traditional approach to the study of how people interact with machines is being rethought. The new approaches are
called implicit interaction, natural interaction, symbiotic systems, calm technology, and ambient technology. This approach encompasses Mark Weiser's work on ubiquitous computing, Weiser's work with John Seely Brown on calm computing, and my earlier book titled
The Invisible Computer
. Ambient technology refers to work on embedding technology into the surrounds, the environment, and the infrastructure so that it pervades with its ambience. Emile Aarts, with Philips Research in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has put out two lively, well-illustrated books discussing this approach, one with Stefano Marzano, the other with Jose Luis Encarnação.

Implicit interaction is highly relevant: Wendy Ju and Larry Leifer of Stanford University show how implicit interactions play a truly important role in the developing field of interaction design. Interaction is tricky, though: it requires acknowledgment to be successful. Automatic equipment must be able not only to signal its potential action but also to attend to the person's implicit response: a tough job.

While writing the book, I visited the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola. I found the research groups there highly relevant, both for the content of their work and for the philosophy of their approach: see the paper by Gary Klein, David Woods, Jeffrey Bradshaw, Robert Hoffman, and Paul Feltovich (Klein and Woods are at Klein Associates and Ohio State University, respectively). An excellent overview of this approach to sociotechnological systems is provided by David Eccles and Paul Groth.

 

Aarts, E., & Encarnação, J. L. (Eds.). (2006).
True visions: The
emergence of ambient intelligence
. New York: Springer.

Aarts, E., & Marzano, S. (2003).
The new everyday: Views on ambient
intelligence
. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: 010 Publishers.

Eccles, D.W., &Groth, P.T. (2006). Agent coordination and communication in sociotechnological systems: Design and measurement issues.
Interacting with Computers
, 18, 1170–1185.

Ju, W., & Leifer, L. (In press, 2008). The design of implicit interactions.
Design Issues: Special Issue on Design Research in
Interaction Design
.

Klein, G., Woods, D. D., Bradshaw, J., Hoffman, R. R., & Feltovich, P. J. (2004, November/December). Ten challenges for making automation a “team player” in joint human-agent activity.
IEEE
Intelligent Systems
,
19
(6), 91–95.

Norman, D. A. (1998).
The invisible computer: Why good products can
fail, the personal computer is so complex, and information
appliances are the solution
. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Weiser, M. (1991, September). The computer for the 21st century.
Scientific American, 265,
94–104.

Weiser, M., & Brown, J. S. (1995). “Designing calm technology.”

———. (1997). The coming age of calm technology. In P. J. Denning & R. M. Metcalfe (Eds.),
Beyond calculation: The next fifty years of
computing
. New York: Springer-Verlag.

I have long been influenced by the work of David Woods of Ohio State University, especially by his recent work with Erik Hollnagel. Resilience engineering is a field pioneered by Woods and Hollnagel, the goal being to design systems tolerant of the
types of clumsy interaction between people and automation discussed in my book. (Woods coined the term
clumsy automation
.) See the book edited by Erik Hollnagel, David Woods, and Nancy Leveson, as well as the two books written by Hollnagel and Woods.

 

Hollnagel, E., & Woods, D. D. (2005).
Joint cognitive systems:
Foundations of cognitive systems engineering
. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Hollnagel, E., Woods, D. D., & Leveson, N. (2006).
Resilience
engineering: concepts and precepts
. London: Ashgate.

Woods, D. D., & Hollnagel, E. (2006).
Joint cognitive systems: Patterns
in cognitive systems engineering
. New York: Taylor & Francis.

As I was in the final stages of completing this manuscript, David Keyson of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands kindly sent me a draft of his chapter “The experience of intelligent products,” which is highly relevant to all discussed in this book. I am thankful to David for sending me the chapter and for the wonderful tour I had of his laboratory at Delft, including the very peaceful, serene, intelligent room he has constructed.

 

Keyson, D. (2007). The experience of intelligent products. In H. N. J. Schifferstein & P. Hekkert (Eds.),
Product experience: Perspectives
on human-product interaction
. Amsterdam: Elsevier.