Cognitive Engineering

cognitive Engineering, a term invented to reflect the enterprise I find myself engaged in: neither Cognitive Psychology, nor Cognitive Science, nor Human Factors. It is a type of applied Cognitive Science, trying to apply what is known from science to the design and construction of machines. It is a surprising business. On the one hand, there actually is quite a lot known in Cognitive Science that can be applied. But on the other hand, our lack of knowledge is appalling. On the one hand, computers are ridiculously difficult to use. On the other hand, many devices are difficult to use-the problem is not restricted to computers, there are fundamental difficulties in understanding and using most complex devices. So the goal of Cognitive Engineering is to come to understand the issues, to show how to make better choices when they exist, and to show what the tradeoffs are when, as is the usual case, an improvement in one domain leads to deficits in another. In this chapter I address some of the problems of applications that have been of primary concern to me over the past few years and that have guided the selection of contributors and themes of this book. The chapter is not intended to be a coherent discourse on Cognitive Engineering. Instead, I discuss a few issues that seem central to the 32 DONALD A. NORMAN