Quality Principles for the Ergonomics of Human-Computer Interfaces of Modeling and Simulation Software

This article points out that while quality objectives such as testability and reusability have been widely investigated and disseminated for modeling and simulation (M&S) software, there are few systematic studies on the assessment of the ergonomics of the Human-Computer Interfaces (HCIs) for M&S software and environments. This article presents 21 quality principles for the HCIs for M&S software in four broad categories which are usability, communicativeness, reliability and evolvability. The principles can be used as a basis for developing quality criteria, metrics, and guidelines for human-computer interfaces of modeling and simulation software. They can be used for proper design of new interfaces, or to improve, evaluate, and compare existing ones.