This report presents guidelines for designing human-computer dialogue for tactical operations. Researchers consolidated sources of information into a form intended for use by designers of tactical computer systems to give them a basis to assess the military impact of dialoge design and take leadership in improving the usability of future systems. This report was developed to support dialogue design for two general situations: (1) the generation of specifications for relatively large-scale systems in which the specific design and development will be performed by another, and (2) the development of relatively small-scale special-purpose systems in which the reader will be the designer and developer, perhaps with the aid of a programmer. The user-computer dialogue is clearly the key to developing systems that fit in with user's goals and tasks. Consequently, this guide will emphasize the essence of the dialogue, clarification of fundamental issues, performance of front-end analyses, selection between alternative dialogue types, and testing for usability. This guide will not address (at least to any major degree) the issues of data display, contents of on-line documentation and help, data transmission, hardware devices, or general human engineering considerations. For those interested in reading further, a reading list and a selected bibliography are provided. (Author).

This 1989 book is a distinctive work in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Cognitive ergonomics and HCI encompass a wide range of research and development activities in both academic and industrial environments, and this book satisfies a clear need for the dissemination of the knowledge generated by work in progress or completed.

The report describes the scope, rationale, organization, and progress of a command systems research program to provide human factors information needed for performance within complex automated information processing systems. Following a survey of military information processing equipment and operations and future plans for command information processing systems, basic human factors problems were identified and organized around five critical operations--screening incoming data, transforming raw data for input into storage devices, input, assimilation of displayed information, and decision making. A research program was formulated and studies undertaken to yield empirical information about the effects on human performance of (1) characteristics of the information presented (density, amount, etc.); (2) dynamic aspects of information (type, extent, coding of updates); (3) display modes and sensory modalities (group vs individual displays, multisensory displays); and (4) computer aids to the decision process. A Command Systems Laboratory was developed to permit simulation of various TOS functions. Findings have suggested the possibility of reduction in storage capacity requirements, number of displays called from storage during a given operational time period, and time required for the total information assimilation-decision process and supported the incorporation and use of information conspicuity coding capabilities in command systems.

A selection of annotated references to unclassified reports and journal articles that were introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system and announced in Scientific and technical aerospace reports (STAR) and International aerospace abstracts (IAA).

This Handbook is concerned with principles of human factors engineering for design of the human-computer interface. It has both academic and practical purposes; it summarizes the research and provides recommendations for how the information can be used by designers of computer systems. The articles are written primarily for the professional from another discipline who is seeking an understanding of human-computer interaction, and secondarily as a reference book for the professional in the area, and should particularly serve the following: computer scientists, human factors engineers, designers and design engineers, cognitive scientists and experimental psychologists, systems engineers, managers and executives working with systems development. The work consists of 52 chapters by 73 authors and is organized into seven sections. In the first section, the cognitive and information-processing aspects of HCI are summarized. The following group of papers deals with design principles for software and hardware. The third section is devoted to differences in performance between different users, and computer-aided training and principles for design of effective manuals. The next part presents important applications: text editors and systems for information retrieval, as well as issues in computer-aided engineering, drawing and design, and robotics. The fifth section introduces methods for designing the user interface. The following section examines those issues in the AI field that are currently of greatest interest to designers and human factors specialists, including such problems as natural language interface and methods for knowledge acquisition. The last section includes social aspects in computer usage, the impact on work organizations and work at home.