Future Interaction Design

Book excerpt: In 1969 Herbert Simon wrote a book, The Science of the Artificial, in which he argued that cognitive science should have its area of application in the design of devices. He proposed the foundation of a science of the artificial related with cognitive science in the sense in which we have traditionally understood the relationship between the engineering disciplines and the basic sciences. Such a science has been called cognitive ergonomics or cognitive engineering (Norman 1986). Simon’s cognitive ergonomics (1969), would be independent of cognitive science, its basic science, although both would be closely related. Cognitive science would contribute knowledge on human cognitive processes, and cognitive ergonomics would contribute concrete problems of design that should be solved in the context of the creation of devices. Norman (1986), the author that coined the term cognitive engineering, conceived it as an applied cognitive science where the knowledge of cognitive science is combined with that of engineering to solve design problems. According to Norman, its objectives would be: (1) to understand the fundamental principles of human actions important for the development of the engineering of design principles, and (2) to build systems that are pleasant in their use.