Mental models of an interactive system

Software	None
Covers	Human computer interaction, cognitive psychology
Skills Required	Good understanding of the interactive system, interest in human computer interaction and cognitive science
Challenge	Conceptual ???? Technical ?? Programming

Brief Description

For many kinds of interactive system, being able to use them depends on having a good understanding of how they work, at a level of detail that enables making correct predictions about what they do - which not the same thing as understanding how they really work. Many electronic devices separate the controls from what is physically happening far enough that common sense reasoning about the physics of the situation won't work; and problems can arise when different complicated systems interact in unexplained ways. (For example, the proposer's Hive central heating controller producing cold showers, changed user behaviour to avoid the cold showers, and bafflement.)

The challenge of the project is to understand and describe the mental models developed by users of an interactive system by applying the research techniques of cognitive psychology. A successful project will require either an interactive system to study that is self-contained enough for people to study under observation in an experimental setup, but is complicated enough to be confusing; or an interactive system that is potentially confusing or unusable where real users can be studied in situ.

Variant

An alternative focus for a project would be looking at the strategies people use to figure out how a device works and how to use it.

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