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CSE Blog
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07.20.09Part 4: Final Results-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability EvaluationWe recently gave the final presentation to our customer(s) on our system Usability evaluation; customer(s) is notionally plural since we presented to all the different perspectives - users, managers, financial managers, developers, contractors, etc. This combination makes tailoring the presentation difficult, so we just stayed with our 'center': insights about the current system inspired by Cognitive Systems Engineering. By this point, the customers were becoming familiar with our unusual point of view, and the resulting unusual insights. They had also raised their expectations of what would come of all this. Initially they expected 'look and feel' improvements...now they were demanding a truly ...
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05.22.09Part 3: Initial Insights to Customer-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability EvaluationIt's interesting trying to introduce Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) to a new customer meeting (a mix of users, managers, and system developers). In some ways it's a bit like speaking a foreign language. Terms, concepts, patterns, etc., that are fundamental to us are like puns...they are almost impossible to translate. (I once saw a James Bond film with German subtitles...the translation was accurate...but the puns were gone...the audience thought I was nuts for laughing.) We always get a bit of that when we talk CSE to a new crowd, particularly for something like an evaluation...where they are expecting things like ...
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04.12.09Part 2: Analysis by Inspection-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability EvaluationWe've learned (the hard way) that many of the systems we're asked to redesign, evaluate, or replace have (in our atypical Cognitive Systems Engineering point of view) such significant, fundamental issues that we now start with what we call 'Analysis by Inspection.' Essentially, there is no reason to conduct expensive and intrusive observation opportunities (such as simulator tests, etc.) until the larger 'rough edges' can be knocked off. This is a bit unorthodox for many customers who expect a hoard of clip board carrying evaluators instantly descending on their users. By 'Analysis by Inspection' we mean taking a step back from the ...
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03.30.09Part 1: Background-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability EvaluationRecently we were asked by one of our partner companies to provide a Usability Evaluation of one of their new systems. This is Part 1 of a series, to be expanded as the project unfolds. Hopefully it will capture a sense of how 'different' a deeply grounded CSE Evaluation of a system really is. We started off by explaining (during the proposal process) that our Cognitive Systems Engineering background and our experience with designing revolutionary Decision Support Systems really 'warps' our assessments of systems. We see things far beyond 'knobology,' 'look and feel,' and 'style guide' and see deeper underlying issues ...
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03.30.09Cognitive Systems Engineering meets DODAF: Building the Right Thing WellWe had an interesting session with a customer the other day. The discussion centered on how Cognitive Systems Engineering 'connects' with the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF). After some interesting moments of talking past each other, the discussion settled on two main points: In order to be relevant in major DoD systems programs, Cognitive Systems Engineering will have to find a way to integrate itself into the DoDAF mindset, The Applied Cognitive Systems Engineering -ACSE(tm)- methodology (as an instantiation of Cognitive Systems Engineering) delivers revolutionary, high quality designs without the heavy overhead burden of the DoDAF processes. ACSE was expressly developed to 'fill in ...
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02.23.09Wired Magazine discovers Cognitive Systems Engineering (they just didn’t know it)In the March edition of Wired Magazine, two authors touched on Cognitive Systems Engineering in the course of their discussions of the current financial crisis. Daniel Roth wrote an article entitled "The Road Map for Recovery" about what it would take, in the way of strategic changes to rein in the financial markets and prevent the causes of the current market recession. The article focused on what it would take to inform investors adequately of the fundamental makeup (and risks) associated with the "products" they were investing in. Felix Simon wrote an article: "Formula for Disaster" discussing the causes of the collapse. ...
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02.10.09How does a Cognitive Systems Engineer see Technology, Toys, and Tools?Sitting on my desk is a cool little device that started this discussion the other day. It's essentially a small, compiled neural net, wrapped in a cool plastic 'eggshell' that plays 20 Questions so well that users are 'freaked out' like it's possessed. The discussion immediately turned to: "if it can do *that*, we can use it to solve <real world user need 1> and <need 2> etc.!" This is exactly the kind of thinking you'd like a tech savvy developer to experiment with; it's also good when Cognitive Systems Engineers do it. The discussion came full circle back to ...
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02.09.09Cognitive Systems Engineering as Nicolas Cage in “Knowing”If you haven't seen it already, the trailer for Cage's upcoming movie "Knowing" ends in a great line: "What do you do if you know Armageddon is coming and no one believes you?" The premise of the movie is the discovery of a prophetic piece of paper in a 50 year old time capsule that shows every major disaster...but 'what happens when the numbers run out'? (The characters assume 'the end', it could be just the author ran out of paper to write on, or time in the elementary school class that authored it.) The similarity to events that occur here ...
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01.22.09A Next Generation Executive Dashboard — Integrated Cognitive Systems EngineeringWe've had several projects working on designs for Enterprise Situational Awareness decision support systems. Essentially, this is a different name for what the commercial and financial worlds call Executive Dashboards. By applying a relatively new representational design concept based on Emergent Pattern Based Displays, a different kind of 'full breadth overview' is possible. These displays allow the holistic meaning of the entire breadth of the data set to emerge visually, exploiting the natural pattern detection capabilities of the human visual system. The effect is in some ways similar to what occurs in a photomosaic, where the holistic image is composed ...
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01.22.09Executive Dashboards: Business Intelligence or Business KindergartenBusiness Intelligence in general, and Executive Dashboards for Business Intelligence specifically, are current areas of extensive blogging, lots of development activity...and in fact executives are making alot of money selling these dashboards to other executives. Unfortunately, it has also resulted in lots of incorrect marketing claims, urban legends of how executives think and what they need, and bluntly lots of very poor decision support design masquerading as 'dashboards'. These (incorrect) urban legends have become a sort of societal meme, becoming widely held beliefs, but nonetheless incorrect. (Where is Snopes.com when you *really* need it?) The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ...
recent posts
- Part 4: Final Results-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- The Washington Post scoops the Cognitive Systems Engineering perspective on the DC Metro crash
- Part 3: Initial Insights to Customer-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Part 2: Analysis by Inspection-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Part 1: Background-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Cognitive Systems Engineering meets DODAF: Building the Right Thing Well
- Wired Magazine discovers Cognitive Systems Engineering (they just didn’t know it)
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RCS - RSS- Part 4: Final Results-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- The Washington Post scoops the Cognitive Systems Engineering perspective on the DC Metro crash
- Part 3: Initial Insights to Customer-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Part 2: Analysis by Inspection-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Part 1: Background-A Case Study in Cognitive Systems Engineering Usability Evaluation
- Cognitive Systems Engineering meets DODAF: Building the Right Thing Well
- Wired Magazine discovers Cognitive Systems Engineering (they just didn’t know it)
- How does a Cognitive Systems Engineer see Technology, Toys, and Tools?
- Cognitive Systems Engineering as Nicolas Cage in “Knowing”
- A Next Generation Executive Dashboard — Integrated Cognitive Systems Engineering
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