Ergonomics

The two main features of the machine in the human-machine system are the displays and the controls. This unit will be concerned with the display of information for effective human use. As one of the most dominant areas of ergonomics, it is a good place to start. As well as specific issues to do with displays, general points about usability should also emerge within this unit.\ud \ud Displays can take the form of any technology and can be other than visual. Having said this, it is the case that the visual world is not only predominant in everyday life, it is also predominant in terms of displayed information. However, this unit will also give some attention to information that is displayed in the auditory as well as in multiple modalities (e.g. visual and auditory). In examining displays, the full range of technology that has been used has to be considered. Taking the visual world as an example, the range will be from the paper and pencil message stuck on a wall, through to emerging technologies of virtual reality as used in advanced simulation facilities. In the auditory world, the range will be from the voice that we hear over the telephone speaker through to the synthesised speech messages that we will increasingly encounter in interaction with computers and other forms of advanced technology