MSc Reflections
Date: 1989-1990 General Ergonomics course
Project title: Specification of methods and derivations of rules for guidance in utilizing the specified methods, for use in a planning aid for performance setting and evaluation.
Pre MSc Background
I studied for a BSc Hons Psychology degree at UCL, so was already in the Bedford Way building on the third floor. In my third year, I became interested in Ergonomics through Organisational Psychology, especially Aircraft into Terrain crashes and human error. I applied for a place on the MSc in Ergonomics and got a funded place for September 1988. However, I didn’t do as well as I expected in my degree and became somewhat disillusioned with academia and I deferred my place for a year and went travelling. I therefore started my MSc in October 1989 but without funding!
Pre MSc view HCI/Cog Erg
When I studied for the MSc, it was still straight Ergonomics – we were the final year not to be taught any HCI. I had some knowledge of Ergonomics from my Psychology degree, but hadn’t realised the disciplinary nature of the subject. I didn’t know anything about HCI and had never really used a computer. I had not heard of the term cognitive ergonomics; but had obviously studied cognition.
Post MSc view HCI/Cog Erg
As I wasn’t actually taught any HCI, my post MSc view of HCI/Cog Erg was much the same as my pre MSc view, although my project gave me some idea about it – enough for me to be able to get a job in the Ergonomics Unit following the end of my MSc.
Subsequent view of HCI/Cog Erg
From 1990 – 2004 I was gainfully employed at the Ergonomics Unit, progressing from a Research Assistant to a Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer on the MSc and a PhD student. Therefore, my knowledge of HCI/Cog Erg I hope is now quite extensive, although a little rusty as I haven’t been working in the area for a while. My views are very much a product of the Dowell and Long (1989) conception – the first project I worked on in the department was the Modelling Multiple Activity Control or MMAC project, which was funded by the UK research councils. The work used the Dowell and Long conception as its theoretical basis and developed a design-oriented framework to enable designers to reason more effectively about potential design solutions. Such frameworks produce models of the systems under investigation, which support diagnosis of design problems, and reasoning about design solutions. I went on to use the MMAC framework as the foundation for my PhD, which I was awarded in 2006. All of the research carried out within the Ergonomics unit during my time had an overall goal to further the discipline of HCI/Cog Erg, i.e. the application of HCI knowledge, to support design practices, intended to solve HCI design problems. The individual projects obviously had internal goals too, but all of the research in the unit, led by John Long had a more cohesive purpose with respect to HCI – we weren’t doing the research just to satisfy internal project goals. This was quite a different viewpoint from other HCI research centres – it set us apart from other units, sometimes as a detriment as we were perhaps the only ones who knew what we were talking about as it was all a bit too abstract! However, as more and more of the Ergonomics & HCI unit research used the conception as its theoretical basis, there were more substantive exemplars of application of the conception, which I believe gave the research more credence outside the department, as more people could understand it.
I miss those somewhat lively discussions both within the department and in the pub. They kept us on our toes. Thank you to John Long for making it all possible and sticking to your guns through all adversity. The Ergonomics & HCI unit shaped me!