Keeping it real: the importance of the interface

by Sarah Sharples, Nottingham University
Tuesday, 13 April 2010, 14.00

As ergonomists, it seems intuitive that the design of the interface has a critical impact on the success of a product, whether in a work, leisure or educational environment. However, it is sometimes diffi cult to demonstrate this importance. This talk will consider examples of work drawn from areas such as virtual reality, pedestrian navigation systems, social networking technologies and transport control interfaces to consider how the design of the interface does contribute to operator performance and satisfaction, and how this interacts with other aspects of cognitive ergonomics and design.

Sarah Sharples, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor in Human Factors and Head of the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Nottingham.
Sarah has been at Nottingham since completing the MSc in Human Factors in 1995, and completed her PhD on Virtual Reality Induced Symptoms and Effects in 1999. Since 1998 she has taught on ergonomics modules for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Nottingham, and founded the MSc Interactive Systems Design with Gary Burnett (run jointly with Computer Science) in 2006. She was worked on a number of EPSRC, EU and industry funded projects focusing on design and implementation of novel technologies in industrial and research contexts, ranging from rail signalling to product and automotive design. She is a co-investigator in the new RCUK funded £12million Horizon Digital Economy research hub and is Training Programme Manager of the £5million RCUK Horizon Doctoral Training Centre. Her main areas of interest and expertise are Human-Computer Interaction, cognitive ergonomics and development of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies for examination of interaction with innovative technologies in complex systems.