Identifying and interpreting design errors

The central aim of this paper is to address the question of how best to consider the errors that occur during interaction. A distinction is drawn between human errors and user‐system errors, where the first is an error within one cognitive system and the other an error between two cognitive systems. A further distinction is then made between different types of user‐system error: mapping mismatches, and incongruity mismatches. Following this, a classification scheme (an Evaluative Classification of Mismatch, or ECM) for analyzing user‐system errors is defined, and a study into its usability is reported. The study was conducted at Hewlett Packard's Office Product Division, at Pinewood, Wokingham, UK, and involved trailing the scheme with a design team. The results of the study suggest that the ECM scheme is usable, with 98.5% of problems being classified, and designers reporting positive views on the scheme. Moreover, there was a high level of agreement between the different members of the design team as to...