User-interface design principles for experimental control software

Much has been written about applying principles and methods of psychology to user-interface design. There is an enormous gap in the literature and in practice for the inverse--applying user-interface design to psychology. With the prevalence of experimental control software (ECS) in psychology and HCI, it is imperative to consider how ECS would benefit from the application of user-interface design principles. In this paper, several key usability shortcomings in ECS are evaluated, and a set of usability guidelines for the development of ECS is presented.