A Library System for Information Retrieval Based on a Cognitive Task Analysis and Supported by an Icon-Based Interface

The advent of modem information technology is significantly affecting many aspects of the system design process as well as the resulting user products. One tendency seems to be in the direction of integrated work stations which aim at supporting the broad diversification of tasks which professional users have to cope with. Therefore earlier efforts originating within the fields of “ergonomics” and “human factors” are undergoing a radical development in the direction of a serious concern with understanding and dealing with the basic interactions between people and their actual work situation. Major areas include user modelling, task performance, decision making and user-system communications. This concern has spawned an activity called cognitive engineering having the overall goal of providing good human-work interfaces and incorporating as a principle ingredient a cognitive task analysis (Pejtersen and Rasmussen 1986).