Developing a Method for Creating and Validating the Safety of Interface Design

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Technology is becoming ubiquitous and software is increasingly being implemented in more complex environments, where human software interactions are more likely to lead to death, injury, litigation, software redesign costs and re-implementation costs. The overall goal of this research program is to develop a methodology for creating and validating evidence-based, safety heuristics to reduce the number of errors arising from interface designs. To date, human-in-the-loop simulation has not been used to validate safety heuristics or guidelines. This approach is essential to preventing technology-induced errors. The objectives of this research program are to: (1) develop evidence-based, safety guidelines based on the published empirical literature involving human operators interacting with systems, (2) validate those guidelines with the assistance of experts in the field of human computer interaction, (3) develop several prototypes of interface designs (both with and without) the guidelines, (4) test safety of the user interface designs using human-in-the-loop simulations drawn from publicly available incident data, (5) validate the guidelines for their ability to prevent technology-induced errors. The research draws upon existing knowledge in software safety and interface design, and extends such work to: the creation of evidence-based safety heuristics to prevent technology-induced error; and the development of a methodology involving human-in-the loop simulations to test and validate newly developed guidelines for interface designs for their ability to reduce errors arising from human computer interaction before real-world implementation occurs. This research will inform the design, customization and procurement of technologies for work environments where empirical studies (after systems have been implemented) have documented instances where technology has inadvertently caused workers' to make errors (i.e. technology-induced errors).