ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on individuals whose professional lives revolve around human–computer interaction (HCI) might well ask themselves. It is evident that many computer systems have to support people operating in stressful circumstances and, of course, there are important design issues concerning how to present information in these very demanding circumstances. The chapter provides the reader with a brief overview of stress theory and its historical development. It describes areas for future research, which is needed to more completely understand how stress and workload impact HCI and how their positive effects can be exploited while mitigating their negative effects. The chapter analyses a view of stress as primarily an outcome of the appraisal of environmental demands that either tax or exceed an individual’s resources to cope with that demand. It also provides an overview of the principles and some directions for future effort.
