ABSTRACT
Humans are complex systems. Our natural interest in things and ourselves that we do has given rise to the study of this complex system at every conceivable level ranging from genetic, through cellular and organ systems, to interactions of the total human with the environment in the conduct of purposeful activities. At each level, there are corresponding practitioners who attempt to discover and rectify or prevent problems at the respective level. Some practitioners are concerned with specific individuals, while others (e.g., biomedical scientists and product designers) address populations as a whole. Problems dealt with span medical and nonmedical contexts, often with interaction between the two. Models play a key role not only in understanding the key issues at each level, but also in describing relationships between various levels and in providing frameworks that allow practitioners to obtain reasonably predictable results in a systematic and efficient fashion. In this chapter, a working model for human system-task interfaces is presented. Any such model must, of course, consider not only the interface per se, but also representations of the human system and tasks. The model presented here, the Elemental Resource Model
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(ERM), represents the most recent effort in a relatively small family of models that attempt to address similar needs.
