ABSTRACT
As we have indicated throughout the chapters in this volume, a main application of Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is in the design of new technologies. Many CTA practitioners program computers to create decision aids and interfaces. For example, the various alternative approaches to decision aiding studied by Stephanie Guerlain, Phil Smith, and their colleagues at Ohio State (see chapter 7) all involved programming and interface design activities on the part of the researchers. On the main, however, computer scientists, programmers, engineers, and other technologists are the ones who actually “bend the metal.” A perspective on computer science that emerged in recent decades not only embraces CTA methodology but underscores its importance. Thus, we have reserved a discussion of the “Human-Centered Computing” (HCC) perspective for last. HCC emerged within computer science but as an approach to design, its stance mandates a methodology in which design is based on CTA, welcoming any and all specific methods that might be employed, ranging from the methods of the psychology laboratory to the methods of the field ethnographer. In other words, HCC pulls it all together by focusing on applications of CTA.
