ABSTRACT
Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a method of identifying cognitive skills, or mental demands, needed to perform a task proficiently. CTA is used to complement traditional ‘behavioural’ task analysis. The product of the task analysis can be used to inform the design of interface and training systems. However, CTA is resource intensive and has previously been of limited use to design practitioners. A streamlined method of CTA, applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA), is presented in this paper. ACTA consists of three interview methods which help the practitioner extract information about the cognitive demands and skills required for a task. ACTA also allows the practitioner to represent this information in a format that will translate more directly into applied products, such as improved training scenarios or interface recommendations. The paper will describe the three methods, an evaluation study conducted to assess the usability and usefulness of the methods, and some potential applications of the representations and output from ACTA.
