Ecological Interface Design: Thirty-Plus Years of Refinement, Progress, and Potential

Abstract

Objective: The objective is to provide a review of ecological interface design (EID), to illustrate its value to human factors/ergonomics, and to identify areas for future research and development. Background: EID uses mature interface technologies to provide decision making and problem solving support. A variety of theoretical concepts and analytical tools have been developed to meet the associated challenges. EID provides support that is simultaneously grounded in the practical realities of a work domain and tailored to human capabilities and limitations. Method: EID’s theoretical foundation is discussed briefly. Concrete examples of ecological and traditional interfaces are provided. Different categories of work domains are described, as well as the associated implications for interface design. A targeted literature review is conducted and the experimental outcomes are summarized. A representative evaluation is discussed, and interpretations of performance are provided. Results: The evidence reveals that EID has been remarkably successful in significantly improving performance for work domains with constraints that are law driven (e.g., process control). In contrast, work domains that are intent-driven (e.g., information retrieval) have, by and large, been ignored. Also, few studies have addressed nonvisual displays. Conclusion: EID has not yet realized its potential to improve safety and efficiency across the entire continuum of work domains. Application: EID provides a single integrated framework that is (a) sufficiently comprehensive to deal with complicated work domains and (b) capable of producing innovative support that will generalize to actual work settings.