1. Introduction

The designers of Human-Machine interfaces wish to base their work on science rather than a whimsical notion of what an interface should be like.

They would like to be able to quantify why one interface is a better design than another one.

They would like to make the interface fit perfectly the user's way of doing things.

So where to start?

The answer is cognitive psychology. This is the science of understanding how people think, perceive, remember and learn.

A key part of cognitive psychology is to develop models of human behaviour. And one of the more useful models is what is called the 'Model Human Processor'.

This mini-web will discuss this topic and describe how it relates to human machine interface design.