Reprint of “Safe places for pedestrians: Using cognitive work analysis to consider the relationships between the engineering and urban design of footpaths”

Footpaths provide an integral component of our urban environments and have the potential to act as safe places for people and the focus for community life. Despite this, the approach to designing footpaths that are safe while providing this sense of place often occurs in silos. There is often very little consideration given to how designing for sense of place impacts safety and vice versa. The aim of this study was to use a systems analysis and design framework to develop a design template for an ‘ideal’ footpath system that embodies both safety and sense of place. This was achieved through using the first phase of the Cognitive Work Analysis framework, Work Domain Analysis, to specify a model of footpaths as safe places for pedestrians. This model was subsequently used to assess two existing footpath environments to determine the extent to which they meet the design requirements specified. The findings show instances where the existing footpaths both meet and fail to meet the design requirements specified. Through utilising a systems approach for footpaths, this paper has provided a novel design template that can inform new footpath design efforts or be used to evaluate the extent to which existing footpaths achieve their safety and sense of place requirements.     

Using cognitive work analysis to explore system flexibility

The presented work describes a structured approach for identifying flexible working practices in complex socio-technical systems; further, it presents a framework for the elicitation of design changes capable of increasing system adaptability. The proposed approach uses the first three phases of the cognitive work analysis framework: work domain analysis; control task analysis; and strategies analysis. Functions are extracted from an abstraction hierarchy; these are then explored in a number of different situations using a contextual activity template. These functions are then explored in greater detail with the strategies analysis phase. The contextual activity template is used to identify situations where functions are unable to perform; in order to increase the flexibility of the system, new strategies are then proposed and represented in strategies analyses flow diagrams. To communicate the approach, it is introduced using the familiar, domestic domain of an ‘Apple iPod’. The paper presents a structured approach based upon cognitive work analysis for exploring system flexibility. The case study presented, an Apple iPod, shows how design changes to the system can be informed by this approach. This paper takes an existing approach and clarifies the link between analysis and design.     

Safe places for pedestrians: Using cognitive work analysis to consider the relationships between the engineering and urban design of footpaths

Footpaths provide an integral component of our urban environments and have the potential to act as safe places for people and the focus for community life. Despite this, the approach to designing footpaths that are safe while providing this sense of place often occurs in silos. There is often very little consideration given to how designing for sense of place impacts safety and vice versa. The aim of this study was to use a systems analysis and design framework to develop a design template for an ‘ideal’ footpath system that embodies both safety and sense of place. This was achieved through using the first phase of the Cognitive Work Analysis framework, Work Domain Analysis, to specify a model of footpaths as safe places for pedestrians. This model was subsequently used to assess two existing footpath environments to determine the extent to which they meet the design requirements specified. The findings show instances where the existing footpaths both meet and fail to meet the design requirements specified. Through utilising a systems approach for footpaths, this paper has provided a novel design template that can inform new footpath design efforts or be used to evaluate the extent to which existing footpaths achieve their safety and sense of place requirements.     

A formative approach to the strategies analysis phase of cognitive work analysis

Strategies Analysis, the third phase of Cognitive Work Analysis, helps investigators consider the range of ways in which workers can perform control tasks. Most existing approaches to Strategies Analysis identify a limited number of domain-specific strategies. We present a two-phase formative Strategies Analysis method intended to expose the range of strategies possible within a work system and the likelihood that different types of strategies will be selected in different contexts. The first phase, the preparatory phase, identifies generalised constraints that affect the range and selection of strategies, and the categories of strategies that may be applied to any domain. In the second phase, the application phase, investigators use the outputs of the preparatory phase to explore the impact that different work situations, tasks and workers have on the categories of strategies most likely to be adopted.     

Using cognitive work analysis to describe the role of UAVs in military operations

Advances in uninhabited vehicle design have resulted in increased levels of autonomy – allowing command to be communicated at high levels of abstraction, rather than detailed control. The resultant change in interaction requirements has obvious implications for the redesign of current operator interfaces. Furthermore, it allows the organisation design to be reconsidered. A reduction in the requirement for human involvement could allow control to be passed from dedicated remote controllers to actors involved directly with local tasks. This offers a number of potential benefits. Those involved with the task directly may have a greater situational understanding, allowing them to make faster decisions that are more informed. Furthermore, dynamic function allocation would allow assets to be shared, with command passed to the actor best placed to make decisions. This article uses a systemic approach, cognitive work analysis (CWA), to explore the constraints within military air operations, and derive systemic information requirements. The understanding developed from the CWA of the military air operations domain constraints is used to postulate the implications of introducing unmanned air vehicles. The example illustrates how the constraint-based approach can form the basis for considering system change.     

Applying cognitive work analysis to the design of rapidly reconfigurable interfaces in complex networks

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the interconnections between the different phases (or tools) within the cognitive work analysis framework; the benefits of extending an analysis across each of the five phases are highlighted through these interconnections. The paper uses a command and control micro-world example to describe how each of the five phases can be used to describe the constraints within the micro-world domain from a different perspective. Based upon the social organisation and cooperation analysis, design requirements are extracted in order to develop role specific customisable interfaces for use within the micro-world. The interfaces have been specifically developed to communicate real time reconfiguration of the network through each of the individual interfaces; the reallocations of functions or roles are communicated to the actors through changes to the interface.     

Analysing activity in complex systems with cognitive work analysis: concepts,guidelines and case study for control task analysis

Cognitive work analysis is gaining momentum as an approach for the analysis, design and evaluation of complex sociotechnical systems. This paper focuses on control task analysis (ConTA), the second phase of cognitive work analysis. The paper consolidates existing approaches to ConTA and extends the basic concepts, in particular, by asserting that activity in some work systems is better characterized by both work situations and work functions and by introducing a new formative representation for ConTA called the contextual activity template. In addition, the paper proposes a set of methodological guidelines for performing ConTA and presents a case study of a ConTA for a first-of-a-kind military system called Airborne Early Warning and Control. As well as illustrating the conceptual extensions and methodological guidelines for ConTA by example, this case study highlights some of the difficulties of conducting ConTA for first-of-a-kind, complex systems during the early stages of development.     

Eliciting strategies in revolutionary design: exploring the hypothesis of predefined strategy categories

Introducing automation in a human-machine system changes the tasks performed by human operators. It is difficult to analyse systems for which there are no experienced operators. This issue emerged within a project with the aim to develop a human–machine interface for a highly automated long-haul vehicle. To handle the problem, a formative strategies analysis method with promises to enable desktop analyses through predefined strategy categories was adopted. The method was used to investigate strategies for controlling the future long haul vehicle by conducting workshops with today's drivers. The method was shown to be a valuable asset in eliciting strategies for revolutionary design.     

Assessing the Impact of Engineering Undergraduate Work Experience: Factoring in Pre‐work Academic Performance

This paper examines how undergraduate work experiences affect engineering graduates' post‐graduation starting salary, their cumulative grade point average upon graduation, and their likelihood of receiving a job offer prior to graduation. This study contributes to the field of undergraduate work experiences uniquely by taking into account academic performance prior to work experience, including the exact number of work experiences, and examining how gender interacts with work experience to affect the measured outcomes. The results show that more experience results in a higher post‐graduation starting salary and an increased likelihood of a job offer prior to graduation. Increases in cumulative GPA upon graduation were only marginal. Furthermore, undergraduate work experience affected female and male students as well as students from different majors similarly.