Evaluating the performance of a user interface

A considerable amount of research has been done in the area of human-computer interaction. High quality human-computer interfaces are especially important when a program needs to perform in nearly real-time. In this paper, a particular human-computer interface is analyzed. The observations made are abstracted and generalized to problems in interfaces for process control. Specific benchmarks for evaluation of interfaces in a real-time or near real-time setting are developed. We show that these benchmarks are more useful than general performance measures of computer systems for estimating computer performance. We develop general guidelines for designing interfaces which satisfy severe time constraints and determine to what extent they follow generally accepted principles for interface design.