On 5 May 2004, Tom Hewett of Drexel University (Philadelphia) explained why it is important to take into account human performance characteristics when you are designing complex systems for human use.
Hewett captured the audience's attention with his description of how limitations in human cognition resulted in several spectacular and tragic airplane crashes. The crashes were not attributable to mechanical failure, weather conditions or even any clearly identifiable pilot error. They were, rather, the result of a common human failure to gauge distance accurately when confronted with a featureless landscape.
Hewett is a professor of Psychology and Computer Science and a world-class expert on the cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction. He asserts that many usability problems are actually the result of cognitive issues and, therefore, require cognitive engineering as part of the solution.
Hewett also showed how motion makes it easier to visualise 3-D objects and how the "magic number seven" rule is often applied inappropriately.
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