Field studies of highly-reliable organizations performing safety-critical tasks in real time demonstrate the importance of understanding both operator and task performance as contingent and emergent properties of interactive and overlapping interactions within and between the operators and their mechanical and organizational “environment.” Since the interface is an integral and constitutive element in the construction of the operator's cognitive field, analysts and designers alike need to remain sensitive to the extent to which changes in interface design or specification can have long-term and indirect effects on system performance and safety.
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