Abstract
The introduction of greater machine “intelligence” to support users' attempts to continuously comprehend a machine tends to take place through displays and software. An important, but often overlooked, source of information is provided by the appearance of the machine. Use of an “intelligent” approach to simultaneous formation of machine surfaces, volumes and behaviors allows the designer to best distribute information content to “hard” and “soft” forms. RichardsonSmith has had the opportunity to build human factors/appearance strategies using this approach. Our emphasis has been to aid the user in learning how to operate the machine primarily by means of the application of shape, texture, color, typographic and dynamic control/display elements in a meaningful way.
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