Designing for joint cognitive systems

Cognitive systems engineering (CSE) maintains the view that design is ´telling stories about the future´. This serves to emphasise that the aim of design is to enable the system successfully to carry out its function under conditions that are only incompletely known at the time it is specified and built. The system itself is furthermore thought of as a joint cognitive system, i.e., as a whole comprising people and technology acting together. A key concept in CSE is the ability to cope with complexity, i.e., to maintain control so that the joint cognitive system can perform its intended functions in a dynamic and volatile environment. The implications of this are described in the paper.