System representations, cognitive modeling and the design of user interfaces for an expert diagnostic system

One of the major challenges facing designers of expert systems is translating the cognitive requirements of a task into functional design specifications for the user interface. This paper describes the development of expert systems for real-time, distributed air compressor diagnosis on US Navy ships, and the use of cognitive modelling techniques to identify the functional and user interface requirements for an explanation facility. Of particular importance to that design effort is the representation of knowledge and information. The purpose of the paper is to show how the authors´ research in display formats has provided insights into the design of representations of system information and influenced their approach to cognitive modelling