Skip to main content

User-Centered Methods Are Insufficient for Safety Critical Systems

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 4799))

Abstract

The traditional approaches of HCI are essential, but they are unable to cope with the complexity of typical modern interactive devices in the safety critical context of medical devices. We outline some technical approaches, based on simple and “easy to use” formal methods, to improve usability and safety, and show how they scale to typical devices. Specifically: (i) it is easy to visualize behavioral properties; (ii) it is easy to formalize and check properties rigorously; (iii) the scale of typical devices means that conventional user-centered approaches, while still necessary, are insufficient to contribute reliably to safety related interaction issues.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Cardinal Health, MX-4501N_20060929_104509.pdf (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cardinal Health (May 20, 2007), http://www.cardinal.com/uk/alaris/solutions/medicationsafety/IVsystems/

  3. Department of Health and The Design Council. Design for Patient Safety (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Fluke 117 Virtual Demo accessed August (2007), http://us.fluke.com/VirtualDemos/117_demo.asp,

  5. Gould, J.D., Lewis, C.: Designing for Usability: Key Principles and What Designers Think. Communications of the ACM 28(3), 300–311 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Høegh, R.T.: Usability Problems: Do Software Developers Already Know? In: Proceedings ACM OZCHI, pp. 425–428 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Harel, D., Marelly, R.: Come, Let’s Play. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Holzinger, A.: Usability Engineering for Software Developers. Communications of the ACM 48(1), 71–74 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Institute for Safe Medication Practice Canada: Fluorouracil Incident Root Cause Analysis, (May 8, 2007), http://www.cancerboard.ab.ca/NR/rdonlyres/D92D86F9-9880-4D8A-819C-281231CA2A38/0/Incident_Report_UE.pdf

  10. Landauer, T.: The Trouble with Computers. MIT Press, Cambridge (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Reason, J.: Human Error: Models and Management. British Medical Journal 320, 768–770 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Scottish Executive: Unintended Overexposure of Patient Lisa Norris During Radiotherapy Treatment at the Beaston Oncology Centre, Glasgow (January 2006), http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/10/27084909/22

  13. Thimbleby, H.: Analysis and Simulation of User Interfaces. In: Proceedings BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction 2000, vol. XIV, pp. 221–237 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Thimbleby, H., Cairns, P., Jones, M.: Usability Analysis with Markov Models. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 8(2), 99–132 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Thimbleby, H.: The Directed Chinese Postman Problem. Software — Practice & Experience 33(11), 1081–1096 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Thimbleby, H.: User Interface Design with Matrix Algebra. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 11(2), 181–236 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Thimbleby, H.: Interaction Walkthrough: Evaluation of Safety Critical Interactive Systems. In: Doherty, G., Blandford, A. (eds.) DSVIS 2006. LNCS, vol. 4323, pp. 52–66. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Thimbleby, H.: Press On. MIT Press, Cambridge (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Thimbleby, H., Thimbleby, W.: Internalist and Externalist HCI. Proceedings BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction 2, 111–114 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Udell, J.: Lights, Camera, Interaction. InfoWorld (June 23, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wolfram, S.: The Mathematica Book, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Andreas Holzinger

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Thimbleby, H. (2007). User-Centered Methods Are Insufficient for Safety Critical Systems. In: Holzinger, A. (eds) HCI and Usability for Medicine and Health Care. USAB 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4799. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76805-0_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76805-0_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76804-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-76805-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics