The abstraction hierarchy as a basis for interface design: an empirical evaluation

The utility of adopting J. Rasmussen's (Information Processing and Human-Machine Interaction, North Holland, 1986) abstraction hierarchy as a basis for interface design for complex work domains was evaluated. The study was conducted within the context of DURESS (dual reservoir system simulation), a thermal hydraulic process simulation. A traditional interface and an interface based on the abstraction hierarchy were compared on diagnosis and memory tasks in order to determine which of the two interfaces provided better support for knowledge-based problem solving. The results indicate that displaying information at various levels of abstraction enhances the subjects' ability to diagnose various types of events, as compared with performance on a more traditional interface that presents subjects with information about component settings and goal variables alone.<>