The ecological approach to interface design: applying the abstraction hierarchy to intentional domains

The ecological approach has traditionally been used for analysing process control type, physically coupled causal system domains to identify structural associations between the physical components of a system and the abstract functions of the system. Systems are then designed to represent the system's structural links as optical invariants in configural displays (J. Rasmussen, 1986; K.J. Vicente and J. Rasmussen, 1992; J.P. Hansen, 1995). Systems designed through this approach have been found to improve user diagnostic and response ability, e.g. W.S. Pawlak and K.J. Vicente (1996). Whilst it has been found to be useful in causal systems domains, it is not clear how applicable the ecological approach is to designing interfaces to support decision making in human activity based intentional systems domains. The paper is an exploration of the usefulness of the ecological approach in intentional domains.