A Cognitive Engineering Design of a Smart Phone Information Appliance with Improved Usability

This paper focuses on a cognitive engineering design for a smart phone application with improved usability at a software-level update of an information appliance (digital video remote controller). The design process is based on the Norman's cognitive engineering framework that can be used to detect human-interface problems with the existing controller through a usability assessment. The process includes considering a menu structure and error location in a more detailed-level analysis, and proposes an improved design for the smart phone application that emulates a video controller. The resultant system is tested to show how much the usability has been enhanced. The proposed method indicates that smart-phone applications can be regarded as useful alternatives to improve the information appliances, yielding a typical case study toward the next generation cognitive computing systems.