Flying Lessons: What can aviation investigations tell other disciplines about the human-computer interface?

Aviation has often been noted to be an ideal area for the examination of human cognitive performance. This paper contends that it also yields rich and reliable results for those interested in the study of human interaction with complex systems (often computer-based systems). A review is offered of how some of the major techniques of categorization and analysis developed in the aviation area, can inform HCI. In many ways, HCI can be seen as using investigative frameworks which have long been superseded in aviation.