MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR By Chairman Larry W. Avery

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1 ECHNICAL ROUP SSYSEM EVELOPMEN ecember 1999 Volume 19, Issue 12 ECHNICAL ROUP I am o sustain and build on the momentum from this year, there are a number of actions that we need to take. I am confident that we will continue to meet the newsletter publica- happy to report that our business meeting in Houston was a success, despite the technical chair who yakked too much and cut into the social part of the meeting. We had over 30 attendees, both current members and non-members. Several of the nonmember attendees indicated that they were planning on joining next year. he overall exchange of ideas was very good. Some of the more important discussion items are covered elsewhere in this newsletter. What I wanted to briefly talk about is our progress. As a technical group, we are addressing the things that led to our being on probation. Membership is up from the beginning of the year and I am confi- MESSAE FROM HE CHAIR By Chairman Larry W. Avery lavery@montereytechnologies.com We have run a successful election for officers and we are beginning to build some momentum for better interaction between members. All and all, this was a successful year. dent that this trend will continue. With this newsletter, we will have published 5 during the calendar year of 1999, a really prolific rate of publication. Hopefully, everyone has found the newsletter to be interesting. We have run a successful election for officers and we are beginning to build some momentum for better interaction between members. All and all, this was a successful year. I want to thank John Winters, ennis White, Laurel Allender, om Enderwick, and John Shafer for all their outstanding efforts over the year on behalf of the S. (Continued on page 2) New IEA 2000 ates ec 10, 1999 Acceptances and registration materials mailed Jan 28, 2000 Camera-ready papers due Jan 28, 2000 Registration materials mailed and posted on Web site Jul 28, 2000 Early registration deadline Jul 30, 2000 Congress begins SYSEM EVELOPMEN he System evelopment roup fosters research and the exchange of information for integrating human factors into the development of systems. Inside his Issue Results of Annual Business Meeting 2 Join the ISO echnical Commitee 3 1

2 ECHNICAL ROUP Systems evelopment As stated in the Note from the Chair, the Houston S business meeting was a rousing success. here was a good discussion of a number of topics. he following summarizes some of the more critical discussion items. Summary of S FY99 Business Meeting State of the S Financially, MEMBERSHIP the S is doing well. We started the year with a balance of $10,874. uring the year we had dues of $755 and expenses of $1,055 which leaves us with a balance of $10,090. In terms of membership, we started the year with 141. As of 8/31/99, we had 157 members showing positive growth. We published 4 newsletters, not including this one, which is very prolific for a. Skills taxonomy he S has made more prog- How should we represent the S on the web? ress on the skills taxonomy than many of the other s, but we need to take it further. Kevin Bracken graciously volunteered to lead the continued development, but he will need help from others in the S. Resolution to provide financial support to an IEA2000 attendee uring the CO meeting, a request was made for financial support for travel costs for IEA2000 presenters from developing countries. Essentially, many individuals from developing countries who are presenting papers may not be able to afford all of the travel c o s t s. HFES is providing some financial assistance but also requested that the s explore whether they could also provide some assistance. A motion was put before the members attending the S business meeting to provide $1,000 towards travel costs for an IEA2000 paper presenter from a developing country with the stipulation that first choice for our support would go to someone who is presenting during a S session. If there are none, then the support would be used as (Continued on page 3) Chairman... (Continued from page 1) tion requirements as well as some of the other requirements HFES imposes on s. What is still critical is membership. We need to continue to grow our membership. It is incumbent not only on the S officers but also the membership to recruit new members into the. One mechanism for this recruiting is the IEA/HFES joint meeting in July his joint meeting represents a wonderful opportunity for exposure of the S and recruit new members. We need your ideas on how we might be able to use our business meeting as a mechanism for recruiting, as well as any other ideas on ways to gain visibility during IEA/ HFES2000. Some of the other goals that we have for this year are to explore establishing a web site for the S, completing our skills taxonomy, and determining whether the S Bylaws need to be updated. o successfully complete these goals, we need volunteers from the membership, such as Kevin Bracken who has volunteered to lead the development of the skills taxonomy. With your help, we can have an even more successful year. SYSEM EVELOPMEN Send submissions for future S newsletters to: ennis White 3217 W. Yarrow Cir. Superior, CO (303) dennis_white@teambci.com 2

3 ECHNICAL ROUP ECHNICAL ROUP Systems evelopment Business Meeting cont. (Continued from page 2) HFES sees fit. his motion was passed. CO membership resolution uring the CO meeting, a resolution was passed to send to the HFES Executive Council as suggestion to reduce the membership requirements for s from 200 to 150. If passed, this means that the S would meet all the requirements for membership and could petition to be taken off probation. his does not obviate the need to continue to recruit members for the S. First, it is unknown whether this will be passed or not. Second, to be a strong and viable, the S needs to continue to grow membership. S Website Many of the s are developing websites and the CO will be establishing a web server in early 2000 to host websites. his provides an opportunity for the S to go on-line. A number of questions and issues were brought up during the business meeting regarding an S website. hese included the following: - Content. How should we represent the S on the web? What should the site link to other than HFES? - Services. What services should the website provide such as list server, file down and uploading, discussion threads, etc? - Lifetime . he CO is planning on providing a lifetime address for members of s. Can there be aliasing to for- ward s to one central address for those with multiple boxes? - Maintenance. How and who should maintain the website? - Need. oes the S really need and want a website? o fully address these questions, the S needs a small working group composed of interested individuals to work with the newsletter editor and technical chair. In particular, we need individuals with good knowledge of web technology. Please contact Larry Avery if interested. hat hits the highlights of the meeting. Questions? Please contact either Larry Avery or John Winters. SYSEM EVELOPMEN Member s Forum r. Robert Waters of OE is looking for volunteers to help the US A to the ISO echnical Committee 159 by reviewing and commenting on emerging standards. here are a number of standards that are under development, including: ISO Ergonomic Requirements for Office work with Visual isplay erminals. ISO Ergonomics of Human System Interaction. ISO Human Centered esign Process for Interactive systems. ISO echnical Specification - Ergonomics of human system interaction-usability method supporting Human centered design. ISO Ergonomics for Control Centers. r. Waters is particularly concerned with ISO his emerging standard is, in essence, a system development standard. r. Waters, as well as I, feel that the S of HFES would be a good source for reviewers and provide the S with an opportunity to have an impact. he review is primarily done by . Interested members of the S should contact Bob Waters at Robert.Waters@hq.doe.gov. 3 SYSEM EVELOPM EN

4 ECHNICAL ROUP SSYSEM EVELOPMEN ECHNICAL ROUP BCI, Inc. Attn: ennis White 3217 W. Yarrow Cr. Superior, CO ecember 1999 Volume 19, Issue 12 SAMP Welcome to this issue of the System evelopment echnical roup Newsletter! his publication is published bi-monthly to provide information to, and foster discussion among, the S. Address Correction Requested CHECKBOX Submitted by Mike Paley As a member of the human factors engineering department within a large company, I 4 System evelopment INSIE HIS ISSUE: served as an internal consultant on a variety of projects. We would have primary projects in which we were members of a design team and we would also provide human factor support on an "as needed" basis. "As needed" can be translated into emergency phone requests. I was still new to my position when I received a call requesting information about the best color for a warning within a system interface. I began to explain that this was a complex issue and that the overall context of the system needed to be considered and that I could not give an answer until I looked at the system. After hanging up, the phone in the next cubical rang and I heard my colleague answer, "Orange will be the best." After I confirmed that it was the same request, he explained that the designers will make a choice one way or the other and more often than not a best guess based on basic human factors guidelines will improve the final design. Join the ISO echnical Committee! Member s Meeting Latest ates for IEA 2000 SYSEM EVELOPMEN S Checkbox is a regular feature of real-life applications where human factors either was or was not implemented, and the results. If you have any stories - success or horror - you would like to share, send them in to john_winters@teambci.com!

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