HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks

CHAPTER 2

Design as Applied Perception

Colin Ware,     University of New Hampshire

2.1 MOTIVATION

Much of our intelligence can be broadly characterized as the ability to identify patterns, and the visual system is the most sophisticated pattern-finding mechanism that we have. Of our perceptual systems, vision dominates; it is estimated to engage 50% of the cortex, and more than 70% of all our sensory receptors are visual receptors.

This chapter presents a theory of design based on the science of perception. A fundamental assumption underlying this theory is the idea that there is such an entity as “the human visual system.” We assume that all humans have essentially the same neural visual architecture, and that processes that operate in this ...