One hundred Hyde & Rugg articles, and the Verifier framework

By Gordon Rugg

This is the 100^th post on the Hyde & Rugg blog. We’re taking this opportunity to look back at what we’ve covered and look forward to what comes next.

The image below shows some of the main themes and outputs so far, in the “knowledge cycle” format that underlies our Verifier framework for tackling human error. If you’ve come to this blog after reading Blind Spot, you might be pleased to discover that we’ve been covering the contents of Verifier here in more depth than was possible in the book, and that we’re well on the way to a full description.

In the image below you can see some of the main themes and topics we’ve covered so far in the “knowledge cycle” format that underlies our Verifier framework for tackling human error. If you’ve come to this blog after reading Blind Spot, it’s worth knowing that we’ve covered some of the the contents of Verifier in more depth here than was possible in the book, and that we’re well on the way to a full description.

The knowledge cycle, and topics that we’ve blogged about

Copyleft Hyde & Rugg 2014

The knowledge cycle shows how the main themes of our work fit together.

One theme involves getting knowledge out of people. We’re particularly interested in knowledge that people find difficult to put into words, where questionnaires and interviews simply can’t tackle the problem. A lot of our work involves eliciting and clarifying requirements for products and services; we’re also interested in the mirror image of this, namely design of products and services that meet user’s requirements.

A second major theme is representing knowledge – how best to visualise and categorise it. The Search Visualizer software is an example of how this can provide new ways of handling long-running problems. We’ve also looked at categorisation and classification, applied to a range of areas that include gender categorisation and use of space.

The third main theme is testing knowledge. There are large and well-established literatures on human error, logic, etc, that we’ve treated as foundational for our work – we haven’t tried to re-invent the wheel. Our work in this area has concentrated oncase studies where we’ve applied the Verifier framework to long-standing problems, such as the Voynich Manuscript and the literature on autism. In both those cases, we’ve published articles in the top relevent journals, as a way of checking that our findings provide solid new insights.

The fourth major theme is getting knowledge in to the human brain, thereby completing the knowledge cycle. Our work here has so far focused on filling gaps in the existing education literature, principally in two areas. The first of these is types of memory, knowledge, skill, etc, with particular reference to semi-tacit and tacit knowledge, and to the implications of these for delivery and learning methods. The second is the crucial distinction between serial processing and parallel processing/pattern matching, which has enormous implications for teaching and learning, but which appears to have received little attention in the education literature.

I’ve linked to articles from each of these areas at the end of this article.

Coming soon:

Requirements

The “compass rose” model of requirements gathering: A simple way of catching the main requirements for a product or service
Method fragments: What are the basic components of elicitation techniques?
Sociotechnology: How technology and human behaviour interact with each other

Representation

A framework for matching types of knowledge onto appropriate representations
More about categorisation, gender and sexuality
Nonverbal signage: How to help people find their way around

Error

The mathematics of desire: How much is too much?
Using visualisations to reduce error

Education

Method fragments for education methods: What are the underlying components of teaching and learning methods?
Serial processing versus parallel processing/pattern matching
A worked example: Applying knowledge modelling concepts to teaching and learning

Notes

You’re welcome to use Hyde & Rugg copyleft images for any non-commercial purpose, including lectures, provided that you state that they’re copyleft Hyde & Rugg.

Blind Spot, by Gordon Rugg with Joseph D’Agnese

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blind-Spot-Gordon-Rugg/dp/0062097903

Previous articles, by topic

(There are other articles on other topics, such as humour; the list below contains our main articles relating to Verifier.)

Requirements and design

Requirements:

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/finding-out-what-people-want-in-a-nutshell/

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/client-requirements-why-clients-change-their-minds-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/requirements-evaluation-and-measurement-how-to-tell-if-youve-met-a-clients-goals/

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/client-requirements-finding-boundaries-constraints-and-the-shape-of-the-elephant/

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/requirements-that-clients-dont-talk-about-the-elephant-in-the-room/

https://hydeandrugg.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/client-requirements-the-shape-of-the-elephant-part-4/