Highly Human Software is developing a new modeling environment for designing and analyzing human-computer interfaces. The goal of this product is to radically simplify human performance modeling and allow computational cognitive modeling to become a routine part of the software development process.

Automating GOMS Analysis with GLEAN

GLEAN (GOMS Language Evaluation and Analysis) is a software modeling environment for developing and analyzing simulations of human-computer interaction. It automates much of the time-consuming psychological and statistical work that is required for a deep interface analysis, allowing for rapid what-if exploration of the design space. GLEAN has been used in numerous domains including military command and control, aircraft maintenance, and web-applications. Current development is extending GLEAN to better support error analysis and error-tolerant design.

Highly Human Software is currently developing a professional version of GLEAN, GLEAN Pro. Please contact us for more information.

GLEAN Architecture

GLEAN simulates the interaction between three main GOMS components: the simulated user, a task-model, and a simulated device interface. The figure below shows the GLEAN architecture and the relationship between the simulated user and the simulated device. The area within the dashed box represents the portion of the architecture that remains fixed regardless of the task. The area outside the dashed box represents task-specific aspects of the model and is customized for each type of task. The analyst defines the device behavior, specifies the human procedures, and provides a set of task descriptions to run. Different scenarios can be tested by changing the task descriptions while leaving the device and procedures fixed. Device designs can be compared by changing the device and procedures, but leaving the task descriptions fixed.

The GLEAN architecture for human performance modeling.

At the core of the GLEAN architecture is the simulated user, formed around a central cognitive processor. It also includes processors for perceptual, motor, and working memory components. Each processor has a set of associated GOMS operators that they are responsible for executing. The cognitive processor has the additional responsibility of controlling model execution.

The GLEAN architecture also includes a device processor for simulating the device interface. The device processor is a replaceable component that can be customized for different task domains. A customized device allows for realistic behavior modeling that can accurately determine many human performance limitations.