Cognitive Work Analysis for Systems Analysis and Redesign: Rail Level Crossings Case Study

Much has been written about the use of Cognitive Work Analysis for systems analysis and design; however, typically the framework is used for either analysis or design and not both together. This chapter describes a rail level crossing design lifecycle process that involved using Cognitive Work Analysis to analyse existing rail level crossing systems, and to generate, and refine new design concepts. It provides an overview of the process adopted and describes example outputs from the following phases: systems analysis; generation of design concepts, evaluation of design concepts, and refinement of design concepts. The transport analysis covered the overall system and its constraints (work domain analysis), user decision making (control task analysis), the different ways in which users can behave in rail level crossing environments (strategies analysis) and the contribution of different actors, human and non-human, to rail level crossing system behaviour (social organisation and cooperation analysis). The chapter also discusses the implications for future rail level crossing design activities.