Human-machine interface is the part of the machine that handles the Human-machine interaction

Human-machine interaction

Human–machine Interaction is the interaction between machines and the persons who operate them. An old-fashioned term is is Man-machined Interaction - Related terms:...

Overview

In complex systems, the human-machine interface is typically computerized. The term Human-computer interface refers to this kind of systems.

The engineering of the human-machine interfaces is by considering ergonomics

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...

 (Human Factors

Human factors

Human factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...

). The corresponding disciplines are Human Factors Engineering

Human factors engineering

Human Factors Engineering is the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. It can be applied to the design of all systems having a human interface, including hardware and software...

 (HFE) and Usability Engineering

Usability engineering

Usability engineering is a field that is concerned generally with human-computer interaction and specifically with making human-computer interfaces that have high usability or user friendliness...

 (UE), which is part of Systems Engineering

Systems engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...

.

Tools used for incorporating the human factors in the interface design are developed based on knowledge of computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, such as computer graphics

Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....

, operating systems, programming language

Programming language

A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....

s.

Primary methods used in the interface design include prototyping and simulation.

Interface design

Typical human-machine interface design consists of the following stages: interaction specification, interface software specification and prototyping:

• Common practices for interaction specification include user-centered design
  User-centered design
  In broad terms, user-centered design or pervasive usability is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process...
  
  , persona
  Persona
  A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
  
  , activity-oriented design, scenario-based design, resiliency design.

• Common practices for interface software specification include use cases, constrain enforcement by interaction protocol
  Interaction protocol
  Interaction protocols are possible communication scenarios between individual agents in multi-agent systems.FIPA defines markup for interaction protocol diagrams and several standard interaction protocols, including Dutch auction, English auction and reply-response....
  
  s (intended to avoid use errors).

• Common practices for prototyping are based on interactive design based on libraries of interface elements (controls, decoration, etc.).