User-Centered Design (VIII): A New Framework of Intelligent Sociotechnical Systems and Research Prospects

Human factors engineering usually emphasizes the research of human-computer interaction and does not pay attention to societal and organizational factors. Traditional sociotechnical systems (STS) theory has been widely used, but there are many new characteristics in the STS environment as we enter the intelligence era, resulting in the limitations of traditional STS. Based on the "user-centered design" philosophy and the perspective of human factors engineering, this paper proposes a new framework of intelligent sociotechnical systems (iSTS) and outlines the new characteristics of iSTS as well as its implications to the development of intelligent systems. Finally, this paper puts forward recommendations for future research and application of iSTS in the aspects of human factors engineering methodology and its research agenda.