This research uses Cognitive Engineering techniques to support collaboration across diverse development groups to facilitate design envisioning.

The specific context is the introduction of new sensor technologies in the Military Urban Environment (also referred to as Military Operations on Urban Terrain, or MOUT).

These techniques are an extension of scenario-based design methods and use a shared-multimedia visualization concept called the Topic Landscape to support collaborative envisioning.

 
U.S. Forces in Iraq, April 2003.

The objective in developing a scenario as an envisioning tool is to illustrate a realistic situation in some domain. This does not mean to merely write a story about something that could realistically happen; the real value comes when you show an understanding of the domain through abstract (generic) patterns that illustrate the difficulties of real cognitive work in that domain.