[1] It was an engineering method used in the 1970s at Bell Labs, focused on how people form a cognitive model of a system based upon common metaphors.
[2] As explained, by Joseph Henry Condon:[2] "The idea is that people form a model.
You present them with some instruments, tools, like a faucet, electric stove or something like that and demonstrate how it works.
"According to Condon, the ideas of cognitive engineering were developed later than, and independent from, the early work on the Unix operating system.
[3] Don Norman cited principles of cognitive engineering in his 1981 article, "The truth about Unix: The user interface is horrid."