Developments such as 4D Trajectories, Pilot Controller Datalink and Enhanced Mode-s are promising to make the ATCos work easier, increase capacity, punctuality etc. These are just a few of the changes in ATM that are being introduced and bound to change the systems and human machine interface air traffic controllers are working with. Whether the change is large or small, important questions that require answers are:
- how to integrate the new (or other) information without overloading the ATCo?
- how to design the HMI such that the ATCO is optimally supported in controlling the growing numbers of traffic?
- how to generate user buy-in at the introduction of the new HMI?
A structured, proven approach by creative, experienced designers with good operational ATM knowledge is what you need.
We help our customers with our human-centred design approach based on the fundaments of ecological interface design. We involve the end-user and other stakeholders, meanwhile keep a critical eye on the effectiveness and sensibility of the change from an operator performance perspective. Depending on the project, we work in teams with specialists on certain ATM solutions, operator performance specialists, safety specialists and developers. By means of rapid-prototyping we are able to quickly deliver a design allowing the evaluation of functions and a look and feel, in a simulation environment.
We facilitate user sessions, rapid prototyping and evaluations with groups of end-users. We are used to work in teams with multiple end-user roles and multiple disciplines. Our ATM facilities include our research simulator NARSIM, simulating ATC environments in a flexible way and allowing evaluating the HMI changes in a realistic setting. Also our facilities for AR and VR applications allow the simulation of new designs early in the design process where a change of hardware is involved. Depending on the change and the level of maturity, these user evaluations can take place at the customer site or at NLR premises.
In our human in the loop evaluations, we perform objective and subjective measurements to evaluate the change. To this end, we make use of the so called methodological triangulation, combining performance data, subjective user ratings and objective measurements (such as eye tracking and heart rate) to build a strong fundament in proofing that the new solution is at least as safe, efficient and/or effective as the currently existing solution.
Documents
Related Issues
- Air Traffic Controller overload
- ATCo HMI rapid prototyping
- Design philosophy
- Ecological interface design
- Human-centred design
- Human-in-the-loop evaluation
- User trials