Paola Amaldi

Representing collaborative work: the airport as common information space

This paper reports a field study of work in a complex setting:an airport. The study was largely focused on the Air Traffic Control activities carried out in the airport control tower, but also investigated other work sites around the airport. An important feature of the successful operation of the airport, then, is the way that the activities occurring in these different sites become articulated through explicit communicative acts and through common understandings of the work of the airport. The airport is viewed as a common information space, a perspective that emphasises meaning and interpretation and the processes by which meanings become common across a heterogeneous work system. A characteristic of the environment studied here is that while meanings may not be common across the different communities of practice working at the airport, interpretations appear to be sufficiently common as to pose few problems in most circumstances.

Looking but not seeing: implications for HCI

Motivation: In this paper we report on part of a study to understand how information layering techniques can be used to reduce change blindness. Change blindness, in general, is the failure of the human to detect changes to information that occur within his or her visual field. There are several variants of failures of visual awareness known as: Change Blindness, Inattentional Blindness, Repetition Blindness, and Comparison Blindness. Failure or delays in observing changes in complex, dynamic and safety critical systems by, say, operators can lead to disastrous outcomes. Hence, drawing together the different reasons reported in the literature can provide us with a first step towards developing design techniques for reducing change blindness in the hope that we can contribute to better and safer systems. Research Approach: We reviewed 21 key studies on the different forms of change blindness reported in the literature between 1976 and 2005. Using an Emergent Themes Analysis approach, we identified five effects that arise across the different forms of change blindness, and the likely effects that designers need to consider when designing visual interfaces to reduce change blindness. Findings/Design: These five effects are (i) the effect of rate of change, (ii) the effect of eccentricity, (iii) the effect of conspicuity, (iv) the effect of significance, and (v) the effect of tasks relevance. We also discuss the implications these effects have on information design. Research limitations/Implications: These effects were identified through a review of key literature. Not all effects occurred in every form of change blindness. The effects represent the variety of effects that a designer should be aware of that can cause change blindness to occur. Originality/Value: This paper provides a summary of the different forms of change blindness, and highlights their effects in a way relevant to design. Take away message: In designing displays to reduce the effect of the various forms of change blindness, it is necessary to factor these effects into the information design.

In Use, In Situ: Extending Field Research Methods

Many authors have argued the need for a broader understanding of context and the situatedness of activity when approaching the evaluation of systems. However, prevailing practice often still tends toward attempting to understand the use of designed artifacts by focusing on a core set of tasks that are thought to define the system. A consequence of such focus is that other tasks are considered peripheral and outside the scope of design and evaluation activities. To illustrate the point, consider the experience, familiar to many of us, of being involved in an evaluation activity where participants provide unstructured qualitative feedback. Irrespective of whether the activity is carried out in a laboratory, in a high-fidelity simulation, or in a naturalistic setting, participants will frequently volunteer unsolicited feedback about tasks and goals that were not originally within the ambit of the design activity. This unprompted feedback, we suggest, is a cue for the evaluators to pay attention to the relationship between the tool and the practice in which it will be used— in other words, a cue to consider the situations in which the artifact will be used, the tasks and activities that may be affected by the new system, and so on. These are empirical questions that cannot be answered a priori by the development team, whether the evaluation is taking place in an “artificial” or “natural” setting. Even when context is taken very seriously, there is often an assumption that evaluation is conducted under controlled circumstances, where the evaluators INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION, 22(1 & 2), 1–6 Copyright

Information layering, depth and transparency effects on multi-layered displays for command and control.

This paper reports on research into development of techniques for information representation in complex dynamic environments, such as those with high information densities, and with high rates of change. These design techniques employ information layering, visual depth and transparency to present informationi in the new Multi- Layered Display (MLD) technology, in anticipation that their combined use can improve information uptake in such environments. The results show that there is no advantage in using the MLD in simple reading and interaction tasks. However, user performance was observed to be significantly better when using layering techniques on the MLD under increased task difficulty conditions that approximate information handling challenges in command and control activities.

Design Sketching for Space and Time

In this paper we present a case study of how design sketching can be used as a technique for exploring and creating a common understanding between users, designers and software developers, of the representation design requirements for supporting spatial-temporal reasoning in Air Traffic Control (ATC). The safe and expeditious control of aircraft requires the ATC controller to think in terms of 3D air space, and also plan ahead in time. We refer to this mental process as spatial-temporal reasoning. ATC is a 4D (3D plus time) problem but is currently supported by 2D tools such as the Plan Position Indicator-type radar displays that are seen in ATC centres. This requires the air traffic controllers to construct mental models of the air traffic situation to ensure safe vertical and horizontal separations between moving aircraft, and also expedite traffic flow. These objectives require prediction of traffic patterns and potential bottlenecks. To explain how we used design sketching, we report on the Task Analysis of an exemplar ATC task, and the characterisation of this task in spatial-temporal terms, and how the Ecological Interface Design principle of visualisation of constraints was applied to guide the development of the 4D visual form of the representation design.

Inter-Organizational Safety Debate: The Case of an Alarm System from the Air Traffic Control Domain

The management of safety critical operations cannot be left to the initiative of those individuals directly in contact with the production processes. Society as a whole has a role. This paper explores the interface between societal components having a direct active role in the “safety debate†. The reference domain is air traffic management and the interface is among air traffic controllers and pilots – as directly involved in the management of the air traffic – and two agencies, the NTSB (responsible for safety investigation after an accident) and FAA (responsible for regulating, upgrading and training of the workforce). Recent debates in safety management highlight that safe practice is a control problem: the result of effective hierarchical transmissions of safety constraints and making the boundaries of acceptable performance visible. This work analyzes how safety constraints related to an alarm system are represented, transmitted and interpreted by several parties – all committed to safety of operations in air traffic management. A “miscalibration†pattern has emerged where the tendency to ignore the alarm was initially addressed at higher hierarchical levels in relation to alarm design, and only in 2006 was addressed in relation to the core issue of nuisance or false alerts (FA).

A Framework for Considering Spatial-Temporal Representation Design in Air Traffic Control:

In this paper we present a framework for considering the design of information visualisations intended to support 4D or spatial-temporal reasoning in Air Traffic Control. The Spatial-Temporal Framework was developed based on a cognitive task analysis of approach controllers. This work was conducted as part of a to develop a novel 4D interface for a possible future ATC system. A 4D interface is one that incorporates the visualisation of 3D space and time. The framework allows us to identify the spatial properties of a tactical ATC situation: objects, constraints and relationships; and how they are affected by the temporal attributes of the past, present, projected and intended actions. It is envisaged that this framework can provide guidance for our consideration and analytic assessment of new visualisation designs for a 4D interface.

A Multi-Perspective View on Human-Automation Interactions in Aviation

Control mechanisms for the evolving potential of autonomous systems are not yet sufficiently established. However, there is a need for control to be allocated throughout organisational and institutional levels of society in order to manage increasing complexities. This study, which applies to the domain of Air Traffic Management (ATM), aims s to gauge stakeholders’ attitudes at an organisational level in order to lay the foundations for an easier identification of the challenges and paths to improvements in this industry. Using Grounded Theory (GT), the study maps and interprets workshop data and questionnaires gathered to elicit professionals’ views on automation in the aviation industry. The themes identified, which resonate with all those reviewed in the literature, will form the basis for the construction of a checklist and survey of automation issues expressed at an organisational level of control.

An Organizational Study into the Concept of Automation Policy in a Safety Critical Socio-Technical System

Although automation has been introduced in all areas of public life, what seems to be missing is a reflection at the organizational or societal level about a policy of automation. By this the authors intend appropriate declarations made at the level of rationale, future plans and strategies to achieve intended goals and most importantly how those achievements will impact on various aspects of societal life, from legal responsibilities to moral and socio economic issues. Implicit in this is what is expected of both the human and technical system actors. In some public spheres these issues are becoming quite controversial because automation opens up possibilities of profound structural re-organization; however, people lack a discussion across and within different work domains to help us review methods or even methodological principles needed to gather and organize knowledge towards the construction of automation policies. This paper uses the UK Air Navigation Service Provider in the Air Traffic Management Domain known as NATS, as a case study to illustrate an example of an organization currently undertaking critical self-reflection about automation policy or the lack of such, along with the illustration of some unresolved deep concerns raised by the development, introduction, and continued use of automation.

An Organizational Study into the Concept of Automation in a Safety Critical Socio-technical System

Although automation has been introduced in all areas of public life, what seems to be missing is a reflection at the organizational or societal level about a policy of automation. By this we intend appropriate declarations made at the level of rationale, future plans and strategies to achieve intended goals and most importantly how those achievements will impact on various aspects of societal life, from legal responsibilities to moral and socio economic issues. In some public spheres these issues are becoming quite controversial because automation opens up possibilities of profound structural re-organization; however, we lack a discussion across and within different work domains to help us review methods or even methodological principles needed to gather and organize knowledge towards the construction of automation policies. This paper uses the UK service organization for Air Traffic Management Domain called NATS – National Air traffic Service, as a case study to illustrate an example of an organization currently undertaking critical self-reflection about automation policy or lack of such, along with the illustration of some unresolved deep concerns raised by the development, introduction, and continued use of automation.