I. Scenario and System Definition
You are an independent contractor working through the prestigious consulting
firm, The Beltway Bandits. Your education is in Information Systems,
and your specialty is Human Factors in Computer Systems Design. Because
of your profound expertise in human-computer interaction, you have been
awarded a contract to analyze and design the new emergency command post
for one of the state’s county 911 facilities. The design is to include
the overall workspace, the instrumentation panel with all displays and
control mechanisms, and all communications.
The facility will have three operators at all times to receive
calls and dispatch appropriate teams. There are six telephone lines
incoming and internal communication lines to emergency teams that are diversely
located throughout the county. The current status of teams, equipment,
vehicles, and emergency room beds and physicians is maintained by a computer
program with real-time capabilities to update from anywhere within the
network. The network consists of the command post, each local fire
department, police barracks, and the local hospital emergency rooms; there
is also a tie-in with the State Troopers and the State National Guard.
Because of the quantity, speed, and complexity of data presentation,
and the accuracy of response execution required, the task becomes one of
using human capabilities, both cognitive and physical, to their highest
potential and incorporating all known design features to facilitate the
optimum human response.
The boundary of your system is the interior of the command post,
although the source of the displayed information and the impact of the
control actions may be external. The limit of resolution is the precise
information displayed via encoding or reproduction and the precise control
manipulations.
The command post will be designed to accommodate three operators.
The allocation of functions (computer vs. human and between the three human
operators), task analysis, and division of labor and/or redundancy of responsibility
will be up to you to determine.
Although, ultimately, you will be responsible for suggesting
the hardware, designing the network and communication system, and developing
new software to manage the information functions, for your initial analysis,
you will be specifying the personnel and functional requirements, analyzing
the procedures to be followed, and designing the interfaces. Your
initial efforts will concentrate on the human tasks and all necessary displays
and controls to assure successful human-machine (computers and other machinery
you deem appropriate) interaction for optimal performance. You will,
of course, follow the system development process you learned during your
undergraduate career at UMBC in attaining this objective. Throughout
this process, you will specify all necessary research that will be used
in legitimizing your actions and decisions.
II. Specification
Begin your report with a full definition of your system (purpose, goal,
sub-goals, hierarchy, boundary, limit of resolution, component level).
Within this specification, define for what types of situations you anticipate
occurring (these situations will determine the informational needs of the
operators). What will be the perceived impact of meeting or falling
short of the desired objectives? At this stage, what potential errors
can you hypothesize (and, therefore, design to preclude/minimize)?
What research will be appropriate?
III. System Analysis
Continue your report with a thorough analysis of all aspects of the system:
A. Suggest probable interior dimensions; these will impact on all future interface design features. Using as a guideline your suggested dimensions, analyze and describe the physical constraints of the workspace in terms of seating, reach envelope, and anthropometry.
B. Identify all relevant human information processing limitations that must be taken into account in the design of displays and controls (attention, perception, memory, judgment, etc.) and including human limitations in targeting and tracking.
C. Identify the types of information the operators will need for the proper response to given emergencies (as specified by you previously).
D. Describe the probable noise level within the command post and the potential impact of this noise on voice and audio communications and information display. Identify other physical effects of the environment such as ambient lighting, temperature, ventillation, etc., and state what their potential impact on the operators and their functioning might be.
E. What selection criteria may be needed for your potential operators? What shift/break schedule will be most appropriate?
F. At this stage, what potential errors can you hypothesize (and, therefore, design to preclude/minimize)?
G. At this stage, what research will be appropriate?
IV. System Design
In the design phase you begin with a task analysis of the individual
components and allocate these functional tasks between the human(s) and
the machine(s). This will then allow you to conduct a thorough task
analysis of the activities to be performed by the human(s). Once
this has been established, the interfaces will have to be developed; these
will include all displays and controls within the command post. All
constraints, decisions and findings from the specification and analysis
phases must be taken into account in making the design decisions.
Throughout the design phase, you are aware of the information processing
demands on the operators. In justifying your allocations of functions,
task analyses, and interfaces, elaborate on attention resources, memory
requirements, mental workload, decision requirements, and judgments.
Identify all human information processing limitations that must be taken
into account in the design of displays and controls.
Continue your analysis of the types of errors that could occur and
justify how your design will preclude or minimize them.
A. Provide a brief ethical and/or psychological overview of considerations for allocation of functions.
B. Based on your prior analysis, describe the overall physical layout to include operator seating and placement of displays and controls.
C. Identify and describe the design of seven necessary controls to include what function will be controlled, any labeling, the type of control, the method of manipulating the control and how the results of the control action will be displayed to the operator.
D. Identify and describe the design of seven necessary visual displays. State the type of information each will convey and the medium and coding dimensions you will use for each.
E. Identify two possible audio (not speech, but other types of audio) display for the command post. State the type of information each will convey and the medium and coding dimensions you will use for each. Justify the appropriateness of your choices.
F. Again referring to the probable noise level within the command post and recognizing the importance of voice communications to the mission, identify and describe several possible display mediums and controls to provide voice communications. State the probable use of voice communication.
G. Sketch your proposed interior to include position of seating and all displays and controls you have identified (to include sources of audio displays and all hardware for voice communications).
V. Usability Issues
Throughout the specification and analysis phases, you have specified required research; now, throughout the design phase, usability testing should be conducted to assure the adequacy of decisions in meeting the stated requirements and the satisfaction of personnel is working the design decisions. What types of studies might you conduct? What aspects might you evaluate? State the types of research, the method of collection, the independent variables to be measured, and the ways in which these data will be used.
VI. Documentation
What types of training materials, performance aides and documentation will have to be produced for the use of the operators? Specify requirements for both hard copy and on-line materials. Justify in which cases either hard copy or on-line would be most appropriate and the rationale for your decision.
VII. Deliverables and criteria
A. Thorough responses to all questions should be word processed, double spaced, 12 point font, one inch margins. Though exact questions need not be repeated, it should be apparent which specific issue is being addressed.
B. A sketch of your proposed interior should be created showing seating and work surfaces and the placement of all displays and controls. Although “artistic” ability is not being evaluated, your sketch should be done carefully (neatness and professionalism will be considered) with attention to proportion and perspective.
C. The project is due Tuesday, November 20, 2001, at the beginning of class (8:30 a.m.) and is valued at 15 % of the course grade. Selected students will make an oral presentation about some aspect of their project; dates and specifics regarding these reports will be addressed separately.
D. There should be no collaboration between students. Any questions should be addressed specifically to the instructor. There is no “right” answer to this project; it will be evaluated on thoroughness and correspondence to the principles of human factors.
VIII. Evaluation Percentages
1. System definition/description and functional and task analysis –
10
2. Personnel criteria and demands – 5
3. Information processing discussion – 10
4. Work space description and sketch – 10
5. Overall display and control layout and description – 10
6. Visual displays – 15
7. Audio displays and speech communication – 15
8. Controls – 10
9. Research specified in initial stages – 5
10. Usability issues – 5
11. Documentation - 5