Designing for attention with sound: challenges and extensions to ecological interface design

OBJECTIVE: We explore whether ecological interface design (EID) principles can be applied to the design of an auditory display for anesthesia monitoring. BACKGROUND: EID examples focus almost exclusively on visual displays. In the anesthesia work environment, however, auditory displays may provide better individual and team awareness of patient state. METHOD: Using a work domain analysis of physiological monitoring in anesthesia, we identify information to display. Using the skills, rules, and knowledge distinction we identify cognitive control needed. Using semantic mapping we map physiological variables and constraints to auditory dimensions. RESULTS: EID principles do not address when information should be displayed and to whom. An attentional mapping stage helps to specify answers to these questions so that a workable auditory display for anesthesia monitoring is achieved. CONCLUSION: EID principles of representing work domain functional structure and minimizing resource-demanding cognitive control are necessary but insufficient to specify requirements for an effective auditory display. Also needed are analyses of control tasks, strategies, and the social organization of work. Such analyses are an integral part of the broader cognitive work analysis framework from which EID emerged. APPLICATION: Actual or potential uses of this research include the design of displays that support continuous peripheral awareness in collaborative multimodal work environments.     

Extending the Ecological Interface Design process—Integrated EID

This article aims to extend the traditional Ecological Interface Design (EID) process. With the rapid pace of digitalization in technological systems, there is a need for a design process that can handle the systemic design goals and the experiential basis of interaction. Currently, the traditional EID is well-positioned to address these challenges. However, methodologically, it needs to be substantiated to make it accessible for designers, designing for novel arenas, such as Industry 4.0. Further, substantiating the design process will help designers, engineers, and human factors researchers with an accessible pathway that links the design brief to the final interface form. Therefore, this article delves into the “design” basis in the work of the Risø group and other prominent EID researchers and practitioners. In addition, it draws from a variety of themes in the discipline of design that addresses methodology. In particular, key insights are drawn from the design methods movement (1960s—); design, communication, and complexity from the Ulm school of design, 1953–1968; cognitive research conducted on designers and design activities; and finally, interaction design and communication design processes and models. All of these insights have been used syncretically to create the new integrated EID (iEID) process. This new design process consists of nine stages divided into three phases of divergence, transformation, and convergence, converting the initial design brief to the final interface. The steps of iEID are demonstrated using the example of interface design for a “digital twin” in the manufacturing sector.     

User-centered requirements engineering in health information systems: a study in the hemophilia field

The use of sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the health care domain is a way to improve the quality of services. However, there are also hazards associated with the introduction of ICTs in this domain and a great number of projects have failed due to the lack of systematic consideration of human and other non-technology issues throughout the design or implementation process, particularly in the requirements engineering process. This paper presents the methodological approach followed in the design process of a web-based information system (WbIS) for managing the clinical information in hemophilia care, which integrates the values and practices of user-centered design (UCD) activities into the principles of software engineering, particularly in the phase of requirements engineering (RE). This process followed a paradigm that combines a grounded theory for data collection with an evolutionary design based on constant development and refinement of the generic domain model using three well-known methodological approaches: (a) object-oriented system analysis; (b) task analysis; and, (c) prototyping, in a triangulation work. This approach seems to be a good solution for the requirements engineering process in this particular case of the health care domain, since the inherent weaknesses of individual methods are reduced, and emergent requirements are easier to elicit. Moreover, the requirements triangulation matrix gives the opportunity to look across the results of all used methods and decide what requirements are critical for the system success.     

A Gestalt–Minimalism-based decision-making model for evaluating product form design

This paper presents a novel methodology for dealing with decision-making problems in product design fields. The purpose of this study is to evaluate product form design in terms of the perspectives of Gestalt psychology and Minimalist principles. Unlike traditional AHP methods, the proposed decision-making model uses distinct mathematical tools to establish priorities for the criteria and synthesize the evaluation results. A case study was conducted to illustrate the practicability of this proposed model. It has shown a credible result. In addition to product form design, this model can be applied to related design fields, such as plane design and other visual design.

Relevance to industry

Product form design is a creative process that involves complex visual perceptions. It is very important to develop an effective decision support system for designers to deal with problems concerning the consumers’ psychological preferences toward product forms. As Gestalt psychology and Minimalist principles provide an important perspective on visual perception, it is appropriate to apply these principles in assessing the quality of product form design.     

Minimal instrumentation may compromise failure diagnosis with an ecological interface

Interfaces designed according to ecological interface design (EID) display higher-order relations and properties of a work domain so that adaptive operator problem solving can be better supported under unanticipated system conditions. Previous empirical studies of EID have assumed that the raw data required to derive and communicate higher-order information would be available and reliable. The present research examines the relative advantages of an EID interface over a conventional piping-and-instrumentation diagram (PID) when instrumentation is maximally or only minimally adequate. Results show an interaction between interface and the adequacy of the instrumentation. Failure diagnosis performance with the EID interface with maximally adequate instrumentation is best overall. Performance with the EID interface drops more drastically from maximally to minimally adequate instrumentation than does performance with the PID interface, to the point where the EID interface with minimally adequate instrumentation supports nonsignificantly worse performance than does the equivalent PID interface. Actual or potential applications of this research include design of instrumentation and displays for complex industrial processes.     

Evaluating design proposals for complex systems with work domain analysis

In this paper we propose a new framework for evaluating designs based on work domain analysis, the first phase of cognitive work analysis. We develop a rationale for a new approach to evaluation by describing the unique characteristics of complex systems and by showing that systems engineering techniques only partially accommodate these characteristics. We then present work domain analysis as a complementary framework for evaluation. We explain this technique by example by showing how the Australian Defence Force used work domain analysis to evaluate design proposals for a new system called Airborne Early Warning and Control. This case study also demonstrates that work domain analysis is a useful and feasible approach that complements standard techniques for evaluation and that promotes a central role for human factors professionals early in the system design and development process. Actual or potential applications of this research include the evaluation of designs for complex systems.     

Ecological interface design for Pasteurizer II: a process description of semantic mapping

Ecological interface design (EID) is proving to be a promising approach to the design of interfaces for complex dynamic systems. Although the principles of EID and examples of its effective use are widely available, few readily available examples exist of how the individual displays that constitute an ecological interface are developed. This paper presents the semantic mapping process within EID in the context of prior theoretical work in this area. The semantic mapping process that was used in developing an ecological interface for the Pasteurizer II microworld is outlined, and the results of an evaluation of the ecological interface against a more conventional interface are briefly presented. Subjective reports indicate features of the ecological interface that made it particularly valuable for participants. Finally, we outline the steps of an analytic process for using EID. The findings presented here can be applied in the design of ecological interfaces or of configural displays for dynamic processes.     

CORAMOD: a checklist-oriented model-based requirements analysis approach

Requirement development activities such as requirements analysis and modelling are well defined in software engineering. A model-based requirement development may result in significant improvements in engineering design. In current product development activities in this domain, not all requirements are consciously identified and modelled. This paper presents the checklist-oriented requirements analysis modelling (CORAMOD) approach. CORAMOD is a methodology for the use of model-based systems engineering for requirements analysis of complex products utilizing checklists, the simplest kind of rational design method. The model-based focuses the requirements analysis process on requirement modelling, whereas the checklist encourages a conscious and systematic approach to identify requirements. We illustrate the utility of CORAMOD artefacts by a comprehensive case study example and modelling with system modelling language (SysML). We suggest that visual accessibility of the SysML views facilitates the full participation of all stakeholders and enables the necessary dialogue and negotiation. The approach promotes tracing derived requirements to the customer need statement and enhances validation by model execution and simulation.     

基于领域本体面向问题的需求分析与领域建模

为了解决传统的以应用领域为目标、以问题解决方案为中心的需求分析方法造成的开发人员与需求人员以及客户三者之间的误解,需求分析不可再次使用进而导致系统开发效率低下,客户满意度低等问题,文中提出了基于本体面向问题进行需求分析的方法。阐述了基于本体面向问题进行需求分析的必要性、本体的相关概念和设计原则、本体的描述语言以及基于LAU建立领域本体的实例与需求分析过程,并论证了利用该方法可进一步提高需求分析的质量。     

Fieldwork for requirements: Frameworks for mobile healthcare applications

Ethnographic approaches to study of work in the field have been widely adopted by HCI researchers as resources for investigation of work settings and for requirements elicitation. Although the value of fieldwork for design is widely recognised, difficulties surround the exploitation of fieldwork data within the design process. Since not every development project can support or justify large-scale field investigation, the issue of how to build on previous work within a domain is particularly important. In this paper we consider this issue in the context of development of mobile healthcare applications. Many such systems will be built in the coming years, and already a number of influential studies have derived concepts from fieldwork data and used them to support analysis of healthcare work. Using a patient review process as an example, we examine how the concepts from such exemplar studies can be leveraged to analyse fieldwork data, and to facilitate requirements elicitation. The concepts, previous interpretation within the domain, prototypical requirements and associated critique together provide a framework for analysis. The concepts are used to highlight issues that must be addressed and to derive requirements. We make the case that these concepts are not “value free” and that the course of our analysis is significantly altered through the palette of concepts used. The methodological implications of this proposition are also considered.     

Knowledge based formation of re-configurable assembly cells

When developing assembly cells with highly complex modular structures, designers need to translate user requirements into a set of design rules and potential cell configurations. The success in matching user requirements to potential products is dependent on how well the functional and non-functional customer requirements can be understood and translated into cell features (design rules, processes and module types). This paper reports on a knowledge based methodology for forming customisable re-configurable assembly cells. The approach is based on matching user requirements to existing supplier knowledge in terms of design rules and principles, modules offered by different vendors, new emerging technologies and existing own and competitors’ products. The decision making includes requirements analysis, generating assembly processing alternatives and evaluating and selecting assembly modules and cells. The proposed approach aims to assist decision making in assembly system design by enabling users and suppliers to jointly participate in an interactive and iterative process of forming re-configurable assembly cells.     

The MPC elucidator: a case study in the design for human-automationinteraction

In this paper, we describe the design of a decision support system for operators of model-based predictive controllers (MPC). MPC is a form of advanced automatic control that is increasingly common in process operations due to its ability to control and optimize large sections of a process. A cognitive task analysis revealed that current operating displays, which rely on displaying tables of numeric information across several display pages, do not effectively support human operator monitoring, diagnosis, and control of MPC. This case study shows how we applied representation aiding and workspace management design principles to better support the human-automation interaction requirements of monitoring, understanding, and adjusting these complex, semi-autonomous; process controllers. We show how effective user interface design can significantly reduce the complexity of operating with advanced automation, and can lead to improved understanding of how the automation works     

Conceptual modeling of natural language functional requirements

Requirements analysts consider a conceptual model to be an important artifact created during the requirements analysis phase of a software development life cycle (SDLC). A conceptual, or domain model is a visual model of the requirements domain in focus. Owing to its visual nature, the model serves as a platform for the deliberation of requirements by stakeholders and enables requirements analysts to further refine the functional requirements. Conceptual models may evolve into class diagrams during the design and execution phases of the software project. Even a partially automated conceptual model can save significant time during the requirements phase, by quickening the process of graphical communication and visualization.This paper presents a system to create a conceptual model from functional specifications, written in natural language in an automated manner. Classes and relationships are automatically identified from the functional specifications. This identification is based on the analysis of the grammatical constructs of sentences, and on Object Oriented principles of design. Extended entity-relationship (EER) notations are incorporated into the class relationships. Optimizations are applied to the identified entities during a post-processing stage, and the final conceptual model is rendered.The use of typed dependencies, combined with rules to derive class relationships offers a granular approach to the extraction of the design elements in the model. The paper illustrates the model creation process using a standard case study, and concludes with an evaluation of the usefulness of this approach for the requirements analysis. The analysis is conducted against both standard published models and conceptual models created by humans, for various evaluation parameters.     

Conceptual design of industrial process displays

Today, process displays used in industry are often designed on the basis of piping and instrumentation diagrams without any method of ensuring that the needs of the operators are fulfilled. Therefore, a method for a systematic approach to the design of process displays is needed. This paper discusses aspects of process display design taking into account both the designer's and the operator's points of view. Three aspects are emphasized: the operator tasks, the display content and the display form. The distinction between these three aspects is the basis for proposing an outline for a display design method that matches the industrial practice of modular plant design and satisfies the needs of reusability of display design solutions. The main considerations in display design in the industry are to specify the operator's activities in detail, to extract the information the operators need from the plant design specification and documentation, and finally to present this information. The form of the display is selected from existing standardized display elements such as trend curves, mimic diagrams, ecological interfaces, etc. Further knowledge is required to invent new display elements. That is, knowledge about basic visual means of presenting information and how humans perceive and interpret these means and combinations. This knowledge is required in the systematic selection of graphical items for a given display content. The industrial part of the method is first illustrated in the paper by a simple example from a plant with batch processes. Later the method is applied to develop a supervisory display for a condenser system in a nuclear power plant. The differences between the continuous plant domain of power production and the batch processes from the example are analysed and broad categories of display types are proposed. The problems involved in specification and invention of a supervisory display are analysed and conclusions from these problems are made. It is concluded that the design method proposed provides a framework for the progress of the display design and is useful in pin-pointing the actual problems. The method was useful in reducing the number of existing displays that could fulfil the requirements of the supervision task. The method provided at the same time a framework for dealing with the problems involved in inventing new displays based on structured analysis. However the problems in a systematic approach to display invention still need consideration.     

On the architecture of a human-centered CAD agent system

With an increasing role of computers in the design process, a strong foundation of the basic principles for building CAD systems is extremely necessary. This work describes the architecture of a CAD system from the perspective of the capabilities required to build a human centered CAD system. These capabilities have been reported as task-sharing, communication, transparency, design rationale and cognition. Existing systems for engineering design have been analyzed from the perspective of these capabilities and an agent-based system previously reported in literature has been extended to a new architecture to support three of the aforementioned capabilities. The proposed architecture is an amalgamation of multi-agent systems, the ACT-R cognitive architecture and fuzzy rule based Petri nets. The salient advantage of this architecture is that it focuses on the capabilities of design rationale, transparency and cognition together—something which has been missing from all the current works in literature and is unique to the domain of application of the software system, which in this case is engineering design. The other capabilities namely task sharing and communication can be incorporated from lessons learnt from human–computer interaction research. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture is demonstrated by a hypothetical design case along with its implementation.     

Making the most of ecological interface design: the role of individual differences

As advanced control rooms for new process control plants are being designed, the question arises as to whether operators of the future need to have a particular set of cognitive characteristics to make the most of those advanced control rooms. This issue was investigated by examining the interaction between ecological interface design (EID) and individual differences in the context of a process control microworld. A number of potential predictors of performance were investigated, including: demographic data, type of interface, type of instruction, and data from two cognitive style tests. Eight linear regression analyses were conducted to determine which variables were the strongest predictors of performance. The results indicate that the strongest and most consistent predictor of performance was the interaction between a holist cognitive style score and an interface based on the principles of EID. That is, individuals who used an EID interface and who had high holist scores were the best performers. It seems that these individuals have the relational thinking ability that is required to exploit the value of the higher-order functional information provided by an EID interface. This empirical result has practical implications for operator selection.     

SimPL: A product-line modeling methodology for families of integrated control systems

ContextIntegrated control systems (ICSs) are heterogeneous systems where software and hardware components are integrated to control and monitor physical devices and processes. A family of ICSs share the same software code base, which is configured differently for each product to form a unique installation. Due to the complexity of ICSs and inadequate automation support, product configuration in this context is typically error-prone and costly.ObjectiveAs a first step to overcome these challenges, we propose a UML-based product-line modeling methodology that provides a foundation for semi-automated product configuration in the specific context of ICSs.MethodWe performed a comprehensive domain analysis to identify characteristics of ICS families, and their configuration challenges. Based on this, we formulated the characteristics of an adequate configuration solution, and derived from them a set of modeling requirements for a model-based solution to configuration. The SimPL methodology is proposed to fulfill these requirements.ResultsTo evaluate the ability of SimPL to fulfill the modeling requirements, we applied it to a large-scale industrial case study. Our experience with the case study shows that SimPL is adequate to provide a model of the product family that meets the modeling requirements. Further evaluation is still required to assess the applicability and scalability of SimPL in practice. Doing this requires conducting field studies with human subjects and is left for future work.ConclusionWe conclude that configuration in ICSs requires better automation support, and UML-based approaches to product family modeling can be tailored to provide the required foundation.     

Visual sensitivities of dynamic graphical displays

Advanced display design, such as Ecological Interface Design (EID), makes extensive use of complex graphical objects. Research has shown that by following EID methodologies, supervisory operators have better performance with the EID displays than with non-EID displays. However, the effect of particular dynamic graphical objects seen in EID displays has never been studied. In this study, we examined how different visual features of graphical objects affect the performance of the objects. We used a modified dynamic just noticeable difference task to investigate the graphical objects that show changes most sensitively. We also investigated the sensitivities of graphical objects in determining target levels, directional changes, and proportions. A commercial EID design company generated the graphical objects examined. We had subjects perform four tasks with graphical objects that varied in their visual features but were still representative of objects currently being used in ecological design. It was found that for simple dynamic objects such as bars and polygon objects, a line changing in angle was the most noticeable emergent feature to show a departure from “normal” state. For complex graphical objects, those target-indicator displays that mimic a “bull's eye” when at the target value should be used for displays that show observers when a target value has been reached. Abrupt changes in shape should be used in trend meters to show when variables or processes have changed direction. Finally, “solid objects” that make use of vertical lines and shading should be used for comparison meters that compare two values and keep them in a particular ratio. The findings provide guidance for designers of dynamic advanced graphical displays by encouraging the consideration of visual aspects of graphical objects, as well as prescribing graphical objects that should be used in the types of tasks investigated.     

Display Design of Process Systems Based on Functional Modelling

The prevalent way to present information in industrial computer displays is by using piping and instrumentation diagrams. Such interfaces have sometimes resulted in difficulties for operators because they are not sufficient to fulfil their needs. A systematic way that supports interface design therefore has to be considered. In the new design framework, two questions must be answered. Firstly, a modelling method is required to describe a process system. Such a modelling method can define the information content that must be displayed in interfaces. Secondly, how to communicate this information to operators efficiently must be considered. This will provide a basis for determining the visual forms that the information should take. This study discusses interface design of human–machine systems from these two points of view. Based on other scholars’ work, a comprehensive set of functional primitives is summarised as a basis to build a functional model of process systems. A library of geometrical presentations for these primitives is then developed. To support effective interface design, the concept of ‘functional macro’ is introduced and a way to map functional model to interface display is illustrated by applying several principles. To make our ideas clear, a central heating system is taken as an example and its functional model is constructed. Based on the functional model, the information to be displayed is determined. Several functional macros are then found in the model and their corresponding displays are constructed. Finally, by using the library of geometrical presentations for functional primitives and functional macros, the display hierarchy of the central heating system is developed. Reusability of functional primitives makes it possible to use the methodology to support interface design of different process systems.