A Framework for the Design of the Aircraft Inspection Information Environment

From the extensive series of task analyses performed during site visits to aircraft inspection operations (Shepherd, et al., 1991) it became clear that supplying the inspector with appropriate information was a key contribution to inspector reliability. Information reaches the inspector through a variety of pathways, such as documentation, training and job aids which are subject to separate studies within the FAA/OAM program. For example, at this conference there are papers on training (Drury and Gramopadhye, 1992) and workcard design (Patel, Prabhu, and Drury, 1992). The design issues are similar for any information system: • What information to present (issues of information sufficiency) • When to present this information (temporal issues) • How to present this information (information display issues) so that there are gains to be made by ensuing consistency across information sources. Hence this paper provides a framework for research in all areas of information design. In particular it combines concepts from the human factors knowledge base with specific needs of aircraft inspection. Specifically, it starts with the classification from Drury (1990) of aircraft inspection information into two sources: feedforward information and feedback information. Feedforward includes relatively general command information, and aircraft specific feedforward information.