This paper gives an overview of the current situation and the experiences gained during the implementation of a user-oriented development process in a large Swiss financial services firm. Besides usability methods such as user and task analysis, early prototyping and usability testing in our in-house Usability Lab, we focus in particular on the support of a user-oriented process in the form of ...

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) provide highly effective capabilities – long loiter time, detailed sensing from great distance and an expendable platform. RPAs actively support military operations, homeland defense, firefighting, search and rescue operations, geophysical surveys, and commercial surveillance. Research is ongoing to maximize the utilization of existing assets in current and futu...

Scenarios are used for various purposes in interactive systems design. Usability evaluation is one of the main application areas where scenarios play the important roles. This research developed a mechanism for manipulating scenarios for usability evaluation purposes. Design Information Framework (DIF) is introduced as an information platform that can be used for the scenario manipulation. A ca...

In the previous issue of Interacting with Computers, I offered a critique of Task Analysis (TA) arguing that, in general, task analysis techniques had failed to appreciate the significance of the shift in emphasis towards logical modelling of the system and away from physical modelling which had taken place during the early 1980s in information systems. As a result TA (if used on its own) would...

The use of simulation for training operators of heavy vehicles is gaining momentum. However, there still exists a gap in knowledge about the appropriate skills to target, and in particular, with regards to skill areas of a nontechnical nature. By taking a first-principles approach, we first sought to conduct a targeted analysis of the heavy vehicle operator task and, in turn, to assess which of...

This paper describes an approach to training emergency responders for mass casualty incidents. The approach is derived from a methodology and supporting software system called Summit. The Summit approach uses an integration of scenarios, hierarchical task analysis, interaction modeling, and expected utility theory to represent how actors engage in complex tasks; here we model mass casualty inci...

A crucial aspect of the effectiveness of simulation-based training is the notion of fidelity. Typically, research and development in relation to simulation fidelity has focussed on achieving high levels of visual, kinaesthetic and functional realism. While this approach has lead to significant advancements in simulator-based training, there remains a need to develop mechanisms to ensure that tr...

Preface This thesis could not have been written without the help and inspiration of many people around me. At the Vrije Universiteit, I was in an interesting environment with many different ideas. I want to thank Gerrit van der Veer, Anton Eliëns and Hans van Vliet for their enthusiasm and how they enriched my research by showing me their perspectives. Thanks to Gerrit for introducing me to the...

Skilled performers in complex environments rely heavily on heuristic strategies to cope with the time pressure and complexity of dynamic tasks. We suggest that the use of task simplification strategies based largely on perception and pattern recognition is fundamental to the novice-expert shift in dynamic decision making. We therefore suggest that interface training interventions should support...