Situation-Oriented Displays of Space Shuttle Data

Abstract

Event-based, or situation-oriented, logs of Space Shuttle data were evaluated for their support of flight controllers in reviewing operations. An intelligent system was developed to bundle and annotate the data describing an operational event, or situation. A display tool was also developed to show this situation information to flight controllers, aiding the review of procedure operations and anomalies. Finally, flight controllers informally evaluated the situation displays in the context of scenarios based on recorded mission data. They confirmed that the situation-oriented logs provide useful information for reviewing operations and help the reviewer find relevant details associated with a procedure or anomaly. Initially, these logs were designed to support off-line tasks like shift hand-overs, anomaly analysis, and writing post-mission reports. As we learn more about how to support a quick understanding of events, we can better answer the challenges of real-time monitoring of large amounts of data and management by exception.

Miller's 7±2 is an oft-cited but misleading heuristic in user interface design. Miller extracted this rule of thumb by examining data on memory span, among other things. However, memory span procedures measure short-term memory at its upper limits and thereby greatly overestimate humans' ability to easily hold in mind unrelated, linguistic material. Justifications for using a maximum of 3 items as a design heuristic are presented.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Billings

C.E.

(1996). Aviation automation: the search for a human-centered approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Brann

D.M.

Thurman;

D.A.

Mitchell

C.M.

(1996, August). Human Interaction with Lights-out Automation: A Field Study. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Symposium on Human Interaction with Complex Systems. Dayton, OH, 276–283.

Ephrath

A.R.

Young

L.R.

(1981). Monitoring vs. man-in-the-loop detection of aircraft control failures. In Rasmussen

Rouse

W. B.

(Eds.), Human Detection and Diagnosis of System Failures. New York, NY: Plenum Press, pp.143–154.

Karat

(1997). User-centered software evaluation methodologies. In Helander

Landauer

T. K.

Prabhu

(Eds.), Handbook of human-computer interaction (pp. 689–704). New York, NY: Elsevier.

Malin

J.T.

Thronesbery

C.G.

Schreckenghost

D. L.

(1996). Progress in Human-Centered Automation: Communicating Situation Information. In Life Sciences and Space Medicine Conference: A Book of Abstracts. AIAA, Houston, TX: 88–89.

Parasuraman

Mouloua

(Eds.) (1996). Automation and human performance. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Patterson

E.S.

(1999). A simulation study of computer-supported inferential analysis under data overload. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 43rd annual meeting.

Schreckenghost

Thronesbery

(1998). Integrated Display for Supervisory Control of Space Operations. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 42nd Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. October 1998.

Sheridan

T. B.

Johannsen

(Eds.) (1976). Monitoring behavior and supervisory control. New York, NY: Plenum Press.

10.

Thronesbery

C.G.

Malin

(1998, July). Field Guide for Designing Interaction with Intelligent Systems. NASA Technical Memorandum, NASA TM-1998-208470.

11.

Thronesbery

C.G.

Schreckenghost

D.L.

(1998). Human Interaction Challenges for Intelligent Environmental Control Software. Proceedings of the 28^th International Conference on Environmental Systems. Danvers, MA.

12.

Wickens

C.D.

Kessel

(1981). Failure detection in dynamic systems. In Rasmussen

Rouse

W. B.

(Eds.), Human Detection and Diagnosis of System Failures. New York, NY: Plenum Press, pp.155–169.

13.

Woods

D.D.

Patterson

E.S.

Corban

Watts

J.C.

(1996). Bridging the Gap Between User-Centered Intentions and Actual Design Practice. In Proceedings of the 40^th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

14.

Woods

D.D.

Patterson

E.S.

Roth

E.M.

Christoffersen

(1999). Can we ever escape from data overload? A cognitive systems diagnosis. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 43rd annual meeting.