Once again, we hope that you will find this newsletter to be a helpful resource, and we will be happy to answer any questions that you may have about the articles - just email us at beville@beville.com. Also, please feel free to forward this article to anyone who may be interested.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

What’s your story? (An approach to display design)

Consider if you were asked to write your life story, of which we will consider you an expert. Hopefully the first thing you would not do is just to start writing, which only super-human skill or luck would result in a good, readable story.

Instead you would organize your thoughts, determine which events were important and need emphasis, what sequence to present the events, and what to exclude. You might even create an outline before actually writing (the equivalent of laying out graphics). The pieces you would use to convey this information are the vocabulary and grammar rules of your native language.

Grammar and vocabulary is analogous to the pictures of pumps and vessels in display design. Good grammar and an extensive vocabulary do not make for an interesting story. In fact, sometimes I can have a good story even if grammar rules are violated or simple language is used. Likewise, while pumps and vessels are important to provide context in graphics, real-life detailed pictures don’t necessarily improve the display.

Finally, even though you are the expert on your life, it doesn’t mean you are the only one who can write the story. If this were true, no biographies would exist, only auto-biographies. Often having a professional writer tell your story is far more effective than if you tell it yourself.

Likewise, a company with a strong background in display system design, like Beville, can create an efficient and effective display system. Beville has conducted over 40 graphics and standards development projects.

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If I can’t trust you with the easy ....

Recent research into the issue of trust (Madhavan, P., Wiegman, D. & Lacson, F. “Automation Failures on Tasks Easily Performed by Operators Undermine Trust in Automated Aids”, Human Factors, Vol 48, No. 2, 2006, 241-256) was conducted with not so surprising results.

Easy errors (whether the error was a false alarm or a miss) not only resulted in reduced reliance on the aid, far more so than if the aid failed a difficult task, but also resulted in a heightened sense of self-competence, leading to over-confidence of the participants.

In one case, easy misses by the decision aid resulted in it being followed only 50% of the time during difficult tasks, despite the aid being correct 100% during the difficult task. The performance of this group was virtually equivalent to the group without any aid at all.

The authors recommend that human operators be provided clear and specific information regarding the functional limitations of automation to increase their trust.

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What is Crew Resource Management?

One of the leaders in the field recently laid out some of the key skills and program development requirements (Salas, E., Wilson, K. Burke, C., Wightman, D., & Howse, W., “A Checklist for Crew Resource Management”, Ergonomics in Design, Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, Santa Monica, CA, Vol 14, No 2, 2006, p8.) The key skills include:

• Communication: Send/Receive information between two team members
• Planning: Organize resources and tasks to ensure integration and timely completion
• Backup: Ability to anticipate actions and needs of other team members and assist where needed
• Team Awareness: Assess overall team functioning and provide feedback/ adjustments as needed
• Leadership: Assignment, coordination, assessment, and encouragement of tasks to be performed
• Decision Making: Determine problem and appropriate solutions
• Assertiveness: Ideas, opinions, observations are willingly put forward in timely and constructive manner
• Adaptability: Ability to adjust course and strategies based upon new information
• Shared Situational Awareness: Common understanding of tasks and script

Despite the intuitive appeal for training on these skills, a review of results by the same authors (“Does Crew Resource Management Training Work? An Update, and Extension, and Some Critical Needs” Human Factors, Vol 48, No. 2, 2006, 392-412) shows mixed results.

While positive reactions from participants have been the case in nearly all 28 studies evaluated, the impact on the learning and behavioral changes have met with mixed results. While the potential still seems to be there, additional work is needed to ensure maximum benefit.

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