Development of a User Interface and Automation Analysis Tool

We have developed a computer-based tool to help analysts who are not human factors experts identify potential human factors problems with new equipment designs. The analyst can upload a picture of the proposed or real user interface into the tool to serve as a guide for designating the locations, physical appearances, and functionality of displays and controls. Based on these attributes, the tool can suggest potential design problems to the analyst, such as controls whose motions violate cultural conventions or are inconsistent with other controls in the same interface, inconsistent assignment of functions to soft function keys, inappropriate use of color, unprotected controls with critical functions, and adjacent controls with mutually conflicting functions. The analyst can also define automation functions, allowing the tool to suggest cases where particular combinations of automated control may lead to operator loss of situation awareness. Finally, the tool allows the analyst to enter information for tw...