AAWSAP DIRD, Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, November 2010

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effort on the part of the operator and are more prone to mode errors and keyhole
effects, particularly during high-stress situations. It was also found that automatically
changing display formats added anxiety and mistrust of the system, because the user
was now burdened with the additional task of determining why the display just
changed. A survey of Boeing 757 and 767 pilots in 1989 revealed that over half felt
their workload had actually increased by the high levels of automation introduced into
these cockpits. In practice, users forced adaptive displays into fixed displays to improve
their utility. 35
The ultimate lesson is that the most critical displays should be fixed to take advantage
of the naturally efficient search method where humans use mental models that are
analogous to physical objects. For other functions that are less time-critical and where
further details are required (e.g., entering destinations and way points into a flight
plan), adaptive displays are more advantageous because they require less console
space. Other lessons include the following: 36
•
Following the same recommendations for the individual elements of adaptive
displays that are given for graphical and alphanumeric display components.
•
Matching the performance characteristics of the displays to the operator's own
internal model of the system, and they should be structured to accommodate a
user's knowledge.
•
Packaging information into appropriate, meaningful clusters.
•
Representing logical and causal relationships should be implemented.
•
Using "fewer displayed variables with many states" is recommended over the display
of "many variables with few states." This necessitates arranging variables in a
hierarchy where the lower-level variables are combined into higher-level variables.
•
Using color to improve the speed of human comprehension.
•
Accessing back-up information should be easy (familiar procedure), and it should be
easy to browse through the system without disturbing its operation.
Virtual Displays and Augmented Reality
An extension of the adaptive screen is a virtual display where the information is
projected into a field of view without the need for a physical display screen. These can
function as adaptive displays or be used with gesture-based input systems.
Although far-future cockpit technology is still being researched, this study assumes it to
be fully matured, such that any information can be displayed clearly in the pilot's full
field of view.
That being said, the other recommendations about accommodating
human norms and the lessons of adaptive displays should be heeded.
By that, it is
meant that the critical information should remain consistent, and the functions that can
tolerate slower user actions can be accommodated with pop-up screens. Also, rather
than relying solely on a virtual display, the critical displays should still have a physical,
redundant set of displays.
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