User Centered Design For the Expeditionary Warfare Decision Support System (EDSS) UCD Workshop David Jones APL-University of Washington July 30, 2002

UCD ideas from IBM Do they apply to Navy problems?

What is UCD? "An approach to designing ease of use into the total user experience with products and systems. It involves two fundamental elements - multidisciplinary teamwork and a set of specialized methods of acquiring user input and converting it into design." Vredenburg, K., Isensee, S., and Righi, C. (2001). User-Centered Design: An Integrated Approach (Software quality institute series). Prentice Hall

Transformation

Ease of Use

Total User Experience

UCD Principles

UCD Process

What UCD Is

UCD for DOD? Do military users expect ease of use? Is user acceptance important? Do DoD developers get user input prior to the design? Should developers/sponsors be concerned about competitiveness?

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives of EDSS? Who are the real users & what do they need to do? Can we define the total experience for EDSS? How can the EDSS design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives of EDSS? Who are the real users & what do the need to do? Can we define the total experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

Expeditionary Warfare Planning Process (Joint Pub 3) Mission Analysis Course of Action Development Course of Action Wargame Course of Action Comparison and Decision ORDERS and OPGEN Development Transition Planning

What is the most important aspect of mission planning EDSS wants to address? Increase Mission Planning productivity Animate Mission Plans Export Mission Plans Provide for Distributed Planning Create Post Planning Products EDSS Goals

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives? Who are the real users & what do they need to do? Can we define the total experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

Three main user groups Decision makers >> O5 to Flag Planners >> Typically officers O2-O4 Supporters >> Typically enlisted E5-E6 Need to know Education level Tactical experience Computer knowledge System requirements EDSS Users

Task Analysis The Analysis of User Tasks should drive the design and evaluation of the HCI Requirements and User Performance Specifications Functional Description Task Description Teaming Environment Decision Making & Cognitive Task Analysis Information Requirements Analysis

Task Description Major Goal: Landing Control Plan Sub Goal: Regulate ship movement Sub Goal: Regulate assault craft Sub Goal: Establish areas for supporting forces Sub-element: Create 4W Grid

Detailed Task Description Task: Building 4W Grid GoalProduce a 4W grid for STOM Plan Product4W Grid with Ships Assigned Performance requirement Produce grid in XX minutes Grid meets Operational requirements (e.g., Commanders intentions, schedule, etc) Information Requirements Ship information: Names, Types, Current disposition, Loadout Area information: Environmental (tides, winds) Landing priority table Assault Schedule: wave numbers, timing, beaches, units, serials Gunfire support schedule ATO

cont.. ActionsReview OPORD, Landing Plan, Other Messages Review Commander’s Intentions Layout map to be used to make grid Understand map scale Choose grid type Name grid Layout grid Produce detailed grid data (position, axis, segment size) Add labels at desired positions Add graphical information (e.g., color) Calculate corner points Assign ships to grid segments DecisionsGrid location Grid size Grid geometry Axis disposition Number of segments Segment size Labeling Ship assignment and reassignment

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives? Who are the real users & what do they need to do? Can we define the total EDSS experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

The Total User Experience User Experience includes: How software loads & updates The interface visuals The ease of use The training & user instruction The help function The products it can produce

EDSS User Experience EXPEDITIONARY WARFARE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (EDSS) USER’S GUIDE

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives? Who are the real users & what do they need to do? Can we define the total experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

Design Evaluation Ideas for Fleet Evaluation Build an evaluation team Developers Users Others Low Tech/High Tech Evaluation Do Function Evaluation 4W Grid Boat Lanes Do Scenario Evaluation From OPORD to Plan

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives? Who are the real users? Can we define the total experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

Interface Competition Most users have high expectations from digital technology Today’s users are MS Windows and MS Office savvy Increasing expectation of browser-like operations Function Competition Are there other programs out there that can do nearly the same job but are easier to use ? What Competes w/ EDSS ?

The Six UCD Principles applied to EDSS What are the main objectives? Who are the real users & what do they need to do?? Can we define the total experience? How can the design be evaluated? What will compete with EDSS? How can feedback be gathered from fleet users? UCD for EDSS

User Feedback The Key to Usability Pre-testing Fleet training Surveys On-line trouble reports Customer prioritization of feature additions

The End Questions ?