Overview + Detail in a Tomahawk Mission-to-Platform Assignment Tool: Applying Information Visualization in Support of an Asset Allocation Planning Task

Information visualization techniques such as overview + detail displays have traditionally been applied and studied in domains with static data sets supporting information retrieval tasks. This study examines how these techniques can be extended to the design of interfaces for decision support systems (DSSs). Specifically, we developed a computerized decision support tool to assist Naval Tomahawk Strike Coordinators in the complex process of assigning a set of planned missions to a set of available launch platforms based on a number of different constraints and objectives, and compared user performance on two realistic scenarios (a within-subjects factor) across two versions of this tool (a between-subjects factor). The first version of the Mission-to-Platform Assignment Tool provided users with only a set of detail displays when assigning missions, whereas the second version had an additional, abstracted ‘overview’ display that allowed users to see the effect of early decisions on later decisions. The results showed that subjects performing this planning task with the overview + details display version completed scenarios, on average, 21% faster, with 22% fewer errors and with 74% fewer required workspace navigation activities than a comparable group using just the detail displays version. Subjects in the former group also rated their situational awareness 14% higher than those subjects without the overview display.