Testing the Impact of Instrumentation Location and Reliability on Ecological Interface Design: Fault Diagnosis Performance

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (22) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dal Vernon C. Reising ◽  
Penelope M. Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
Interface Design ◽  
Diagnostic Performance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Minimal Set ◽  
Ecological Interface Design ◽  
Operator Problem ◽  
Ecological Interface ◽  
The Impact

Ecological Interface Design (EID) is a recent philosophy for designing the visual displays of human-machine interfaces. An EID interface displays the higher-order relations and properties of a work domain so that adaptive operator problem solving is better supported for both normal and abnormal system conditions. Previous empirical studies of EID have assumed that the raw data required to derive and communicate the higher-order information would be available and reliable. The present research empirically evaluates the impact of having incomplete data on the effectiveness of an EID interface, compared to a more traditional piping and instrumentation interface. The research also addresses recent criticism directed at previous empirical studies of EID is also addressed. Results suggest that diagnostic performance using an ecological interface is compromised only when the interface is supported by a minimal set of instrumentation. However, an ecological interface supported by maximal instrumentation, on average, leads to the best diagnostic performance.

Mental Models and Ecological Interface Design: An Experimental Investigation

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier St-Cyr ◽  
Catherine M. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Behavior Prediction ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
System Behavior ◽  
Ecological Interface Design ◽  
Network Building ◽  
Limited Experience ◽  
Ecological Interface ◽  
The Impact

We studied the impact of Ecological Interface Design (EID) displays on mental models using the DURESS II simulator. To assess mental models we used a card sorting exercise, a network building exercise based on the Abstraction Hierarchy, and a system behavior prediction exercise. Participants in the EID condition performed significantly better on the card sorting and network building exercises, but poorer on the prediction exercise. Our results are mixed, suggesting that EID may improve the understanding of means- end links and yet, not improve the ability to predict system behavior. The relatively limited experience of participants with the interface as well as our selection of knowledge elicitation techniques may have influenced these results. More research is needed to fully evaluate the impact of EID on mental models.

Sensor Noise and Ecological Interface Design: Effects of Increasing Noise Magnitude on Operators' Performance

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier St-Cyr ◽  
Kim J. Vicente
Keyword(s):  
Process Simulation ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Sensor Noise ◽  
Ecological Interface Design ◽  
Design Effects ◽  
Emergent Features ◽  
Ecological Interface ◽  
Hydraulic Process ◽  
The Impact

We studied the impact of sensor noise on operators' performance using a display based on the Ecological Interface Design (EID) framework with a representative thermal-hydraulic process simulation. A previous study conducted by St-Cyr and Vicente (2004) showed no difference between EID and non-EID interfaces when the magnitude of sensor noise was randomly increased. In this paper, we describe a study that was designed to investigate the impact of gradually increasing the magnitude of sensor noise on EID versus non-EID interfaces. We hypothesized that as the magnitude of sensor noise increase, performance would worsen for both EID and non-EID participants. Our results suggest that increasing the magnitude of sensor noise does compromise both EID and non-EID interfaces. However, the EID group experienced a significantly larger decrease in performance. This may be explained by the fact that participants in the EID group had to deal with distorted emergent features.

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