A Framework for Developing Evaluation Metrics of Information Complexity in Automation Displays

Abstract

This report addresses whether information displayed by an automation tool facilitates task performance. While the tools are intended to provide decision support and offload tasks from controllers, they also create new tasks associated with entering, retrieving and processing information. Dissonances between multiple tools further increase the system complexity. The question is how to evaluate the information complexity of an automation tool. Using the air traffic control system as a model of dynamic human-automation interaction, we proposed a framework for developing objective evaluation metrics of information complexity in automated display systems. The framework postulated that the information complexity should be evaluated at three levels of constraint: physical constraint, human constraint, and system constraint. Each constraint can have multiple factors that contribute to information complexity. The framework incorporated many human factors studies on interface evaluation. We expect this framework to serve as a guideline for future research in designing and evaluating the information display of automation tools.