Lecture 6 Displays

+
Cognitive Ergonomics
Lecture 7
Display (Part 1)
Displays
Displays
a human-made artifact
support the perception of relevant system variables

facilitate the further processing of that information.
A speedometer in a car.
A warning tone in an aircraft.
A message on the phone-based menu system.
An instruction panel on an automatic teller.
A steam gauge in an industrial plant.
What else???
Examples of displays in various

modalities, conveying various
+ forms of information used in
various tasks.
Display Design
Message on the phone menu
Display Design
Car Speedometer
Display Design
Gauge
Displays
The concept of the display is closely linked with that of the

graphical user interfaces (GUI) that includes the controls and
responses used to manipulate the display.
a medium between
some aspects of the actual information in a system (or action

requested of the operator)
and
the operators perception and awareness of what the system is

doing, what needs to be done and how the system functions
(mental model)
Principles
Information
Display
System
The nature of displays
Senses
Perception
Situation Awareness
Understanding
(Mental Model)
Classifying Displays
1.
Their physical properties
2.
The task they are designed to support
3.
The properties of the human user that dictate the best

mapping between display and task
Ways of Classifying Displays
Their physical properties.
Physical implementation
Physical tools that the designer has to work with in creating a

display.
Color or monochrome
Visual or auditory modality
Use stereo for 3D display
The relative location of display elements
The tasks they are designed to support.
Ascertain the nature of the task the display is intended to support.
Navigating, controlling, decision making, learning?
Different display tools optimally suited for different tasks.
The properties of the user that dictate the best mapping

between display and task.
Characteristics of the user who must perform those tasks.
No single display tool is best suited for all tasks
Key mediating factor that determines the best mapping between

the physical form of the display and the task requirements
a series of principles of human perception and information

processing.
Grounded in the strengths of human perception, cognition, and

performance
+
Information Displays
Function
To give accurate and unambiguous information to the operator

about the functional condition of the system.
Any display must give the operator information about the

functional status of technology and/or processes.
Basic Functional Requirements
3 classes of information (Speed, Accuracy, Sensitivity):
Need to know information
Nice to know information
advisory (e.g. fuel indicator gas gauge in car)
Historical information
warning
e.g. odometer in car
Anticipatory display
look forward in time and makes a prediction (e.g. cars that will
anticipate when a collision will occur; lunar Rover for the moon;
collision avoidance for air traffic control)
Basic Functional Requirements
Speed
how quickly does the display respond?
how quickly does the user respond?
Accuracy - avoid errors and ambiguity
Sensitivity - ability to detect changes in the variable being

displayed at a relevant magnitude
Human Functional Requirements
Detection
User must be able to detect either the presence of the display or a

change in the display (e.g. excellent signage graphics that are
poorly visible but the lighting is so bad)
Recognition
User has to be able to extract information from the display. Often

an issue of:
figure/ground contrast (e.g. printing a brochure in red on a

gray background make it very difficult for older people to read
it).
display design details
ambient setting (kind of illumination)
Human Functional Requirements
Understanding
Words
target appropriate language/languages; don't create ambiguity
Symbols
unambiguous, detectable, and recognizable
Basic Types
Static display
display content remains unchanged with time (label, traffic sign,

graph, symbol).
Basic Types
Dynamic display
display content changes with time (speedometer, fuel gauge,

radar, watch)
Basic Types
Quantitative display
displays the quantity of some variable (time, speed, temperature)
Basic Types
Qualitative display
displays qualitative information (brake light, battery gauge)
Types of Information
Status
system conditions (on/off).
Identification
Warnings
unsafe conditions (brake

light).
Representations
pictures, maps, graphs
Symbolic
traffic lanes, color-coded

wires.
alphanumeric, music, math
Time-phased
signal duration/interval
(flashers, heart beat monitor,
sonar).
status
representation
identification
symbolic
break
13 Principles of Display
Design
Thirteen Principles of Display

Design
Perceptual Principles (LATORD)
Mental Model Principles(PM)
Principles Based on Attention(MPM)
Memory Principles(RPC)
Displays Design
Perceptual Principles (LATORD)
Make Displays Legible
Avoid Absolute Judgment Limits
Top- Down Processing
Redundancy Gain
Discriminability- Similarity Causes confusion
Mental Model Principles (PM)
Principle of Pictorial Realisim
Principle of the Moving Part
Displays Design
Principles Based on Attention (MPM)
Minimizing Information Access Cost
Proximity Compatibility Principle
Principle of Multiple Resources
Memory Principles (RPC)
Replace Memory with Visual Information: Knowledge in the World
Principle of Predictive aiding
Principle of Consistency
13 Principles of Display Design

Perceptual
Make displays legible (or audible)
Critical to the design of good displays.
Necessary for creating usable displays.
Once displays are legible, additional perceptual principles

should be applied.
Relating to issues such as:
Contrast, Visual angle, Illumination, Noise, Masking

Perceptual
Avoid absolute judgment limits
Do not require the user to judge the level or a represented

variable on the basis of a single sensory variable, like color, size
or loudness which contains more than five to seven possible
levels.
Example : If the light is amber, proceed with caution.

Perceptual
Top-down processing
People perceive and interpret signals in accordance with what

they expect to perceive on the basis of their past experience.
If a signal is presented is contrary to expectations (warning/alarm

signal), then more physical evidence of that signal must be
presented to guarantee that it is interpreted correctly.
Sometimes expectancies based on long term memory.
A checklist
A should be on
B should be on
C should be on
D should be off

Perceptual
Redundancy gain
When the viewing/listening conditions are degraded, a message

is more likely to be interpreted correctly when the same message
is expressed more than once.
Same message is presented in alternative physical forms.
Example : voice + print, color + shape
Eg: LED + Warning tone
Alarm Rcvd
OK
menu
back

Perceptual
Discriminability. Similarity causes confusion : use

discriminable elements
Similar signals are likely to be confused either at the time they are
perceived or after some delay if the signals must be retained in
STM before action is taken.
What causes two signals to be similar is the ratio of similar

features to different features (Tversky, 1977)
When confusion could be serious,
delete unnecessary similar features
highlight dissimilar (different) ones in order to create

distinctiveness.
AJB648
48
AJB658
58
Figure X ..
.
.
Altitude
.
Figure Y ..
.
.
Attitude
.
Figure X ..
.
.
Figure Y ..
.
.
Altitude
Attitude

Mental Model
Principle of pictorial realism
A display should look like the variable that it represents.
Example : temperature.
High and low value, a thermometer should oriented vertically.

Mental Model
Principle of the moving part
The moving element(s) of any display of dynamic information

should move in
a spatial pattern
a direction that is compatible with the users mental model of
how the represented element actually moves in the physical
system.
Example : altitude display display moves upwards with

increasing altitude

Attention
Minimizing information access cost
a cost in time or effort to move selective attention from one

display location to another to access information.
Good designs
minimize the net cost
keep frequently accessed sources in a location in which the

cost of traveling between them is small.
Direct implication
keep displays small so that little scanning is required to access

all information.
employ carefully
very small size can degrade legibility

Attention
Proximity compatibility principle
Sometimes two or more sources of information are related to the

same task and must be mentally integrated to complete the task.
Example : graph line must be related to its legend, the plant

layout must be related to the warning indicator meanings.
Divided attention between the two information sources for

the one task is necessary.
Good display design
provide the two sources with close display proximity so that their
information access cost will be low.

Attention
Two principles :
If mental integration (divided attention) is required, close spatial

proximity is good.
If focused attention is required, close spatial proximity may be

harmful.
a) space
b) color/intensity
7.2
7.2
c) format
d) links
e) Object configuration

Attention
Principle of multiple resources
Sometimes processing a lot of information can be facilitated by

dividing that information across resources.
Presenting visual and auditory information concurrently rather

than presenting all information visually or auditory.
Example : queuing numbering machine (alarm + number display

+ auditory)

Memory
Replace memory with visual information : knowledge in the

world
People ought not be required to retain important information solely in

STM or retrieve it from LTM.
Example :
Phonebook, checklist, traffic sign.
Sometimes too much knowledge in the world can lead to clutter
problems and systems designed to rely on knowledge in the head are
not necessary bad.
Example :
Computer experts might like to be able to retrieve information
by direct commands (knowledge in the head) rather than
stepping through a menu (knowledge in the world)
Good design must balance this two kinds of knowledge.

Memory
Principle of predictive aiding
Humans are not very good at predicting the future.
a difficult cognitive task depending heavily on STM.
Think about current conditions, possible future conditions and

run the mental model
Prediction falls apart reactive instead of proactive
Predictive displays
LEFT TURN
1 MILE
AHEAD

Memory
Principle of consistency
Old habits die hard instinctive and automatic
unavoidable
good designs should try to accept it
design displays in a manner that is consistent with
other display that the user may be perceiving concurrently
or may have perceived in the recent past.
The old habits from those other displays will transfer positively to
support processing of the new displays.
Example : colour coding - red means the same thing at any

display designs.
Conclusion
It should be immediately apparent that principles sometimes

conflict or collide.
There is no easy solution to say what principles are more

important than others when two or more principles collide.
Clever and creative design enable certain principles to be

more effectively served without violating others.
+
Displays
Content
Alerting Displays
Labels
Monitoring
Multiple Display
Navigation Displays
Maps
Alerting Displays
Dynamic, qualitative/quantitative.
What is the best way to present warnings?
When is visual better?
When is auditory better?
Alerting Displays
If it is critical to alert the operator/user to a particular

condition, then the auditory channel is best.
Example : fire alarm
Different levels of seriousness of the condition
Not all warnings need or should be announced auditorily.
Example : car empty fuel warning
Alerting Displays
Three levels of alerts severity of consequences of failing to

heed their indication.
Warnings
Most critical category.
Should be signaled by most salient auditory alerts.
Example : fire alarm, police alarm.
Cautions
Less critical.
Signaled by softer auditory alert/less salient.
Example :water boiling using cattle.
Advisories
Need not be auditory.
Can be purely visual.
Example : Wrong password entry.
Alerting Displays
Both warnings and cautions can have redundant signals by

using both modalities.
Using flashing lights are effective because can capture

attention.
Example : police alarm
To avoid confusion of alerting severity, the aviation

community has established explicit guidelines for color
coding.
Example : red always for warning, caution is yellow or amber.

Advisory can be other color green, white.
Labels
Static, unchanging features.
Purpose
unambiguously signal the identity or function of an entity.
Eg: control, display, piece of equipment, entry on a form, other

system component).
Present knowledge in world of what something is.
Usually presented as print (words) but may take the form of

icons (pictures).
Labels
Four design criteria
Visibility/legibility
Discriminability
Meaningfulness
Location
Labels : Design Criteria
Visibility/legibility
Related to issues of contrast sensitivity.
Stroke width line.
Contrast from background.
Must be sufficient so that the shape can be discerned under the

poorest expected viewing conditions.
Discriminability
Should be different enough to not cause confusion.
People do not always remember the NOT in a Do not do

situation.
Try to word label in positive way.
Meaningfulness
Even if a word or icon is legible and not confusable, this is no

guarantee that it triggers the appropriate meaning in the mind of
the viewer when it is perceived.
Unfortunately, often icons, words that are meaningful in the mind

of the designer, BUT meaningless in the mind of the actual users.
Labels based only on icons or abbreviations should be

avoided where possible (Norman, 1981).
Icons
advantageous where the word labels may be read by those who

are not fluent in the language
under degraded viewing conditions.
The redundancy gain icons + labels
Location
Should be physically close to and unambiguously associated with

the entity that they label.
Temp
Speed
Monitoring
Support the viewing of potentially changing quantities

represented on analog or ordered value scale.
Speed, temperature, noise level.
It may need to be set.
It may need to be watched until it reaches a value at which

some discrete action is taken.
It may need to be tracked
another variable must be manipulated to follow the changing

value of the monitored variable.
Monitoring
Four important guidelines to optimize the monitoring display.
Legibility
Analog versus digital
Analog form and direction
Prediction and sluggishness
Monitoring
Legibility
Contrast sensitivity issues.
Digital monitoring displays
Analog or pointers
the issues of print and character resolution must be addressed.
the visual angle and contrast of the pointer and the legibility of
the scale against which the pointer moves become critical.
Must also be aware of the possible degraded viewing

conditions (low illumination) under which such scales may
need to be read.
Monitoring
Use appropriate mode of presentation.
Most variables to be monitored are continuously changing

quantities.
Users often form a mental model of the changing quantity.
Pictorial realism would suggest the advantage of an analog

representation of the continuously changing quantity.
Monitoring
Analog display like the moving pointer can be more easily

read at a short glance.
Can be more easily estimated when the display is changing.
More easier to estimate the rate and direction of that change.
Monitoring
Digital display is used if very precise check reading or

setting of the exact value is required.
Digital + analog (see example c )
Value changes slowly
For monitoring task only
30
a) Digital pictorial realism
15
20
10
15
c) Analog and Digital redundancy gain

principle
5
30
20
b) Analog
pictorial realism
10
15
10
20
25
d) Analog
- moving part principle
Monitoring
Analog pictorial realism principle
The orientation of the display scale should be in a form and

direction that is congruent with the operators mental model.
Up high/ increase
Rightward/clockwise increase but are less powerful

stereotypes.
Monitoring
Use linear scale
Variables do not change

rapidly.
Variables travel is small
Small range of scale values.
Use circular moving pointer
Variables change rapidly
Variables travel is large
Need wide range of scale

values.
Monitoring
Prediction and sluggishness
Humans do not do very well in prediction.
Especially under stress.
A good predictor display can aid human performance.
Do not try to predict further into the future than is reasonable

and necessary.
Multiple Display
Complex systems multiple variables = multiple displays
An important issues in multiple displays is the layout.
Define a primary visual area (PVA).
PVA the region of forward view.
For seated user the head + eyes look straight forward.
For vehicle operator the direction of view of the highway.
Multiple Display
Display Layout Guidelines
Importance/frequency of use
Display relatedness/sequence of use
Consistency
Organizational grouping
Stimulus-response compatibility
Clutter avoidance
Multiple Display
Importance/frequency of use
Display relatedness or sequence of use
Most frequently used displays should be adjacent to the PVA.

To minimize the travel time between user and the PVA.
Apply P8
Should be close together

Apply P9
Consistency
Always consistently laid out with the same item positioned in the
same spatial location
Memory and attention top down processing
Apply P8 and P13
The pink showed the T shape
Multiple Display
Organizational grouping
All displays within a group should be functionally related.
Clustered display provides an aid that can easily guide visual

attention to particular groups
as long as all displays within a group are functionally related

and identified by the user.
If not, organization of the displays may actually be

counterproductive.
Multiple Display
Stimulus-response compatibility
Displays should be close to their associated controls
Clutter avoidance
There should ideally be a minimum visual angle between all pairs

of displays.
Navigation Displays
Four fundamentally different classes of tasks:

1.
Provide guidance about how to get to a destination.
2.
Facilitate planning.
3.
Help recovery if the traveler becomes lost.
4.
Maintain situation awareness regarding the location of a broad

range of objects.
Navigation Displays
Two forms of navigation displays are paper and electronic.
Navigation may be through physical space (buildings, cities,

malls, etc.) or information space (databases, large menu
systems, etc.)
Simplest form of navigation display route lists/command

displays.
Problem when lost, it is hard to get back on track.
Solution accompanied by a map.
Maps
Maps Design Features
Legibility
Clutter and Overlay
Position Representation
Maps
Legibility
Must be legible to be useful.
For paper maps, care must be taken to provide necessary contrast

between labels and background and adequate visual angle of
text size.
For color-coded maps, low saturation coding of background areas

enables text to be more visible (Reynolds, 1994)
Colored text may also lead to poor contrast.
Attention should also be given to the conditions in which the

maps may need to be read (poor illumination).
KMK 2053 Cognitive Ergonomics
Maps
Legibility may sometimes suffer because
Of the need for detail (a lot of information)
Limited display size forces the use of a very small map.
With electronic maps, detail can be achieved by zooming the

display.
Maps
Clutter and overlay
Problems :
Can slow down the time to access information (P8)
Slows down the time to read the items. (P9)
Solutions :
Minimalist maps
Effective color coding.
Avoid a large number of colors and the requirement for

absolute judgment. (P2)
Maps
Solution
With electronic maps, able to highlight needed classes of

information, selectively leaving the others in the background.
Decluttering will allow the user to simply turn off unwanted

categories of information together.
A you are here/there indication is helpful.
You are here

You are here
Maps
Position Representation
Map Orientation
Maps should represent the environment (up, north, left or right).
Scale
Direct depiction of where they are on the map
Maps should be of appropriate scale (city map may show the

entire city with an insert for the downtown area in a smaller
scale).
A combination of 3-D and 2-D displays may be appropriate

for some tasks.
Quantitative Information Displays

Tables and Graphs
Present a range of numbers and values.
Format influences interpretability.
Decide how best to display data.
Legibility and clutter are main issues.
Proximity
The greatest amount of data that can be presented with the

smallest amount of ink.
Can generate 2D or 3D graph (better but may be worse!!!)
Name
D
R
59
94
TE
69
JA
N
AR
M
Y
IL
L
E
83
R
G
100
80
60
40
20
0
JI
M
G
E
Gred (%)
89
72
82
Conclusion
Display principles designed to facilitate the transmission of

information from the senses.
Consideration of the guidelines can help to rule out bad

displays.
Thank You

Lecture 6 Displays

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Lecture 6 Displays

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

+

support the perception of relevant system variables

A warning tone in an aircraft.

A message on the phone-based menu system.

An instruction panel on an automatic teller.

A steam gauge in an industrial plant.

Examples of displays in various

Message on the phone menu

The concept of the display is closely linked with that of the

some aspects of the actual information in a system (or action

the operators perception and awareness of what the system is

The nature of displays

Their physical properties

The task they are designed to support

The properties of the human user that dictate the best

Ways of Classifying Displays

Their physical properties.

Physical tools that the designer has to work with in creating a

Visual or auditory modality

Use stereo for 3D display

The relative location of display elements

Ways of Classifying Displays

The tasks they are designed to support.

Ascertain the nature of the task the display is intended to support.

Navigating, controlling, decision making, learning?

Different display tools optimally suited for different tasks.

Ways of Classifying Displays

The properties of the user that dictate the best mapping

Characteristics of the user who must perform those tasks.

No single display tool is best suited for all tasks

Key mediating factor that determines the best mapping between

a series of principles of human perception and information

Grounded in the strengths of human perception, cognition, and

To give accurate and unambiguous information to the operator

Any display must give the operator information about the

3 classes of information (Speed, Accuracy, Sensitivity):

Need to know information

Nice to know information

advisory (e.g. fuel indicator gas gauge in car)

e.g. odometer in car

how quickly does the display respond?

how quickly does the user respond?

Accuracy - avoid errors and ambiguity

Sensitivity - ability to detect changes in the variable being

User must be able to detect either the presence of the display or a

User has to be able to extract information from the display. Often

figure/ground contrast (e.g. printing a brochure in red on a

display design details

ambient setting (kind of illumination)

target appropriate language/languages; don't create ambiguity

unambiguous, detectable, and recognizable

display content remains unchanged with time (label, traffic sign,

display content changes with time (speedometer, fuel gauge,

displays the quantity of some variable (time, speed, temperature)

displays qualitative information (brake light, battery gauge)

system conditions (on/off).

unsafe conditions (brake

pictures, maps, graphs

traffic lanes, color-coded

alphanumeric, music, math

Thirteen Principles of Display

Perceptual Principles (LATORD)

Mental Model Principles(PM)

Principles Based on Attention(MPM)