Future flight decks: impact of +Gz on touchscreen usability

Avsar, Huseyin; Fischer, Joel E.; Rodden, Tom

Abstract

Future flight deck designs from various avionics manufacturer incorporate touchscreen technology. There is little published research investigating the impact of inflight vibrations and increased G-Force (+Gz) on touchscreen usability. A Fitts’ law experiment was conducted to understand the effect of +Gz on touchscreen usability. 2-Gz and 3-Gz conditions were simulated with a weight-adjustable wristband. Empirical results and subjective ratings showed a large impact of +Gz on performance and fatigue indices. While the simulated +Gz increased linearly, throughput decreased exponentially, and movement time increased exponentially. This was also reflected by subjective ratings across all conditions. Findings suggest to transfer the experimental setting into a more realistic environment (human centrifuge) where ecological validity can be achieved.

Citation

Avsar, H., Fischer, J. E., & Rodden, T. (2016). Future flight decks: impact of +Gz on touchscreen usability. In HCI-Aero '16 Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aerospace. https://doi.org/10.1145/2950112.2964592

• Conference Name: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aerospace (HCI-Aero '16)
• Conference Location: Paris, France
• Start Date: Sep 14, 2016
• End Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 14, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 7, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: HCI-Aero '16 Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Aerospace
• ISBN: 9781450344067
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2950112.2964592
• Keywords: Touch Screen, Usability, Fitts’ Law Experiment, Target Acquisition, Flight Deck Design, Increased G-Force (+Gz)
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/802642
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2964592
• Related Public URLs: http://dl.acm.org/proceedings.cfm; http://research.fit.edu/hci-aero/HCI-Aero2016/Home.html