Mixed method approach in designing flight decks with touch screens: a framework

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

Abstract

Touch screen technology’s first public appearance was in the early 2000s. Touch screens became a part of the daily life with the invention of smartphones and tablets. Now, this technology has the potential to be the next big change in flight deck design. To date, mobile devices are deployed by several air carriers to perform a host of non-safety critical pre-flight and in-flight tasks. Due to high safety requirements requested by authorities, new technologies cannot be adopted as fast as in other settings. Flight deck evolution, which is briefly presented in this paper, is reflecting this natural time delay. Avionics manufacturers are exploring and working on future concepts with touch screen displays. This paper investigates the potential benefits and challenges of touch screen technology on flight decks by means of a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods (mixed method approach). On the basis of this, a framework was constructed showing the relation between various aspects that could impact the usability of touch screens on the flight deck. This paper concludes with a preliminary questionnaire that can help avionic designers to evaluate whether a touch screen is an appropriate user interface for their system.

Citation

Avsar, H., Fischer, J. E., & Rodden, T. Mixed method approach in designing flight decks with touch screens: a framework. Presented at IEEE/AIAA 35th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)

• Conference Name: IEEE/AIAA 35th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)
• End Date: Sep 29, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Sep 20, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Dec 12, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 25, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 6, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Flight deck design, Avionics system, Mixed method, Framework, Touch screen, Usability, Evaluation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/809504
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7778066/
• Related Public URLs: http://2016.dasconline.org/
• Additional Information: © 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: Oct 6, 2016