The Effect of Overview Displays on Situation Assessment
Abstract
The impact of overview displays when operating in a simulated environment (SimCity 2000) was assessed. Subjects in one condition had access to a fixed overview display on a separate CRT (an additional display that was absent in the no overview display condition). The experimenter operated the simulation based on the verbal instructions of the subjects. More trends were detected, and more verbalizations, in the overview display condition. There was also more discussion of the simulation state and more transitions from commenting about states to preparing actions, with the overview display. It is argued that the methodology used in this study, and the results obtained, demonstrate that measures such as situation assessment may be easier to interpret than performance measures, and less variable, because they are less likely to be influenced by extraneous factors. Thus they may be more sensitive indicators of the effect of changes in display design.
Authors: Diego Y. Rivera, Mark Chignell, Eric Davey
Published in: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (1998)