Task Assistance by Reusable Guidance and Embedded Tutoring (TARGET)

Army doctrine calls for pushing decision-making to lower echelons where possible. Improving technology will allow small combat units to access and exploit battlefield systems. Yet at company and below, units lack staff that can master such systems and maintain expertise through full-time use. Thus future systems must be designed to support occasional users: systems must become easier to use and easier to learn. New technology is needed to ease integration of key capabilities into all Army systems: (1) tracking user context and activity; (2) identifying recurring usage patterns and user difficulties; (3) embedding automated guidance for common tasks; and (4) embedding adaptive training addressing common user misunderstandings and failures. We propose to develop technology for Task Assistance by Reusable Guidance and Embedded Tutoring (TARGET). During Phase I we will identify use cases and requirements; use those to drive refinement of proposed approaches to user experience capture, wizard development, training embedding, and system architecture; and design and prototype subsets of the overall vision to demonstrate feasibility. We expect to focus our analysis on use at company and below of a system such as DCGS-A. Finally, we will develop a Phase II plan to follow through on design, development, and transition.