THE RAPID EMERGENCE OF NEW PILOT FUNCTIONS AND NEW COCKPIT DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY HAS CREATED A BURDEN FOR DISPLAY DESIGNERS.

THE RAPID EMERGENCE OF NEW PILOT FUNCTIONS AND NEW COCKPIT DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY HAS CREATED A BURDEN FOR DISPLAY DESIGNERS. PREVIOUSLY, ADVANCES WERE SLOW AND EVOLUTIONARY, AND THERE WAS TIME TO DEVELOP AND EVALUATE NEW DISPLAY FORMATS. NOW, PROGRESS IS FASTER AND REVOLUTIONARY, SO THERE IS LESS GUIDANCE FOR COCKPIT DISPLAY FORMATS EVEN WHILE COSTS ARE GREATER AND DECISIONS MORE CRITICAL. THERE IS A NEED TO DEVELOP GUIDELINES FOR DISPLAY DECISIONS. THIS PROPOSED RESEARCH EFFORT FOCUSES ON THE PRINCIPLE THAT DISPLAYS ARE METAPHORS. DISPLAYS REPRESENT AND STRUCTURE CERTAIN TYPES OF INFORMATION THROUGH THE USE OF METAPHORIC SYMBOLS AND RELATIONSHIPS. THEREFORE, BY STUDING THE ROOT METAPHORS UNDERLYING EXISTING DISPLAY FORMATS, AND MATCHING THESE WITH THE METAPHORIC CHARACTERISTICS OF TASK FUNCTIONS, WE WILL BE ABLE TO GENERATE A SET OF METAPHOR-BASED DISPLAY DESIGN GUIDELINES. THE RESEARCH WILL EMPLOY CRITICAL DECISION METHODS FOR STUDYING DISPLAY DESIGNS, AND WILL ANALYZE THE BASIC METAPHORS INHERENT IN DISPLAY FORMATS THAT ARE JUDGED EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE. THESE ANALYSES WILL BE USED TO GENERATE A SET OF DESIGN GUIDELINES. THESE GUIDELINES WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN A TRIAL APPLICATION, AND EVALUATE FOR POTENTIAL VALUE IN THE DESIGN PROCESS.