Designing and developing effective information visualizations requires a systematic approach. This Practitioner Paper identifies how innovative information visualizations can be integrated into standard systems development processes.While information visualizations already exist for the design of user interfaces, new methods frequently offer further improvement in information displays. Designers should consider incorporating these advancements wherever possible.The Systems Development Process provides the structure necessary to integrate new information visualizations throughout the design process. This paper describes specific examples whereby innovative information visualization methods were integrated into a USAF R&D design effort during several phases of its development.Information visualization methods include use of micro/macro salience displays, visual language, and axiomatic designs. This approach not only improved the quality of the user displays through advancing information visualization techniques, it also minimized design modifications through use of the system development processes.

This study investigates the effects of ocular dominance when maintenance procedures are presented on a monocular, occluding head-mounted display (HMD). While previous research has not revealed significant effects associated with ocular dominance and the use of a monocular, occluding HMD, most of this research has occurred in the cockpit environment. By nature, this setting involves continually changing (or dynamic) environmental information, such as target location or altitude. By contrast, the aircraft maintenance environment is static; the technician is not required to process dynamic environmental information. As the Air Force studies the feasibility of presenting maintenance procedures on HMDs, research efforts must thoroughly address questions pertaining to the use of these devices, such as potential effects of ocular dominance. The current study addresses the effect of ocular dominance on performance times, subjective workload ratings, self reports, and preference rankings. Consistent with previous research, ocular dominance did not have a significant effect on any of the dependent measures. However, order of presentation (dominant eye before non-dominant eye vs. dominant eye after non-dominant eye) did provide some differences in performance times and workload scores. Explanations for these differences are discussed.

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Relative to bar displays, object displays have repeatedly elicited superior performance for tasks involving information integration. This has been attributed to the emergent feature that is present in such displays; however, the attentional strategy used by the subjects may also playa role. Most previous research has had subjects perform the information integration task much more frequently than the separable tasks. Therefore, subjects may have learned to attend to the information integration task more, and thus they performed it better than they did the separable tasks. The present experiment manipulates the probability of the occurrence of the information integration and separable tasks. As the probability of the integral task increased, absolute error increased for the separable task but remained constant for the integral task. Also, reaction time dropped sharply for the integral task as the probability of the integral task increased, but it rose slowly for the separable task. Before using object displays, designers of visual displays should consider the attentional strategy of the operator.

With the advancement oftechnology and the information explosion, integration of the two into performance aiding systems can have a significant impact on operational and maintenance environments. The Department of Defense and commercial industry have made great strides in digitizing and automating technical manuals and data to be presented on performance aiding systems. These performance aides are computerized interactive systems that provide procedures on how to operate and maintain fielded systems. The idea is to provide the end-user a system which is compatible with their work environment.The purpose of this paper is to show, historically, the progression of wearable computer aiding systems for maintenance environments, and then highlight the work accomplished in the design and development of glasses-mounted displays (GMD). The paper reviews work performed over the last seven years, then highlights, through review of a usability study, the advances made with GMDs. The use of portable computing systems, such as laptop and notebook computers, does not necessarily increase the accessibility ofthe displayed information while accomplishing a given task in a hands-busy, mobile work environment. The use of a GMD increases accessibility of the information by placing it in eye sight ofthe user without obstructing the surrounding environment. Although the potential utility for this type of display is great, hardware and human integration must be refined. Results from the Usability study show the usefulness and usability ofthe GMD in a mobile, hands-free environment.