A Case for User-Centered Design in Satellite Command and Control

Abstract

The prevalence of unique, disparate satellite command and control (SATC2) systems in current satellite operations is problematic. As such, the United States Air Force aims to consolidate SATC2 systems into an enterprise solution that utilizes a common Human–Machine Interface (HMI). We employed a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach including a variety of methods from design thinking and human factors engineering to develop a solution that is effective, efficient, and meets operator needs. During a summative test event, we found that users had significantly higher situation awareness, lower workload, and higher subjective usability while using the HMI developed via UCD over the existing, or legacy, HMI. This case study serves as evidence to support the assertion that involving users early and often has positive and tangible effects on the development of aerospace systems.

RAD-XP: Tabletop Exercises for Eliciting Resilience Requirements for Sociotechnical Systems

“…The first two meetings (Sensemaking 1 & 2) focus on eliciting knowledge from the development team to enable design of the TTX. While RAD-XP is focused on requirements to support the resilience of the larger sociotechnical system (not to support the individual user), the sensemaking phase closely resembles activities common in UX and other user-centered design practices [51,52]. Only the Project Lead(s) and Technical Lead(s) of the development team are involved in this phase, although more are welcome, so long as those involved can answer specific sensemaking questions: The TTX is designed based on the responses to these sensemaking questions.…”