Building Task-Product-Focused User Interfaces Using Information Sets and Design Patterns

Abstract

Design patterns have been increasing in popularity as a method supporting human-computer interface (HCI) development. Patterns represent various levels of design abstraction and can describe the design rationale in a constent manner. They can enable design communication among distributed designers working on large scale command and control (C2) systems. The design goal for a complex C2 system is a concise set of patterns that supports a large variety of mission domains. A set of design patterns has been developed for a future Naval C2 system. The HCI task domains encompass a variety of mission and shipboard task processes. A small set of design patterns have been created to represent a set of HCI navigation tasks which serve a variety of mission types. Task navigation HCI methods guide the user to computer generated products which service mission goals in a “mission-centered” design context. Task product patterns are described by a taxonomy of task product characteristics. Further testing of the proposed navigation & product patterns is in progress and usability tests indicate that patterns tested thus far show promising performance and training gains.