Leveraging a visual language for the awareness-based design of interaction requirements in digital twins

Abstract

User interfaces for digital twins (DTs) should provide information that allows the user to be aware of the state of the physical entity that is virtualised. Typically, this real entity is a shared space in which various human and artificial agents interact (for instance, in smart cities, various citizens and vehicles interact; in manufacturing, operators and machinery cooperate in the production, etc.) and the user interface must provide information about its state. This work presents ADD (Awareness Description Diagrams) as a technique for modelling requirements of Human–DT interaction. A study was conducted in order to virtualise a natural space where groups of hikers carry out their activities. This study assesses the learning curve of ADD, its feasibility to model Human–DT requirements, and its utility to design user interfaces. The results of the study provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the ADD technique.