Raptor: An Empirical Evaluation of an Ecological Interface Designed to Increase Warfighter Cognitive Performance

A prototype interface was developed to support military practitioners with enhanced levels of situation awareness and better decision making as they conduct command and control activities during tactical operations. A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the capability of this interfaces cognitive systems engineering and ecological interface design principles to support critical activities i.e., assess anticipated enemy actions on friendly force operations. Qualitative tactical simulations and an alternative interface an experimental version of an existing U.S. Army interface were developed. Participants were blocked against one interface and provided estimates of perceived cognitive workload while collecting, integrating, and reporting various forms of friendly and enemy force information during two realistic tactical scenarios. The results suggested that the prototype interface produced significantly better performance in six out of seven statistical comparisons examined. The cognitive systems engineering and ecological interface design strategy was very effective in this experimental context. The potential for this design to be useful for other complex work domains is explored. Actual or potential applications of this study include both specific interface design strategies for military command and control and general interface design principles for civil transportation domains.