Designing a tool to assess the usability of electronic flight bags (EFBs)

Details

• Creators:
  Chandra, Divya C ; Yeh, Michelle ; Riley, Vic
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Human factors
  • Evaluation
  • Tools
  • Flight crews Electronic flight bags
  • Usability
  • Evaluation
  • Human factors tool
  • Design
  • System design
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT-VNTSC-FAA-04-12;DOT/FAA/AR-04/38
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation Research
• Abstract:
  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), system designers, and customers all recognize that Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) are sophisticated devices whose use could affect pilot performance. As a result, human factors issues have received considerable attention from the EFB community. In addition, the FAA's Advisory Circular (AC) on EFBs (AC 120-76A) identifies a need for evaluating EFBs from a human factors perspective, and contains a list of human factors considerations for review. However, the AC does not specify how to perform EFB human factors evaluations. ; This research was directed at developing a tool that could be used by FAA Aircraft Certification Service specialists in the field to conduct structured and comprehensive, yet practical, EFB usability evaluations. Two tools were developed for initial tests, with the expectation that a single tool would eventually emerge. The tools were refined over the course of several tests with prototype commercial EFB systems. In the end, we found that both tools are valuable, but in different ways. In this report, we describe both tools, our procedures for testing the tools, and our methods of processing the resulting data into feedback for the manufacturer.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  FAE2-AB083
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9947/dot_9947_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.06 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:aea76f6a002e7dfc2cc8beded182039c298bceb44db15edb9604bc223d0ed5ab976d54121159ab94cef5c14af576cac628ba3e665f4e58a33fe05fc16a2a2686