A1

Christy Harper and Melissa Meingast
HP

Lessons Learned from Conducting Research in China-Tips for Cross Cultural Researchers

In today's global economy, researchers must develop the capability to conduct and coordinate research in diverse cultural environments. As globalization of technology expands, research in emerging markets becomes critical to success. This presentation discusses some of the practical difficulties that cross-cultural researchers experience and provides lessons
learned from multiple research activities. This paper contains lessons learned from both contextual work and remote
usability testing. We have been involved in multiple research activities in China, including ethnographic research in homes, schools and businesses and usability testing. In one effort, we examined the use of home technology and the needs of single adults, married couples and families. Additionally, we studied stores and outlets to understand the purchase process. We also visited parks, restaurants and other local venues to better understand the culture.  In another research effort, our team conducted contextual inquiries in schools with teachers, parents, students, and school administrators.  This activity was followed up with home visits of some student families and continued in other countries. Finally we discuss a research activity that was conducted remotely through desktop sharing. Through these activities and collaborating with colleagues who were conducting similar research, many lessons were learned that will make international research easier to conduct.
Although this work is based primarily on lessons learned from research in China, the tips could easily be applied to international research being conducted in other countries. Additionally we provide information from diverse research methodologies contrasting contextual research in Chinese to remote usability testing conducted in English. This presentation provides tips on every aspect of the research process from preparation including the challenges of recruiting, conducting the research with language and cultural barriers and the subtleties of analysis through translation.

A2

Aaron Bangor
AT&T Labs

Recipe for Universal Design: Key Roles of Usability and Accessibility

Human Factors seeks to make technology easier to use for people. However, what makes technology easy to use for one person may not be the same for others. This is why the human factors and usability fields are important to the design process.  But is designing for the  average  user sufficient?  In the Unites States, about 30% of households and over 54
million people have a disability.  This could be something as obvious as using a wheelchair or something hidden like dyslexia; it could be a lifelong disability such as blindness or a temporary situation like not being able to hear in a noisy environment.  Achieving a product or service design that is user-friendly to all users in various situations (especially mobile
environments) takes more than the standard usability toolkit.

The importance of this topic is growing.  Federal and state regulations have been passed to address the needs of people with disabilities, especially in the areas of information and communications technologies.  In addition, as the population ages, the capabilities and limitations of user populations are changing.

The author will discuss how skills sets from human factors, usability, and accessibility, combined with knowledge of design standards and assistive technologies, work together to help create products and services that are usable by the widest range of users possible.  This combination is important to the process known as "Universal Design."  Resources for applying Universal Design principles and real-world results of doing so will be provided.

A3

Jerry R. Goodman
NASA-JSC

Apollo Human Factors Lessons Learned and Benefits to Follow-on Programs

There were a number of human factors problems found in the Apollo Spacecraft Program. This talk deals with a number of those found only the Command Module(CM) crew compartment (CC) and the CM EVA provisions.  The Command Module was the first spacecraft that the U.S.  had, that had sufficient volume for crews to move about and perform tasks inside the CC interior. The problems found will be addressed, as well as remedial actions taken and benefits to follow-on programs. Problems found: special designed intra-vehicular tools with torque settings and mating vehicle receptacles
were being provided for valves that needed to be operated inside the CC interior; Velcro and nylon debris nets and stowage bags and other materials that were flammable in a pure oxygen environment were widely used in the cabin interior; wire cable runs that were uncovered and not protected from external damage; the cabin interior had a number of locations where equipment was exposed to potential crew contact with potential hazard to the crew and equipment; the entry/exit
hatch consisted of  a two pieces, with the inner one pressure sealing. With excessive pressure inside the CC  during Apollo 1 fire, the hatch could not be removed by the crew and the crew could not escape, and therefore perished in the fire; crew couches used were very bulky and inflexible for IVA operations; mockups were not available until major design reviews, and were behind schedule; and other safety provisions like oxygen masks and fire extinguishers were not manifested to be on-board flights. EVA provisions for contingency transfer from the Lunar Module to the Command Module were considered deficient. All of these items were modified or changed to be acceptable. As a result of the problems a number of individual subject NASA Design Standards were published for future use and program compliance. The essence of each of these Standards were, for the most part, implemented in NASA Standard 3000 and/or 3001. The lessons learned from these problems were also carried over into application in the Space Shuttle Program and later NASA Programs by the personnel who lived through these Apollo experiences, either by virtue of their work assignments or consulting during other program design efforts. In some cases, lessons learned were inserted into NASA/contractor generated design requirements during design/development phases of Space Shuttle.

A4

Barry P. Goettl
Air Force Research Lab

Lisa W. Billman
The MITRE Corporation

Human Factors of Automation in Cyberspace

Cyber attacks happen at line speeds. The simplest of human decisions requires hundreds of milliseconds. Comparisons of computer processing speed to that of human processing speed clearly indicate a serious disadvantage to the human cognitive processes. Such analyses have lead to the conclusion that the human decision maker is the weak link in cyber defense and should be replaced by automatic processing systems. While there is some validity to this analysis, system developers must be careful to avoid a one-dimensional comparison of humans and computers because it could cause them to overlook the other attributes that humans bring to the human-machine interaction. In addition, such an analysis could ignore the impact that automation has on the human operators and how that affects the overall performance of the human-machine system. The goal of this paper is to examine some of the ways that automation impacts human operators and discuss how cyber defense duties should be allocated between humans and automated systems. We will explore some of the human biases that can emerge when automation is incorporated into systems. We will also examine a recent model of complacency and bias (Parasuraman and Manzey, 2010) and discuss the predictions it makes regarding how automation
impacts human trust and situation awareness. Finally we will look at a recent mission and task analysis of the AF cyber operations center and discuss where and how automation should be used in cyber defense, and what role the human should play.

AII1

Daniel S. Glaser and David M. Lane
Rice University

Optimizing the Presentation of Visual and Auditory Information: Utilizing Echoic Memory

It has been well documented that dual-task performance is more accurate when each task is based on a different sensory modality (Navon & Gopher 1979; Wickens, 1976). Unaddressed, however, is whether differences in sensory memory (e.g. iconic vs. echoic) duration have implications for the optimal method for interweaving a visual and an auditory task. Consider a scenario where a visual and auditory sequence is presented either together or separately and each sequence is recalled in a serial fashion. Since echoic memory persists for seconds in contrast to iconic memory which persists only for milliseconds, it may be that if a person responds first to the visual information, he or she may subsequently still have access to the
auditory information in echoic memory. Accordingly, one of our hypotheses is that in a visual-auditory dual task condition, performance will be better if the visual task is completed before the auditory task than vice versa. In addition, we address potential recall benefits that may come from presenting sequences serially as opposed to in parallel. Participants were 48 undergraduates. In each of the 150 trials, participants either saw a visual dot sequence or heard an auditory tone sequence (baseline), simultaneously saw a dot sequence and heard a tone sequence (presented together), or heard and saw a visual and auditory sequence in a serial fashion (presented separately). Both the dot and tone sequences varied on 4 independent dimensions: numerosity (2 or 3), direction (up, same, down), timbre (harpsichord, organ), and range (low, high). Each presentation within a sequence was 667 ms followed by a 333 ms delay. Dot sequences were presented on a computer screen inside a 3x3 matrix while tones were presented through headphones. On half of the dual-task trials
participants were required to answer the tone questions first; for the other trials they answered the dot questions first. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants were more likely to answer all 8 attributes correctly if the tone sequence (M = .63), rather than the dot sequence (M = .54), was answered second (p<.001). Somewhat surprising was the finding that overall recall of the two sequences was improved if the visual sequence was presented prior to the auditory sequence and the visual event was responded to first (M&#916;= .07 when A was responded to first; M&#916; = .01 when V was responded to first) (p<.03). In a memory-based visual-auditory dual task scenario, overall task accuracy is better if the auditory task is completed second. This result lends credence to the idea that echoic memory, because of its duration, provides the flexibility to process and respond to the visual task first while leaving the echoic memory temporarily unattended. It is posited that the interaction between presenting and response sequence is due to the fleeting visual representation needing time to be recoded before the recalling the auditory event. These finding may have implications for designing alerts. Specifically, if visual and auditory information are presented together a quick response is needed.

AII2

Keith S. Jones
Texas Tech University

Allyson R. Hall-Colombo
BCI, Inc.

The Effects of Perceptual-Motor Recalibration on Metric Distance Estimation

Distance estimation can be inaccurate.  Consequently, distance estimation training paradigms were developed and tested. Transfer results were mixed.  Accordingly, the distance estimation literature did not afford reliable recommendations concerning whether distance estimation training would transfer to untrained tasks.  To address this situation, Hall and
Jones (2010) organized the literature into a distance estimation training transfer model, which was framed around the Two Visual Systems Hypothesis (Goodale & Milner, 2005; Milner & Goodale, 1994).  Our model describes the expected type of transfer (positive, none, or negative) based on a) which visual system is affected by training (dorsal or ventral), b) what training affects, c) the requirements of the transfer task (dorsal or ventral), and d) whether the training and transfer tasks share the same function or cognitive component.  One area of the model lacked conclusive evidence. Specifically, it was unclear what would happen if training that affected the dorsal visual system, e.g., perceptual-motor recalibration, were to be applied to an untrained distance estimation task that was guided by the ventral visual system. The present study addressed that issue.  During Pre-Testing, participants either threw a beanbag to several targets (a dorsal task), or they verbally estimated the metric distance between themselves and several targets (a ventral task). During Training, all participants donned base-up prism goggles that distorted the visual scene (i.e., made objects appear closer than they were), and threw a beanbag to a different set of targets.  Half were provided visual feedback, i.e., they were allowed to watch the outcome of their throws.  During Post-Testing, participants removed the prism goggles, and repeated the task that they completed during Pre-Testing with a different set of targets.  The results indicated that perceptual-motor
recalibration took place.  This was sup ported by a) the fact that participants  throws only improved during Training when they were provided feedback, and b) by the presence of a negative after-effect that degraded throwing performance when the prism goggles were removed.  Furthermore, the results indicated that perceptual-motor recalibration did not affect the accuracy of participants metric distance estimations.  That is, training that affected the dorsal visual system did not transfer to an untrained task that was guided by the ventral visual system.  Thus, the present study suggests that domains that rely on both dorsal and ventral distance estimation tasks should not implement a dorsal form of training in the hopes of improving both types of distance estimation tasks.  The present study also suggests that it is safe to implement a dorsal form of training in a mixed task environment because it will not degrade the performance of tasks that are guided by the ventral system.

AII3

Walter J. Protheroe Jr
E-MAC, Inc.

Jeffery K. Hovis
University of Waterloo, School of Optometry

Colorized Intraocular Lens response to LED and LCD Monitors and possible Safety Issues

General overview

Intraocular Lens (IOLs) implants are used to correct vision acuity issues after cataract surgery. Colorizing the IOLs to compensate for a person s age has been done for many years and has not been a problem until the introduction of specific Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors. This study details the correlation of color responses while viewing through a normal human lens compared to viewing thorough a clear or yellow colorized IOL(s). Contrast changes as well as color shifts of the light spectrum caused by the use of colorized IOLs can be dramatic and, in some cases, can cause confusion when reading data on instruments which use newer model displays.

Colorized IOLs

Colorized IOLs come in a variety of colors, from blue, yellow to red. The choice of which color lens to have implanted depends upon the application, which varies from visual aesthetics to the reduction of ultraviolet light.  However, there is interest in protecting the retina from chronic exposure to blue light and so yellow tinted IOLs are probably the most common.

Wavelength Light Response

In the 400nm to 500nm wavelength band, more light is transmitted though the clear IOL than the yellow IOL or the human lens. This decrease in intensity is from the natural blue blocking of the young adult human lens, which is also present in the yellow IOL.  This reduction in intensity does vary with the color viewed, but is most notable when viewing the primary color blue, secondary colors cyan or magenta, or when white is displayed on a LCD monitor. From 500nm to 575nm wavelength band, the yellow IOL intensity follows the clear IOL wavelength transmission more closely than the human lens.  At 542nm in the green bandwidth, the calculated human lens response is <75% of the yellow and clear IOLs when viewing white light emitted by the LCD monitor. In the upper wavelength (575nm to 700nm) region the yellow IOL intensity follows the clear IOL more closely than what the human lens.  At 584nm wavelength, the human lens wavelength transmission is <70% of the yellow and clear IOLs, when viewing the primary colors green or red emitted by the LCD monitor.  When viewing the secondary color magenta, the responses of both types of IOLs are extremely close in this higher range of wavelength.

Conclusion

Traditional IOLs are clear within the visible region of the spectrum and only absorb UV radiation.  Yellow colorized IOLs are now being implanted to provide protection against the purported blue light hazard.  The yellow IOL does cause alterations in colors when viewing a LCD or LED monitor, relative to a clear IOL.  However, the alterations are similar to those produced by the natural human lens of a 25 yr old which is also is tinted yellow. The conundrum is then whether you want to have color vision that is potentially similar to 25 yr old after cataract surgery or slightly better when viewing critical data on a screen with multiple color overlays.

AII4

Michael C. Bartha
Hewlett-Packard Company

Paul Allie
Kokot and Allie Associates LLC,

Douglas Kokot
Kokot Allie Associates LLC

Cynthia Purvis
Hewlett-Packard Company

Crossing the Line (of Sight): Two Field Observation Studies of Display Placement Requirements for Presbyopic Computer Users

As the population ages, a growing segment of the workforce is wearing Progressive Addition Lenses (PAL) to correct for presbyopia (age related loss of eye function).  Many of these aging adults work with computer displays as part of their daily job tasks.  To date, there has been relatively little research to determine display placement that best serves this group of older presbyopic workers.  Two field studies were conducted to examine display placement for presbyopic workers wearing PALs and comparing display placement preferences between presbyopic workers wearing multifocal lenses and younger prepresbyopic workers. These studies found that, older presbyopic users selected a display height that was lower than computer users who did not have presbyopia resulting in an eye-to-screen angle for presbyopes that was significantly lower than for prepresbyopes. Additionally, based upon perceived eye and body comfort and user satisfaction data, external displays with adjustable mounts were shown to be PAL wearers  favored solutions and these adjustable display mounts were associated with the least amount of perceived eye and body discomfort. Finally, the majority of both groups viewed text at arc angles smaller than ANSI/HFES 100-2007 and ISO 9241-303 recommendations. The findings of these studies have ramifications for the proper design and appropriate selection of adjustable display supports for presbyopic and prepresbyopic computer users and the ergonomic training given to computer users in regards to proper placement of the computer display.

P1

Young Ji Chun and Manuel Meza-Arroyo Texas Tech University

The Effect of Music Genres on Oxygen Uptake during a Cycling Exercise

In modern society, many people are concerned about managing their health and do regular workouts more than ever before. In particular, exercises for cardio-respiratory fitness are among the most popular that people do because they help to increase heart function, to decrease high blood pressure, to decrease bad cholesterol (LDL), to lose body fat, and to lose weight. In many cases, cardio-respiratory exercise is done while music is playing. The objective of this study is to identify the effect of music genre on oxygen uptake (VO2) during a cycling exercise using a cycle ergometer. Three different music genres - classical music, heavy metal music, and bossanova music - were compared in this study. A total of eight
subjects were tested. They are four male and four female graduate students who lacked any medical issues that might affect the results of the study. Based on each subject s physical capacity, a different workload of cycle ergometer was determined. Under the consistent workloads, VO2 data were recorded in time using a COSMED K4b2 cardiopulmonary exercise testing system. VO2 values at three steady states based on heart rates with three different music genres were examined and compared. Even though there was a tendency for the heavy metal environment to produce higher values of VO2, no statistical significant effect of music genres on VO2 was found in this study.

P2

Andrew W. Muddimer and Samuel G. McLella
Schlumberger

Ocean* Store: a consumer study for a real-world, persona-steered GUI design

In 2008, the Schlumberger Information Solutions UX design team was tasked with researching our large consumer base as preparation for understanding who would be using new information services and products in the design pipeline. One such product or service was a perspective storefront, made available in May, 2010, for finding, analyzing, buying, and downloading any of a variety of currently available software plug-ins for use in their many jobs. Based on the persona details derived from this foundational ethnographic study two years earlier, a set of initial conceptual designs and design criteria were generated that modeled the ideal online user experience and shaped the ultimate product vision. For example,
5 distinct user personas (of the 3 dozen that were developed) are for our Geophysicist, Geologist, Drilling Engineer, Reservoir Engineer, and Developer users. Key study findings showed that each has many tasks that are specific to just them and some tasks that are shared with other user personas, a common theme was proof of use of a feature (its usefulness or trust in its usefulness or quality), many users would benefit by the ability to be provided advanced cross-sell/up-sell opportunities (to extend their current business workflows), provided that these are presented in the GUI in a relevant and clear context. We were thus able to use these findings to guide explicit design elements (GUI features) focused directly on known business goals provided by personas.

P3

Megan L. Morales, Mark E. Benden, Parker Jones and Lexie Mancuso
Texas A&M Health Science Center- Environmental Occupational Health Department

Dynamic Classroom Environments to reduce childhood obesity

Obesity is of growing concern in the U.S., both in terms of health as well as productivity.  Sedentary behaviors are increasing and are known to contribute to weight gain.  Reducing sedentary behaviors can increase physical activity for reducing and preventing obesity. Standing is one way to reduce sedentary behavior and has been shown to increase calorie burn, proper posture, and blood circulation.  Given the positive results of standing to work at the computer in adults, researchers at Texas A&M HSC sought to achieve the same effect with children in the classroom.  Three studies were conducted using stand-biased desks with children in public school classrooms.  The initial lab study validated the use of the SenseWear Armband to measure caloric expenditure in children, as well as establishing the sensitivity of the armband. The lab study revealed a 15% increase in mean calorie expenditure for standing versus sitting behavior within individual children. The second study examined the effect of standing on caloric expenditure in treatment versus control classrooms.  The results showed increased caloric expenditure in the standing classrooms, with a heightened effect in children who were
overweight or obese.  The final part of this pilot study followed the first grade standing cohort to second grade.  The final part of this pilot study is the research I will be presenting on following the first graders into second grade.  The findings of these studies provide evidence that policies to promote standing in school and work environments may be an effective
method to combat obesity.

P4

Tasha David, Angie Nery and Kevin Toy
University of Houston-Clear Lake

Examining the Motivational Factors of Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Gamers (MMORPG) and Massively Multi-player Online First Person Shooter (MMOFPS) Gamers

Video games, particularly Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) games, have emerged as a phenomenon of growing cultural, social, and economic importance (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, & Moore, 2006).  In recent years, MMO games have become a common mainstream activity with millions of people playing worldwide (Woodcock, 2004).  As the demand and popularity of
MMO games increase, understanding the underlying motivational factors that attract individuals to these games has become a topic of interest.  Research into the underlying motivational factors that drive people to play can provide valuable information for market research and future gaming development.  Previous research on motivations for playing Massively
Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) have identified three factors, achievement, social interaction, and immersion as the three main reasons gamers are attracted to this type of genre (Yee, 2006).  However, research is lacking with regards to the Massively Multi-player Online First Person Shooter (MMOFPS) genre, another extremely popular MMO game (Fritsch, Voigt & Schiller, 2006).  The purpose of the present study is to compare the different motivational factors
between MMORPG and MMOFPS gamers.  Specifically, do differences exist in the motivational factors for FPS and RPG gamers?  Two online surveys will be distributed to various gaming forums to collect data on individual motivating factors for playing these two genres of games.

P5

Keith S. Jones
Texas Tech University

Using Ecological Psychology to Build More Capable Robots

J.J. Gibson (1979) argued that perception and action must be considered on an ecological scale, i.e., one that considers how perceivers fit their environment.  Furthermore, Gibson argued that perceivers gain direct awareness of the action-relevant relations between themselves and their environment (i.e., their affordances) through active exploration.  As a whole, Gibson s perspective is referred to as Ecological Psychology.  My students and I attempt to exploit what we know about Ecological Psychology to develop more capable robots.  This poster will describe our research (past, present, and future) in the following areas.  Tele-operated robots. 1) What factors constrain whether a robot can be tele-operated through a given aperture?  2) Can tele-operators accurately judge whether a robot can be tele-operated through an aperture?  If not, can training improve their ability to do so.   Autonomous robots.  a) Can we develop robots that acquire information through active exploration?  If so, what are the advantages/disadvantages of doing so? b) Can people judge the affordances of autonomous robots?  If so, do they do so via the same methods used to judge the affordances of other people?  Does it matter whether the robot has human-like capabilities?  c) Can we leverage what we know about how people judge affordances associated with other people to design robots that have that ability?  Ultimately, our reason for pursuing these questions is to use Ecological Psychology to build more capable robots.

P6

Grisel Ventura-Luna, Arunkumar Pennathur and Rajeev Senapati
University of Texas at El Paso

Modeling User Preferences in the Selection of Generic Tools for Planning

Planning is an important cognitive work activity.  A large number of manual and electronic tools support this complex activity. Manual and electronic planning tools aid people in creating strategies for effective work performance. There is limited information on the design of generic planning tools people use for their activities, and why people choose to use the planning tool they do. Some examples of generic tools for planning are calendars, checklists, agendas, etc. To answer this question, our research study measures the association between user preferences in the selection of these types of planning tools, particularly when users can choose manual or electronic planning tools. Norman s principles of design, such as affordance, are considered in this study to generate insight on users preferences between manual and electronic generic planning tools. Usability evaluation techniques and qualitative analyses were used for the study. Five engineering students, male  and females, from the University of Texas at El Paso were recruited for a think-aloud experiment. Students were asked to create a plan within an academic domain using manual and electronic generic tools for planning. They were videotaped during the talkthrough experiment. The data collected from video was transcribed and qualitatively coded to identify user preferences in relationship to the characteristics of planning tools they used. Insights on user preferences are presented.

P7

Curtis Craig, Martina I. Klein and Berkeley Fahrenthold
Texas Tech University

Tympanic Membrane Temperature as a Lagging Indicator of Mental Workload

Tympanic membrane temperature is inversely correlated with cerebral blood flow (Cherbuin & Brinkman, 2007), and changes in cerebral blood flow has been a physiological measure of mental workload in sustained attention tasks (Warm, Matthews, & Parasuraman, 2009).  We investigate and attempt to replicate whether tympanic membrane temperature changes as a function of time on task, and whether resting differences in right and left baseline tympanic membrane temperature predicts participant behavior and performance.  14 participants performed a ten minute sustained attention to response task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997), looked at a series of pictures during a break, and then performed the SART again.  Tympanic membrane temperature was recorded for both ears before and after each SART.  We found a trend for declining temperature with time in the right ear and not the left, replicating previous studies (Helton, Kern, & Walker, 2009).  We also  found that baseline temperature asymmetries significantly correlated with participant behavior in both d  and the tendency to make failures of omission during the task, the latter slightly contradicting previous research (Helton, 2010).  This research indicates that tympanic membrane temperature may be used as a measure of sustained attention effort, although temperature may be insensitive to brief periods of reduced workload due to poor temporal resolution.

P8

Ricky Burks and S. Camille Peres
University of Houston-Clear Lake

Putting Theoretical Models to Work for Industry: Procedure Classification for a Large Petrochemical Company

This paper describes the design of a procedure classification rubric for a large petrochemical company to be used in oil and gas process environments. The Research on the Interaction between Humans and Machines Lab at the University of Houston-Clear Lake  was tasked with identifying the elements that contribute to cognitive complexity in procedures that should be considered when classifying procedures. Guidelines were provided with Human Factors emphasis, and a robust procedure classification rubric was developed using Campbell's (1988) objective complexity framework.

P9

Daniel Bauman, Blue Bradley, Andres Ovalles and Kandi Windham
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

The Student Threat Awareness Tool (STAT)

The Student Threat Awareness Tool (STAT) is a web based tool that provides an easy way to identify and quantify risks using a five by five risk matrix. The tool provides a variety of questions with multiple choice answers that have an assigned predetermined value that is directly correlated to the risk matrix. The work and calculations are all predetermined and done in the back end leaving a simple interface for the user that generates results and possible solutions based on simple user input. The interface is set up for survey or audit mode. The survey mode can be distributed to a large quantity of school employees, administrators, students, and parents in order to obtain metrics on the overall awareness of safety across the different groups. The survey will provide individual results as well as an average of the entire population. The audit mode has a different interface which requires a trained auditor to go through the questions with a specific individual, i.e. school administrator. The school representative will first create a user name and input some general information into the tool before starting the audit. The auditor will go through the questions with the individual and a random code will be generated and emailed upon completion of the audit. The school representative and other school administrators that the school identifies for access will then be able to access the results using the username and random code that was generated by the tool; the auditor will never have access to final results.

The results are populated into a PDF document with several sections. A five by five matrix will be shown with the number of risks in each section for a quick visual interpretation of the school. The report will show those risks with the higher likelihood and severity first and will include links to different websites that have information on how to reduce those risks. These websites and helpful links are pre-populated by the auditing organization along with the questions, answers, and risk levels.

P10

Robert Green, Paul Ybarra, Kristina Green and Lydia Vasquez
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Contributing Factors

On the 20th of April, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform caught fire and exploded, killing 11 people.  So began the worst ecological disaster in U.S. history and the largest non-deliberate oil spill ever recorded.  In the days and weeks prior to the explosion, many factors, ranging from engineering failures to management decisions, came together to create an environment inimical to the safe operation of the drilling platform.  Geological processes, specifically the formation of methane hydrates, played a major role in the failure of the Deepwater Horizon operation.  Processes such as cementing of the well casing and lack of a failsafe control system for safety devices contributed to failure as well. Without exception, the organizations involved in operation and management of the well had questionable safety records.  The government organization assigned to enforce safety practices and environmental protection concerning offshore drilling has a history of corruption and sub-standard performance.  Finally, concerning the companies responsible for the drilling operations, there was extreme friction between strategic organizational goals at a senior management level and tactical day-to-day operational decision making at the drilling site. This paper and presentation will illustrate these factors in detail and show how they combined to create a truly tragic event in our nation s history.

P11

Danae Holmes and Philip Kortum
Rice University

Usability of IVR Voting Systems

Although there are many voting technologies available today, most require that the voter be physically present in their home precinct polling location. There has been a recent push to enable voting technologies that would allow users to vote remotely. Mail ballots are one example, but vote-by-internet and vote-by-phone are other methods that could be used to address this need.  Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are an innovative way to address this issue since they allow citizens to vote over any available phone and have the added benefit of accommodating voters who are visually impaired.

An IVR voting system was developed to test the viability of the vote-by-phone method for remote voting. This poster will report the results of an early pilot study that evaluated the usability of a full scale IVR voting system. Participants used the IVR voting system to participate in a mock election. Participants voted using a ballot with 21 races and 6 propositions.  Half of the participants were given a voting guide and a slate that told them who to vote for (the directed condition) and the other half were given a voting guide and allowed to vote freely (the undirected condition).  The time it took users to vote, the accuracy with which they voted, and their assessment of the usability of the system (measured using the System Usability Scale) was assessed. Time on task was recorded at the individual-race level so that an assessment could be made bout whether or not voters became increasingly efficient as they progressed through the ballot.

Pilot results indicate that the accuracy of the system is high and that the IVR voting system has a high usability rating. Pilot participants learned to use the system quickly and performed the task with high efficiency. These preliminary results appear to be very promising in showing the viability of vote-by-phone systems as a remote voting medium.

P12

Martina I. Klein, Patricia R. DeLucia and Ryan Olmstead
Texas Tech University

Monitoring Critical Signals in the Laparoscopic Surgery Environment: Split Screen vs. Separated Displays

Laparoscopic surgery relies on a camera that is placed inside the patient and which portrays the surgical field onto a monitor. Physicians perform the surgeries with long thin instruments inserted into the patient. The benefits for patients include smaller incisions, lower risk of infection ,and faster recovery compared with open surgery (Rattner, 1999). However, laparoscopic surgery  presents perceptual-motor challenges for surgeons. These include reduced depth and haptic information, a disruption of the hand-eye mapping, and a reduction in mobility of the surgical instruments (Rassweiler & Frede, 2002). In addition to perceptual-motor distortions, physicians are further taxed by having more displays to monitor. The laparoscopic displays as well as displays of other information (e.g., vital signs) are often located at various locations in the surgical theater, resulting in frequent visual scanning. Betts and DeLucia (2008) investigated whether performance on a sim  ulated surgical task that included vital-sign monitoring was facilitated when the different sources of information were presented on one split-view display rather than physically separated displays. Results did not indicate benefits for the split-view display on measures of surgical task performance, mental workload, or vital-sign monitoring. However, such benefits might become apparent only after the surgeon is fatigued. The goal of the present study was to test this possibility. Thirty undergraduate participants completed two phases of the experiment. In the fatigue phase participants performed a pick-and-place task for 45 minutes using DeLucia and Bett s  laparoscopic box trainer. In the experimental phase, participants performed a peg-reversal task for 12 minutes. They used a grasper to move wooden pegs from one location to another while viewing the task environment on a monitor. During this phase, participants monitored vital signs that were displayed in split-screen on the same monitor as the peg-reversal task environment or on physically separated monitors located to the left and right of the participants. Performance was assessed using the number of completed reversals and the percentage of correct detections of abnormal vital signs. Workload also was assessed using the NASA-TLX (Hart & Staveland, 1988). Peg-reversal task performance and mental workload did not differ significantly between the split-screen and separated display conditions. However, participants detected greater proportion of the abnormal vital-signs  when they used the split-screen display compared with the separated displays p = .046. The implication is that monitoring performance that is conducted during a perceptual-motor task can benefit when the relevant information for both tasks is shown on the same display. In contrast, mental workload and the perceptual-motor performance will not be affected (i.e., degraded). In the context of surgery, results suggest that a surgeons ability to detect critical events during laparoscopic surgery may be enhanced by split-view displays.

P13

Sloane Hoyle, Camille Peres and Kate Bruton University of Houston-Clear Lake

Usability Testing of an Interactive Statistics Website

Researchers have found that making the principles of statistics interactive enhances learning for students and create an efficient resource for teachers to guide their instruction of the curriculum (Lane & Peres, 2005). Online Statistics Education: An Interactive Course of Study (also known as the Online Statistics Website) is a web-based tool, developed by David Lane, PhD of Rice University, which is currently being used to improve individuals understanding of the content involving research methods and statistics. To measure the user experience of the Online Statistics Website, a usability test was performed on the navigational system and interactive simulations. Further, prototypes for both the website s navigation and simulation tools were developed and tested against the current website.  Previous researchers observed users performing tasks, noted areas of weakness and strengths in the prototype they developed, and made recommendations the next iteration of the website (Jardina & Vasser, 2010). We are currently creating prototypes for both navigational systems and interactive simulations by implementing recommendations from test users and subject matter experts.  These prototypes will undergo usability testing to ensure the user interface meets the usability goals. The goals for the navigational system will be to make pages intuitive for users to use, reduce the number of clicks it takes to reach the users  desired content, and reduce the likelihood of errors. The goals for the interactive simulations are to aid the student in understanding of statistica concepts through self-discovery and to ensure the user interface is designed to facilitate their learning these concepts.  From these results, a summary that illustrates key points and recommendations will be made for future redesigns of the online statistics website.

P14

Sam Ranasinghe
Atkins

Human Factors Evaluation of Drilling Equipment

A proactive approach to identify and mitigate hazards to personnel from offshore Drilling equipment was developed and implemented throughout< for a major oil and gas Operator in the Gulf of Mexico. The Operator had identified most recordable injuries on the rigs were occurring through the use of 3rd party equipment.

To help resolve this issue, hazards were investigated in Hazard Identification (HAZID) workshops that involved a multidisciplinary team comprising of Human Factors (HF), Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), Engineering and Operations representatives. Atkins Human Factors personnel facilitated each of the workshops.

HAZIDs were conducted at vendor yards and on offshore drilling rigs with 40 HAZIDs being undertaken in total A structured task based approach was utilized for each HAZID where equipment was inspected and understood how it is used in practice. This approach identified design and operational hazards that were overlooked in previous assessments.

The deliverables from the assessments included practical and actionable recommendations to mitigate the hazards. Over 650 hazards were identified with 635 recommendations being made. A causal and trends analysis was undertaken to identify the key causes for injuries occurring when interacting with equipment. Pinch / Crush injuries were identified as the most prevalent type of hazard and Situational Awareness was identified as the most prevalent potential cause of injuries. The presentation discusses the findings of the analyses.

P15

Kritina Holden, Shelby Thompson and Aniko Sandor
Lockheed Martin

Development of a Cursor Control Device for Spaceflight Operations

On the Space Shuttle, much of the commanding of the vehicle is accomplished with hard switches and buttons, or item entries (typing in a number corresponding to a command). Future space vehicles will rely much less on hardwired switches and buttons, and more on direct interaction with a software display for commanding. Considering this, a great burden is placed on the usability of the cursor control device in the cockpit. Such a device must be designed to be controllable and accurate under extreme conditions such as vibration, high-g, and microgravity. Therefore, a device must be either custom-designed, or modified from one commercially available to perform these important functions under extreme conditions.

Human factors researchers at NASA s Johnson Space Center have completed a number of research and development efforts to determine the best cursor control device for spaceflight operations. Past studies were completed in the lab and on the space shuttle, looking at a number of commercial device alternatives. During the past 4 years, additional devices have been studied in the lab with gloves, in a pressurized glovebox and in a vibration facility. Work has progressed from very low fidelity form factor mockups to fully functional prototypes. Investigations have focused on selection of cursor mechanisms/switches, ergonomic shape of the device, and behavior of the cursor on the screen (i.e., continuous, discrete, gravity well).

Of all the devices tested, the leading candidates in terms of performance (fast response times and low errors) were a trackball operated by the fingers and hand in continuous mode, a castle switch operated by the index finger in discrete mode, and a rocker switch operated by the thumb in discrete mode. Overall, the trackball always had faster response times, but a higher frequency of errors as compared to the other two devices. Given the importance of accuracy for this device, there was a preference for the discrete devices; the controller housing could be easily gripped during operation, and there was a feeling of greater control. There was slightly higher fatigue associated with the discrete devices. This poster will describe the stages of development of the cursor control device and provide summary results from the iterative evaluations.

P16

Lucio Vasquez, Barry Gordon, Andrew Overton and Justin Seger
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Smart Phone App Safety Applications

There is a heavy demand for smart phone applications to address current security and safety protocol. However, an emergency services  flow chart  type application has yet to be designed.  While most college campus currently have a mass notification system, the steps that lead up to that notification are vague and lengthy. Emergency Services Application (ESA) is a simple, easy to use application that simplifies the notification process. Utilizing simple touch screen interfaces, the fire department and police can be notified of an impending situation.  While that is happening, the user can simultaneously push another button that activates the mass notification system as well as critical school contacts.  This can allow the user to react to the situation much more quickly, rather than spending time making redundant actions that it currently utilized.

The system relies on already existing and off-the-shelf technology to keep production costs low. It bridges the gap between the need to increase security and the operational budget gap that leaves schools and administrations with the inability to commit resources to this demand. The marketing strategy will consist of making the product easily available and free,  selling the support. As such, an organization will invest itself time and resource wise into this project with the monetary gain to be utilized when future products and revisions are added.

Lastly, the product address increasing liability concerns and money for implementation is available through grants from the Transportation Security Administration

P17

S. Camille Peres
University of Houston-Clear Lake

Philip Kortum
Rice University

Andrew Muddimer
Schlumberger Information Services

Magdy Akladios
University of Houston-Clear Lake

James Himanga
ExxonMobil

Software Ergonomics

Over the last 15 years, incidents of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) due to poor ergonomics have been occurring at an alarming rate. This is despite the fact that the physical environment for interpretation can and has been improved to reduce RSI risks through the use of adjustable chairs, tables, keyboards and monitors. However, little research has been done investigating whether remaining injuries are directly associated with the software being used. One reason is the difficulty in measuring muscle strain (a predictor of muscle related injuries). Typical methods for measuring muscle strain involve the measure of muscle activity using electromyography (EMG). This requires a substantial amount of time and expensive equipment and therefore is not a viable method for ergonomic or usability professionals to utilize when evaluating software their company is considering purchasing. Further, the time and financial costs of collecting muscle strain/activity data prevent this type of information from being utilized iteratively in the user centered design lifecycle. This research explores the use of self-reports to examine muscle strain. Results of initial investigations will be presented and a plan for future research will be explored.

P18

Vicky Byrne
Lockheed Martin

An Overview of Human Factors Contributions in Space Medicine and Health Systems

In recent years at NASA s Johnson Space Center, the Human Factors group has increased collaborations with the Space Medicine and Environmental Health Systems groups on a variety of projects. The Human Factors group has provided support by conducting interviews, heuristic reviews, and human-in-the-loop evaluations which have led to improved design and training recommendations.  The purpose of this overview is to highlight this support, critical contributions, and outcomes across a broad range of medical and health systems projects, including:  medical equipment, procedures, astronaut and ground support personnel training, and research on future space operations.  In addition, human factors contributions to the development of advanced medical Concepts of Operations and Medical Operations Requirements documents will be presented.

The medical equipment projects to be described include the International Space Station (ISS) medical kits design and Automated Electronic Defibrillator (AED) down-select activities. The procedures example will be illustrated through the review of the Respiratory Support Pack (RSP) cue card design. Astronaut and ground support personnel training will be described through a Human Research Project (HRP) funded project that focused on just-in-time training tool development and potential telemedicine support for doctors, available to astronauts remotely from the mission control center. Space medical operations impacts will focus on Shuttle and ISS vision assessment questionnaires and water sampling activities. Future research development (e.g., an integrated trauma module, habitable volume for medical activities, and user interfaces for medical modeling) and potential forward work will also be presented to serve as examples of ongoing human factors contributions to Space Medicine  and Environmental Health.

P19

Sherry Thaxton and Abbe Barr
Lockheed Martin

Implementation of an Employee Ergonomics Committee: A Case Study

An ergonomics task force is an integral component to many successful ergonomics programs.  At Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering, this task force takes the form of the Ergonomics Committee, a group of employee volunteers who bring with them a variety of educational backgrounds and daily job duties.  The Ergonomics Committee is one of many Safety and Health Committees formed as part of the Wyle Safety and Health Program.  In addition to providing employees with information and guidance to prevent and reduce exposure to ergonomic hazards, the committee trains and deploys ergonomic assessors to evaluate and improve employee workstations.

The Wyle Ergonomics Committee performs assessments of employee workstations and facility laboratories, trains ergonomic assessors, educates the workforce at events such as NASA s Safety and Health Day, provides basic ergonomic equipment to employees, and creates an opportunity for employees to become involved in the implementation of the Ergonomics Program at Wyle.

Since the creation of the Ergonomics Committee in 2002 there have been many cases of ergonomic assessments that resulted in successful improvements to the work environment.  An example of a recent success story is the assessment and modification of the Bond Room, a facility in which employees perform a variety of tasks including computer work, shipping and receiving, manual materials handling, and storage access.

P20

Janis Connolly
NASA Johnson Space Center,

Barry Tillman
Lockheed Martin

Keith Holubec
Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering

Human Space Flight Standards at NASA

Written in the late 80 s, NASA-STD-3000 was NASA s first human factors standard. The document specified how to design systems to support human health, safety, and productivity during space flight. It was intended to apply to all NASA vehicles and systems with a human crew. However, it was found that the scope was too narrow and addressed only existing programs and systems (e.g., International Space Station).

As a result, NASA chose to author a set of human factors standards stated in more general terms  standards that would apply to all present and future systems with a human crew (e.g., an orbiter, lunar lander, surface rovers, or an EVA suit). NASA then combined these human factors standards with standards for crew health and medical support. The result is an Agency-level, two-volume suite of documents that address the human needs for space flight: NASA-STD-3001, the NASA Space Flight Human Systems Standards. Volume 1,  Crew Health  covers the requirements needed to support astronaut health (e.g., medical care, nutrition, sleep, and exercise) and Volume 2, Human Factors, Habitability and Environmental Health  covers the requirements for system design that will maintain astronaut safety and promote performance (e.g., design of the food facilities, bathroom design, layout of workstations, seating and crew restraint design, lighting requirements, environmental requirements). A co  mpanion document to NASA-STD-3001 Volume 2 is the Human Integration Design Handbook (HIDH). HIDH is a compendium of human space flight history, lessons learned, and design information for a wide variety of disciplines.

Because many of the requirements in the NASA-STD-3001 volumes are written in general terms (in an effort to cover the wide range of NASA missions), each program must establish a specific set of requirements that meet these standards.

This poster will describe the standard and handbook, how they are to be used, and provide web links to access them.

P21

Michael J. Crites and Jamie C. Gorman
Texas Tech University

Acquisition and Transfer of Intermanual Coordination Dynamics in a Remotely-operated Robot Task

In the context of search and rescue operations, many tasks require simultaneous coordinated actions between two or more individuals.  For example, because some tasks may be too perceptually or cognitively demanding, remotely operated search robots may be controlled by more than one operator, each commanding the robot using different joysticks.  Such multi-operator tasks require simultaneous, coordinated control across user inputs (e.g., joystick movements) and robot feedback (e.g., real-time camera display) across operators.  To date, there has been little research directed toward understanding this type of coordinated control, especially in a laboratory setting.  We capitalize on findings from human movement science to study this phenomenon.  Bimanual coordination dynamics the study of real-time coordination across two hands is a theoretical paradigm for understanding coordination dynamics in general (Kelso, 1995).  Research in this area has revealed that bimanual  coordination is perceptual-spatial in nature, more so than being biomechanically-constrained (Mechsner, Kerzel, Knoblich, & Prinz, 2001). Hence, informationally-linked dyads also produce coordination patterns typical of biomechanically-constrained individuals, extending the notion that coordination dynamics are information-based (Schmidt, Carello, & Turvey, 1990).  Using this theoretical perspective, we will study coordination during dyadic, or intermanual, control of a remotely operated robot (a  rover ).  In this experiment we ask participants to remotely drive a rover (located in a separate room) around a pattern displayed on the floor (an  attractor ) using joystick inputs with real-time camera feedback.  We ask participants to trace the attractor as quickly and accurately as possible while we record rover movement data using a motion capture system. During each experimental session, participants arrive in pairs and complete three conditions in a within-subjects design  : (1) each participant completes the task by controlling rover steering/acceleration using a single joystick (unimanual); (2) each participant completes the task controlling steering and acceleration using separate joysticks (i.e., one for steering, one for acceleration; bimanual); and (3) participants complete the task as a dyad using two joysticks one controls steering the other controls acceleration (intermanual).  The order of conditions is randomized so that differential carryover effects can be analyzed.  Dependent measures include speed and accuracy of attractor tracing, as well as stability (inverse variability) of attractor tracing. Our hypotheses are based on findings that coordination dynamics are based primarily on the acquisition of informational-linkages.  We hypothesize that early exposure to the intermanual condition will result in positive transfer, across the performance indices, to other conditions.  That is because participants will be exposed to informa  tional-coupling demands as the basis of coordination before they are exposed to the biomechanical constraints.  Because the bimanual condition involves both informational-linkages across the hands, as well as biomechanical constraints across the body, we hypothesize that this condition will result in (relatively) neutral transfer to the other conditions.  Finally, because it involves biomechanical constraints and is lowest in informational-coupling demands, early exposure to the unimanual condition should result in negative transfer to the other conditions.  The results of this study have implications for training real-world coordination across search and rescue robot controllers and theoretical implications for interpersonal coordination dynamics.

P22

Jim Dykes and Mark Sifuentes
University of Texas at San Antonio

Targets in Color Displays: Friend and Foe

Purpose: Aircrew may be provided object information on a color display.  Human factors engineers need to assign a specific symbology and color to each object in those displays.  This experiment investigated how decisions about assigning color to symbology impacts performance. Methods: Participants searched for a target in the midst of 2, 4, 8, or 16 stimuli.  A target stimulus was always present and it was either a  Friend or  Foe .  In terms of symbology, all stimuli (Friend, Foe, and Distractors) were based on a chevron.  If shape was relevant,  Friends  had open circles at the bottom of each chevron leg and  Foes  had solid squares at the bottom of each chevron leg.  Between groups, the background was either blue or yellow and the distractors were yellow or blue.  When color was relevant, Friends  were always green and  Foes  were always red.  Depending upon the background,  green  could be prototypical or cyan and  red  could be prototypical or magenta.  For a given participant; the background, friend relevant, and foe relevant colors were constant.  Between blocks of trials; shape was relevant (color constant), color was relevant (shape constant), shape & color were correlated, or one dimension was relevant and an ideal observer would ignore the other dimension. Results: As anticipated, Garner redundancy gain was strongly evidenced: correlating symbology and color really helped.  There was moderate evidence of Stoop interference: decisions on one dimension were slower if the response to the other dimension was incompatible.  There was slight evidence of Garner interference: decisions on one dimension were slower if the other dimension were orthogonally varied.  The biggest effect was whether the Friend  /  Foe  colors were prototypical. Conclusions: For color displays, symbology and color should be correlated. Color seems to fulfill a special signaling function; so the colors chosen should be prototypical for the user (a prototypical  green  may signal friend  for a western user and may signal  death  for an eastern user). Response incompatibility should be avoided.  While the effect was smaller, changing the mapping between colors and responses during training should prove detrimental.

P23

Laura H. Barg-Walkow, Chad C. Tossell and Philip Kortum
Rice University

Smartphone Emoticon Usage

Objective:  The goal of this research was to understand the influence of different socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and races on text messaging Short Message Service (SMS) emoticon usage.

Background:  Emoticon usage can be beneficial in relaying non-verbal emotions and information, sarcasm, and to shorten messages.  Previous research on emoticons has shown that emoticons tend to be used more in casual settings in order to convey non-verbal cues electronically. However, this previous research has been mostly limited to emoticon use on standard personal computers and has not looked at factors other than gender, age, and contact relationships.

Method: We logged cell phone usage, including a capture of text message volume, length, and numbers and types of emoticons over a 6 month period. 24 undergraduate subjects participated in the study.  Each participant was given an iPhone and received free service for the duration of the study.  14 of the participants were male, 10 were female. Of the participants, 11 were classified as having a low socioeconomic status background. Standard emoticons and emoticon markers such as : and   were used to identify emoticons in text messages with a minimum of privacy intrusion. A survey was also administered in order to learn more about usage patterns.

Results:   Early results have shown that Caucasian participants tended to both send and receive a higher volume of emoticons in comparison to other demographics. This group also exhibited a higher ratio of emoticons-to-words in their messages. Males tended to have more extreme patterns of emoticon usage, in that they either rarely or never used emoticons or their usage far surpassed female usage. Participants of low socioeconomic status had a much higher usage of emoticons. Self-reports revealed that participants almost always typed out an emoticon on Smartphones, but utilized a combination of typing out and accessing emoticon palettes on PCs. Additionally, the participants used significantly more positive emoticons than negative emoticons and used these emoticons to reduce tensions in communications. Participants also rated themselves as more likely to use emoticons on Smartphones than on PCs.

Conclusion:  Emoticons allow Smartphone users to convey richer information in smaller bits of data. There are differing trends in emoticon usage based on gender, race, and socioeconomic status.