6.5 Third prototype
It was decided to try a new design again, in experimental purpose, to be able to have
something to compare to. The purpose was to learn more about how these new types of
designs actually were accepted by the controllers as well as the managers. The purpose of
this prototype was to focus on the concept and the functionality, not graphical details. It
was important that a scenario could be conducted, where the users would be able to
solve problems by using the traditional way of working, as well as use the rest of
Descartes for problem solving. The fundamental ideas are still the same, but the
appearance changes, as well as some terms. At British Airways the term “alarm” is not
used, leading to a change to alert. The Operations Monitor now consists of a menu bar
on the top, the vertical alert list on the left side, an alert specification below it and the
workspace on the right.
Figure 6-7 Prototype 3.0, made in Microsoft Visual Basic
One large change was that the information was now retrieved from a database, from real
scenarios. This change led to that the prototype became more dynamic and realistic. The
Operations Monitor was now able to communicate with the Disruption Manager,
through sending XML-messages; a truly realistic scenario could be performed at the visit
to British Airways.
Unfortunately the time was not enough to complete the graphical part of the user
interface, so the focus was to test the interaction and the functions.
The menu bar
On the top there is a menu bar, containing seven buttons with some main functions:
§ The back button is for going back one step in your actions, to see the previous
picture or regretting a choice.
§ When the menu button is pressed, a drop-down menu appears, containing sub
functions. From here you can choose to open the stand by list, a view with AC-
rotations, a weather forecast, a table with check-in status of the crew members, a
shift change report, a history view, a table of key indicators, the timetable or a
ring list with telephone numbers. When one of these alternatives is pressed, the
choice will be started in the desktop area.
§ The split screen button is used for splitting up the desktop area into several
views, to be able to work with several programs or lists at the same time.
§ The clear screen button is for clearing up all the windows that has been started in
the desktop area.
§ The message button opens the message function, a small window that will appear
in the desktop area, where you can read or send messages to co-workers. When a
new message is received, it will appear on the button, meaning you can see how
many unread messages there is in your message box.
§ The link for opening the Disruption Manager in the desktop area also contains a
number. This number indicates how many Disruption Manager messages you
have, meaning disruptions there are to evaluate from other resource areas.
§ When the search button is pressed, a small window is opened in the desktop
view, containing an empty box. Anything can be printed within this box; crew
number, tail number, the name of an airport, and so on, when the results of the
search are to be presented, it is shown in the desktop view. The purpose of this is
quick access to crew rosters, airport information, aircraft status and so on.
§ Below the menu bar, the GMT time is presented.
The alert list
The placing of the alert list has changed, it is found at the left side in the monitor, and
has become smaller in size. There should be a vertical timeline to the left, but there was
no time to implement it. The alerts are still presented as color filled bars, but as thin
horizontal bars, in three different lengths.
§ The length indicates the impact of the alert; the shortest is just affecting one
crewmember, the medium several members in a composition, and the longest is
several compositions, several flights.
§ Above the alert view, there are three buttons. The left button is a sort button;
when it is pressed a drop down menu appears with different sorting
opportunities. The alerts are automatically sorted in when they will occur in time,
along a timeline. Other alternatives to sort the alerts could be geographically,
according to type of alert, when to occur in date, according to the size of the
impact, when the alert was created, and so on. The sort function is important
when working with several alerts, to be able to detect patterns or reason of
occurrence that the alarm server has not discovered. The two buttons next to the
sort button were added for demonstration purpose, and not yet decided upon.
The left one selects all of the alerts, and the right button deselects all the alerts.
What could be useful is perhaps an add-button, meaning one can select one alert
to appear in the workspace, and add another one to it, without using drag and
drop. This is function that is implemented; being able to select some alerts with
specifications to be visualized in the workspace above each other, so that they
can be compared to each other.
§ Below the alert list, a bar with facts is seen. The facts are data about the alerts in
the alert list, the number of alerts being solved, has been solved and are unsolved.
The alert specification
When the mouse is moved over an alert in the alert list, then the specifications about that
alert is presented in the alert specification. When the mouse moves to another alert, then
that information will be visible here instead. But if an alert is selected, then the
specifications stay within the view. The list of data is expandable, meaning when selecting
the flight ID then specifications about the aircraft will appear. This is possible to do with
any data that is underlined, like a link. The reason to why all facts are not presented at
once, is because it is not always necessary, and will then just become irritating and
increase the mental load on the user, having to sort out information. The specifications
that automatically appear are the data that are needed for creating a disruption, and to get
a quick overview over the problem.
There is a button above the list of specifications, a submit button. The user can submit
oneself as responsible for handling an alert, visible to all co-workers.
The workspace
The workspace has become a little bit larger. Besides that there is just one more change;
when several windows and processes are running simultaneously in the workspace, then
they will be placed on top of each other, with a bookmark sticking up at the top. By
selecting a bookmark, that window will appear at the top and be visible. The purpose of
this is for the user to know how many windows are open at the same time, and using the
bookmarks provides quick access and an overview.
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