Abstract
Pilots use powerful and complex tools to support the mission planning process. However, during the mission planning process, pilots need tools that support the capture and referencing of common mission data objects. Specifically, pilots need to capture data objects, such as key waypoints, to reference across individual planning user interface (UI) components. Pilots also need methods for capturing actions and tasks on key mission data objects. To address these needs, Charles River Analytics designed and developed a software component that enables lightweight capture of data objects for reference across mission planning components and track pending actions on data objects. In this paper, Charles River Analytics presents our overall approach and solution to address these needs and create software that better supports the mission planning process.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download conference paper PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
1 Introduction
Navy pilots have access to robust software tools to support their mission planning process. However, these tools frequently require the manual input of mission data across multiple mission planning components. This manual input of mission data across diverse planning components is complex and rote and has a high learning curve. As mission data objects are referenced by pilots across multiple mission planning components, the risk of the propagation of errors is increased. These errors can impact data that other pilots and mission controllers depend on, like airspace traffic and fuel use, leading to emergency and dangerous situations in flight. Furthermore, there is no way to capture highly precise data for use across planning components, nor methods to document tasks on mission data objects themselves.
Because of these challenges, pilots have developed a number of workarounds to current systems to fulfill this need. During our observations of training events, two main workarounds were observed during the mission planning process. First, pilots recorded mission data on their hands or on pieces of paper for later reference. These were often high precision values, such as −60.827364. This approach introduces the potential for human error as the notes can become altered when transposed and the piece of paper can be lost. Second, as pilots had questions about specific mission data elements, such as the validity of a waypoint’s latitude for their particular mission, pilots input egregiously invalid values, such as “000000.000000,” as a cue to return and correct the mission waypoint later. This workaround creates a significant risk that these invalid mission data values will flow forward through the system. To support pilots during the mission planning process, two requirements were identified. First, pilots need lightweight capture methods that they can use across mission planning components to store commonly used mission data. Second, pilots need methods to formally flag mission data when questions arise.
To address these issues, Charles River Analytics worked with a team of pilots to identify functional requirements for a lightweight data capture tool in an iterative design process. Through lightweight prototyping, cognitive walkthroughs, and lightweight testing, Charles River Analytics designed a tool that fulfills necessary pilots’ needs which fits into their current mission planning workflow.
2 Related Work
We performed a literature review to identify approaches to task management and related areas. Previous work in the areas of task management systems has been advantageous in identifying the tools and their strategies to aid in completing work and locating or storing useful information. Task management systems attempt to fulfill similar needs to those of the pilots Charles River Analytics observed, such as storing lightweight information for the purpose of task completion.
Successful task management systems include convenient placement of task-related information [1], continuously visible to-do items [2], and flexible task representation, as they “may be represented at any level of abstraction or detail” [3]. Notes are a critical component of personal task management, as they can be any level of preciseness in relation to a task, remind the creator of useful information, and create a safe spot for the keeping of important information [4]. Min et al. describes these kinds of messages people write to themselves as “micronotes”: this distinguishes them from formal notes taken during meetings or lectures, which are associated with a multi-part lifecycle [4]. These notes are many times personal and most useful to the creator, as many times they are only a couple of words in length [4]. Notes are a flexible and critical part of the task management process. Many times this kind of information is written on paper similar to workarounds observed during training events, post-its, or even inputted into a non-descript text file, which circumvents systemic storage even when it is available. Bernstein et al. refer to these kinds of recordings as “information scraps”. He suggests that information management tools should provide the user with a lightweight way to enter notes that are unconstrained content, be flexible and adaptable, and visible and mobile [5].
Related to note-taking is list-making, in which cues are recorded for incomplete tasks [3]. Task lists can be thought of as a subset of notes [4]. Task lists are characterized by being very flexible in nature. A worker may have an overall to-do list of tasks that must be completed for the day, but the tasks themselves may not have any relationship to one another. Conversely, a worker may have a to-do list that specifically falls under the umbrella of a larger task, with the to-do items acting as sub-tasks. Notes and lists can be clustered and grouped together, and the combinations can fall under a single objective for organization and convenience, as Bellotti et al. showed in the functionality of Taskmaster, creating “thrasks” within an email inbox [2]. However, no singular task management tool is one-size-fits-all, as demonstrated by the great variance in approach, form, and function of these tools [2, 3, 6].
We also reviewed commercial applications for task management, including Wunderlist™ [7], Google Keep™ [8], and Microsoft OneNote® [9]. These applications all offer broad and flexible solutions to note-taking and list-making in a large, single app window. The Wunderlist task view is easy to scan and action-oriented. Some of the tools Charles River Analytics explored were highly glanceable, like Google Keep’s card-based view of items. This view provides a high-level overview showing how many items are pending completion and the items’ main subject by utilizing large type sizes, card user interfaces (card UIs) and medium to high contrast of color. Search and automation functionality, like the search bar in Microsoft OneNote, facilitate information lookup across the task management system. Similar support tools would allow pilots to look up important mission data quickly and gain confirmation on the mission data from the system rather than typing mission data by hand.
3 Scratchpad Design and Use
To address the needs of pilots during mission planning process, a combination of note-taking and list-making functionality was employed to facilitate mission data object capture and reference. Based on our initial observations and review of related work, Charles River Analytics designed a component called Scratchpad. Similar to a bulletin board, the Scratchpad component enables pilots to collect mission data objects, reference the collected mission data objects, and create tasks in the context of the collected mission data objects.
Throughout the mission planning process, pilots are frequently manipulating waypoints, or key locations in space. A waypoint includes data like latitude, longitude, altitude, time of arrival, and speed of the plane when arriving to the location. Waypoints frequently are associated with a waypoint type to indicate the type of activity that will occur. For example, a ‘rendezvous’ type waypoint involves multiple aircrafts meeting or joining together. One critical component of the Scratchpad is to assist in the capture and reference of waypoints throughout the mission planning process.
Figure 1a shows an empty Scratchpad component with no mission data objects. At the top of the component is a header with the Scratchpad title and a label (“0 mission objects”) indicating the number of objects in the Scratchpad component. As elements are added to the Scratchpad, this label changes to reflect the updated count. The arrow icon in the top right corner of the Scratchpad component allows the entire panel to be collapsed, which shows just the Scratchpad component’s header. The collapsible nature of the Scratchpad component minimizes the screen space used by the component. Scratchpad screen minimization is an especially important feature as pilot screen space is at a premium with many other tools present for mission planning Below the header, a gray search field provides support text on how to use the component.
In Fig. 1b, the pilot has begun to type “rendezvous” into the gray input field. As the pilot begins typing, the helper text drops below the input field to continue providing instruction even when the search field has been engaged. This prompts the Scratchpad component’s smart lookup feature to activate. The smart lookup feature allows a pilot to quickly search and select the mission data object without manually typing the target’s data. Smart lookup provides this representation of data by searching the mission planning database for data that matches the pilot’s entry, and then displays the matches in a dropdown list, from which the pilot can select the correct waypoint they were looking to find. This allows pilots to search a database of possible waypoints for entry into the system and provides the waypoints that match the pilot’s entry with minimal manual input. As seen in Fig. 1b, a dropdown list below the search bar provides a results list of waypoint options matching the pilot’s text entry. Each search result contains a preview of the various waypoints’ data including latitude, longitude, and approach altitude. When a pilot hovers over a result, the waypoint’s background turns a light blue to indicate selectibility.
The addition of mission data objects to the Scratchpad component is a lightweight process, allowing capture of long strings of data with minimal manual effort. Once the pilot has selected a waypoint from the results list, a mission data object is added to the Scratchpad component. The newly added mission data object populates below the search bar, as seen in Fig. 2a. This waypoint representation provides an overview of the main data values and distinguishing attributes of the waypoint. The waypoint can be expanded to show more detail by clicking the blue arrow icon in the upper left of the waypoint bar, as seen next to Waypoint 5 in Fig. 2a. Now the pilot can quickly reference the waypoint’s associated data values, like latitude and longitude by copying and pasting or dragging and dropping into the appropriate mission planning components. Mission data objects are collapsible by the blue arrow icon to the left of the mission data object’s title and provides summary detail of the most important information for identification. Collapsed waypoint bars display a mission data object’s general type, the mission it belongs to, and how many active tasks are associated with it. This is aided by abbreviations like and WP (Waypoint) and TGT (Target) which allow more information to exist in the small title space. Figure 2b shows Waypoint 5 expanded by clicking the arrow icon left of the mission data object’s title to show the complete data set. This eliminates the process of typing out values manually and greatly reduces the risk of entering typographical errors.
As seen in Fig. 2b, the waypoint mission data object has been expanded and shows additional details on the waypoint data, such as time of arrival and speed. In this expanded view pilots can add individual tasks onto the mission data objects. As shown in Fig. 3a, the pilot can create a task on Waypoint 5 by clicking the blue circle plus sign icon next to “add task to waypoint 5”. This action creates a new field for the pilot to start typing their task. Figure 3b shows the results of a pilot creating a specific task, “Confirm latitude with leader”, including a counter of incomplete tasks. Once a task has been created, it is marked with a time stamp below the typed note to provide context for when the task was created. The ability to make actionable tasks on mission data objects provides pilots with a place to store important reminders for checks on information so that it can be attended to at a later time.
As the pilot completes the tasks they can mark tasks as complete by clicking the blue checkbox to the left of the task. Figure 4 shows two different pending tasks on Waypoint 5, with one task marked by the pilot as complete. Once the pilot clicks on the blue checkbox, the task’s timestamp updates with additional information on the time when the task was marked as complete. Once a task is checked, the task counter located in the header is updated to reflect the new number of remaining tasks. The pilot can delete both complete and incomplete tasks by using the gray “x” icon to the right of the task or keep it for later reference. If the pilot decides at a later point that the task was not substantially completed or needs to be revisited, they can send the task back to the active task list by clicking on the checked blue box and ‘un-check’ the task.
4 Preliminary Informal Evaluations
To evaluate whether the Scratchpad component addressed the needs of pilots, Charles River Analytics performed informal evaluations with representative uses, including screen-by-screen walkthroughs. Preliminary results and feedback indicate that the Scratchpad component will support pilots and facilitate lightweight mission object capture. Additionally, the Scratchpad component would decrease the number of occurrences that pilots need to interrupt their workflow in order to receive answers and confirmation on questions and concerns they may have for team leaders. Instead, they can store and ask multiple questions while using the Scratchpad component.
Based on feedback from our representative users, key areas for investigation and extension include the incorporation of other types of media besides text to the Scratchpad component and the expansion of data included. The incorporation of media beyond waypoint data, such as map imagery, will enable the collection of visual data objects and mission imagery that cannot be adequately described by text data alone. Additionally, it was suggested that the breadth of data could be expanded to include call signs, payload and platform parameters, and sensor settings to enable a more extensive set of data to be referenced across mission planning components by the Scratchpad component.
5 Conclusion and Future Work
In this paper, Charles River Analytics described the Scratchpad, a component tool that addresses the data capture and reference needs of Navy pilots during mission planning The design of a lightweight and consistently visible component is transferrable to other domains such as list-making and task management in an office setting and other knowledge work domains, such as performing research.
Future steps in the development of the Scratchpad component include the extension of its capabilities to capture different kinds of content. Another area of investigation include the direct linking of the data elements back to their usage in the mission planning components themselves. This would enable pilots to see when, where, and how this data is referenced across their system. Additionally, Charles River Analytics would like to expand the automation capabilities of the Scratchpad component to allow pilots to share collected data objects between other pilots and specific groups of pilots, for cases such as when data is updated. Finally, Charles River Analytics will continue our iterative design process and conduct evaluations on these design approaches.
References
González, V., Mark, G.: Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working spheres. In: CHI 2004. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2004). https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/CHI2004.pdf
Bellotti, V., Ducheneaut, N., and Howard, M.: Taking email to task: the design and evaluation of a task management centered email tool. In: CHI 2003. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2003). https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i385q/spring2005/readings/Bellotti_Ducheneaut-2003-Taking.pdf
Bellotti, V., Dalal, B., Good, N., and Flynn, P.: What a to-do: studies of task management towards the design of a personal task list manager. In: CHI 2004. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2004). http://www2.parc.com/csl/members/nicolas/documents/CHI2004-to-do.pdf
Lin, M., Lutters, W., and Kim, T.: Understanding the MicronoteLifecyce: improving mobile support for informal note taking. In: CHI 2004 Connect: Proceedings Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vienna, Austria, New York, 24–29 April 2004. http://userpages.umbc.edu/~lutters/pubs/2004_CHI_Full_Lin,Lutters,Kim.pdf
Bernstein, M., Van Kleek, M., Karger, D., Schraefel, M.: Information scraps: how and why information eludes our personal information management tools. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. (TOIS) 26(4), 24 (2008)
Robertson, G., Van Dantzich, M., Robbins, D., Czerwinski, M., Hinckley, K., Risden, K., Thiel, D., Gorokhovsky, V.: The task gallery: a 3D window manager. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 494–501. ACM (2000). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/taskgallery-submitted.pdf
Wunderlist. https://www.wunderlist.com/home
Google Keep. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep&hl=en
Microsoft OneNote. https://www.onenote.com/
Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the Navy under Contract No. N68335-15-C-0158. Charles River Analytics would like to thank Mr. Bryan Ramsay, Mr. Lohn Schneider, and Mr. Fred Selzer for their support, guidance, and technical feedback.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
von Kelsch, E., Kane, S., Muller, C., Hogan, C. (2017). Scratchpad: Lightweight Data Capture Tool to Support Mission Planning. In: Kurosu, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction. Interaction Contexts. HCI 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10272. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58077-7_47
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58077-7_47
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58076-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58077-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)