Air traffic control (ATC) is a safety-critical work domain that has a history of applying tangible elements in its workstations. In the past, development was mostly technology-driven, which resulted in usability challenges like handling multiple input and output devices. In this work, we followed a user-centred design approach with air traffic controllers (ATCOs). Starting from the users’ need for haptic feedback, we developed a novel tangible interaction concept for ATC. We iterated a set of tangibles – Fin, Whale, Coin, and Flatterer – based on formative evaluations with 24 ATCOs. From our qualitative results we extracted dimensions relevant to ATCOs‘ user experience including familiarity, efficiency and engagement. Our results can provide guidance and inspiration for the design of future ATC interfaces.

Abstract Air traffic control (ATC) is a safety-critical, cooperative work domain, which faces usability challenges due to technology driven development in the past. In this work, we followed a user-centered design process to explore how novel interaction concepts increase user experience in ATC. Based on controllers’ needs we envisioned one unified interface together with three possible interaction concepts (the mouse interface, flight-dial and tangible interface) addressing different aspects of ATC. We prototypically implemented the interaction concepts and iterated each prototype based on feedback from 24 controllers. Qualitative data from these iterative formative evaluations indicated that controllers prefer interfaces that are efficient to use, minimalistic, customizable and context sensitive. A summative evaluation (N = 12) showed that the hedonic quality of all three concepts were higher compared to the system currently in use. Our results and insights can provide guidance and inspiration for the future design of ATC interfaces.

Human judgements are substantially influenced by first impressions. In previous studies, researchers contributing to people's first impressions of technical artifacts focused mainly on visual attributes. However, their findings do not apply to visually impaired people who cannot visually explore technology. Hence, we assume that visually impaired people rather rely on their haptic perception to get a first impression. To examine how visually impaired people form their first impressions of technological products, we conducted an explorative study with three visually impaired participants. We asked them to evaluate haptic features of mobile phones and speakers using the repertory grid (RepGrid) method. This method can be applied in research fields at an early stage when no findings are available yet. To empower the participants to autonomously rate items, we used a haptic scale. We complemented qualitative results of the RepGrid technique with observations on how long participants explore technology as well as a following interview on first impressions. We found eight constructs which can serve as a basis for a quantitative evaluation on how devices make a haptic first impression.