Investigating Intrusiveness of Workload Adaptation

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how an automatic task assistant which can detect and react to a user's workload level is able to support the user in a complex, dynamic task. In a user study, we design a dispatcher scenario with low and high workload conditions and compare the effect of four support strategies with different levels of intrusiveness using objective and subjective metrics. We see that a more intrusive strategy results in higher efficiency and effectiveness, but is also less accepted by the participants. We also show that the benefit of supportive behavior depends on the user's workload level, i.e. adaptation to its changes are necessary. We describe and evaluate a Brain Computer Interface that is able to provide the necessary user state detection.