DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS OF THE INTERFACE FOR AN AGRICULTURAL MACHINE.

Abstract

If a user-centered approach is not used to design information displays, the quantity and quality of information presented to the user may not match the needs of the user, or it may exceed the capability of the human operator for processing and using that information. The result may be an excessive mental workload and reduced situation awareness of the operator, which can negatively affect the machine performance and operational outcomes. The increasing use of technology in agricultural machines may expose the human operator to excessive and undesirable information if the operator's information needs and information processing capabilities are ignored. In this study, a user-centered approach was used to design specific interface elements for an agricultural air seeder. Designs of the interface elements were evaluated in a laboratory environment by developing high-fidelity prototypes. Evaluations of the user interface elements yielded significant improvement in situation awareness (up to 11%; overall mean difference = 5.0 (4.8%), 95% CI (6.4728, 3.5939), p 0.0001). Mental workload was reduced by up to 19.7% (overall mean difference = -5.2 (-7.9%), n = 30, a = 0.05). Study participants rated the overall performance of the newly designed user-centered interface elements higher in comparison to the previous designs (overall mean difference = 27.3 (189.8%), 99% CI (35.150, 19.384), p 0.0001.