Modeling task transitions to help designing for better situation awareness

In complex systems such as cockpits or unmanned systems, operators manage a set of tasks with high temporal dynamics. Frequent changes of situation within the same mission can sometimes induce a loss of operators' Situation Awareness. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for design of Human-Computer Interfaces in dynamic systems taking into account the situation elements constituting operators' activity. We follow a user-centered approach; end-users and domain experts are included along the different steps of this model-based design process. The complete methodology is presented here, from initial task & situation modeling, through transition analysis, to the final recommendations on interface design, applied to an illustrative example.