A Multi-model Aid for Interface Design (MAID): Helping Designers Reason about Information Match

Keywords: MAID, information match, requirements, presentation, fit

Abstract: We previously developed a core representation for describing the information a human needs to perform a task and the information provided by a user interface. This representation is highly abstract and is based on information theoretic properties, thus it can be applied to a wide variety of work domains and information and display types. Since information need and information conveyed are described in the same numerical scales, it is straightforward to compute a degree of match between them. In prior work, we used this capability to dynamically and automatically reconfigure cockpit displays for military cockpits. In recent work, however, we adapted this approach to the task of evaluating and critiquing display format designs to support procedure execution in the context of NASA’s space operations. The representation and reasoning approach generalizes well to describing information types in procedural domains. The resulting tool can be used to (a) analyze a proposed display format for a given task, (b) propose a format for a given task, (c) project how changes to a procedure will affect the suitability of a previous format, and (d) project how changes to a format will improve or reduce its suitability for a given procedure.