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Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
concept drawings. The prototyping continued in four different projects, where one
project concerned the actual consoles, their layout, size and ergonomics; the second concerned the levers, joysticks and monitors that were to be fitted in the consoles; the third project concerned developing the new ship bridge operator chair and
the fourth project concerned redesigning the software interfaces. This project did
however commence at a later stage after the physical prototypes were in place. The
three projects concerning physical equipment had their separate development runs
where experienced users gave feedback on designs drawings and prototypes continuously. In addition, the designs were tested with inexperienced users with no maritime
background, mainly to gather general more informal feedback from a different point
of view.
THE REQUIREMENTS
The user-centred design process emphasizes the need for collecting requirements.
In innovation projects, the requirements are often not clear. The overall requirement
was the project objective, as described above, to develop a safer and more efficient
work environment.
When redesigning the input devices ( levers, joysticks, etc.), gathering technical
requirements from the product owners gave directions and limitations to the design.
An example of a main requirement was that all input devices bases ( the part of
the input device that is mounted to the console surface) should have standard measurements and shapes; in this case, a circular shape was selected as it saved console
footprint. The footprint of the lever equals the space it requires on the surface of
the console. In addition to saving footprint, the circular shape gave room for the
necessary buttons each type of input device required. If an input device did not
need all the buttons available, the spare buttons were blended but available for later
extensions. The depth of the levers, meaning how deep into the console they reached
after being fitted into the consoles, gave directions to the console design. One of the
console requirements that emerged was that a slim and tidy visual expression was
desired. To fulfil this requirement, the mechanics of the input devices also needed
a redesign. Other important requirements were button shape, number of buttons,
input device illumination and the icon design for the buttons had to be standardized
across all devices.
The different requirement owned by the different projects influenced each other
and created a demand for finding well-processed compromises. In some cases, the
slim aesthetically pleasing design lines created in the consoles by the industrial
designer have to give way for a more chunky design as the levers had to get fitted into
the console at the correct placement, at just the right location for the operator to have
his/ her ergonomic requirements fulfilled.
EVOLUTION
The prototypes evolved in several iterations from the very low fidelity, low cost, low
threshold type of prototypes to more high fidelity fully functional prototypes, and
the console prototypes developed from paper, post-its and cardboard, to 3D models,
Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
concept drawings. The prototyping continued in four different projects, where one
project concerned the actual consoles, their layout, size and ergonomics; the second concerned the levers, joysticks and monitors that were to be fitted in the consoles; the third project concerned developing the new ship bridge operator chair and
the fourth project concerned redesigning the software interfaces. This project did
however commence at a later stage after the physical prototypes were in place. The
three projects concerning physical equipment had their separate development runs
where experienced users gave feedback on designs drawings and prototypes continuously. In addition, the designs were tested with inexperienced users with no maritime
background, mainly to gather general more informal feedback from a different point
of view.
THE REQUIREMENTS
The user-centred design process emphasizes the need for collecting requirements.
In innovation projects, the requirements are often not clear. The overall requirement
was the project objective, as described above, to develop a safer and more efficient
work environment.
When redesigning the input devices ( levers, joysticks, etc.), gathering technical
requirements from the product owners gave directions and limitations to the design.
An example of a main requirement was that all input devices bases ( the part of
the input device that is mounted to the console surface) should have standard measurements and shapes; in this case, a circular shape was selected as it saved console
footprint. The footprint of the lever equals the space it requires on the surface of
the console. In addition to saving footprint, the circular shape gave room for the
necessary buttons each type of input device required. If an input device did not
need all the buttons available, the spare buttons were blended but available for later
extensions. The depth of the levers, meaning how deep into the console they reached
after being fitted into the consoles, gave directions to the console design. One of the
console requirements that emerged was that a slim and tidy visual expression was
desired. To fulfil this requirement, the mechanics of the input devices also needed
a redesign. Other important requirements were button shape, number of buttons,
input device illumination and the icon design for the buttons had to be standardized
across all devices.
The different requirement owned by the different projects influenced each other
and created a demand for finding well-processed compromises. In some cases, the
slim aesthetically pleasing design lines created in the consoles by the industrial
designer have to give way for a more chunky design as the levers had to get fitted into
the console at the correct placement, at just the right location for the operator to have
his/ her ergonomic requirements fulfilled.
EVOLUTION
The prototypes evolved in several iterations from the very low fidelity, low cost, low
threshold type of prototypes to more high fidelity fully functional prototypes, and
the console prototypes developed from paper, post-its and cardboard, to 3D models,