“…it’s the le…it’s the right one…”
“…it’s the le…it’s the right one…”
What is Situational Awareness?
Situational AwarenessBeing aware of what is happening
around you and understanding what that information means to you now
and in the future
Endsley, Bolte and Jones, 2003
• Researched for around 25 years
• Used widely in Aviation, Military, Power Generation, Emergency Management, Medicine
• Also applies to everyday events
• ‘A state variable of the human involved in his or her environment’
Perception Comprehension Projection
Level 1 SA Level 2 SA Level 3 SA
Sensemaking Predicting
75% 19% 6%
TimeHelps to determine how soon
each element will have an impact on their goals and tasks
Sensing
Endsley, Bolte and Jones, 2003
• Attentional tunnelling
• Limitations in working memory
• Workload, anxiety, fatigue, stress
• Data overload
• Misplaced information priority
• Complexity creep
• Incorrect mental models
• Out-of-the-loop
Endsley, Bolte and Jones, 2003
Shared Situational AwarenessThe degree to which team members have the same situational awareness
on shared situational awareness requirements
Endsley and Jones, 2001
• SA is distributed according to hierarchy, space and time
• Strategic, tactical, operational levels
• Individuals’ SA needs to overlap appropriately
• We constantly make assumptions regarding other people’s awareness
Why is Situational Awareness important?
Information Overload:more information, coming from more
sources
• More channels of communication
• More distractions
• 60+ notifications a day on our smart phones
• Constant multitasking degrades our concentration
2. (Mieczakowski, Goldhaber and Clarkson, 2011)
1. (Pielot, Church, Oliveira, Telefonica Research, 2014)
1
2
Unfamiliar Service Models:harder to comprehend and predict
events
“…the world’s largest taxi company owns no vehicles, the most popular media owner creates no content, the largest accommodation provider owns no real estate…”
(Goodwin, 2015)
The Ironies of Automation:Solves some problems.....creates new
problems
• Takes humans out of the loop
• Makes us passive observers - not ‘doers’
• Prevents us developing mental models
• Degrades our ability to predict and recover from problems
How can we improve Situational Awareness?
Research
• Know your ‘machine’ and its operating environment
• Focus on failures - ‘bad is stronger than good’
• Goal-based task analysis
1. (Baumeister et al, 2001)
1
Design
• Attentional tunnelling - provide the big picture
• Limitations in working memory - gather information
• Workload, anxiety, fatigue, stress - don’t make it worse!
• Data overload - innovate in data presentation and alerts
• Misplaced information priority - match information to goals
• Complexity creep - simplify
• Incorrect mental models - support the novice
• Out-of-the-loop - provide support rather than make decisions
Evaluation
• Situational Awareness Rating Technique
• Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technique
• Quantitative Analysis of Situational Awareness
1. (DTIC, 2004)
1
Thank You
References
• Endsley, M.R., Bolte, B., Jones, D. G. (2003) Designing for Situation Awareness. London: Taylor and Francis.
• Endsley, M.R and Jones, D.G. (2001) A model of inter- and intrateam situation awareness. In M. McNeese, E. Sales & M. Endsley (Eds), New Trends in Cooperative Activities: Understanding systems dynamics in complex environments (pp. 46-67). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
• Mieczakowski, A., Goldhaber, T. and Clarkson, J. (2011) Culture, Communication and Change: Reflections on the user and impact of modern media and technology in our lives. University of Cambridge.
• Pielot, M., Church, K. and de Oliviera, R. (2014) An In-Situ Study of Mobile Phone Notifications. Mobile HCI ’14.
• Goodwin, T. (2015) The Battle for the Customer Interface, in TechCrunch.com.
• Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., Vohs, K.D. (2001). Bad is Stronger than Good, in Review of General Psychology. Vol. 5, No. 4 pp. 323-370.
• McGuinness, B. (2004) Quantitative Analysis of Situational Awareness (QUASA): Applying Signal Detection Theory to True/False Probes and Self-Ratings. 2004 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium.