On the representation of automation using a work domain analysis

Abstract

Work domain analysis (WDA) has been applied extensively within cognitive engineering as an analytic framework for the evaluation of complex sociotechnical systems in support of design. However, the WDAs described in the literature have not explored the representation of automated system components, despite the documented problems associated with operator-automation interaction and the requirements for operator support in complex automated systems. The current research examines the application of WDA to model an example automated system – a camera – by representing the camera along with its automated components as separate systems using the abstraction hierarchy (AH). Additionally, we contrasted this modelling approach with the more typical approach of modelling automation within a cognitive work analysis (CWA) by performing a control task analysis using the decision ladder. The results of these analyses suggest that, similar to non-automated systems, considering a separate representation of an automated system within the WDA may provide useful system design guidance in terms of user support and information requirements. The comparison of the AH and the decision ladder (DL) models indicates that the models provide different information about the requirements and support different user needs: the AH provides information about specific subsystems and components of the automation that are used for control and how they support functions and purposes of the automation while the DL shows how the control tasks are achieved interleaving automated actions with those of the user. The information obtained from modelling automation with the AH is different from what would normally be obtained by performing only a control task analysis, yet is necessary for operator support.

Keywords:

• Work domain analysis
• Automation
• Abstraction hierarchy
• Decision ladder

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Science Foundation under grant number IIS9984079 to the second author for support of this work. Preliminary thoughts regarding this work were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (Mazaeva and Bisantz 2003). The authors would like to acknowledge Dr Colin Drury, photographer and camera collector, for verifying the decomposition of the camera. Finally, the authors acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, particularly those addressed in the future research section.