FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-08/18

Title and Subtitle: Designing Questionnaires for Controlling and Managing Information Complexity in Visual Displays

Report Date: August 2008

Authors: Xing J

Abstract: Information complexity of automation displays has become a bottleneck that limits the usefulness of new technologies in air traffic control (ATC). Previously, we developed a set of metrics to measure information complexity in ATC displays. While these metrics provide measures of display complexity, their use is somewhat limited due to required human factors expertise and understanding of the display design.

Technology developers and human factors practitioners often desire quick, easy-to-use tools to assess the display during design and acquisition evaluation. Questionnaires provide a quick and inexpensive means to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents. We developed two questionnaires to evaluate ATC display complexity, based on the metric indices.

The first questionnaire employs a multiple-choice format and allows quantitative evaluation of complexity. The second questionnaire uses a Likert rating format and is intended for qualitative assessment of complexity.

We conducted an initial assessment of the questionnaires with seven subject matter experts on a radar display (STARS). The results indicate that both questionnaires produced consistent complexity evaluations among the subjects.

Thus, we recommend that the multiple-choice questionnaire is more suitable for assessing quantitative complexity control during acquisition evaluations, and the Likert rating questionnaire is more suitable for complexity management during design of new ATC technologies.

Key Words: Information Complexity, Usability, Design, Display, Air Traffic Control

No. of Pages: 21