Assessing Usability of a Post-Mission Reporting Technology

Usability evaluation has received extensive attention in both academic and applied arenas. Despite this, there have been few formal attempts to integrate past research and best practices in an effort to develop a newly updated and adaptable approach. This poster provides an overview of the types of results yielded by a novel usability assessment approach (i.e., Experienced-based Questionnaire for Usability Assessments Targeting Elaborations [EQUATE]) when applied to a post mission reporting tool. The goal of this study was to develop software to automate performance tracking for anti-submarine aircraft, digitize performance and training information, and automate the display of post mission summaries. Although some of these technologies exist, the prototype tested during this research was the first, of which the authors are aware, to provide a single point of access for data entry, analysis and reporting. Due to the potential benefits across a variety of naval aviation platforms, the program’s usability goals focused on identifying means to optimize the tool by gathering novice user feedback. Traditional methods for end-user feedback have tended to focus on user performance and satisfaction, rather than providing prescriptive inputs to identifying and rectifying issues. The results of this study provided usability input for post mission reporting, as well as identified and narrowed the heuristic dimensions used for final validation.