Intuitive Design

This post is written by Matt Nuffort, Senior Product Manager, and can also be found here on our Avidyne Live site.

At Avidyne we pride ourselves on intuitive design, which translates into ease of use.  We spend countless hours reviewing and modifying the user interface of our systems to ensure they are as simple to use as possible.  We assume the user will not read the manual, and, therefore, we want him to be able to figure out how to use the system by simply using it.  We design it to be intuitive. This fastidiousness works.  I cannot tell you how many customers have said to me “Avidyne is like Apple” when comparing us to our competitors.   I take this as a major complement, because Apple is widely regarded for their elegant design and superb user interface. 

In the aircraft environment, we believe strongly that a good user interface drives safety, because there will be fewer instances of “What’s it doing now?” or “How do I do that again?” an unfortunately all-too-common occurrence with modern glass cockpits. 

Any aircraft cockpit can be a very high workload environment at certain times and in certain conditions.  The pilot community generally considers single-pilot IFR in small, high-performance aircraft to be some of the most challenging flying possible.  For this reason, we design our avionics for this user segment, confident that a system that meets the stringent demands of these users will exceed the demands for all other users.  Since people think differently and have varying degrees of experience, a system’s ease of use is somewhat subjective.  There are certain globally-agreed-upon standards for a good user interface, however.  I believe all integrated avionics systems should adhere to these principles, but few do. 

A good user interface requires little training.  Someone unfamiliar with the system should be able to learn how to use it quickly, with little instruction.  We call this ease of use “intuitive” design.  General elements of intuitive design and a great user interface include the following principles, which are derived from a number of sources, including The Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines and The Art of Human Computer Interface Design:

1.       Know the User

a.       As Patrick mentioned in an earlier blog, Avidyne has made a concerted effort over the past year to get closer to the customer.  We are now talking directly to customers, rather than only the OEMs, and we are soliciting feedback on features and functionality directly from the end customers.  With Release 9, we brought in numerous pilots to fly the system in the lab and in our experimental aircraft, and we made changes to the system based on the feedback we received and the observations we made. 

b.      Avidyne employs numerous pilots and encourages employees to fly by paying for half of flight training.  The majority of our engineers are pilots themselves, so they have an excellent idea of how the system they are creating will be used in real life. 

2.       Principle of Metaphor

a.       There are many elements of the original Entegra system that customers really like, and we have made a concerted effort to retain those elements of the design, so that users of Release 9 will quickly feel at home in the cockpit. 

3.       Feature Exposure

a.       We avoid nested menus at all costs.  Our goal with Release 9 was for all major functions to be one button press away at all times.  We do not want customers searching through menus, chapters, and pages trying to find the function they need right now.  We do not want them to have to remember where a particular function is located in the system.  They should be able to see it immediately. 

4.       Coherence

a.       It is important for a complex avionics system to be coherent from one page or function to another.  We achieved this goal by employing a user interface team of three people who were responsible for the user interface of the entire system.  Rather than having the different teams working on Map, FMS, Engines, PFD, etc. define their own user interface, these three individuals ensured the user interface of the entire system was consistent. 

5.       Principle of Shortcuts

a.       Release 9 is full of shortcuts for “power” users who have memorized simple steps to access information even more quickly.  An example of such a shortcut is the chart icon on the FMS flight plan.  If an approach procedure is selected for an airport, selecting the chart icon will immediately display the chart for that procedure.  Another example is the ability to type the identifier for a VOR, such as “JFK” to tune the frequency for that VOR.  Yet another example is the ability to press the “NRST” button on the keyboard numerous times to view nearest airports, VORs, NDBs, intersections, etc.   

6.       Principle of Aesthetics

a.       We believe our system simply looks better than the competition.  We employ graphic designers who focus exclusively on the design.  They are not programmers but rather lifelong students of elegant design.  Our use of colors and page layouts was driven by these designers, and software programmers coded to their designs.

Given that the aircraft cockpit, particularly the single-pilot IFR cockpit, can be an extremely high workload environment, the user interface should be a key consideration in any avionics purchase decision.  So often we focus on feature comparisons alone.  Certainly many of these features enhance safety, but I believe there are other critical considerations for today’s complex avionics systems, such as:

 1. How much training will be required for me to learn this system? 

2.  How often will I need to fly to remain proficient on this system? 

3.  How confident am I that I can make the system do what I want it to do when I’m by myself and the workload gets really high?