Utilizing the Alarm Taxonomy and Classification System (ATACS) to Redesign Landing Gear Warnings

Alarms have been in use for many decades, yet there still needs to be more clarity about what makes a good alarm. Vendors and government agencies developed several useful handbooks describing the Do’s Don’ts of effective alarm design; however, date, we cannot find comprehensive quantitative taxonomy or classification system that allows researchers easily score rank various designs any field—while using common language users, engineers, designers, human factors professionals can understand. The Alarm Taxonomy Classification System (ATACS) fills this gap literature by breaking alarms down into categorical characteristics, providing methodology scoring each characteristic, outlining process which vendors, agree on efficacy question. We discuss detail show how was used improve landing gear warnings.