Designing for new types of interaction

In safety-critical domains such as aviation, systems and system operation are complex due to their dynamic character as well as the number of technical components to be operated. Efforts to automate such systems aim to improve performance and reduce operator workload. Whilst the overall operational complexity has been reduced, new types of problems have occurred, suggesting that new types of interaction have added complexity on a different level. In order to design interaction with computer systems such as modern Flight Management Systems, we may require new interaction paradigms, since such systems become increasingly able to carry out tasks partly automatically and in parallel to the human operators who are given increasingly supervisory functions. By creating a clearer understanding of the extent to which such interaction could, or should, be viewed as a type of collaboration, we aim to formulate a new set of design principles. For example, the presentation of information has to be significantly different when interacting with computer systems that can carry out multiple functions over large time intervals without the need of human intervention, thus requiring a careful balance of trust and critical monitoring. We discuss the need for better representations of process change, and provide example solutions.