The Influence of a User-Centred Design Focus on the Effectiveness of a User Interface for an Agricultural Machine

Abstract

As agricultural machines become more complex, it is increasingly critical that special attention be directed to the design of the user interface to ensure that the operator will have an adequate understanding of the status of the machine at all times. A user-centred design focus was employed to develop two conceptual designs (UCD1 & UCD2) for a user interface for an agricultural air seeder. The two concepts were compared against an existing user interface (baseline condition) using the metrics of situation awareness (Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique), mental workload (Integrated Workload Scale), reaction time, and subjective feedback. There were no statistically significant differences among the three user interfaces based on the metric of situation awareness; however, UCD2 was deemed to be significantly better than either UCD1 or the baseline interface on the basis of mental workload, reaction time and subjective feedback. The research has demonstrated that a user-centred design focus will generate a better user interface for an agricultural machine.