Heuristic evaluation of HMI Gripen E - Method development and test with pilots, designers and researchers

FOI provides support to FMV in overseeing the development of the human-machine interface (HMI) of the fighter aircraft Saab Gripen E. An important part of the process is continuous evaluations of the usability of the HMI together with pilots. The objective is an HMI that supports the pilot's situational awareness and efficient decision making. There are a number of methods aimed at finding problems and flaws early in the development process, so they can be dealt with. A development of the method heuristic evaluation and a test was performed, with scientists, HMI designers and fighter pilots as evaluators. They evaluated the HMI with the help of 15 developed and by FOI adapted usability heuristics in two scenarios, looking for violations against these heuristics. Traditionally, experts in HMI or usability perform heuristic evaluations. As the user interface or system is more complex demanding user expertise (such as fighter pilot training) for interaction, adequate evaluation becomes more difficult to perform. Thus, the purpose of the study was to investigate the applicability of the method when the evaluator is a pilot with expertise in the aerial domain but relatively unexperienced in usability evaluation methods. The results show a good potential of the method. It was received well, and the different evaluators added to each other's observations. Further development of the method should be made by prolonged introduction to the heuristics and their theoretical foundation, along with a simplified description and reduced number or heuristics.