Display Design for Fixed-Wing Aviation

Project Type

Product Design

Date

April 2024

Location

College Station, TX

The MII Initiative is a solution designed in response to the need for a more comprehensive maintenance solution in the world of fixed-wing general aviation. (Specifically, non-commercial aviation.) It was a team effort with three other students in a class setting, however, the design work was done independently.

Resources utilized in the design process include:

Human Factors display design strategies learned from Dr. Nancy Currie Gregg, NASA astronaut and engineer

Extensive research into the factors that impact the success of an aircraft maintenance system

An extended planning process in collaboration with the team of four Industrial and Aerospace Engineering students, including writing:
- CONOPS (Concept of Operations)
- Engineering requirements
- Human-in-the-Loop testing program for the tool

Learn More

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Touchscreen display allows easy user interface on a standard tablet or iPad device of the type used by pilots in fixed-wing non-commercial aircraft.

Use of Multimodality (audio
cue) to remind user that
there is maintenance
required for aircraft to
be flight ready.

The same device used
for Foreflight and other
flight-related software
could be used to run MII
in order to minimize the cognitive workload
required to learn a new
interface while conducting normal operations.

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Information for parts is
unique to the specific
aircraft to avoid
miscommunication due to
cognitive overload
(remembering which
record goes with which
aircraft)

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Images with intentionally minimized
cost and basic
details for each part are
easily accessible from
this intermediate menu tier.

Color and bolded text
are used for emphasis
when information is
more urgent and central to upcoming flight readiness.

The natural flow of
pilot or technician actions was used to direct the
design of the interface.

Colors are limited to 7
total, with only 2 shades
of green, to reduce confusion about the color coding.

Qualitative and
quantitative values are
combined to give a big
picture view of
maintenance
requirements over the
long-term.

The user can quickly
organize information
depending on their
goals.

There is less reliance on
memory to locate a
specific part or to
find the most urgent
maintenance task.

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More detailed
information is available in the third tier,
within the part’s file. However,
the information is still limited to the most important factors for flight readiness on this part dashboard.

In order to reduce memory
reliance for pilots and technicians,
redundancy is used with both
values and colors (eg, flight hours are shown in numerical format and with the color coded slider)

Emphasis is used to direct the user's attention. The
importance of the part
to overall functionality is
crucial for maintenance
decisions.

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Reducing memory demand and
information overload, a visual is used instead of a table of past maintenance events.

A chart is used to show past instances of maintenance when
the part was brought for service in a critical state.

Predictive aid for trends
in wear due to use and
other potential factors

To learn more, you can reach me directly using the Contact page!

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