On Tue, Jun 07, 2022 at 08:49:36AM +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote: Not just 'at a glance' but also in exceptional circumstances and under stress. For example imagine your aircraft is damaged and shaking violently. Your eyeballs will be shaking as well. Now if you have a series of identical items arranged in a line on a display, it will be extremely difficult to read them, you just won't know which is which. Also imagine having to use a touch panel in those conditions, it would be just impossible. Enough but not too much. Lighting conditions can be extreme in a cockpit. If you're landing e.g. at LGIR (Herakleon, Crete) on RWY 27 in the late afternoon you will be looking straight into the sun for minutes and wearing sunglasses. Come a few hours later and it will be pitch black. Displays must be readable and not induce eye fatigue in both cases. BTW, since most flat panel displays produce polarised light, pilot's sunglasses must NOT be polarised. Yep. And no animation, popups, etc. You rely and training and professional knowledge instead of random 'exploration'. Which also means function is indicated using standard (English) words or acronyms, and not by icons (which can be much more ambiguous than most people imagine). Also accessibility is not an issue. Many (if not most) computer applications are about 'editing' some sort of document. Even a DAW fits into that category when used to create music - but not e.g. when used 'live', just as a mixer and/or playback device. Controlling an aircraft (or any machine) is something very different. So the whole set of standard menus like 'File', 'Edit', 'Tools' etc. doesn't make much sense. Some of the requirements could be unexpected. For example it needs to be unconditionally clear if some function is 'active' or just 'armed' (meaning it will automatically become 'active' later). Or if some displayed value is the 'actual' one or the 'target' one that e.g. an autopilot will try to achieve. Usually this is done by consistent use of colour. That said, all controls that directly affect operation will be hardware ones, not items in a menu or toolbar. Displays such as the PFD and NAV panels are just displays and not used for input. The only exception to that would be the MCDUs - the things in the central pedestal between the pilots that look like a 'calculator on steroids'. These provide an interface to almost everything in a modern aircraft. Recent models actually have a trackball and are used much like a conventional PC application. But they are for setup and information lookup only. There are two important aspects of user interface design in a modern 'glass cockpit', and they can be at odds: * Maintain situational awareness. Automation is fine but the pilots need to aware of what it is doing at all times. This can be quite complex. * Avoiding information overload in emergency conditions. Pilots are trained to prioritise and divide their tasks, but this can still be a problem, and a lot of research is done to avoid it. Ciao, -- FA

On Tue, Jun 07, 2022 at 02:15:12PM +0100, Will Godfrey wrote: :-) A good example of the 'identical items arranged in a line' which I mentioned before. It's by no means the only one which gets about everything wrong. Just have a look at <https://www.audiopluginsforfree.com/linux/>. Ciao, -- FA