A Human-Centered Approach to Radar Maintenance : Applying usability principles to evaluate and improve service and repair

Sammanfattning

This master thesis has been made with Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with Saab AB to research and improve the usability in the Giraffe 1X radar in service and reparation. In these worrying times, security and protection is inhigh priority, the threat of flying targets and their location is therefore of high interest. Giraffe 1X have the ability to fulfill this need continuously, although the need for service and repairs occurs. Increasing the usability of the product in service scenarios, would reduce the risk of failure by human factors, reduce operators training time, and imply faster service and repairs. We have cooperated with Saab to map the existing usability challenges, as well as to identify areas with potential for further improvement. Based on these challenges, they were addressed and examined to determine what would lead to the most effective improvements, and subsequently, design proposals were developed to eliminate these challenges. These design proposals are intended to be easily integrated into today’s product, but also include suggestions that could be implemented in future products. A more concise and focused formulation can be found in the following researchquestions: 1. What are the current usability issues, regarding repairability andassembly of the radar components? 2. How can we, with relatively small means, effectively increase theusability and make the product more intuitive to use? 3. How can design solutions be effectively integrated into the existingproduct? The thesis follows a six-phase process designed to promote user-centered product development. The work began with a contextual investigation of the product’s components and functions. In parallel, usability challenges were identified through interactions with users, from which primarily qualitative, but also some quantitative, data were collected. This information was then analyzed, and design proposals were developed. After careful consideration in consultation with experts, it was concluded that a communicative toolkit with associated icons for the radar interface was of particular interest. Several prototypes were developed using various materials, both for the functional design of the toolkit and for different icon systems. These tools and their design were evaluated and tested, along with conceptual suggestions for integration into both current and future radar systems.