Designing and Developing the NAV I/O Client

Challenge

Satellite communication test engineers need a NAV I/O (Navigational Input/Output system) to monitor large quantities of data, in real-time, from multiple sources such as; ship antennas, shore antennas, a ship simulation roll tower and communication terminals on both ship and shore.  The challenge is to present this information to the test engineers in a way it could be easily viewed and recorded.

Approach

Realtime Microsystems built a brand new system with the following aspects:

Paper Prototype

Modular Client/Server Design: Client/Server architecture that separates the data from the presentation and allows the GUI to be updated without changing any of the hardware or software on the server sub-system.

Interactive Graphic User Interface: The client sub-system runs on standard PC and Windows environment user interface.  The users are all currently familiar with this computing environment.  The NAV I/O users will be able to control the display and recording of the data through this window.

Operating Systems: The server used the Microsoft Windows CE Operating System which allows the software to be developed in languages C++ and Visual Basic rather than obscure real-time languages.

Software: A structured software engineering process was followed and clear documentation provided.  The software was developed using Microsoft  C++ and Visual Basic.

Hardware: The new NAV I/O would maximize the use of commercially off the shelf (COTS) components which would lower up front engineering cost and ensure replacement parts be available in a reasonable time frame at a reasonable price.

Ellen was responsible for all project phases of the client software such as requirements, test plan, design, test procedures and the user’s guide.    Paper prototypes were used early in the project lifecycle.

Results

The NAV I/O  software displays Antenna and Roll Tower Angles & Attitudes via analog display, digital display, recorded data.

NAV I/O Screen

Satellite engineers can control many display and recording intervals, modes & more.  Graphical display tools used: Gauges, Stripcharts (roll tower angle plotted over time).  Status Bar shows what’s on & off.

save screen

Labeling Consistently

Designing consistent labels will take you a long way in creating a consistent user experience. There’s more to consistent labels than visual presentation factors like fonts, colors and white space. Syntax is a key issue to consider. Here’s a list of some types of label syntax from Morville & Rosenfeld’s awesome book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web:

1. Verb-based labels – “grooming your dog”

2. Noun-based labels – “diets for dogs”

3. Question-based labels – “how do you paper-train your dog”

Morville and Rosenfeld recommend choosing a single syntactical approach and sticking with it.

In addition to using consistent syntax, consider these areas when creating consistent lables: Style, Presentation,  Granularity, Comprehensiveness and audience.

Monitoring Business at a Glance

A business dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more goals.  The information is arranged on one screen (or in a related set of screens) so it can be monitored at a glance.

This one’s really cool to look at,  but it takes up lots of screen space and it could be using graphics that get its point across faster.

Dashboard with Sparklines and Bullet Graphs

Here’s an example of a dashboard that can adapt itself easily to mobile access:

Understanding Dashboard Use

There’s more than one kind of a business Dashboard.  Knowing what your dashboard will be used for will help determine your design approach.   In Stephen Few’s book “Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data“, dashboards are classified by 3 main roles.  Here’s a summary:

1. Strategic – Used at the executive level to give a quick overview of system health and operation.  Don’t need to be designed for much interaction or complexity.
2. Analytic – Used by analysts to examine the underlying details to see not just what is going on, but to examine the causes.
3. Operational – Used to monitor constant changes.  Might require instant notification of issues.  Meaning of information must be extremely clear.  Details should be right there or available by drill down.