Usability Evaluation For Software Interface Of Electronic Chart Display And Information System

Marine navigation technology is advancing with booming ship industry.Electronic Chart Display and Information System(ECDIS),being the important part of integrated bridge automated navigation information system,relates directly its software interface design to the cognitive efficiency of the crew and the safety of navigation.This thesis is attempting to upgrade software interface usability through designing and evaluation of ECDIS interface.Firstly,the term of usability is defined and analyzed.Three aspects of design principles that are linear layout,semiotic meaning,color psychology;and design procedures of software interface usability are concluded.The design criteria of ECDIS interface is induced based on current studies of design criteria.Secondly,conventional methods of software usability evaluation are analyzed and differentiated,based on which the subjective and objective evaluation methods are confirmed.Evaluation criteria and evaluation procedure are established regarding objective evaluation of eye-movement usability test.Besides,Chinese version of subjective evaluation in SUMI survey is developed,and the corresponding evaluation criteria are raised.Then,original ECDIS interface is evaluation by eye-movement usability testing and SUMI survey.Thirdly,navigation function in ECDIS interface is designed,of which the main interface,shortcut button,submenu bar,and floating window factors are going through respective color pattern design in daytime,dawn,and night.Axure is applied to achieve design and interaction of ECDIS interface prototype.Eventually,eye-movement usability test and SUMI survey are used to run the usability test of optimized ECDIS design prototype.The comparative analysis of which would validate that the optimized ECDIS interface in this thesis excels the original ECDIS interfaces from both subjective and objective aspects.