Recent ARI Research on the Data Entry Process in Battlefield Automated Systems

This paper reviews ARI research designed to improve the data entry process. The first and second section of the paper describes the data entry process in general as well as in the context of a specific battlefield automated system, the Tactical Operating System (TOS). Because it was used as an exemplar of the data entry process, TOS played an important role in the development of improved data entry procedures. The third section of the paper reviews the findings and conclusions of the many ARI research projects concerned with data entry. Among the areas covered in ARI's research program are: How to format and display data entry information; What safeguards can be developed to reduce the number of operator errors made and/or accepted by the system; What kinds of operator job aids can be developed to improve performance; How to improve operator training; How to make the system's message codes easier to use and more memorable; How to improve the design of keyboards. The fourth section of the paper reports on efforts to analyze the cause of operator errors. This section also discusses the development of a simulation of the data entry process. The simulation is intended to facilitate system design by permitting the inexpensive evaluation of alternate data entry procedures. The fifth section presents a general discussion of the problems that have been encountered by the ARI research program. Also included here is a discussion on how this program might be improved in the future. The final section of the paper summarizes the operational implications of ARI's research results.