Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Air Traffic Control Systems

This document presents human factors issues that should be considered in the design and evaluation of air traffic control (ATC) systems and subsystems. It provides background material on the capabilities and limitations of humans as information processors and discusses in: ATC automation, computer- human interface, workstation design, workload and performance measurement, controller team formation and activities, and human factors testing and evaluation. The goal of this material is to help air traffic controllers and other operations specialists identify potential problems by alerting them to known design flaws and providing them with information as to why some design options may be undesirable or operationally unsuitable. This document presents design goals based on human factors principles, standards, and guidelines. Some of these design goals are idealistic in an ATC operational setting. They are presented so that the operations specialists can identify key human factors issues and understand the implications of compromises, and where they must be made. See slso ADA286863 and ADM000578.