Designing for Situation Awareness: An Approach to User-centered Design

Developed by the leading scientists in the field, Designing for Situation Awareness: An Approach to User-Centered Design, Third Edition offers a systematic and successful methodology for supporting the situation awareness (SA) of individuals and teams who work in complex and demanding environments.

Newly updated to reflect the latest research on SA, this new edition provides needed background on common SA challenges, the cognitive processes people use to form and maintain SA, and the agile design processes that the SA-Oriented Design processes can compliment. The chapters feature detailed examples of SA-Oriented Design focused on SA in driving, SA in healthcare, SA in command and control, SA in unmanned and remotely operated vehicles, and SA with augmented reality. It also includes 60 detailed design principles for engineers and designers who want to improve the SA provided by their systems based on leading research in the field, as well as 12 principles and proven approaches for developing effective SA training. Design principles focus on supporting people’s SA processes and dealing with common SA challenges, supporting an understanding of information certainty, dealing with complexity and alarms, and the effects of automation and AI on SA, as well as supporting the unique SA needs of teams.

This book will appeal to any engineer, human factors practitioner, system designer, or other professional interested in situation awareness. It will be highly pertinent to aviation engineers, military engineers, intelligence professionals, emergency management personnel, medical practitioners, air traffic controllers, automobile engineers, financial and business management workers, and power and process control room staff.

Mica R. Endsley is President of SA Technologies and is the former Chief Scientist for the United States Air Force. She has also held the positions of Visiting Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Texas Tech University. With over 40 years of experience, she is a recognized world leader in the design, development and evaluation of systems to support situation awareness and decision making in advanced systems, including aviation, air traffic control, healthcare, power, and military operations. Dr. Endsley is a Fellow and Past-President of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She received a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Debra G. Jones is the Senior Manager of Human Engineering at Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) and leads the strategic integration of human engineering across the BDS portfolio. Dr. Jones is an expert in human systems engineering with a distinguished career that includes roles as Principal Research Associate and Vice President of Operations at SA Technologies, and Principal Research Engineer and Head of the Human Engineering Branch at Georgia Tech Research Institute. She specializes in analyzing complex systems to enhance situation awareness, evaluating human performance in operational contexts, and improving tactical decision-making. Dr. Jones holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University, is a Certified Human Factors Professional, and has significantly advanced the application of human engineering principles in high-stakes environments.