Role
UX research, display design
Team
Team of five
Timeline
Fall 2024
Tools
Figma, Miro, Illustrator
One station, three control units: the navigator’s case, the payload operator’s dual-screen case and the pilot’s handheld, each carrying only what its role needs.
At a glance
A graduate human factors project for HSE 542 at Arizona State University, fall 2024. Five of us shared the research, the display concepts and the ergonomic analysis.
Method
Nothing drawn before it was measured
The mission broke into tasks, the tasks into three roles, and the workspace was sized to the 5th through 95th percentile instead of an average.
Output
Four screens, three controllers, one shift plan
Fifteen display principles shape the screens, one alert scheme covers every role, and ten hours of work sit inside a twelve-hour shift.
Status
Never built, never deployed
Coursework, presented in class. There are no measured outcomes, and no operator has used any of it.
01 · Problem
UAVs monitor soil health, irrigation and crop condition, and most of the flying is automated. The screens, the seat, the controls and the shift schedule decide whether an operator still reads a sensor anomaly correctly at hour ten.
Five ways the workstation works against the operator, from secondary research and a review of existing ground control stations
Body
Fixed seating
Seating and reach are set around an average body and held for twelve hours, so musculoskeletal strain follows.
Display
Overload
Every role is shown everything, so what matters competes with what does not.
Hands
One size
Controls ignore the range of hand sizes and reach that will use them.
Fatigue
No recovery
Shifts run long and breaks are taken when there is a gap, not scheduled against fatigue.
Station
Fixed layout
The station cannot be reconfigured for a different mission, crew size or role split.
How might we
02 · Research
We walked the mission from pre-flight through survey to data handoff, and asked what each person needs in front of them at the moment they decide. The concept gave one VTOL airframe seven jobs.
What this research was
Secondary research, a review of existing ground control stations, the human factors literature and anthropometric tables. We did not interview or observe UAV operators.
03 · Roles
Each role got a purpose-built screen instead of a filtered view of a shared one. The payload operator is the only role with two.
Flight
Pilot
Works outside, standing or seated, with a handheld controller: a heads-up display, haptic feedback in the sticks and an emergency override.
One screen, on the handheld
Route
Navigator
Sits inside at a large adjustable monitor with a real-time map and a colour-coded control panel, built for route planning and waypoints.
One large screen, in a case with a keyboard
Sensors
Payload operator
Sits inside with dual screens, live feeds on one and analysis on the other, with heat maps and colour gradients to read crop health.
Two screens, in a dual-screen case
04 · Principles
The course textbook groups fifteen display design principles under attention, perception, memory and mental models. We used them as a checklist for every screen.
05 · Blocking
We blocked out every screen by hand before anyone opened Figma. Where the camera view sits relative to the map is a layout question, and paper answers it fastest.
Screen blocking by hand for all four screens. The payload operator’s second screen was settled here, before anyone opened Figma.
06 · Decision 01
Filtering one shared screen is cheaper, and most ground control software does it. It also leaves unused controls on the glass to look past while deciding.
Pilot. Live camera view dominant, telemetry banked right, satellite map and alerts along the base, and the controller mirrored bottom right so hand and screen agree.
Navigator. The satellite view takes the primary position, the camera drops to a reference view on the right, and route information runs along the bottom.
Payload operator, screen one. Capture controls and the object detection radar, with pan and tilt under the camera view instead of in a menu.
Payload operator, screen two. Sensor bands and crop health readings are why this role needs a second display and the other two do not.
07 · Decision 02
A yellow warning is something the operator should notice. A red alert interrupts, with its own icon and a tint across the view. The serious ones also have a sound, so they land when the operator is looking elsewhere.
Pilot. A warning the operator should notice, then an alert that interrupts.
Navigator. The same two levels, so an operator can move between stations without relearning them.
Payload operator. Sensor and capture failures use the same two levels instead of a third one for data problems.
08 · Decision 03
We split every role’s work into what the system handles and what the operator keeps. Automation takes the difficult, tedious or dangerous tasks. Judgement, emergencies and the final payload release stay with a person.
What it costs
Automation brings its own failure modes. The deck names three to design against: trust and reliability, complacency, and mode confusion. That is why a manual and autopilot switch sits on every role’s screen.
09 · Decision 04
Each controller was laid out with seven control arrangement principles. Haptic feedback in the control sticks marks the limits of the flight envelope, and an emergency override sits on the pilot’s handheld.
Pilot. Mode switches sit where a glance can confirm them, and customisable buttons carry the captures a pilot repeats all shift.
Navigator. More map work, fewer live controls. Zoom and view controls sit within reach of both hands.
Payload operator. Camera and deployment controls take the dominant positions, with the emergency switch in a fixed place.
Seven control arrangement principles, as applied to the pilot’s controller
Frequency of use
The joystick for camera and drone sits under the thumb.
Importance
Altitude is centred. Battery sits on the edge.
Sequence of use
Camera and satellite view switches sit side by side.
Consistency
Mode and camera controls stay in the same place.
Control-display compatibility
The joystick sits next to the display it moves.
Clutter avoidance
Space around the joystick and toggles prevents accidental presses.
Functional grouping
Flight controls are grouped apart from navigation and camera controls.
10 · Decision 05
We worked two body dimensions across the 5th to 95th percentile and turned them into adjustment ranges: seated eye height for the displays and grip breadth for the controls. The chair follows the same rule.
The chair, labelled with its ranges: mid-back height 18 to 20 inches, lumbar support 6 to 10, armrests 7 to 10 above the seat and foldable, seat depth 14 to 16, width 17 to 19.
Seat
Adjustable chair
Seat height adjusts from 12 to 20 inches, and depth, width and backrest tilt adjust too, so no single posture is fixed.
Back
Lumbar sized to the range
A curve set for the mean is wrong at both tails, so the lumbar support moves through 6 to 10 inches.
Front edge
Waterfall seat edge
A rounded front edge reduces pressure behind the knee across a twelve-hour seated shift.
Mount
Built for a moving station
Shock absorption and vibration damping, locking casters, a swivel lock and a seat belt for transit.
11 · Workspace
The station is housed in a large vehicle, such as a bus, so it can set up at different mission sites. The navigator and the payload operator work inside. The pilot works outside with the handheld controller.
The control centre as a vehicle, a team render.
A three-seat station layout, from the same boards.
Modular
Adjustable by design
Flexible monitor mounts, ergonomic seating and managed cable runs, so each operator can set up their own station.
Communication
One crew, one channel
An integrated intercom and digital systems for real-time coordination between the three roles.
Environment
Comfort for long shifts
Climate control and noise insulation inside the vehicle.
Portability
Quick to deploy
Fast to set up and reconfigure at a new mission site.
12 · Shift
A twelve-hour shift holds ten hours of work in 90-minute blocks, five 15-minute walking breaks and a 45-minute extended break at 1:00. We estimated energy use for the whole shift at about 1,279 kcal.
What the schedule follows
Four principles from the deck: work capacity and body fatigue, energy expenditure, environmental conditions, and job rotation with breaks spread across the day. The 15-minute breaks are for walking, and the 45-minute break mixes sitting, standing and walking.
13 · Shared picture
Next to the role screens, a common operating picture puts the map, drone status, live feeds, multispectral analysis and alerts in one dashboard, so the pilot, navigator and payload operator work from the same view.
14 · Process
Five people, one semester, one final presentation. Research and blocking came first, then screens and controllers, then the body, the shift and the alerts.
Figma
Miro
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Google Docs15 · Outcomes
This was coursework, so there is no adoption or performance number to report. This section counts what the project made and says what it did not do.
Not tested
No operator ever used it
Everything rests on anthropometric tables, published display principles and task analysis rather than on watching someone fly a survey.
Sample data
The percentiles use sample values
The eye height and grip calculations use the sample means and deviations in the deck, not measurements of real operators.
Shared work
Team credit
Five people shared the research, the screens and the analysis. This page does not split out individual authorship.
16 · Reflection
On screen you can move a panel and call the problem solved. A chair either fits the operator or it does not, and that kept our decisions honest.
Would defend
Three screens, not one configurable one
Filtering is cheaper, and it is what most ground control software does. It also leaves unused controls on the glass to look past while deciding.
Next time
Watch a body under pressure
Anthropometric data tells you what fits, not what gets reached for under pressure. That is the gap I would close first, with operators in a mock station.
What I kept
