Formatting space-related displays to optimize expert and nonexpert user performance

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Abstract
NASA Space Station missions will include crewmembers who are highly experienced in the use of the Space Station computer system, as well as others who are novices. Previous research into novice-expert differences has strongly implied that user interface changes that aid novices tend to impair experts and vice versa. This experiment investigated the impact reformatting alphanumeric information on current Space Shuttle computer displays had on the speed and accuracy of experts and nonexperts in two different search tasks. Large improvements in speed and accuracy were found for nonexperts on the reformatted displays. Experts had fewer errors but no response time difference on the reformatted displays. Differences in expert and nonexpert search strategies and implications for the design of computer displays are discussed.

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