Evaluating Situation Awareness Oriented
 Design Principles as a Design Tool

Abstract: In critical scenarios such as power plant management or air traffic control, human errors can have critical consequences. It is therefore a key concern that operators have a clear understanding of the situation at hand. Providing high situation awareness when designing interactive systems for these users is an important concern: many factors need to be considered to avoid hazardous conditions. Situation Awareness Oriented Design (SAOD) is a design methodology that makes use of design principles as tools to guide designers in creating or adapting systems for achieving outstanding situation awareness. This study focuses on what problems arise when using a selection of SAOD principles as the principal tool in the design process. The research was carried out using a research-through- design methodology, where SAOD principles were employed for the design of D4SH, an interactive overview system in the maritime scope of remote service centres. The results indicate four problems that might occur in the design process by using these principles. First, principles did not help in making design decisions. Second, at times they indirectly conflicted with one another when having to make a choice. Third, grounded user analysis was needed for the correct use of the principles. Fourth, in some instances principles highlighted a problem without offering a desirable solution. Therefore, the validity of principles in the various phases of design is questioned, and some implications of using the principles as a complementary design tool are suggested. In conclusion, it is argued that the problems encountered are a necessary trade-off for having a powerful framework that can be successfully used in many contexts for situation awareness.