Developing a Dashboard Interface to Display Assessment of Hazards and Risks to sUAS Flights

The Supplemental Data Services Provider-Consolidated Dashboard (SDSP-CD) is a
graphical user interface (GUI) that displays the results of predictive tools in a single
location. It is intended to be used in the preflight planning phase of an operation to allow users
to proactively assess predicted flight hazards off-line; expanding an operator’s overall
situational awareness of a flight plan and providing an opportunity for decision making and
assessing the associated risks prior to flight. Hazard data and risk predictions are informative
but can be complex to read and understand. However, presented visually and in relation to
flight parameters (such as flight path), the nature and significance of hazards become much
more evident. The SDSP-Consolidation Dashboard interface was designed to offer a means to
present the results of hazard services in an easy to-use format. Two usability studies were run
to explore what features might make a suite of hazard assessment services easy to use, and to
assess the SDSP-CD interface. The first study evaluated the presentation of information on
the GUI and the second evaluated users’ ability to understand and use the information. The
studies gathered valuable information about how users approach a hazard assessment task
and interpret information from the interface. Many suggestions were given for improving the
interface’s information display, to allow users to more quickly understand and interpret the
information being presented.