Abstract

La ecología de los medios móviles ha generado parámetros fluidos para configurar la comunicación online, alterando, principalmente, la dimensión espacial y temporal y, como resultado, la delimitación en las dicotomías de las esferas pública, privada, íntima y personal. Debido a esta ecología líquida de los medios, llena de potencialidades y riesgos, la Academia ha profundizado en las principales áreas de tensión con las que lidiar: creación del perfil, identidad digital, diferentes tipos de redes sociales, los datos masivos y la huella digital. Como resultado de las conclusiones obtenidas en el proyecto Feder de la UE, Public and private in mobile communications (2013-2015), proponemos acordar un código ético internacional para el diseño de interfaces de aplicaciones, webs y plataformas, así como, específicamente, para los dispositivos móviles debido a sus desafiantes, intrínsecos y específicos rasgos y características. Abstract Mobile media ecology has raised fluid parameters to configure online communication, mainly altering space and time dimensions and, as a consequence of the alteration, the delimitation of the public, private, intimate, and personal spheres dichotomies. Due to this liquid media ecology, full of affordances and risks, Academy has delved into the main areas of tension to be dealt with: the creation of the profile, the digital identity, the different kinds of social media networks, big data, and the digital path. As a result of conclusions obtained from the EU Feder project, Public and private in mobile communications (2013-2015), we propose an international ethics code for the interface design of apps, webs, and platforms for mobile devices due to their challenging, intrinsic, and specific features and characteristics.

Abstract

The rapid advance of technologies is revolutionizing the way people work and transforming society into a digital world. In the shipping domain, many innovative technical systems have been designed and developed in the past decades, aiming to enable the maritime users to achieve the goal of safety, efficiency and effectiveness. The introduction of advanced technologies into workplaces that are intended to aid humans have also created unprecedented challenges. As their workplaces are inundated with new artefacts that cause confusion and information overloading, human users frequently find themselves in a supporting role to serve technology, being responsible for automation issues and blamed for “human errors” that sometimes result in tragic results. Today’s work in shipping is generally getting more distributed, complex and demanding. These challenges are closely associated with the design and use of technologies. Human-technology interactions in the context of sociotechnical systems has become an important research topic. It explores the relation between humans and machines to illustrate how interface design could address the human limitations, shape social interactions and provide ecological implications. This thesis considers the context of the shipping domain to investigate the impact of innovative technology, design issues and opportunities in various projects that attempt to increase safety or/and efficiency. The exploration and discourse in these applied projects are positioned in sociotechnical systems which include human, technology and organisational constituents. The thesis aims to achieve a deeper understanding of human-technology interactions from psychological, sociological and ecological perspectives, reflecting the ways in which technology interacts with humans. It aims to form a pluralistic epistemology to provide design implications and enlighten knowledge and organisational management within sociotechnical systems. The results have identified many issues related to situation awareness, attention and automation bias. It suggests the importance of adapting interfaces to the human limitations and accommodating the context change to support decision making. Perspectives of Activity Theory, distributed cognition and situated learning have high reference value in human-computer interaction research, providing insightful understanding about the nature of knowledge and interaction design, particularly how tool mediation could facilitate social interaction. In addition, technology-centric design that only concerns “user-interface” interaction is identified having significant limitations in complex systems. “Human errors” and organisational failures should be perceived via a holistic thinking. The results have presented the importance of adopting pluralistic approaches to understand the sociological factors and the nature of the work that is undergoing transitions along the shipping industry’s ecology. Overall, the thesis has identified the need to go beyond the pure cognitivist approach to better understand the complexity of human-computer interaction and human factors research, forming a deepened understanding towards an emerging interdisciplinary language of sociotechnical systems. To truly contribute to safety, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability, it is critical to develop a pluralistic epistemology and a comprehensive human-centric vision regarding design and technological innovation in the digital revolution.

Abstract

Mental workload (MWL) is one of the most widely used concepts in ergonomics and human factors and represents a topic of increasing importance. Since modern technology in many working environments imposes ever more cognitive demands upon operators while physical demands diminish, understanding how MWL impinges on performance is increasingly critical. Yet, MWL is also one of the most nebulous concepts, with numerous definitions and dimensions associated with it. Moreover, MWL research has had a tendency to focus on complex, often safety-critical systems (e.g. transport, process control). Here we provide a general overview of the current state of affairs regarding the understanding, measurement and application of MWL in the design of complex systems over the last three decades. We conclude by discussing contemporary challenges for applied research, such as the interaction between cognitive workload and physical workload, and the quantification of workload ‘redlines’ which specify when operators are approaching or exceeding their performance tolerances.