Usability on patrol

Abstract

The introduction of computers into police patrol cars comes with an increase in driver distraction issues. We will describe the usability process and techniques we adapted to study computers in law enforcement patrol cars. Our approach to assess the risk of driver distraction in the police vehicles was a combination of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) workload assessment protocol and cognitive modeling. This combination proved useful without the high cost of driving simulators and instrumented test subjects. Using cognitive modeling, we could identify the potential problems for certain tasks. For example, we found that automating the task of running a license plate with a typical mouse-keyboard interface, could increase the workload by more than seven hundred percent compared with doing the same task via radio contact with dispatcher. We also found measuring by glances instead of time to be a useful technique in practice.

An Application of Machine Learning for Police Mobile Computer Terminal Usability Evaluation

“…Some previous investigations also used human performance modeling to assess the usability of MCT interface. For example, in an early investigation and using Goals, Operations, Methods, and Selection rules (GOMS) modeling, Callander and Zorman (2007) found that using the MCT required significantly higher off-road glances as compared to the use of radio for the same task. In our previous study (Zahabi & Kaber, 2018a), it was found that some MCT tasks are more visually and cognitively demanding (e.g., reading plate information) while driving as compared to other MCT modules (e.g., orientation on map).…”

“…MCTs are not originally designed to be used while driving; however, due to the job requirements, many police officers confirm using the technology while the vehicle is in motion (Callander & Zorman, 2007). Prior studies found the MCT to be the most important and frequently used in-vehicle technology for police officers (Zahabi & Kaber, 2018a).…”

Deploying CogTool

“…Isolated real-world projects have used cognitive crash dummies successfully, e.g., 10 cases reported in [13], [11], [19], [6], but they have not been used extensively in UI design practice, nor well integrated into software development processes. One hypothesis about why this technique has not had more penetration into practice, despite its extensive academic validation, is that creating valid models required substantial training in cognitive psychology and computer modeling, and even after training, the modeling itself took too long to fit into software development practice.…”