The perceptual cognitive mapping for Missile Defense Command and Control Displays

This paper describes the process for engineering operators into the design of a Military Missile Defense Command and Control Display. It demonstrates the effectiveness of an Object Oriented Task Analysis (OOTA) process integrated with cognitive flow analysis and diagrams. The importance of using cognitive flow analysis is demonstrated by the fact that an action taken by an operator may be erroneous if the decision aiding display and underlying algorithms are not compatible with the cognitive functions of the operator. Prototyping and empirical testing of C2 displays helped verify the user cognitive flows and identify the best performing display concepts.