Modeling handheld usability for military-based devices

Handheld devices are a ubiquitous part of life for individuals in the armed services. Unfortunately, developing mobile devices for military applications is a challenge. Developers have many factors to consider, such as performance, efficiency, and safety. Adoption rates for mobile military devices are slow as soldiers are reluctant to use a new and untested interface when life critical decisions are being made. Whereas civilian devices have the luxury to sacrifice usability over other attributes, a poor interface in the military domain can cost lives. It is therefore paramount to measure, prototype, and understand the interface design early in a military project life-cycle to insure user acceptance and optimize user performance. The problem is that usability evaluation can be expensive in terms of time and human resources. While guidelines and standards do exist in the military domain, they are usually only considered as the product is built, not during the design phase. Military devices typically do not receive rigorous user testing until after they are deployed to the field. Modeling usability is therefore a promising way to augment the existing life-cycle with minimal impact to cost and a greater improvement to the end product. This paper presents an approach to usability modeling and evaluation in the military environment through the use of a simulation tool to mimic the real-world usage of these devices. This virtualization tool will allow developers to easily see what the product will look like, how a soldier might interact with it, and how well it conforms to existing guidelines and standards.