Evaluation of interfaces for pilot-air traffic control data link communications

A human-in-the-loop study was conducted to examine the performance of four interface configurations for pilot-air traffic controller data link communications. For simple communications tasks, there was little difference in performance (task completion time, accuracy, and efficiency) among the four interface configurations. As the level of task difficulty increased, a dual-interface configuration with separate functionality on each interface enabled the most rapid performance, with completion times approximately 40% less than those of single-interface configurations. Single-interface configurations were also found to incur higher workload according to the NASA Task Load Index