Designing for attention with sound: challenges and extensions to ecological interface design.
OBJECTIVE
We explore whether ecological interface design (EID) principles can be applied to the design of an auditory display for anesthesia monitoring.


BACKGROUND
EID examples focus almost exclusively on visual displays. In the anesthesia work environment, however, auditory displays may provide better individual and team awareness of patient state.


METHODS
Using a work domain analysis of physiological monitoring in anesthesia, we identify information to display. Using the skills, rules, and knowledge distinction we identify cognitive control needed. Using semantic mapping we map physiological variables and constraints to auditory dimensions.


RESULTS
EID principles do not address when information should be displayed and to whom. An attentional mapping stage helps to specify answers to these questions so that a workable auditory display for anesthesia monitoring is achieved.


CONCLUSIONS
EID principles of representing work domain functional structure and minimizing resource-demanding cognitive control are necessary but insufficient to specify requirements for an effective auditory display. Also needed are analyses of control tasks, strategies, and the social organization of work. Such analyses are an integral part of the broader cognitive work analysis framework from which EID emerged.


CONCLUSIONS
Actual or potential uses of this research include the design of displays that support continuous peripheral awareness in collaborative multimodal work environments.
Watson
Marcus O
MO
The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
Sanderson
Penelope
P
D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001364:Awareness; D003626:Data Display; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000295:instrumentation; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D013016:Sound; D014584:User-Computer Interface