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types of incident, but third party resources – even using public networks such as SMS – must be properly integrated with the core TETRA systems and relevant IT applications.
The pace of change Te second major difficulty involves the actual speed of technological change itself and how this impacts on both the individual users and on the organizations involved. While engineers and marketing people are often keen to
add ever more functions, bells and whistles to equipment just because they can – or to differentiate themselves in crowded markets – many of these can remain largely unused. As Steve Jobs famously remarked, ‘Te trick with technology is knowing what to leave out, not what to put in’. In turn, each new interface, application and change
requires extensive training to use effectively and this can be both costly and difficult in environments with high staff reassignments and turnovers. As many companies have recognized in recent years, just
engineering alone will not resolve these problems and a multidisciplinary approach is instead required to deal with both product and system design. Motorola Solutions, in particular, places a great emphasis on what it calls ‘High Velocity Human Factors’ – specifically, how humans and machines interact at moments of high stress.
Mental ergonomics Award-winning designer at Motorola, Bruce Claxton, currently that company’s senior director responsible for design integration, explains: “Te last 30 years or so have seen a move away from just looking at basic physical ergonomic issues in handset design to encompass a far wider range of factors and disciplines – from what you might call ‘mental ergonomics’ of structuring interactive menus to applied anthropology and psychology. “When you have customers relying on your equipment
to support them in what one emergency service worker memorably called, ‘a life of boredom interspersed with moments of terror’, then it’s vital that you understand how cognitive performance changes in moments of extreme stress. Fortunately, we now have a range of scientific tools to help us get a better grip of these issues – such as the tunnel vision and stress responses that automatically kick in when even highly trained people are under threat.” Claxton continues, “In these contexts, it’s also essential to
actually send product designers out into the field so that they can fully appreciate the day-to-day realities that emergency staff face, where time to respond very often means the difference between life and death. “It’s also equally important to get the customers themselves
involved in the design process and exploit both deductive and inductive reasoning to maximize the product designer’s creativity. We regularly get groups of users together to do what we call Velcro modelling, where different product features like keypads and displays can joined together in plug-and-play ways to get a feel for an optimum device. “Interestingly, when these sessions are conducted by psychologists we often learn more about the realities of their
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Manufacturers are going to have to support a larger range of terminals. This is going to be a challenge
working days from the discussions taking place than from the actual exercise of modelling itself.”
‘Legacy thinking’ Compounding these design and usability problems still further are changes in the actual jobs that we ask our emergency service staff to do and how the TETRA industry can best respond to these fast evolving roles. As David Greneche, head of terminals and management at Cassidian explains, “Most of the TETRA terminals currently deployed essentially represent a legacy kind of thinking that evolved solutions for specific problems – such as street policing where the main communications medium was voice. “A new trend is now, however, emerging to develop much more specialized solutions for specific user-case scenarios across the different functions that the emergency services carry out. To meet this demand from user communities, manufacturers are potentially going to have to develop – and support – larger and more diverse product portfolios. Tis is going to be a challenge as far as cost containment is concerned.”
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In the view of David Greneche, the trend today is towards specialized radio terminals for specific user scenarios
It’s essential to send product designers out into the field so that they can appreciate day-to-day realities
Issue 4 2011 TE TRA TODAY
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