VIPER Mission Displays
Because I worked on the VIPER Mission as a UX designer, I spent some time using Open MCT to create the mission displays that were to be used by operators during the mission. These displays would be used 24/7 at the NASA Ames Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC)– the mission control center at Ames that is responsible for conducting VIPER .
BACKGROUND.
The use case for this task was the mission operators for VIPER. However, the designs for these displays varied depending on the team I was working with. For example, the needs and goals for designing a display for the an engineer on the Systems team were vastly different from somebody on the Science team.
USE CASE.
The main challenge I faced was the fact that these displays were very data-heavy. Some mission control displays used more 100 different telemetry points. I needed to design the displays in a way that were organized well, concise and not too overwhelming, and easy to parse. On top of that, some of the displays I designed were projected on a standard desktop display of 19 x 40 inches– which ended up getting very cluttered, very quickly.
THE CHALLENGE.
To reiterate, these were the goals that I had to accomplish while designing these displays:
THE GOAL.
Organize telemetry points in a way that they make sense to the mission operator during the mission.
Organize the displays in a way that it is easy to parse, and easy to identify a telemetry point without having to search for it too long. This also means, make the display look as uncluttered as possible.
Possibly fit hundreds of telemetry points into a standard dekstop screen size of 19 x 40 inches.
Before I could begin designing these displays, I had to meet with each of the mission personnel that I was designing these displays for.
I had to understand their goal with the display.
RESEARCH.
(1)
What activity of VIPER is this being used for? What is the story or goal we are trying to accomplish with this display?
(2)
Where in the MMOC is this display going to be used? Will this be projected on the large screens, or one of the desktop screens, and will it be located on the main monitor or one of the wing monitors?
On this page, I will focus on the design process for only one of these displays. I worked with the Lead Mission Systems Engineer to develop a complex mission display that was to be used for all activities of the rover. These were a few of his expected responsibilities during the mission:
Check the rover's health and status.
Configure the rover's settings.
Monitor and attend to any errors being triggered by the rover.
Maintain mission situational awareness.
Initial wireframe to organize telemetry points
After gathering information about the goal of this display and understanding all the different telemetry points that would constitute this display, I was able to sketch up a basic wireframe that organized all the mission data.
Looks pretty organized, right? Well, that's because this doesn't show the over 100 telemetry points that needed to fit in it.
After getting the initial wireframes and organization established, I needed to figure out a way to fit all of the mission data into these colored boxes, in a way that didn't give the Systems Engineer a migraine from reading all these numbers and letters.
The worst possible design would've been to simply stub in the raw data into these displays, and hope that the Engineer would be able to find the exact data point he needed. I mean, it would essentially be no different than providing him with an Excel Spreadsheet of mission data and telling him to parse that.
So, I looked into Open MCT's incredible features to try and find a more visual solution. I scoped out which types of data would be the most useful in visualizing, rather than reading raw numbers and began my work.
DESIGN PROCESS.
V1.0 of Mission Systems Display
NOTE: Due to NASA Confidentiality Standards, many aspects of the design have been redacted.
Some key notes to point out about how I came up with this design:
After completing this first version of the design, the Engineer and I actually ended up discussing that this display would be better fit for a wing monitor in the MMOC. This meant that I had to take my design and make it fit in a more vertical space.
I used Open MCT Gauge capability in order to visualize data better.
I also used Open MCT Tabs layout capability to declutter the mission display and to organize data more efficiently. This would also make it convenient to temporarily "hide" some data, if it is not needed at that specific moment.
I also designed some graphics, such as the Sun Angle and Battery graphics, to help visualize the data better. It is a lot easier to look at a graphic and understand how much charge the rover has, or where the sun's position is in respect to the rover, rather than reading numbers.
I used colors such as green, red, and others for the status indicators. It is visually easier to see if a system is in good or bad shape. Colors can help bring attention to errors a lot faster, rather than parsing the display, looking for errors or warnings.
This is the final design for the Mission Systems Display that will be used during the mission. It will be placed on a wing (vertical) monitor at the Engineer's console desk in the NASA Ames Mission Control Room.
FINAL DESIGN.
Final Mission System Display that will be used for VIPER during flight.
NOTE: Due to NASA Confidentiality Standards, many aspects of the design have been redacted.
Final Feature Notes:
Use of graphics to visualize data to maintain situational awareness (e.g, battery, sun angle, rover graphics)
Used tabs in a lot of areas to de-clutter the layouts. Data that were put in tabs were strategically organized to ensure that we weren't hiding data that was needed to be visible at all times, and such that the data was grouped well..
Use of round and vertical gauges to visualize data that relied heavily on looking at minimums and maximums.
Use of colors (e.g., red, yellow, and green) for status and error/warning indicators. It made it easier for mission operators to easily notice when an error had been triggered.