Carl Westin

5-8 Conclusion 111 This points to an underlying issue in regards to not only transparency, but all aspects relevant to information visualization in regards to personalized conformal automation. The implication is that any personalization of automation may con- siderably depend on the interface design. Any changes made to the interface may render the personalization invalid. 5-8 Conclusion This paper has argued that as automation and in particular decision aids become more advanced, they need to communicate more information, not less. This study confirmed clear differences in participants’ perceptions of two interface representa- tions with varying transparency, with the information richer triangle representation better facilitating understanding of a conflict and options for solving it. Increased transparency achieved through the inclusion of more information, however, came at a cost reflected in the triangle display being perceived as more cluttered. Fur- thermore, results indicated differences in the use of interface representations, with the number of interface inspections decreasing, and the number of speed clearances increasing when using the triangle. However, neither conformance nor transparency significantly influenced acceptance or response time of resolution advisories. It must be acknowledged that findings in this study are susceptible to the ad- verse effects of a small sample size. Although the conclusion can be drawn that making an interface more transparent can benefit the understanding of a decision aid, the lack of strong complementary results in the real-time experiment questions the practical implications of transparency. The manipulation of transparency did not include explanations for why a certain advisory was made, as advocated by rec- ommender systems research. As such, transparency was not connected to specific advisories and did not explain why solution X was suggested in place of solution Y. Instead, drawing from ecological interface design, it was proposed that for control problems in air traffic control, this increased transparency could be achieved by providing more information on the environmental constraints and possibilities af- fecting maneuverability. Notwithstanding these limitations, this study emphasizes that design decisions about the transparency of an interface represent a balancing act. While information-rich interfaces can benefit understanding, too much infor- mation can complicate information search and processing, and potentially overload the operator with negative effects on overall system interaction.