disagreement on others. All users were generally in agreement that the display is "easy to
learn and use," while they typically disagreed on the best way to use it.
The MDSS Display presents weather and road conditions using several presentation
techniques. Several of these techniques overlap, allowing users to customize both the
medium and the order in which data are presented to them. Techniques include:
Individual parameter values as:
1) Colored dots in the map
2) Values in the map
3) Plots in mouse-over graphs
4) Plots in click graphs
5) Tabulated values in click graphs
6) Plots in the Treatment Selector dialog
7) Plots and min/max values in the Storm Summary dialog
Computed alerts as:
8) Colored forecast areas in the state view map
9) Time bars in the upper left of the display
10) Colored route segments in the map
11) Time bars in mouse-over graphs
12) Time bars in click graphs
13) Time bars for the selected route at the bottom of the display
Treatments as:
14) Icons along a time line for the selected route at the bottom of the display
15) Icons along a time line in the Treatment Selector and Storm Summary dialogs
16) Icons along a time line and a textual list in the Treatment History dialog
Precipitation probabilities as:
17) Bar chart in the Storm Summary dialog
The different strategic requirements put on supervisors and operators, as well as
conditioned preferences for certain tools and data, result in a wide variety of approaches
to meeting the road maintenance "challenge." Because the display provides many ways to
look at the data, users fell into patterns that supported their approach. The results of
surveys with 5 garage supervisors at 3 locations are shown below. Numbers in column
headings correspond to the techniques listed above. Numbers in the cells indicate the
order of preference (and/or execution) for the different techniques.
Parameter
Alert
Treatment
User
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Supervisor
2
1
3
5
4
Supervisor
2
1
3
5
4
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