Kathryn Woodcock

Ride control interfaces

• What is the effect on speed and accuracy of ride control operation of different control panel configurations?
• How can we leverage Human Factors principles to support control interface design?

Hong, T., Woodcock, K. (2009) A human factors baseline for amusement ride control interfaces. Procedings of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists. (6 pgs.)

Human factors literature is sparse with regards to control interface design for amusement rides. The primary focus of amusement device control is speed and accuracy of control actuation in normal operation, interception of abnormal observations, and maintenance mode. General interface design principles suggest that control interfaces in directly observable processes should maintain control-response compatibility and proximity compatibility, i.e., "get the mappings right". it is not clear what "good mapping" looks like in this application, or whether current interfaces are good, adequate, or poor. This papre reports on two studies that evaluate the status quo for interfaces on amusement rides. The first study used interface-device matching as a heuristic for mapping and the second study examined a sample of amusement devices, documenting their ride actions and control interface layouts. The two studies showed that amusement ride control interfaces typically do not provide intuitive indication of ride actions, nor reflect standardization.