DESIGNING A HUMAN CENTERED INTERFACE FOR A NOVEL AGRICULTURAL MULTI-AGENT CONTROL SYSTM

Sammanfattning: The subject of this report is the Command and Control (CaCS) system which is a component whose purpose is to simplify planning, scheduling and surveying work done on a farm in a goal-oriented way. CaCS is part of a larger project, the Aggregate Farming in the Cloud platform (AFarCloud),whose purpose is to simplify the use of contemporary technology to increase the efficiency of farms. AFarCloud is an EU project spanning between 2018 to 2020 and as such, the CaCS is in its infancy. Since the intended users of AFarCloud and CaCS is small to medium sized agricultural businesses,the interface of the CaCS should be constructed in such a way that it is useful and easy to learn. In order to live up to those standards, a combination of live interviews, prototype evaluationsand a comparison with similar software were performed and then compared with the International Standard document on Human-Centered Design for Interactive Systems (ISO 9241-210). The results indicate that a modular interface, where only the information relevant for the unique user’s farm is displayed, is preferable in order to increase the usability of the CaCS. Furthermore, useof icons and explanatory text must be made in consideration of the mental models of the users in order to improve learnability and avoid confusion.