Workflows and individual differences during visually guided routine tasks in a road traffic management control room

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Ergonomics
• Traffic Management Systems

Background:

• Control room operators manage complex information on multiple displays.
• Previous research indicates inconsistent use of visual information across domains.
• Understanding observer behavior is crucial for optimizing control room design and operator performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate observer behavior in a road traffic control room.
• To analyze operator workflow and visual information sampling during incident response.
• To identify individual differences in information use and task prioritization.

Main Methods:

• Field study conducted in a live road traffic control room.
• Five operators participated, equipped with mobile eye trackers.
• Ergonomics methods used for qualitative workflow analysis and quantitative visual sampling.

Main Results:

• Individual operators exhibited distinct preferences for visual information sources and task weighting.
• A strong correlation was observed between eye and head movements.
• Quantitative metrics for visual sampling behavior were developed.

Conclusions:

• Operator visual behavior in road traffic control is individualized.
• Proposed eye-tracking metrics can facilitate cross-domain comparisons of visual sampling.
• Findings contribute to a better understanding of human factors in complex control environments.