http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/user_experience/past_issues/2008-4.html

Magazine article, 2008

Increased shipping at higher speeds will be the result of growing industrialization and increasing world trade. In spite of all the electronic navigation devices on a modern ship’s bridge, bridge crews sometimes lose their orientation. Reasons for this might be excessive cognitive workload caused by fatigue, short decision times due to high speed, or too many instruments to read and integrate. An information design research project focusing on cognitive off-loading has allowed us to evaluate different ways of displaying navigational information. Traditionally, electronic charts and radars onboard are displayed in a north-up orientation. On south-bound courses, this requires mental rotations to align the chart or radar image with the real world. Research shows that mental rotations take time and are a possible source of error. This article presents an alternative way of displaying maps in driving situations to reduce errors.