Brian Moon - Perigean Technologies

CHALLENGE:

The Situation Room is a 24/7 meeting place for sensitive information flowing into and out of the White House. Established during the Kennedy Administration, the 5,525-square-foot conference room and intelligence management center in the basement of the West Wing, has undergone periodic architectural and technology upgrades – endeavors challenged by the historic nature of the building.

SOLUTION:

Over the course of several weeks in 2006, our CTO conducted ethnographic observations of the cognitive work and workflows enabled (and hampered) by the arrangements of functions, roles, and technologies, and supported in-depth interviews of personnel working in the environment.

OUTCOME:

We provided an in-depth look at the cognitive complexity, software and information requirements, and unique contextual challenges. The findings enabled a gifted team of designers to envision new layouts, furnishings, and constructions to modernize this important workspace.

See pictures!

CHALLENGE:

The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,293 health care facilities, including 171 medical centers and 1,112 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year. Understanding the cognitive challenges for clinicians working in such a diverse ecosystem of tools, people and processes, requires efficient methods tuned for uncovering cognitive performance.

SOLUTION:

Sponsored by VHA, our team conducted 60 cognitive task analysis interviews across 7 VHA facilities in just a few months.

OUTCOME:

We provided an in-depth look at the cognitive complexity, software and information requirements, and unique contextual challenges faced by VHA clinicians, uncovering findings that had never been reported in the literature. The findings helped develop guidelines for clinical decision support tools.

See the work

CHALLENGE:

While structured analytic techniques in the intelligence community have received mixed reviews, there are demonstrated advantages to helping analysts brainstorm and reason through complex problem sets with flexible software tools built for purpose. This challenge was about designing such tools to enhance – not hinder – the analytic process.

SOLUTION:

We supported smart software development teams from General Dynamics in developing a series of tools to support structured brainstorming, indicator analysis, and risk management. Our contributions included interface design, usability testing, and instructional resources.

OUTCOME:

Our tools remain in use today in the U.S. Intelligence Community.

What we know DOESN’T work for analysis

CHALLENGE:

The primary goals of the AACUS Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) program were:

The development of advanced autonomous capabilities to enable rapid cargo delivery by unmanned, and potentially optionally-manned, Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) systems – i.e., helicopters.
To enable any Marine to supervise this capability from an intuitive, hand-held, field interface.
To enable specialists to plan and execute multiple, simultaneous missions for these full-size, autonomous helicopters.

SOLUTION:

Through extensive cognitive systems engineering efforts, we supported the development of first-of-their-kind software system interfaces for Marines engaging AACUS in the field and supervising from rear bases.

OUTCOME:

The AACUS system was recognized with numerous awards for innovation, including the Howard Hughes Award given by the American Helicopter Society (win) and the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy (finalist).

Read all about it

Author: Brian Moon

White House Situation Room

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Veterans Health Administration

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Structured Analysis for Intelligence

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Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS)

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