Simulator training is becoming increasingly important for training of time-critical and dynamic situations. Hence, how simulator training in such domains is planned, carried out and followed up becomes important. Based on a model prescribing such crucial aspects, ten decision-making training simulator facilities have been analyzed from an activity theoretical perspective. The analysis reveals several conflicts that exist between the training that is carried out and the defined training objectives. Although limitations in technology and organization are often alleviated by proficient instructors, it is concluded that there is a need for a structured approach to the design of training to be able to define the competencies and skills that ought to be trained along with relevant measurable training goals. Further, there is a need for a pedagogical model that takes the specifics of simulator training into account. Such a pedagogical model is needed to be able to evaluate the training, and would make it possible to share experiences and make comparisons between facilities in a structured manner.

This article presents the design and evaluation of visualization concepts supporting After Action Review (AAR) in simulator mission training of fast-jet fighter pilots. The visualization concepts were designed based on three key characteristics of representations: re-representation, graphical constraining, and computational offloading. The visualization concepts represent combined parameters of missile launch and threat range, the former meant to elicit discussions about the prerequisites for launching missiles, and the latter to present details of what threats a certain aircraft is facing at a specific moment. The visualization concepts were designed to: 1) perceptually and cognitively offload mental workload from participants in support of determining relevant situations to discuss; 2) re-represent parameters in a format that facilitates reading-off of crucial information; and 3) graphically constrain plausible interpretations. Through a series of workshop iterations, two visualization concepts were developed and evaluated with 11 pilots and instructors. All pilots were unanimous in their opinion that the visualization concepts should be implemented as part of the AAR. Offloading, in terms of finding interesting events in the dynamic and unique training sessions, was the most important guiding concept, while re-representation and graphical constraining enabled a more structured and grounded collaboration during the AAR.

Social media has become an integrated part of human communication, both as a means to establish and maintain social relationships, and as a means of sharing and co-creating information. Social media comes with an array of possibilities for individuals as well as organizations, corporations, and authorities. Within the field of crisis communication, social media possibilities such as online sharing and social networking have had an impact on the way crisis information is disseminated and updated. This paper addresses the issues related to using social media for communicating crisis information and broadcasting alert messages to the general population, discusses the role of social media in future pan-European crisis alerting, and presents a prototype system demonstrating the possibilities. An extensive systematic literature review was carried out to identify factors that affect the use of social media for alerting and warning. These factors were mirrored in experiences, collected through interviews, obtained by emergency management organizations in three European countries (Sweden, Czech Republic, and Spain). The factors finally form the basis for suggestions and recommendations regarding the design of technological tools for both communication and information collection to serve as an integral part of a future pan-European crisis alerting system.

This paper describes a concept and initial experiments regarding modelling and simulation as a service (MSaaS) for semi-automatic production of reports in computer assisted command post exercises (CAX). Timely and accurate information is a critical resource in decision-making. In a wartime situation information is provided to a military staff by its subordinates. In training and mission rehearsal situations, real subordinates are often not present. The lower command is acted by a small group of personnel, whose major role, in a training situation, is to create the human to human interaction with the superior command in the staff. Adequate tools for supporting this staff is crucial, since high workload and competency requirements set constraints on the amount of information objects as well as quality of the products produced, in this case produced reports. Computerized systems play an important role to fulfill this need. The aim has been to develop a tool for report generation as a service, independent of what simulation system used, in a way that the tool can generate reliable and believable textual reports as if they were produced by a human-manned staff, both in terms of their quality and quantity. Today several services, such as simulation systems for computer generated forces, are networked together in an information sharing federation. The prototype for the report generation service uses information from the federation and produces textual reports about the situations and activities in the simulated environment. These reports are expressed using standard formats and are to be automatically fed into the command and control system used by the trained staff. Initial experiments at a staff exercise demonstrate validity and usefulness of the concept. The paper discusses methodological and technical requirements, such as information needed, additional federated services, and requirements on simulation systems, and points out important issues for further investigation.

In this work we use text analysis to analyze communication on a set of Swedish immigration critic alternative media sites. Our analysis is focused on detecting narratives containing xenophobic and conspiratorial stereotypes. We are also interested in identifying differences in emotional tone and pronoun use in a comparison with traditional media. For our analysis we have used the text analysis tool LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) and a set of dictionaries made to capture a xenophobic narrative. The results show that there are significant differences between regular media and immigration critic alternative media when it comes to the use of narratives and also in the emotional tone and pronoun use.

Social media is increasingly used for all kinds of everyday communication, with vast amounts of user-generated content being continuously generated and published. The data provides a new form of information source that can be exploited for obtaining additional knowledge regarding a subset of the population. Although it might be difficult to organize and assess individual text fragments, valuable insights contributing to the overall situational awareness can also be gained through acquiring social media texts and analyzing statistical properties in the data in near real-time. One such avenue of approach which is currently being developed is to analyze the text content linguistically and extract measures regarding the overall feelings and attitudes that people express in relation to an ongoing crisis. To make use of this kind of new information requires the algorithms and the resulting statistics to be designed and presented according to operational crisis management needs. In this paper, we describe the involvement of crisis management stakeholders in a series of user-centered activities in order to understand the needs, and design a useful tool. In particular, video prototyping has been used as method for quickly capturing a first explicit design idea based on real life experience, that could later be used for further generalization and tool design.

This paper introduces Social Coverage Maps (SCM) as a visual representation of the societal impact of localized disruptions in urban areas. Incited by the recent deliberate interruption of wireless services for the purpose of crowd control in San Francisco, we focus on the use of SCMs for representing emergent effects of electronic warfare. As a prequel we discuss maps and other visualizations as representations of human behaviour and relations. The SCM concept is defined and grounded in simulation-based parameters. Using an experimental scenario based on cell phone jamming in a city we show how SCMs are generated using an agent-based population simulator. We find that Social Coverage Maps could become a useful tool for analysing emergent effects of actions and events including electronic warfare, roadblocks, smoke, teargas, chemical and radioactive contamination with applications in operational and emergency planning as well as crisis management.

Social or new media have over the past years become an integrated part of human communication, both as a means to establish and maintain social relationships, but also as a means of sharing and co-creating information. New media comes with an array of possibilities for individuals as well as organisations, corporations and authorities. Within the field of crisis communication new media possibilities, such as online sharing and social networking, has had an impact on the way crisis information is disseminated and updated. This paper addresses the issues related to using new media as a means of communicating crisis information and broadcasting alerting messages to the general population, and also discusses the role of new media in future pan-European alerting. It focuses on current and on-going research on social media for crisis communication. An extensive systematic literature review was done to identify factors that affect the use of social media for alerting and warning. These factors were mirrored in experiences, collected through interviews, in crisis communication organisations in three European regions (Sweden, Czech Republic and Spain). The factors finally form the basis for suggestions regarding the design of technological tools for both communication and information collection as part of a panEuropean alerting system.

Reflective Practitioners in a Reflective Practice : Cooperative Design and Delicate Matters

The rapid development of mobile networks and devices makes mobile communication and information increasingly multimedia enabled. More advanced technical performance combined with different mobile content and services create new contexts for business as well as end users. Interactive services and rich media also make new demands. Production and carriage of the new services is expensive and cannot rely on traditional ways of charging. One of the most burning topics in the ongoing mobile media evolution has therefore become mobile ads. The purpose of this master's project has been to elaborate a set of possible ways to include ads in a mobile instant messaging application, using a user-centred development process on a population consisting of teenagers of 15 to 19 years of age. The study has been conducted through prototyping of ad concepts based on initial expert and user research. Prototypes have been evaluated on a population consisting of senior compulsory school and upper secondary school students, seen as potential future customers. Methods used have been interview, focus group, questionnaire survey and individual think-aloud interviews. Results show a potential for the utilization of idle moments in applications, the need of extensive feedback on the ads' impact on the application, benefits of conversationally context-aware content , a need of careful use of sounds, advantages in using transparent layering and a need of proportion between ad media richness and application media richness. In addition to this, interactional properties of mobile ads are discussed. A framework called interaction overload is adopted and used to analyze modalities and context of the prototyped concepts. Preface This master's project in human-computer interaction has been commissioned by Ericsson Research , Usability & Interaction Lab, Kista, Sweden. Principal supervisor has been Cristian Norlin and valuable contributions have been made by Mikael Anneroth and Didier Chincholle. The project has been carried out in close cooperation with fellow student Anton Zidén. Work has been conducted in joint collaboration as well as separate. Empirical studies were carried out together, including recruitment, realization and transcription of data. Concept development was carried out together, lo-fi prototypes were designed by Anton and hi-fi prototypes were developed and implemented by me. All data analysis and settlement of conclusions has been carried out separately. The topics discussed during interviews and focus groups and the selection of questions for the questionnaire were the result of separate interests and purposes, thus becoming compound and interrelated. Hence, not everything presented …