To put it simply, synchronous communication with sustained latency will represent a paradigm shift for NASA, and specifically for astronauts. They've dealt with communication blackouts, but no one has ever experienced a 20 minute time delay on a consistent basis.
/ Playbook
Playbook is a mobile web based schedule and planning tool currently used in operation by NASA spaceflight analog missions. Originally developed as a plan viewer, it was extended significantly in 2014 to become a tool used to enable crew autonomy.
The features and capabilities of Playbook are necessary as we prepare in the spaceflight domain for future deep space missions, where traditional mission control tasks will need to shift to the crew. Shifting these tasks is challenging, as the current roles of mission control are handled by teams of people (100+ in total), where the number of crew onboard may be on the order of 4-6.
/ Mental Model
Currently we experience 2 main mental models for communication: Sequential Model and Tree Model.
Our new mental model combines elements of both sequential and tree together.
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It first takes the Tree modeland structures messages around topics or repliesThen it takes an adaptation of the sequential model,and considers when a message is sent and delivered.So this model doesn’t only consider the past and current aspects of time, but the future too.
/ Playbook Overview
/ Feature: Adjustable User Interface
it's necessary to give users the flexibility to adjust their view
With an adjustable UI, the space taken up by the chat screen and allow users to focus on the conversation without being distracted by other crew members’ calendars.
/ Feature: Centerline & Aether
Brining time to the Forefront of the conversation
With time-delay, understanding where a message is crucial. By putting all messages on one center line that represents each message in a temporal and spatial way, as well as including a space we lovingly refer to as ”The Aether”. The Aether is a visual separating for messages that are in-transit, away from, but still near, messages that are delivered already. This is where new messages will go when they are sent, and they will leave this area and go above the red line, the current time, when delivered.
/ Feature: Custom Marcus Bains Line
Understanding the Conversation with relation to time
The red line we implemented spans both the vertical timeline and the chat interface to visually tie together both timeline and chat information. There is also a synchronized scroll functionality that allows the user to scroll through both the chat and timeline simultaneously. However, the synchronized scroll feature can be “unlocked”, breaking the red line into two separate lines if the user wishes to scroll through only chat or timeline.
/ Feature: Message Actions
Connecting Messages and Actions
In conversation between Earth and Mars, context is crucial. We designed key message actions to allow for clear communication: reply, mark messages obsolete, set reminders, create to-dos, and add quick replies like “copy.”
Replies and quick replies: enable users to be able to connect their messages in action, as well as existing messages in view, to keep the conversation well informed and fluid
Reminders: allow users to set reminders from chat messages and not let important messages be forgotten
To-Dos: assists in keeping track of messages that require a specific action
Obsolete: communicates to all parties what information is irrelevant as time delay can cause new received information to cause older messages no longer useful or up to date.
/ Feature: Trace
Seeing Message through Time
An issue that is impossible to avoid given the time delay and need for conversation to occur faster than once every 20 minutes, is the inevitable “cross-over” of messages. We’ve positioned features to increase the clarity of the timings of messages, as well as introducing a troubleshooting mode, what we call “Trace.”
Carnegie Mellon University
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
AMES Research Center
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
AMES Research Center