Implementing human centred design in the context of a graphical user interface redesign for ship manoeuvring

Human Centred Design (HCD) has been well-established in industrial and interaction design since the 1990's. HCD has a significant role to play as maritime industries struggle to retain the best crews and decrease risk in terms of human and environmental safety. This case study describes a test of an HCD approach, conducted within the European Commission project Crew-centred Design and Operations of Ships and Ship Systems (CyClaDes) under its Seventh Framework Programme. The HCD case study was undertaken by a design team at a partner firm for the redesign of a bridge wing conning display (a ship manoeuvring system) in their full mission ship bridge simulator. This paper summarizes the findings from the case study and discusses them from the perspective of the challenges, benefits, and most effective ways to introduce and use HCD in firms in the maritime sector unfamiliar with the concept. The authors of this paper performed observations, interviews and focus groups at regular intervals, augmented with reports and a resource survey completed by the design team. The conclusions highlight the impact of industrial context and constraints on the application of the HCD approach, as well as the impact of who applies HCD, of how it is depicted in literature and perceived by HCD-novice teams.