Animation: What's Essential for Effective Communication of Military Simulation Model Operation?

This research was sponsored by the Logistics Studies and Analysis Division of Headquarters Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (HQ AFOTEC/SAL), Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. They desired to see how animation could be used in the model validation process and in communicating a model to senior leadership. In order to address their question, we initiated this research in the overall con text of using animation to establish a model's face validity. However, we concluded that the research should begin with more basic issue: what aspects of animation best communicate the operation of a simulation model. Three aspects of animation (movement, color, and detail of icons) were looked at individually and in combination. The ability to communicate was measured both subjectively and objectively. This paper presents the results of the objective measures. There were seven different scenarios containing various problems with the system. The objective measures were subject problem identification accuracy and time delay of problem identification. The results showed that movement was the most important aspect. The subjects performed equally well for all the animations with movement and, when there was no movement, the subjects' performance dropped equally.