On visualizing threat evaluation configuration processes: A design proposal

Threat evaluation is concerned with estimating the intent, capability and opportunity of detected objects in relation to our own assets in an area of interest. To infer whether a target is threatening and to which degree is far from a trivial task. Expert operators have normally to their aid different support systems that analyze the incoming data and provide recommendations for actions. Since the ultimate responsibility lies in the operators, it is crucial that they trust and know how to configure and use these systems, as well as have a good understanding of their inner workings, strengths and limitations. To limit the negative effects of inadequate cooperation between the operators and their support systems, this paper presents a design proposal that aims at making the threat evaluation process more transparent. We focus on the initialization, configuration and preparation phases of the threat evaluation process, supporting the user in the analysis of the behavior of the system considering the relevant parameters involved in the threat estimations. For doing so, we follow a known design process model and we implement our suggestions in a proof-of-concept prototype that we evaluate with military expert system designers.