Slaying the SA-Demons – Humans vs. Technology – A Content analysis

Abstract

This paper examines Situation Awareness (SA) and the application of Endsley’s SA-Demons in different contexts and research areas. We perform content analysis to examine how they are used, and to what degree they are perceived as stemming from human-error or weaknesses in technology and if any suggestions for mitigation are primarily focused on the human or the technology side. Based on our findings, we propose Universal Design as a tool that can counter the effects of the SA-Demons by improving the usability and accessibility of SA-supporting technology and thereby removing barriers to SA, rather than challenging the users to overcome not only barriers that are a result of the complexity of the situation itself, but also additional barriers that are caused by inferior and suboptimal design of the technology in use.