Annotation functionalities to enable an improved use of digital technical publication

1
Annotation functionalities to enable an
improveduse of digital technical publication

• Yves Keraron yves.keraron_at_irccyn.ec-nantes.fr
• Alain Bernard alain.bernard_at_irccyn.ec-nantes.fr
• Bruno Bachimont bruno.bachimont_at_utc.fr

2
Contents

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Theoretical framework and research hypotheses
• Description of the study
• Context
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion and perspectives
• Conclusion

3
Introduction

• Focus on the use of digital technical publication
  in the field of maintenance of complex systems
• Published works on annotation issues
• Various fields,
• No work published on the use of electronic
  technical documentation at a large scale.
• Study of the operational practices on an airbase.
• Interest of public annotations to share rapidly
  information updates.
• Questions about personal annotations, types of
  document,
• What is a digital annotation? Typology of
  annotations.

4
Motivation

• Edition, management processes
• Modularity,
• Structure,
• Organization
• Publication process
• Needs of operation and maintenance.
• Use and updating processes
• Use efficiency?
• Light tools,
• Long time for new issues,
• Little help for content appropriation.

5
Theoretical framework and research hypotheses

• Document as  form ,  sign  and  relation .
  R.T. Pédauque,
• Document structures organization, control and
  interaction structures.B. Bachimont and S.
  Crozat.
• We propose to verify the 3 following hypotheses
• H1 Tools are not adapted to the variety of work
  situations,
• H2 Digital tools are still not adapted to the
  consultation of some types of content,
• H3 Interaction tools should be more developed,
  helpful and therefore used when available.

6
S1000D

• International specification edited by ASD and AIA
• Basic principles
• Modular approach
• Matrix structure of information
• Based on technological standards
• Basic concepts

Publication
Use
Edition
CSDB
DM
7
Data module structure
Identification and status section
Common
Specific
Content section
8
Rafale CSDB

• S1000D 1.7 as a basis,
• 83 517 DM stored in the CSDB (november 2005),
• 28 219 active DM at their last issue number.
• With the same CSDB it is possible to produce the
  documentation of different types of aircraft and
  even for each aircraft,
• In comparison with the previous aircraft Mirage 2
  000, we have
• 5 versions of the aircraft,
• 145 volumes of paper documentation for each type
  of aircraft,
• Almost impossibility to produce a publication for
  each aircraft.

9
Information type codification
10
The Electronic Consulting System

• Consultation of the ECS compulsory before any
  operation.
• Main features
• Consultation on networks or on stand alone
  platforms,
• Exploration through lists, research, history,
  bookmarks and annotations,
• Filters to get the publication specific to an
  aircraft type,
• Personalization functions
• Bookmarks,
• Annotations,
• Preferences,
• Domains.
• Possibility to create local or global contexts
• Integrated tool of comment for module change
  and updating.
• A comment includes
• Source and data module identification which are
  partly automatically filled,
• Content where image of the documentation (texts
  or illustrations) can be pasted and annotated,
• Part for additional comments.
• 700 users in the French Navy (Landivisiau Base
  and Aircraft carrier)

11
Organizational context
Navy headquarters
Approval
Diffusion of new revisions
Updating from in use comments
Idea Sharing of comments through annotations
Use
Very long time for the revision process
12
Methodology (1)

• Introduction of electronic documentation has been
  a radical change,
• Qualitative methods of collecting data,
• Half-directed interviews on the use of the ECS,
• Information retrieval mode,
• Use or not of personal bookmarks and annotations,
• Edition of comments,
• Use of paper prints,
• Difficulties,
• Ideas of improvements.

13
Methodology (2)

• Interviewed people
• The commandant of the aeronautical group,
• 2 users of the Digital Documentation Workshop in
  charge of the management of the comments and of
  the annotations of the global context,
• 7 maintenance operators located in workshops for
  maintenance and repair (level 1 and 2 of
  maintenance)
• 7 maintenance operators implied in maintenance
  tasks of level 1 on the aircraft in service.
• Record and complete transcription of 10
  interviews concerning 12 people

14
Codification of the work situations

• On aircraft S1
• S11 on the ground besides the aircraft,
• S12 inside the aircraft, a situation where the
  working place is small,
• S13 outside the plane, for instance on an aisle.
• In workshop S2
• S21 in a hall,
• S22 in a specialized workshop. Some of these
  environments must be protected against explosion
  risk or electromagnetic interferences.
• In office S3

15
Other codes

• Support for use
• Use direct on screen U1,
• Desktop computer U11,
• Mobile device,
• Robust laptop computer U12,
• Laptop computer U13,
• 8 inches tablet PC U14.
• Use of a printed-paper copy U2.
• Experience level
• Beginners B,
• Confirmed C,
• Experts E

16
Results (1)
17
Results (2)
18
Results (2)

• Main lessons
• A third of the users use generally paper,
• 100 of the users use more or less paper,
• As an example, paper is always used to find out a
  failure on a wiring diagram,
• The beginners use key-words to retrieve
  information which is rather inefficient in this
  case.
• Concerning the annotation issues
• No use of electronic personal bookmarks or
  annotations,
• Personal paper annotations are written by at
  least 40 of the users

19
Analysis and interpretation

• Annotations on paper observed in the following
  cases
• Edition of summary of the documentation,
• Study of adaptation of a test to a specific test
  platform,
• Change of a complex calculation because of
  different units used in the documentation and in
  the workshop,
• Failure research on wiring diagrams.
• First typology of annotations
• For correction Public annotation,
• For appropriation Paper annotation.

20
Study in Air Forces-Preliminary lessons

• 16 interviews with 20 maintenance operators and
  one pilot,
• Mainly records during operations or training on
  the aircraft,
• One year feedback on the use of the ECS,
• Same teams for level 1 and level 2 of
  maintenance,
• Availability of 8 inches PC tablet preferred for
  consultation of procedural information of level 1
  tasks,
• Laptop preferred as soon as the consultation of
  illustrated part catalogs is needed,
• Dissatisfaction with the architecture of the
  publications,
• No use of the personalization features,
• Lack of operational training,
• Complexity of the interface.
• Use of public annotations in project,
• Otherwise same features as in the Navy.

21
What is a digital annotation?
Attachment to the support
Revision
Annotation
Comment
Annotation should be considered as a perceptible
modification in context of the consultation
support
Bookmark
22
Paper annotation/electronic comment
23
Typology of documents and typology of annotation
24
Text/graphics and new trends

• Text/graphics
• Text often polysemic.
• Technical graphics generally monosemic, high
  communication efficiency.
• New trends
• Digital helps change the use of documentation,
  e.g.
• Interactive performance and calculation software,
• Fault isolation in wiring with the help of a data
  base.
• Open issue procedural text versus animated
  technical graphics.
• Annotation remains a steady need for the use of
  digital documentation.

25
Conclusion

• In site observation of the use of electronic
  documentation at large scale brings interesting
  lessons,
• Detailed analysis of operational situations
  should be more developed in order to better
  define the control and the interaction structures
  needed for the digital documentation,
• The under instrumentation of reading activities
  jeopardizes the interest of electronic
  repositories,
• Digital annotations allow a rapid sharing of
  updated information,
• Nevertheless, organizations have to be adapted to
  the new means,
• Different types of digital annotation should be
  more precisely defined according to their
  specific main function.