This is an example of the Drill-down information arrangement, used for interactive search. It enables the operators to cope with the limited capacity of the short-term memory.

In a drill-down design we organize the information is groups, according to the operational tasks. At any time, only part of the information, relevant to the operational stage, is displayed on screen. The operational stage is elicited from the recent selection.

  This kind of information organization enables the operator to easily get oriented in unfamiliar situations, such as troubleshooting or rescuing from an unpredictable situation, because at each stage, it eliminates irrelevant information items.

  It is not adequate to routine operation, in which the operators need fast access to many task-relevant information items.

Updated on 12 Dec 2016.