Evaluating the usage, utility and usability of Web-Technologies to facilitate knowledge sharing

In order to facilitate knowledge sharing in military command centers, the Command 21 research program has created a large shared display – a “Knowledge Wall ” (KW) – that brings together mission relevant information on a shared display. An initial KW prototype was implemented for senior staff during the Global 2000 War Game. In order to assess how well this prototype performed, a usage, utility, and usability evaluation of the KW was performed as it was employed at Global 2000. Data was collected in a minimally-invasive fashion. It included informal observations of KW user behaviors and comments. Further, data was collected automatically by the KW application software. The results of the evaluation suggested that the initial KW prototype adequately supported most of the 14 user requirements identified in a previous cognitive task analysis (Smallman, Oonk & Moore, 2001) and that users preferred it to other that was made available to them in the past. The information products provided the KW users with an integrated summary of the operational picture and allowed them to navigate through the knowledge web to get more detailed information. However, several issues were identified, including those related to usability of the KW and providing cognitive support to users, which need be addressed by in future KW designs. 1