5 ms·

Is there a purpose to the display being so colorful? If AP were the only green thing and the others were monochrome it would stand out more.

lisper 9y ago
Some of the colors do have a rationale. The blue and brown background are actually the attitude indicator display. Blue is sky. Brown is ground. There is now an option available that renders the terrain you're over so you can "see" outside via the PFD even in clouds, e.g.: http://glasspilot.com/2008/08/is-synthetic-vision-a-game-changer/ http://glasspilot.com/2008/08/is-synthetic-vision-a-game-cha... But the other colors I think are just "because they can." There are a lot of IMHO stupid aspects of the G1000 UI design. (To be fair, the G1000 has to many features that designing a good UI for it is a real challenge.)
btgeekboy 9y ago
Most of the colors on that display have a rationale. For example, on the speed tape on the left, the white, green, and yellow colors all map to colors of a standard airspeed indicator. That the course (CRS) is green instantly tells me I'm navigating by a ground-based VOR, not GPS (which would be magenta). Same with the green diamond on the right by the altitude indicator. The waypoints at the top are all GPS-calculated, therefore also magenta. At the top, the green radio frequency is the one you'll transmit on. The blue airport icons in the Nearest page (bottom left) indicate towered airports (matching those found on standard aeronautical charts). (In case it's not obvious, I've got a few hundred hours behind the G1000. AMA.)
- FabHK 9y ago
  Do you have any opinion on the G1000 (and subsequent Garmin flight decks) vs competitors, such as Avidyne Entegra? My feeling has always been that the Garmin UI was somewhat clunky and suboptimal, possibly because they tried to keep it similar to the UI of previous smaller devices (such as the GNS 430); a bit like if the iPhone hadn't come along and we'd still scroll by putting our finger on a little arrow in a scroll bar on mobile devices. My impression was that other manufacturers had a better UI, but somehow didn't make it in the marketplace.
  - btgeekboy 9y ago
    I'm not familiar with the Entegra. I've played with stuff by Dynon and Advanced Flight Systems though. If you think the G1000 is clunky, try the Advanced system. I'm really not a fan. Perhaps it's for that exact reason (that Garmin products all work somewhat similarly), but I've been up in a friend's RV-10 with the Advanced system in it, and I find it to be much more clunky. The GTN650 keeps a bit of the GNS430 feel... and those are, in my opinion, the best parts. I hate scrolling through the alphabet by dragging my finger across the screen. I have a similar disdain for trying to select stuff in-flight on my iPad in ForeFlight.
  - abaillargeon 9y ago
    I think there's some truth to your GNS 530 theory... Pilots are not typically that interested in stylish/modern UIs, and they're not thrilled when a familiar UI changes. There are so many features now that it's a challenge to find room on the PFD. I'm curious, which other UIs do you prefer? What do you think of the G1000 NXi?
    - FabHK 9y ago
      > which other UIs do you prefer Well, I haven't flown other glass cockpits. I just find the G1000 clunky and a bit unintuitive, that's why I was wondering whether there are still viable and possibly better competitors out there.
- lisper 9y ago
  I'm impressed. But how did you figure all that out in the first place?
  - owlmirror 9y ago
    RTM and training.
    - btgeekboy 9y ago
      Yep. I did both my primary flight training and instrument rating in a G1000-equipped aircraft so it’s like learning a powerful IDE - just start with the basics and keep adding on.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- rangibaby 9y ago
  yes, thanks for your reply. It's why I asked my question that way (Chesteron's fence etc). Would it be possible to display that same information using a traffic light system? (Red=Immediate action required, Yellow=keep an eye on this, Green decaying to grey=something that changed (eg AP OFF green then turns gray after 10 seconds or so). It would need to be applied with discipline to avoid every single piece of information being red and hence useless. (cf phone notifications or people who click OK to every dialog box). Information overload / fatigue is a real thing and something designers need to concentrate on more, the ugly brother of "minimalism" which looks pretty but is frustratingly useless.
  - btgeekboy 9y ago
    A little late getting back to this (was away from HN this weekend), but some things do use color changes and background changes to alert the user. There's also audio tones for various things, like the autopilot being disabled (regardless of whether the computer or user disabled it). The actual sounds depend on the features installed; a GFC700 autopilot has different sounds and alerts than a KAP140. If you're interested in human factors in aviation, there's a lot of work being done out there in the field. A friend of mine is actually working on an MS in Human Factors at ERAU.
FabHK 9y ago
The colours have significance. There's a famous talk by a AA training captain, Capt. Warren VanderBurgh, about the dangers of over reliance on automation, and it's called "Children of the Magenta" (magenta being the colour with which the computer generated navigation guidance is displayed). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10 https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/children-of-the-magenta-automation-paradox-pt-1/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/children-of-the-magen...
FabHK 9y ago
While the "AP" indicator is very important, such that overlooking it, or rather missing its absence, could lead to loss of control and death, the same holds for many other of the items displayed.
- Piskvorrr 9y ago
  That's actually a great point: "missing an absence" is far harder than "noting a presence of opposite indicator".
- lisper 9y ago
  > the same holds for many other of the items displayed Like what? I really can't think of anything that has the same ratio of danger to visual subtlety.
  - FabHK 9y ago
    I didn't (and wouldn't necessarily) claim the same ratio. But clearly airspeed is critically important, attitude is, a wrong heading can kill you (eg Varig 254 [0]), a transponder that's off can kill you (eg the Embraer/GOL accident [1]), wrong altitude can clearly kill you, etc. But you've got a point, it's a pretty small indicator for a pretty crucial function. However, making everything else monochrome doesn't strike me as a realistic or preferable alternative. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_254 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_254 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_1907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_...
    - lisper 9y ago
      > airspeed is critically important, attitude is, a wrong heading can kill you Losing track of airspeed/attitude/heading is a whole different category of error than losing track of which mode the autopilot is in. > a transponder that's off can kill you Not without a whole pile of other errors stacked on top of that one.

lisper 9y ago

Some of the colors do have a rationale. The blue and brown background are actually the attitude indicator display. Blue is sky. Brown is ground. There is now an option available that renders the terrain you're over so you can "see" outside via the PFD even in clouds, e.g.: http://glasspilot.com/2008/08/is-synthetic-vision-a-game-changer/ http://glasspilot.com/2008/08/is-synthetic-vision-a-game-cha... But the other colors I think are just "because they can." There are a lot of IMHO stupid aspects of the G1000 UI design. (To be fair, the G1000 has to many features that designing a good UI for it is a real challenge.)

btgeekboy 9y ago

Most of the colors on that display have a rationale. For example, on the speed tape on the left, the white, green, and yellow colors all map to colors of a standard airspeed indicator. That the course (CRS) is green instantly tells me I'm navigating by a ground-based VOR, not GPS (which would be magenta). Same with the green diamond on the right by the altitude indicator. The waypoints at the top are all GPS-calculated, therefore also magenta. At the top, the green radio frequency is the one you'll transmit on. The blue airport icons in the Nearest page (bottom left) indicate towered airports (matching those found on standard aeronautical charts). (In case it's not obvious, I've got a few hundred hours behind the G1000. AMA.)

FabHK 9y ago
Do you have any opinion on the G1000 (and subsequent Garmin flight decks) vs competitors, such as Avidyne Entegra? My feeling has always been that the Garmin UI was somewhat clunky and suboptimal, possibly because they tried to keep it similar to the UI of previous smaller devices (such as the GNS 430); a bit like if the iPhone hadn't come along and we'd still scroll by putting our finger on a little arrow in a scroll bar on mobile devices. My impression was that other manufacturers had a better UI, but somehow didn't make it in the marketplace.
- btgeekboy 9y ago
  I'm not familiar with the Entegra. I've played with stuff by Dynon and Advanced Flight Systems though. If you think the G1000 is clunky, try the Advanced system. I'm really not a fan. Perhaps it's for that exact reason (that Garmin products all work somewhat similarly), but I've been up in a friend's RV-10 with the Advanced system in it, and I find it to be much more clunky. The GTN650 keeps a bit of the GNS430 feel... and those are, in my opinion, the best parts. I hate scrolling through the alphabet by dragging my finger across the screen. I have a similar disdain for trying to select stuff in-flight on my iPad in ForeFlight.
- abaillargeon 9y ago
  I think there's some truth to your GNS 530 theory... Pilots are not typically that interested in stylish/modern UIs, and they're not thrilled when a familiar UI changes. There are so many features now that it's a challenge to find room on the PFD. I'm curious, which other UIs do you prefer? What do you think of the G1000 NXi?
  - FabHK 9y ago
    > which other UIs do you prefer Well, I haven't flown other glass cockpits. I just find the G1000 clunky and a bit unintuitive, that's why I was wondering whether there are still viable and possibly better competitors out there.
lisper 9y ago
I'm impressed. But how did you figure all that out in the first place?
- owlmirror 9y ago
  RTM and training.
  - btgeekboy 9y ago
    Yep. I did both my primary flight training and instrument rating in a G1000-equipped aircraft so it’s like learning a powerful IDE - just start with the basics and keep adding on.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
rangibaby 9y ago
yes, thanks for your reply. It's why I asked my question that way (Chesteron's fence etc). Would it be possible to display that same information using a traffic light system? (Red=Immediate action required, Yellow=keep an eye on this, Green decaying to grey=something that changed (eg AP OFF green then turns gray after 10 seconds or so). It would need to be applied with discipline to avoid every single piece of information being red and hence useless. (cf phone notifications or people who click OK to every dialog box). Information overload / fatigue is a real thing and something designers need to concentrate on more, the ugly brother of "minimalism" which looks pretty but is frustratingly useless.
- btgeekboy 9y ago
  A little late getting back to this (was away from HN this weekend), but some things do use color changes and background changes to alert the user. There's also audio tones for various things, like the autopilot being disabled (regardless of whether the computer or user disabled it). The actual sounds depend on the features installed; a GFC700 autopilot has different sounds and alerts than a KAP140. If you're interested in human factors in aviation, there's a lot of work being done out there in the field. A friend of mine is actually working on an MS in Human Factors at ERAU.

FabHK 9y ago

The colours have significance. There's a famous talk by a AA training captain, Capt. Warren VanderBurgh, about the dangers of over reliance on automation, and it's called "Children of the Magenta" (magenta being the colour with which the computer generated navigation guidance is displayed). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10 https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/children-of-the-magenta-automation-paradox-pt-1/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/children-of-the-magen...

FabHK 9y ago

While the "AP" indicator is very important, such that overlooking it, or rather missing its absence, could lead to loss of control and death, the same holds for many other of the items displayed.

Piskvorrr 9y ago
That's actually a great point: "missing an absence" is far harder than "noting a presence of opposite indicator".
lisper 9y ago
> the same holds for many other of the items displayed Like what? I really can't think of anything that has the same ratio of danger to visual subtlety.
- FabHK 9y ago
  I didn't (and wouldn't necessarily) claim the same ratio. But clearly airspeed is critically important, attitude is, a wrong heading can kill you (eg Varig 254 [0]), a transponder that's off can kill you (eg the Embraer/GOL accident [1]), wrong altitude can clearly kill you, etc. But you've got a point, it's a pretty small indicator for a pretty crucial function. However, making everything else monochrome doesn't strike me as a realistic or preferable alternative. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_254 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_254 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_1907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Transportes_Aéreos_Flight_...
  - lisper 9y ago
    > airspeed is critically important, attitude is, a wrong heading can kill you Losing track of airspeed/attitude/heading is a whole different category of error than losing track of which mode the autopilot is in. > a transponder that's off can kill you Not without a whole pile of other errors stacked on top of that one.