Navy combat system users have experienced an information explosion as the end product of recent technology advances. The by-product is an increase in the complexity of operation of these systems. Accordingly, a requirement has surfaced to provide an advance disclosure of the man-machine interface approach to illustrate a selected subset of the operator input and display capabilities. However, the use of custom design hardware and software can be prohibitively expensive in today's defense environment. Fortunately, with the improved processing capabilities of today's desktop computers, combined with the availability and affordability of commercial software demonstration packages, an engineer can now be provided the tools necessary to mock-up and demonstrate significant portions of a system's man-machine interface design in very short time, at significantly less expense.

This paper describes the advantages of using desktop computer systems to provide a low-cost rapid prototyping capability for the evaluation of the man-machine interface design of complex training systems. The example presented in this paper provided a cost savings of 75 percent over the cost to program the target hardware. Furthermore, the cost savings were achieved despite delivery of a significantly more complete disclosure of the man-machine interface.