Case Study on the User Interface of GPS Plotters to Enhance Their Usability

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

International standardisation guidelines will be finally applied from 2024 for ECDIS, RADAR and INS interface. However, GPS plotters is not yet considered, so I found this approach very interesting.

Nevertheless, the article has the problem with Methodology.

It is not clear stated how many participants are in this survey? The participants should be divided according to the navigational ranks (Line 209)? In my opinion, definitely, you will find the gap between junior and senior navigational officers.

Consider more graphical presentation. It will be easier to follow (line 206-215).

Furthermore, the discussion which is the most important part of the survey and for the review paper is very poor. Author opinion and vision, suggestion for improvement is needed.   

Line 77 - Only 26 navigators on different 3 manufactures. Also, for any kind of discussions and general conclusions should be more participants in the survey.

Line 81 Significant differences for 8 tasks – Explain why you choose only 8 tasks… Why you did not consider more tasks?

Consider placing the survey in Appendix

Poor English

Also, I propose adding some references. It is necessary from 30 to about 40 references (at least), most of which should be research articles from recognized scientific journals from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) list. Only in 2019 and 2020 in the MDPI Marine Science and Engineering there are several published research papers about ECDIS system.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This article represents a solid usability research of the navigational devices, GPS (Chart) Plotters. The authors presented a case study to identify the user needs for standardization of user interfaces of the aforementioned devices installed on domestic ships in South Korea. This study determined the frequently used navigational functions of the GPS plotters and the level of users' convenience and familiarization with them. Conclusion of the research was that the usability improvement is necessary as well as standardization of terminology in the navigational functions.

However, there are few remarks listed below.

Line 10: The abbreviation for IMO needs to be after the full name International Maritime Organization and then used as the abbreviation in the rest of the text. This is also applicable to all abbreviations in the abstract (Radar, ECDIS, etc.).

Lines 35-36: English grammar check.

Line 49: "Currently, several shipboard users primarily utilize ECS for navigation" - Which users? And where do they navigate?

Line 50: Illegal or not mandatory?

Lines 100-101: Why is the reference [13] important for the subject of the paper?

Lines 106: These studies are not referenced. Why? They represent previous research on the subject of the paper.

Line 138: On Figure 1, the fixed window contains position, speed and course over ground information and not the direction of the other ship.

Line 181: In Table 1, what is "Use of frequency of navigational functions"? Maybe "frequency of use" should be instead?

Line 193: In Table 2, again "Usable of frequency"?

Lines 332-337: References are identical. MSC. 466(101) is a Resolution which is in the Annex 18 of the 101st session of the Maritime Safety Committee.

Line 338: Standardization instead of substandardization.

Line 341: DOI not found.

Are there any non-Korean studies and researches which covered GPS plotters' interface improvement? I understand that authors made a case study for the South Korean users, but there is a lack of information on the international studies.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This study aims to evaluate the user needs to improve the usability of the GPS plotter interface through the interview survey. I must be honest that this research topic is quite simple to be published in a scientific journal. It might be helpful for a practical aspect if a survey could be conducted to compare current and standard interfaces' usability.

If the editor thinks the topic can be considered in this journal, more analysis should be done to find whether there is any relationship between the characteristics of respondents and their responses. For example, do the age, education levels, number of using GPS years, and respondents' position (captains, navigators, etc.) affect their answer?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Wish You all the best for the new year, full of health for the beginning and stay Covid negative and life positive ?

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript is improved.