Applications of load carriage systems

The following section will provide an example of practice in LCS development and one of the methods which can be deployed to better understand soldier needs. 

2 Improving understanding of the military environment and user needs 

An initial Alpha tool was developed to assess whether this type of video/audio information wottld be useful to LCS developers. The Alpha tool was based on Lim and Sato s (2006) software-based Design Information Framework (DIF), albeit in a non-software fonn. Analysis was conducted on 15 video and audio clips of British infantry on operations in Afghanistan using the following HF methods  

From this analysis an event story was constructed, in part to integrate the findings from the various analysis methods, but also to make the information accessible in a chronological format to developers. Figirre 13.5 shows a summary and example of how the video/audio irrformation was gathered from footage into the three analysis methods. 

The Alpha tool was then assessed by ten LCS developers, and five stakeholders in LCS development (people who were involved in soldier equipmerrt development but not involved in the embodimertt of LCS prodncts) were interviewed in 13 sessions over a period of two and a half months. 

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