  Pilots currently use paper-based documentation and electronic systems to help
them perform procedures to ensure safety, efficiency and comfort on commercial
aircrafts. Management of interconnections among paper-based operational
documents can be a challenge for pilots, especially when time pressure is high
in normal, abnormal, and emergency situations. This dissertation is a
contribution to the design of an Onboard Context-Sensitive Information System
(OCSIS), which was developed on a tablet. The claim is that the use of
con-textual information facilitates access to appropriate operational content
at the right time either automatically or on demand. OCSIS was tested using
human-in-the-loop simulations that involved professional pilots in the Airbus
320 cockpit simulator. First results are encouraging that show OCSIS can be
usable and useful for operational information access. More specifically,
context-sensitivity contributes to simplify this access (i.e., appropriate
operational information is provided at the right time in the right format. In
addition, OCSIS provides other features that paper-based documents do not have,
such as procedure execution status after an interruption. Also, the fact that
several calculations are automatically done by OCSIS tends to decrease the
pilot's task demand .
