One thing for sure, having the Normal C/L laminated sheet removed is sheer madness.
The Airbus OEM application for FCOM/MEL is quite fine, their eQRH goes even a bit beyond in terms of HMI. The N-CL part is a properly designed app.
But the use on a window mounted unit is dreadful. The forward field / offside field of vision issues are thoroughly ignored.
As a consequence it feels a retrograde step on the PM side, whether or not he actually checks something. Odds tilted the wrong way.
Case study: LO VIZ taxi out. The responsibilities are
- monitor movement, eyes out
- read the challenges, head dowb
- verify the items, eyes in
The first is the absolute priority. As long as one can blend the other two together (moving head with CL in hand, in view) it can be done quickly and safely whilst maintaining a reasonable lookout.
Enter electronic C/L mounted on the side window: each of the three becomes an exclusive cognitive task. And you may even be required to press a button for each of the steps!
Don't like it. Synthetic voice would be fine, best with a voice recognition to kill the items off the list. Future please come fast.