Design Principles for a New Generation of Larger Operator Workstation Displays

Industrial plants are controlled from centralized control rooms, typically through a 4–5 level “deep” hierarchy. This structure causes operators to perform unwanted navigation and can cause keyhole effects. Decreasing cost of larger high-resolution personal displays can mitigate such effects. This paper presents a theoretical framework for designing graphics for larger personal displays, guided by four questions: i) What is the appropriate level of information content? ii) How should this information be comprehended and presented? iii) How to support efficient and safe operator input actions? And, iv) How to effectively perform efficient navigation to other displays? The paper uses findings from research into visual perception and human factors. The contribution is design principles, they are used to develop 30” display pictures for a full scope nuclear simulator. Further work should perform user studies to explore operator acceptance and performance for the display pictures.