Abstract
The design of industrial control rooms assumes fulfilling
the goals of production, safety, and human well-being.
Control rooms and the user interfaces within them should
enable the effective and efficient conduct of work in all
the operating conditions which can be foreseen during
specification and design. At the same time, the user
interfaces should enable the control of the process in
unprecedented and totally unexpected situations while
simultaneously maintaining the safety of the process.
During the design or modification of the control room,
the potentiality of the emerging solution to fulfil the
objectives is assessed by conducting empirical
evaluations. This dissertation presents the development
of an evaluation methodology which enables developing the
control room towards meeting these objectives.
Industrial process control constitutes a socio-technical
system in which people and technologies have multiple and
sometimes overlapping roles. In order to meet the demands
of maintaining safety in all situations, the
socio-technical system should have built-in capability of
dealing with the unexpected. The control room, and the
user interfaces within it, are an integral part of the
socio-technical system. Thus, they have a role in
construing and maintaining the safety of the system. The
concept of systems usability (SU) is introduced in the
dissertation to evaluate the systemic effects of control
room solutions. SU is a human-centred quality attribute
of user interfaces and control rooms attributed to
technology, but the value in the use of the technology is
evidenced in the success of the activity in which the
technology is used. Thus, the research makes sense of the
significance of the individual technological solutions
in, and for, the entirety of an activity system.
Systems usability means that a tool in an activity serves
the functions of 1) an instrument, 2) a psychological
tool, and 3) a communicative tool. The meaning of each
function in the specific domain is contextually defined.
Furthermore, the quality of the tool can be assessed
utilising different perspectives on the usage activity:
performance, way of acting, and user experience. By
combining the functions of the tool and perspectives on
activity, a systemic framework for developing contextual
indicators for a good control room is construed.
Utilising the concept of SU in the control room requires
a model-based evaluation approach. This means that the
general contextual work demands are considered in
defining the reference of a successful process control
activity. In addition, the scenarios utilised in the
evaluation are modelled also taking the general work
demands into account. A specific scenario modelling
method, functional situation modelling (FSM), is
presented in this dissertation. FSM combines a functional
and a chronological view of the activity of an operating
crew in a particular situation. By making explicit the
connection between required operating actions and
critical domain functions, the model lays the ground for
analysing operating activity from the point of view of
maintaining the critical functions.
On aspect of control room evaluation is identifying
whether the operating practices are attuned to
maintaining safety in all situations. For this purpose, a
data analysis method is presented in this dissertation.
The analysis is based on identifying how operators
identify and interpret signs depicted in the control
room. Signs are, for example, information technological
representations of process information, but they may also
be the activities of other crew members. If the
interpretation of signs has an identifiable global
safety-related aspect, it may be concluded that the
operating practice, even though situated, is also attuned
to the general functions of the work which must always be
maintained.
A particular viewpoint in evaluating SU is provided by
analysing user experiences (UX) which emerge in the
complex work. For this purpose, a UX questionnaire was
developed within the SU evaluation framework. The
questionnaire is based on UX indicators which reflect
experiences of appropriateness concerning the three tool
functions (instrument, psychological, communicative). The
importance of UX as a measure of germinating, not yet
existing tool appropriateness, is presented in the
dissertation.
The contribution this dissertation makes is in the
intersection of the research fields of human factors and
ergonomics (HF/E) and usability engineering. The
theoretical foundations of the research are in activity
theory and cognitive systems engineering. The empirical
work has been conducted by following the control room
modernization efforts of Finnish nuclear power plants,
during which evaluations have been carried out.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Doctor Degree |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 25 Jun 2014 |
Place of Publication | Espoo |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-951-38-8145-0 |
Electronic ISBNs | 978-951-38-8146-7 |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
MoE publication type | G5 Doctoral dissertation (article) |
Keywords
- control room evaluation
- human factors
- systems usability
- control room design
- nuclear power plant