Outage on the table: The design of interactive surfaces for collaborative operation in outage control centres

Motivation Outage in an industrial plant is an activity that takes place at regular intervals and demands the effort and commitment of the whole operating organization. The main objective is to carry out this collaborative activity in an efficient and safe manner. Therefore, the development of centralized coordination and management unit for outages, outage control centre (OCC), has gained a lot interest in recent years. This paper presents an on-going work, in which the aim is to explore the potential usefulness and applications of interactive surface technologies in an OCC. In particular, the focus is on multi-touch technology. Research approach The project started with a literature review on interactive surfaces. Then two sets of interviews were conducted with experienced outage personnel in order to better understand the nature of the outage activity and form requirements for OCC. Interviews were followed by an exploratory concept phase in which the known and future challenges of outage work were addressed in the light of new technological possibilities. Different prototyping techniques were used for illustrating the functioning of an imagined touch-table concept and to facilitate end user involvement. Findings/Design The results suggest that the touch-table has the potential to support collaborative problem solving situations. Video-prototyping materializes these benefits and makes them accessible for user evaluations. Next, the aim is to involve users to give concrete feedback and develop tabletop concept further. Take away message Interactive surface technologies seem a promising tool for establishing a collaborative problem-solving platform to support efficient and safe operation of outages