Design of a process overview display in a Human-Machine-Interface

Abstract: The aim of this master thesis is to present new and well proven methods about how to best design an overview display. Since designing is a creative process and there can be many alternative designs that fulfill the same requirements, this master thesis will focus on presenting guidelines and principles that will aid in the design process. How to design an effective interface display will be discussed in the context of Endsley’s Situation Awareness model. This master thesis will cover ideas such as Information Rich display Design (IRD), High Performance Human Machine Interface (HPHMI), as well as briefly discuss alarm system design. The psychological aspect of implementing a change and making it a successful one is discussed in the light of the ADKAR model. This includes creating awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement to the change. The two main types of overview displays, functional overview display and schematic overview display, will be compared by bringing forth pros and cons for both types. A practice oriented design process for overview displays is presented. The three main steps of this process are (1) identify the critical variables, (2) identify the critical interactions and (3) identify appropriate visualizations. An overview display will be presented for a chemical process plant that produces Trimethylolpropane (TMP) in Perstorp. This master thesis will include interviews with an operator and a subject matter expert to identify the information needs according to the practice oriented design process. The overview display is presented in the software DeltaV.