Design of human-interface for situation awareness. II. Interdependence between control panel and alarm systems

This paper discusses how human interface can support operators in their assessing the operating condition of a dynamic system. We conduct an experiment in which the subjects control a simulated fluid circulation plant. Two types of human-interface designs are compared. Our experimental result shows that the human-interface reflecting physical locations of components is not always effective. Visual information has limited capacity to help operators in achieving situation awareness. Some further support information would be needed to give operators high situation awareness.