Evaluating Alternate Visualization Techniques for Overview Displays in Process Control

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Three alternate visualization displays, currently being used in industry to represent similar high-level process conditions, were evaluated here regarding their relative effectiveness in terms of operator performance and situation awareness in an industrial control room environment. A “surface chart” visualization outperformed the other two displays (“heat map” and “visual thesaurus”) in detection and response time performance measures, though there were no significant differences in situation awareness. The surface chart visualization presents display designers with a potential improvement over more traditional visualizations that use features that are similar to heat map and visual thesaurus. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Different types of visualizations are currently being used in refinery control rooms across the globe. In these multi-task environments, operators must properly interact with technology to acquire situation awareness so that they can prevent and respond effec...