Information Rich Display Design

This paper presents the concept Information Rich display Design (IRD). The purpose of Information Rich Design is to condense existing information in process displays in such a way that each display picture contains more relevant information for the user. Compared to traditional process control displays, this new concept allows the operator to attain key information at a glance and at the same time allows for improved monitoring of larger portions of the process. This again allows for reduced navigation between both process and trend displays and ease the cognitive demand on the operator. The concept is based on weighing and classifying the relevance of types of information presented to users. By using well-proven principles from graphical design it visualizes this information in a manner that reflects its relevance. The IRD concept can supplement and complement other design concepts that are innovative in terms of their information content and/or visual form. The concept was originally created for the operation of offshore petroleum production facilities. An offshore control room operator has to deal with a complex process where there is little redundancy in the main process functions. Due to the nature of the process medium, potentially hazardous situations may arise if safety constraints are not respected. Therefore there is focus on early detection and handling of abnormal conditions and events that may affect both production and safety. A new approach to offshore display design is necessary due to shortcomings in current design. The keyhole effect is one important cause to problems, as each display only reveals a fraction of the whole process. The IRD concept should also be relevant and easily applicable to other industries where the detection of incipient abnormal events may be critical to maintaining production and safety, such as the nuclear industry. The information content and amount being presented to the operator in a display should be viewed in context of the wide range of different roles the operator is likely to have when using the display. For instance, an operator in a highly stressful situation with high workload within a limited amount of time should not have to deal with large amounts of information that is not relevant to that situation.