How to Improve Plant Operations through

Better HMI Graphics

David Board & Martin Grant
Commercial Project Engineers
Rockwell Automation, EMEA

Rev 5058-CO900D Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Agenda
Why HMI Graphics Matter

Situation Awareness

Bad Practices

Interpreting the Data

Layout and Colors

Using Trending

Level Indication

Pattern Recognition

Using Patterns

Putting the Ideas into Practice

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
Acknowledgements
This presentation was developed from ideas and reference materials
listed below. We respectfully acknowledge the material and authors:

 The High Performance HMI Handbook

 PAS - Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo and Eddie Habibi
 Designing for Situation Awareness (An approach to User-centered
Design)
 Mica R. Endsley and Debra G. Jones
 Human Machine Interface (HMI) Design: The Good, The Bad, and The
Ugly (and what makes them so)
 ICS Triplex - Paul Gruhn, P.E.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 3

Why HMI Graphics matter
 Poor HMI Graphics causes
 Confusion
 Operator Fatigue
 Low Situation Awareness
 All of the above could
 Cause the operator to miss vital information
 Lead the operator to make misinformed decisions
 Cause a serious accident

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4

Why HMI Graphics matter
 Who wants to be responsible for designing an HMI graphic that can lead
to this?

 U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD

INVESTIGATION REPORT REPORT NO. 2005-04-I-TX
Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5
Why HMI Graphics matter
 The Operator viewed this screen, which provides information on raffinate
product leaving the unit but not the liquid being added to the unit.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 6

Situation Awareness
 Situation awareness means
 Being aware of what is happening around you.
 Understanding what that information means to you now.
 Understanding what that information means to you in the future.

 Situation awareness relates to the goals and objectives of a specific job or

function.

 Designers and engineers form in their heads a different mental model of the
process than an operator.

 By understanding how operators select and use goals, designers can better
understand how information is perceived. Without understanding the user’s goals
on Situation Awareness, the information presented has no meaning.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 7

Situation Awareness

 Applying SA terminology to HMI Graphics

 Level 1 SA – P&ID representation with live numbers.
 Level 2 SA – Provide the operator with the relevant information they need
to understand how the plant is operating.
 Level 3 SA – Provide trending data so that the operator can see how it
was / will perform.
 Level 2 and Level 3 SA reinforces the operators mental model of the plant
or process.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 8

The History of Bad or is it?

 Is the pump in alarm or stopped ?

 Are the valves in alarm or closed ?
 High Contrast
 Causes eye fatigue.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 9

Modern BUT Good or Bad

 Is this a good graphic?

 What is the reactor temperature?
 What Percentage of the screen is presenting useful data?
 The pretty 3D objects are superfluous.
 The flame attracts your attention.
 The moving lorry attracts your attention.
 Overuse of color – causes confusion.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 10

Elements of displays that hinder
Situation Awareness
The following objects when used in a display for a normal situation all
draw your attention, cause distractions/fatigue, and could cause the
operator to miss important data.
 High contrast
 High Contrasting objects strain the eyes and cause fatigue.
 The warm colors – red, orange and yellow – Especially when flashing
 Draws your attention to them, are they in alarm, warning or just a
route product indication
 Movement
 Draws your attention to it.
 Complex graphics and 3D objects
 Make it difficult to develop a metal model.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11

Interpreting the Data

 Is this chap healthy?

 What should the numbers be?

 How long does it take you to scan and interpret the information?

 Do the numbers mean anything to you?

 Are the numbers actually meaningful?

 How much training would you require before you could interpret the
numbers?

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 12

Interpreting the Data

 We can now see the upper and lower limit for these values.

 How long does it take you to scan and compare these numbers?

 How much longer does it take you to calculate by how much they are
within range?

 This is data that requires thinking about and processing. (Level 1 SA)

 Data should be presented that supports comprehension. (Level 2 SA)

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 13

Interpreting the Data
What we need is analog.
 We need to
 Provide a pointer to a scale.
 Provide a clear indication of the normal working range.
 Clearly show upper and lower limits.

 With analog
 The brain interprets an analog display quicker than a number.
 Can easily see WHERE the value is as well as WHAT it is.
 Can easily see rates of change.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Interpreting the Data
1960s Science Fiction to the rescue

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Moving Analog Indicator
 Normal operational values shown in white.
 High and low alarm ranges shown in dark grey.
 Desirable operational ranges shown in dark blue.
 Alarm indicator with priority level and color.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 16

Depicting Material Balance
 Two major accidents with flammable material have been attributed to HMI
graphics that did NOT show flow in and flow out on the same graphic.
 P&ID representation often leads designers of graphics to split the flow in
and the flow out of a vessel across two screens – all to common practice.
 A properly implemented mass balance or volumetric material balance
calculation and display of that data could have stopped these accidents.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 17

Layout and Colors
 Do
Grey is in fashion – grey backgrounds, grey pipelines, grey vessels.
 Use low contrast.
 Only show information that supports comprehension of the process or
plant.
 Represent performance data as trends. (Level 3 SA)
 Design to allow the operator to achieve his goals.
 Only attract attention to an area of the display if there is a potential
issue.
 Don’t
 Decrease the operator’s situation awareness ; this can occur when
you go too far and make the operator feel he is out of the loop.
Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 18
Color Blindness

Normal Protanopia Deuteranopia Tritanopia

Red-Green Blue-Yellow
 7 to 10% of males are Red-Green Color Blind

 Good graphic design avoids using color coding or using color contrasts
alone to express information; this not only helps color blind people, but
also aids understanding by normally sighted people.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 19

Representing Digital Devices
 Do not use red for stopped/closed or green for running/opened.
 Only use color to bring attention to an abnormal condition. A pump simply
not running is not an abnormal condition.
 Consider using a visually different shape within the object to represent
Running/Opened. This not only helps color blind people, but also aids
understanding by normally sighted people.
 Use status words that describe the digital condition (i.e. Running and
Stopped not Run and Stop). These could be confused with command
words.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 20

Representing Digital Devices and
Control Valves
 Do not use overly complex depictions.
 Tiny moving arrows on the stem of a valve.
 Tiny illegible scales to represent percentage open
 Variable shading schemes..

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 21

Representing Multiple Digital Devices
 Multiple digital devices can be represented as a light box.
 Running is a normal condition, so there is no need to show a color for it’s
status.
 How about going one step further and removing the normal condition from
the screen and only display the item if it’s in a abnormal condition?

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 22

Consistent Navigation

 Be consistent

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The use of Trending
 Provides assistance for Level 3 SA projection of future status through the
use of trend displays.
 The operator can then see where the process is heading.
 The operator can then be proactive and recognize impending problems,
rather than being reactive and responding to alarms and problems after
the fact.
 Use trending with thought. For instance a trend with 8 trends on it is
confusing and takes a long time to analyze.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 24

The use of Trending
 We can see the value and it’s past trends.
 We can make predictions of what the value is about to do based on its
historical behaviour.
BUT
 What should the value be?
 What are the normal good operating High and Low limits?

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 25

The use of Trending
 We can see the value and it’s past trends.
 We can see what the value should be.
 We can see what are the normal operational High and Low limits

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 26

Level Indication
 Provide High and Low Bad indication on the vessel.
 Provide normal Good Upper and Good Lower indication.
 Trend the level inside of the vessel outline.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 27

Pattern Recognition
 12 Numbers on a screen take time to interpret.
 12 Trends on a trend become confusing.
 Filled Radar Plot
 The radar plot is a graph that consists of a sequence of equi-angular
spokes, called radii, with each spoke representing one of the
variables.
 The data length of a spoke is proportional to the magnitude of the
variable for the data point relative to the maximum magnitude of the
variable across all data points.
 Scaling of each of the axis can generate a pattern for normal range of
variables. For example 6 values can be scaled to form an equilateral
hexagon when the plant is running under normal conditions.
 A change in the pattern is very quickly identified by the operator.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 28

Putting the ideas into practice

 Grey background, vessels and pipes low contrasting grey.

 No movement of objects to distract attention.
 Use color for abnormal plant conditions only.
 Analog Status indicator.
 Key operating parameters trended on screen, not having to click to show.
 Radar plot for easy monitoring of multiple related variables.
 Low level details of plant accessible by clicking on them.
 Consistent navigation across displays.
 Mixed upper and lower case characters are easier to read than all UPPER
case.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 29

View5000 Standard Objects

 Moving analog indicator – hihi, hi, normal, lo, lolo

 Filled Radar chart – 6 variables

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 30

Acknowledgements
This presentation was developed from ideas and reference materials
listed below. We respectfully acknowledge the material and authors:

 The High Performance HMI Handbook

 PAS - Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo and Eddie Habibi
 Designing for Situation Awareness (An approach to User-centered
Design)
 Mica R. Endsley and Debra G. Jones
 Human Machine Interface (HMI) Design: The Good, The Bad, and The
Ugly (and what makes them so)
 ICS Triplex - Paul Gruhn, P.E.

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 31

Guidelines
The following guidelines are available as an aid to designing High
Performance HMIs

 ASM Consortium Guidelines – ISBN 978-1440431647

 Effective Operator Display Design
 ISA 101, Human-Machine Interfaces - Website
 http://www.isa.org/MSTemplate.cfm?MicrositeID=1142&CommitteeID=6899
 ISA 101, Sharepoint
 http://isa101.isa.org/default.aspx

Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 32

Questions?

Rev 5058-CO900D Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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VZ09 – How to Improve Plant Operations

through Better HMI Graphics

Rev 5058-CO900D Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.