Over the last few years, Namahn has spent considerable effort in developing know-how about Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for safety-critical systems. This effort is embedded in ongoing research activities.
This page discusses safety-critical systems, our approach to them, our projects and our publications.
What are safety-critical systems?
Safety-critical systems are characterised by:
- Risk of serious damage to the environment or loss of life (e.g. systems used in the control room of a power plant)
- Complex tasks performed by expert users (e.g. systems used in surgery)
- Operator control over equipment or people (e.g. in a train cockpit)
- Performance under time pressure (e.g. in emergency response)
Safety-critical systems are typically found in healthcare, defence, transport (air, surface or water), utilities and emergency management.
Namahn’s approach to safety-critical systems
Namahn’s research approach consists of :
- Theoretical work: to develop research themes that are pertinent to safety-critical systems
- Mastery of techniques: to adopt techniques specific to the design of HMIs for safety-critical systems.
Theoretical work
Namahn performs research in the following topics relevant to the design of HMIs for safety-critical systems:
- Situation Awareness: in order to make appropriate decisions, the operator must be aware of what is happening in the relevant context and what is likely to happen in the future (Endsley, 1995)
- Naturalistic Decision Making: expert users make decisions quickly, based on experience rather than on rational analysis (Klein, 1998, Flin et al., 2008)
- Distributed Cognition: cognition is distributed in time, space and socially; the link between individuals, artifacts and the environment must be well understood (Hutchins, 1995)
- Resilience:the system should be designed to increase the ability to recover after a mishap (Hollnagel et al., 2006).
Mastery of techniques
When designing HMIs for safety-critical systems, Namahn has adopted the following techniques:
- Field studies: Ethno-methodology, patterns of cooperative interaction and Link Analysis (in view of Distributed Cognition)
- Task analysis: Cognitive Task Analysis and Goal Directed Task Analysis (in view of Situation Awareness)
- Cognitive modelling: (Shared) mental models, which are essential to expert performance of complex tasks (in view of Distributed Cognition)
- HMI design and specification: from conceptual design to early prototypes and engineering specifications
- Testing and validation: Field testing
- Risk management: Safety case
Projects
Namahn is or has been involved in the following research projects:
- European Union - ITEA2: UsiXML, development of an XML-based User Interface Description Languages; Namahn validates the language in two cases; 2009-2012, 18 person months
- Brussels Region - IRSIB/IWOIB: HCI theory applied to critical systems: Methodology research consisting in a literature review, case studies and consolidation of methodology components; 2006-2008, 20 person months
- Flanders Region - IBBT: ICA4DT: New technologies for diagnostic analysis of radiographic images; 2006, 4 person months
Namahn is interested in participating in EU projects, including FP7.
Publications
- Van Kerckhoven, J., Geldof, S. and Vermeersch, B. (2009) Contextual Inquiry in Signal Boxes of a Railway Organization. In J. Vanderdonckt and Ph. Palanque (Eds.) Proceedings of the Working conference on Human Error, Safety and Systems Development (HESSD-2009), Brussels, Belgium, pp. 84-95
- Geldof, S. and Van Kerckhoven, J. (2008) Field Study Techniques for Supervisory Control Systems. In J. Drury (Ed.) Proceedings of the HCP08 workshop on Supervisory Control in Critical Systems Management. Delft, The Netherlands, June 2008
- Geldof, S. and Vandermeulen, J. (2007) A Practitioner's View of Human-Computer Interaction Research and Practice. Artifact Volume 1 Issue 3, January 2007, pp 134-141
References
- Endsley, M.R. (1995) Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems. Human Factors Journal, Volume 37(1), pages 32-64, March 1995
- Flin, R., O'Connor, P. and Crichton, M. (2008) Safety at the Sharp End. A Guide to Non-Technical Skills. Aldershot: Ashgate
- Hollnagel, E., Woods, D. and Leveson, N. (2006) Resilience Engineering. Concept and Precepts. Aldershot: Ashgate
- Hutchins, E. (1995) Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT press
- Klein, G. A. (1998) Sources of Power. How People Make Decisions, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press