Safety-Critical Design
Namahn designs Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for safety-critical systems. Well-designed HMIs contribute to productivity and resilience.
Safety-critical systems are characterised by:
- A risk of serious damage to the environment or loss of life – for example, systems used in the control room of a power plant
- Complex tasks performed by expert users – for example, systems used in surgery
- Operator control over equipment or people – for example, on an airplane's flight deck
- Tasks to be performed under time pressure – for example, in emergency response
Typical domains in which safety-critical systems occur are process control, (for example, nuclear power plants), transportation (for example, air traffic control, railway signalling, intelligent transport systems), medical applications (for example, diagnostic and treatment devices in operating theatres) and emergency management (operations rooms).
Safety-Critical Design is rooted in the disciplines of Human Factors and Ergonomics, the precursors of Interaction Design.
At Namahn, we address the specificities of Safety-Critical Design by:
- Studying the socio-technical context of the system (ethnomethodological field studies)
- Analysing the cognitive aspects and information needs of complex tasks (cognitive task analysis, link analysis)
- Eliciting and designing a (shared) mental model to support distributed cognition
- Developing patterns of interaction that enhance situation awareness
- Aiming to increase the resilience of the system as a whole
- Performing a risk analysis to determine which risks can be tolerated, mitigated, eliminated or transferred
Typical requests from our clients are:
- Redesign an existing application to improve safety and efficiency of use, by optimising the match between the system and the human capabilities of its users
- Assist in a major re-organisation of a complex and safety-critical work environment
- Design the interface for a new application where operators must be able to perform their tasks with a high degree of efficiency
Namahn maintains a network of internationally renowned experts and academics in the area of safety-critical systems design, through invitations for lectures and project-based consultancy services.
We also initiate or participate in research projects.
Namahn regularly contributes to targeted conferences or workshops related to safety-critical systems design – for example, HCP08 workshop on Supervisory Control in Critical Systems Management; The Working conference on Human Error, Safety and Systems Development (HESSD-2009).
Resources
The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) is an international society whose mission is to promote the discovery and exchange of knowledge concerning the characteristics of human beings that are applicable to the design of systems and devices of all kinds.