The purpose of this research was to determine how the principles of EID could be applied to systems that are larger in scale than that which had been previously used as a testbed for evaluating EID (e.g., AECL 93). The focus of this initial feasibility study was the feedwater subsystem of the ABB conventional power plant simulator. The primary outcome of this research was a prototype interface for the feedwater subsystem that is based on the EID framework. The main findings of this study were: a) a proof of concept showing that the principles of EID can be meaningfully applied to a larger-scale design problem representative of those found in the nuclear industry; b) EID needs to be supplemented by more specific interface design principles; and c) it is possible to effectively integrate EID with these other design principles. Therefore, EID seems to be a viable candidate for the design of advanced computer interfaces for complex industrial plants.

This project was a continuation of ABB 94 and explored ideas for integrating functional information in an interface for the ABB conventional power plant. This project included a review and evaluation of previous attempts to include functional information in process control interfaces. This study shed light on the additional considerations that need to be taken account when applying EID to an industrial-scale problem, where functional and physical information for the entire system cannot be represented on one display screen, as it is in the P+F interface for the smaller DURESS II microworld. As well, some display concepts were developed for the ABB plant.

This project was a continuation of ABB 95. A literature review was conducted examining the problems with computer interfaces for large systems. Theories of navigation and design concepts for aiding navigation were also reviewed. This project revealed that the loss of functional linking and connecting information was an area of EID most vulnerable to the design of ecological interfaces for large systems. This project cumulated in a plan for an investigation of the effects of different approaches to integration on large scale ecological interface design. This plan was executed in ABB 97.

This project was the final leg of the ABB research series culminating in an experimental investigation. Based on an abstraction hierarchy of the ABB plant made in ABB 96, views were created for each cell of the abstraction hierarchy. These views were then integrated in three different ways based on a novel use of a space-time approach to describing integration. The details of this approach are available in CEL 97-05 and Burns (1998). The three displays employed low spatial-high temporal integration, high spatial-low temporal integration, and high spatial-high temporal integration of means-end information. Subjects performed information search tasks as well as fault detection and diagnosis tasks. It was found that the spatial and temporal proximity of means-end related information affects the traversal of means-end connections. In particular, high spatial and temporal integration resulted in significantly faster and more accurate fault diagnosis performance. This research is a unique look at integration issues with a large plant simulation and helps to expand the application of ecological interface design to large systems.