The development of an ergonomics standard for the design of operator interfaces

BNFL has realised the need to take a consistent approach to the ergonomic design of operator interfaces. Towards this aim, a design standard document has been produced under the direction of a principal design engineer based on the key ergonomics aspects of plant design. The standard was requested by the designers, and the original standard was produced by ergonomists working on BNFL projects. This standard was then reviewed by a large number of key design and operations personnel, and a series of multidisciplinary meetings produced the final version. The standard contains six sections (ergonomics requirements for the design of Control Rooms, Consoles and Panels Design, Labelling, VDU Systems, Alarm Systems and Colour Coding) containing approximately 180 guidelines in text format or supplemented by diagrams and tables. Each guideline is classified as either mandatory or advisory. A high proportion of effort concentrated on making the document usable by designers. The standard is not intended to be fully comprehensive, since the range of possible variations in the designs of interfaces makes such a task intractable at this stage. However, the document does ensure that account is taken of ergonomics throughout the design phase, and particularly in the early phases whilst design change is still cost-effective, and that designers are aware of the important issues and principles. (author)