Usability Evaluation of an Ecological Interface for Process Control Health Monitoring

Generating graphical displays for complex systems is a difficult task. The Ecological Interface Design framework provides guidelines for work domain analysis and visual design; however the visual design principles are quite abstract and sometimes difficult to apply. In a companion article, we propose a visual design methodology that extends ecological interface design and provides a structured approach to generating graphical forms. In this paper, an experiment compares an existing chart to a new design generated through application of the methodology. The aim is to determine whether the redesign affects the usability of the chart and to explore possible causes for these differences. The results suggest that the new design provides better support in terms of efficiency, accuracy and satisfaction for a range of key tasks. A discussion investigates general issues relating to the validation of ecological interface designs.