Evaluation of Ecological Interface Design for Nuclear Process Control: Situation Awareness Effects

OBJECTIVE We determine whether an ecological interface display for nuclear power plant operations supports improved situation awareness over traditional and user-centered displays in a realistic environment. BACKGROUND Ecological interface design (EID) has not yet been fully evaluated with real operators facing realistic scenarios. METHOD Ecological displays were evaluated alongside traditional and user-centered "advanced" displays in a full-scope nuclear power plant simulation. Licensed plant operators used the displays in realistic scenarios that either had procedural support or did not have procedural support. All three displays were evaluated for their ability to support operator situation awareness. RESULTS A significant three-way interaction effect was observed on two independent measures of situation awareness. For both measures, ecological displays improved situation awareness in scenarios that did not have procedural support, primarily in the detection phases of those scenarios. No other pronounced effects appeared across both measures. CONCLUSIONS The observed improvement was sufficiently large to suggest that EID could improve situation awareness in situations where procedures are unavailable. However, the EID displays did not lead to improved situation awareness in the other conditions of the evaluation, and participants using these displays occasionally underperformed on single measures of situation awareness. This suggests that the approach requires further development, particularly in integrating EID with procedural support. APPLICATION This research has important findings for the ongoing development of the EID approach, the design of industrial operator displays, and design to support situation awareness.