Navigating in a process landscape

Abstract

User interfaces in process control systems are often organised as landscapes — usually a process chart — where the display is a window into the landscape. The window can move over the landscape and view different segments of the process. Normally there is no overlap between the views — they are discretely organised. Operators often claim they get lost in such interfaces. I suggest that the problem is a matter of how the operator moves in the landscape — how one changes ones view of the process. Two different interactive methods of movement — discrete vs. continuous — are tested. The results of the experiments are discussed.