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Using a color code on human-machine interfaces could sensibly reduce the informational density. In this paper, we focused on the supervision interfaces used in engine room of Merchant Navy vessels. There is no regulation about color use on these interfaces, despite the color code playing an important role in showing information. The ISO Standard 14726-2008 regulates the color code printed on physical pipes and is used to represent the fluids flowing through it. The purpose of this study is to determine if we could use this standardized color code on the interfaces and create a connection between the physical pipes and their graphical representation. Two experimentations are presented, in which we compared the effects of two color codes on the performance at searching tasks carried out by novices and experts. One code is extracted from ISO Standard 14726-2008 (Normative Pipe Identification Color Code), and the other is created by taking into account general guidelines and common uses (Ergonomic Recommendations Color Code). The results showed that the NPICC, and its bicolor version in particular, increased the mental workload and the searching time required by novices. Experts had more difficulties to recognize the fluids represented by two colors and they used the two-colored fluid system less frequently than novices to retrieve an information.

An important task in designing control-command systems is defining components for two essential parts of the system: command and monitoring. Instead of developing a monolithic executable, designers use reusable blocs, named components, which are saved in a library. Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) was introduced in the design of control-command systems to improve flexibility and reusability [1]. However, this approach does not consider the composition of the services [2], disregarding this important characteristic in the design of control-command systems. In some industrial areas such as shipbuilding, the component-based approach is typically used since it enables better legibility for the applications; it uses a modular approach based on the system architecture recorded on the Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (PI it also reduces efforts required to redesign services provided by these components. Open image in new window Fig. 1. Duplication functions in component design

In the design of control-command systems, task models are useful for collecting requirements about the use of the systems. Indeed, task models describe actions the supervisor performs to start, to control and to monitor the system events (alerts, performance messages), to evaluate, to stop a function (if needed), etc. Depending on the state of the supervised system (for example, presence of defects), these tasks can be numerous, repetitive and complicated. This complexity makes it difficult to describe task models, which are therefore complex, but essential for design. Task models are usually described by HMI designers using dedicated modeling tools and can be validated with business experts.

Using a color code on human-machine interfaces could sensibly reduce the informational density. In this study, we focused on the supervision interfaces used in engine room of Merchant Navy vessels because there is no regulation about color use. Furthermore, the ISO Standard 14726-2008 regulates the color code print on the physical pipes which is used to represent the fluids flowing through it. In experimentations with novices, we compared the effects of two different color codes on performance at searching tasks: one extracted from the ISO Standard (Standard Color Code), and one created by taking account of the general guidelines and the common uses (Ergonomic Recommendations Color Code). The results showed that with the Standard Color Code, the cognitive demand is more important and the information-seeking is slower but also more reliable. However, in real setting, a cognitively costly color code might compromise the safety of the vessel.

To design a sociotechnical and complex system, system designers are in charge of the functional specification because they have an expert knowledge of its operation. However, these experts do not usually have the programming knowledge of those who design the supervision system. To capture the knowledge of the expert on the system and to have more easily verified and validated functional specifications, without training in formal methods, we propose a tool that is inspired by Programming by Example techniques (EBP). This tool is composed of a User Interface (UI) for specification connected to two modules: a generalization module and a function interface generation module. To validate the proposed interface, we have evaluated the usability (ISO 9241-11 and ISO-13407) of the system with real users. To complete our analysis, ergonomic audit on the use of the UI is shown. This paper presents our approach and demonstrates its usability.

For several years, MDE (Model Driven Engineering) has been increasing in Human Computer Interaction domain. It is particularly suitable for designing supervision software for sociotechnical and reconfigurable systems. In this article, we describe Anaxagore, an IDM based tool, which allows complete generation of interactive supervision software from business oriented synoptic descriptions.