ISA publishes new guidelines for optimising HMI usability

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has published a new technical report addressing issues of HMI usability and performance.

Human–machine interfaces (HMIs), the primary means by which users interact with industrial processes, provide the potential and opportunity to greatly enhance operations — or to confuse users and degrade operations.

The ISA’s first American National Standard on HMI, ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems, covers the philosophy, design, implementation, operation and maintenance of HMIs for process automation systems. It defines the terminology and models to develop an HMI and the work processes recommended to effectively maintain an HMI throughout its full life cycle.

The new supporting technical report, ISA-TR101.02-2019, HMI Usability and Performance, addresses the specification, design, implementation details and management of an HMI focused on usability and performance. It explains how the ANSI/ISA-101.01 standard applies in determining an optimal solution to achieve process goals using examples that have been shown to be effective.

“The new technical report is especially valuable for focusing on the needs of operators to maintain situational awareness through the use of an HMI optimised for performance and usability,” said Ruth Schiedermayer of Dilling Group, who served as co-chair of the ISA101 working group that developed the document.

HMI enhancements for improved usability and performance are often associated with additional specifications, custom design, implementation and management considerations, in addition to vendor-provided functionality and features. Accordingly, David Board of Rockwell Automation, who served as co-chair of the working group, noted, “The technical report provides details on how to implement the ANSI/ISA-101.01 standard with examples of optimised displays and objects that can be used in them — and the rationale behind using them.”

The ANSI/ISA-101.01 standard and the new ISA-TR101.02 technical report may be viewed or obtained at www.isa.org/findstandards.

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