Changing Technology in Control Room Design: Is One Graphical Interface Worth 1000 Indicators?

Abstract

This paper presents a review of human factors (HF) efforts toward the introduction of a graphical user interface (GUI) designed for operators in the control room of the world's largest wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center, located in Moffett Field, California. Design of GUIs for the control room of this facility involved application of HF principles at many different levels of the design program: the design process itself, the environmental context for design, and the actual content of the graphical interface. This paper presents the particular challenges associated with transforming a control room from analog to digital, as well as the specific advantages and drawbacks of using GUIs in the context of large, multi-operator, environments.

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