Paula Savioja

Hidden roles of the train driver: A challenge for metro automation

Abstract In the year 2014, the Helsinki Metro is planned to be fully automated. This automation means that the metro trains will be computer-driven and monitored remotely from a stationary control room. To investigate the challenges related to this scenario, we decided to study the ways in which the current train drivers contribute to the metro system. We conducted three separate but interrelated studies, which were based on the Core-Task Analysis method. Our results suggest that there is much more to driving the metro train than meets the eye. The drivers do not only operate the train on track and its doors at stations, but they also contribute to a variety of other important, albeit more hidden, functions in the metro system. For example, the drivers anticipate, observe, interpret, and react to events in the surrounding environment. Furthermore, they are a significant interaction link between different actors of the metro system. Our conclusion is that if the identified critical roles of the drivers are not accounted for, a migration to a fully automated metro system can affect the quality of service and raise safety issues. In addition to automated metros, the results of this research can be applicable to automation implementations also in other domains.

Systems usability framework for evaluating tools in safety---critical work

This paper presents a methodology with which evaluation of control rooms in safety–critical industry has been carried out. The results of two cases of evaluation in nuclear power plants (NPP) are presented to elaborate the method thoroughly. The evaluation methodology draws from conventions of human factors and usability evaluation methods but adds an activity theoretical viewpoint by considering different control room functions in a purposeful activity system. A control room has three functions in an activity: instrument, psychological tool, and a communicative tool. The introduced evaluation approach allows understanding of quality of the control room on the level of outcomes it produces, work practices that it consolidates, and the user experience it creates. The evaluation approach is demonstrated by presenting baseline evaluations of two hybrid NPP control rooms that were carried out before major upgrade projects were implemented. Hybrid control room refers to a state in which modern and original hardwired technological solutions are in use simultaneously.

User experience: does it matter in complex systems?

This paper explores the concept of user experience (UX) within complex systems in the domain of nuclear power production. The specific context is the development of main control room solutions. As UX has become a prevalent concept in human–computer interaction and related research fields, it is a valid question, whether the concept could bring something new to the research concerning complex safety–critical systems also. In this paper, we introduce the concept of UX as an indicator of the users’ subjective feeling of the appropriateness of the proposed tool for the activity. Based on activity theoretical contemplation, we presume that UX is grounded in the feelings and emotions evoked in the usage of the systems and which concern the status of the whole activity. In the paper, a theory-based characterization of UXs in the particular domain is developed based on three general functions of a tool: instrument, psychological, and communicative. We present the operationalization of UX and three studies in which UXs concerning different control room systems during a control room transformation process were followed. Based on the results of the three studies, we find that the significance of UX as an indicator of quality in use lies in the ability to bring the professional users’ experiences, which are embedded in the inner characteristics of the work and not always observable by external evaluators, to the process of designing new systems. Evidence to support the initial background assumption that UXs may concern instrumental aspects of tools was identified in the studies.

Systems Usability — Promoting Core-Task Oriented Work Practices

A new concept of systems usability is introduced. Systems usability provides a holistic activity-oriented perspective to evaluation of the appropriateness of ICT–based smart tools. The concept has been developed in empirical studies of work in complex industrial environments. The nuclear power plant domain is used here to exemplify the systems usability concept and the method developed for evaluating it. In the chapter, we first identify four practical challenges that the current approaches in usability studies face: task analysis, data collection methods, usability measures, and inferences concerning the interface. As a solution to tackle these challenges we, then, introduce our concept of systems usability. To reach the demands of systems usability, work tools must fulfill all three functions of tools: the instrumental, psychological, and communicative. Because systems usability is visible in practices of using the tools we, finally, demonstrate how the developed method labeled contextual assessment of systems usability (CASU) is used for evaluating systems usability.

Developing a mobile, service-based augmented reality tool for modern maintenance work

In the VTT PLAMOS (Plant Model Services for Mobile Process Maintenance Engineer) project new tools were developed for modern maintenance work carried out in industrial plants by either the plant personnel or personnel of an industrial service provider. To formulate the requirements for new tools the work of a maintenance man was studied with a particular method, the Core-Task Analysis which has its roots in study and development of work in complex settings. The aim was to develop and create concepts for novel tools that would support the development of good work practices in a situation where the work is concurrently undergoing several transformations. Hence, the new tools should have potential to enable and affect new ways of working.

Core-Task Design:A Practice-Theory Approach to Human Factors

This book focuses on design of work from the human-factors (HF) perspective. In the approach referred to as Core-Task Design (CTD), work is considered practice, composed of human actors, the physical and social environment, and the tools used for reaching the actors’ objectives. This book begins with consideration of an industrial case, the modernization of a nuclear power plant automation system, and the related human-system interfaces in the control room. This case illustrates generic design dilemmas that invite one to revisit human-factors research methodology: Human factors should adopt practice as a new unit of analysis and should accept intervention as an inherent feature of its methodology. These suggestions are put into practice in the CTD approach, according to which three general design functions are performed, those being: -understand-to-generalize—empirical analysis of the work at hand, -foresee-the-promise—creation of concepts for future work, and -in ervene-to-develop—participatory development and design of work. For fulfillment fulfillment of each of the design functions, several CTD methods are introduced. The methods are aimed at modeling the core task and analyzing how the actors actually take the core task features into account in order to achieve balance between potentially conflicting demands in action. Thereby, new understanding of the core task is acquired. Further methods focus on projecting the roles and functionality of technologies in the future work and on implementing changes to the work. Specific studies of the nuclear power plant’s control-room renewal constitute an example demonstrating a core task and the associated methods. We argue that the CTD approach offers clear utility for the design of future technology, work, and everyday services and environments. CTD utilizes achievements of practice theory in the social sciences to generate a creative synthesis of Cognitive Work Analysis, semiotic analy is of practice, and the cultural-historical theory of activity. Core-Task Design facilitates dialogue among human-factors experts, design engineers, and end users in their joint development of work. The intended audience of this book is students, researchers, and practitioners of human factors, industrial art and design, and instrumentation and control-system design.

Functional situation models in analyses of operating practices in complex work

Motivation -- In safety critical work it is common to evaluate human activity based on the concrete outcomes it produces. But, in order to understand more thoroughly the possible implications for safety, also profound perspectives concerning the mechanisms producing the outcome are needed. In this paper we introduce a model of control situations that connects human actions with the purposes rising from the domain. This model, labelled functional situation model (FSM) enables analysis of operating activity from the perspective of way of acting i.e. work practice. Analysis of work practices complements the analysis of outcome of activity (e.g. task completeness, errors, time). The aim is to promote adoption of resilient work practices by analysing which ways of acting in a given situation are aiming for the general objective of safety. Research approach -- Research approach is constructive: a formative modelling technique has been created which draws from theoretical roots of functional domain modelling. The exploitation of the models in analyses of operating activity draws from the pragmatist conception of habit. Design -- A FSM denotes a control situation from the point of view of critical functions which are endangered in a situation. The human actions are also depicted in the model, and connected to the critical functions which are aimed to maintain. Implications -- The practical implication of an FSM is that it enables analyses (and evaluation) of operating practices and characterisation of them according to how they take the critical functions and the general objectives of the domain into account. Take away message --Resilience in operating practice assumes that actors are able to make the connection between situational goals of actions and the general objectives of the domain. FSM makes this connection explicit and thus enables analyses of resilience features in practices.

Practises of process control in digital control room: possibilities and threats

This paper introduces an interview study that was carried out in Finland in four conventional power plants. The aim of the work was to gather user experiences on the effects of control room modernisations and digital control room technology on operator work.

Evaluation of systems usability

Motivation -- Development of complex system interfaces can benefit, in addition to the traditional safety focused evaluation, also from a usability approach to evaluation of system performance. But as the users, the information system, and the controlled process constitute a complex system, the usability evaluation method needs to be extended to cover the systemic aspects of the activity under evaluation. Research approach -- The research approach is constructive. By following a control room modernisation case and by conducting evaluations, a method to be used in the evaluation is constructed. Findings -- A new construct: Systems Usability is introduced. Systems usability raises usability evaluation from analysing user tasks to the level of analysing user activity. A method to assess systems usability is outlined. Although the construct has been created in nuclear industry, it has relevance also with regard to other complex systems. Take away message -- In evaluating complex system user interfaces, such as e.g. in nuclear power plant main control rooms, the whole activity in which the new user interface is adopted needs to be considered.

Uncovering the user experience with critical experience interviews

User experience (UX) design relies on comprehensive understanding about the experiential aspects of users and their tasks. Gathering the understanding is difficult and there is a need for cost-efficient ways to build the UX knowledge. This paper describes a study where the critical decision-making method (CDM) was adapted to user experience research and tried-out in process industry context. CDM is a retrospective interview strategy, which aims to elicit the insights of decision-making of professionals through a walkthrough of non-routine decision-making events. Our adapted version of the CDM, critical experience interview, utilizes the structure and core logic of CDM but focuses on experiential and emotional factors instead of reasoning and decision making ones. The strengths of the critical experience interview lie in the multiple viewpoints and iterative interview strategy. In the study, the critical experience interview was able to produce useful and rich descriptions of work related experiences of the interviewees.