FEATURE Machine safety
A well-designed user experience (right) reinforces situational awareness, limits unnecessary cognitive burden, and steers operators toward appropriate actions when speed and precision are essential, especially in high risk environments such as chemical plants (left)
operator’s capacity to rapidly comprehend system conditions, identify what requires attention, and anticipate upcoming developments. To support this, the interface must present information in a clear and intuitive manner, allowing operators to immediately understand the current state of the process, recognise abnormal behaviour, and make sound decisions without the need to hunt for information or mentally piece together essential data.
“When situational awareness is strong, operators can respond faster and more accurately, reducing the risk of errors and unsafe conditions,” said Flink. In the case of alarms, for example, maintaining situational awareness requires deprioritising non-critical information and ensuring that key information is placed where operators can easily see it and act upon it. In an industrial control room, thousands of alarms can appear in seconds. Operators then have only a few seconds to find the real issue and take corrective action. In these high-risk environments, where chemicals
and flammable materials are present, a well- designed UX can make the difference between a near-miss and a major incident. “Plants do not want to be managed blindly by alarms alone. Instead, they require clear situational awareness that provides the proper context to effectively address abnormal conditions when an alarm occurs,” said Flink. In addition, operators’ roles have expanded and one person often oversees multiple processes, sites, and equipment. The solution is not to add more displays to control rooms, however. Without clear structure data quickly becomes noise, delaying responses and increasing the likelihood of human error. “The human factor is the biggest contributor to operational hazards. Misinterpreting a value or making a small mistake can be enough to trigger a serious incident,” explained Valtteri Mustonen, Solution Manager at Valmet. “Emergency situations develop very
quickly,” said Mustonen. “Operators must be able to see immediately what is happening so they can react quickly and in the right way. Ultimately, safety in process industries
is influenced not only by technology and procedures, but by how effectively people are able to perceive, interpret, and act on critical information. By organising information in a manner that
reflects real operating conditions, effective UX design helps stop errors before they escalate and makes a direct contribution to safer, more reliable process operations.
Valmet
www.valmet.com
automationmagazine.co.uk
Automation | June 2026
15
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