| Man-made systems in complex work domains have mixed continuous and discrete event driven dynamics. One of the typical examples of a complex work domain is the process plant (e.g., the nuclear power plant). These systems cannot be fully automated due to its complex dynamics. This means that both machines and humans share the responsibility for manipulation and control of these systems. In these systems, humans serve as both a supervisor and an operator. An interface between machine and human is thus of vital importance. One of the most important problems is the information content that should be put on an interface display, and the principle governing the solution to this problem is called interface design framework. This thesis describes a novel interface design framework.;Several ideas are fundamental to the development of this framework. First, an interface design is based on a plant system design model. Second, a general design model, which is based on the function, behavior, and state paradigm, is employed to represent domains of a system under design. Third, the skill-, rule-, knowledge-based problem-solving framework is effectively employed. Fourth, more comprehensive experiments, which include three categories of measurement techniques, namely the subjective rated measure, the performance measure, and the eye movement measure, are developed. Finally, an existing interface design framework called the ecological interface design framework is used for comparative study in order to generate a more accurate conclusion.;Both theoretical analysis and the experimental results have shown that the proposed framework, as opposed to the ecological interface design framework, can better achieve the goal of assisting the operator in solving complex problems in an unanticipated situation in the context of the process plant. The proposed framework generates an interface of the ecological kind, which seems to be a de facto psychological foundation for humans to percept things. Therefore, it can be used for many other simple work domains. |
