Control Rooms in Safety Critical Contexts: Design, Engineering and Evaluation Issues

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has been focussing on the design of new interaction techniques and the understanding of people and the way they interact with computing devices and new technologies. The ways in which the work is performed with these interactive technologies has arguably been less of a focus. This workshop aims at addressing this specific aspect of Human-Computer Interaction in the control rooms domain. Control rooms are crucial elements of safety-critical infrastructures (e.g., crisis management, emergency medical services, fire services, power supply, or traffic management). They have been studied in terms of Human-Computer Interaction with respect to routine and emergency operations, human-machine task allocation, interaction design and evaluation approaches for more than 30 years. However, they are dynamic and evolving environments with, for instance, the gradual introduction of higher levels of automation/autonomy. While state of the art control rooms are still characterized by stationary workstations with several smaller screens and large wall-mounted displays, introducing mobile and wearable devices as well as IoT solutions could enable more flexible and cooperative ways of working. The workshop aims at understanding how recent technologies in HCI could change the way control rooms are designed, engineered and operated. This workshop is organized by the IFIP WG 13.5 on Human Error, Resilience, Reliability and Safety in System Development.