High Performance HMI

Article#: 00095

Date: 2024-07-17

Author: Radim

1. Development of High Performance HMI (Human Machine Interface) is a response to several challenges in industrial automation:

1.1. Complexity of modern processes: As industrial processes have become more sophisticated, the volume of data and the complexity of operations have increased. It is a challenge to present this information in a clear and actionable manner.

1.2. Safety concerns: Poorly designed HMIs can lead to operator errors, which can have catastrophic consequences, including accidents and production losses. Enhancing HMI design is crucial for improving safety.

1.3. Efficiency and productivity: Effective HMIs enable operators to quickly interpret data and make right decisions, thereby improving overall efficiency and productivity.

1.4. Standardization needs: Inconsistent HMI designs across different systems and industries can cause confusion and inefficiency. Standardizing HMI design practices ensures a more uniform and effective approach.

2. Several authoritative resources provide guidelines and best practices for designing High Performance HMIs:

2.1. The High Performance HMI Handbook: Written by Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, and Eddie Habibi, this handbook offers practical insights into creating HMIs that enhance operator performance by focusing on clarity, consistency, and relevance.

2.2. ISA-101 Standard: The International Society of Automation's ISA-101 standard, "Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems", provides comprehensive guidelines for the design, implementation, and management of HMIs, emphasizing usability and safety.

2.3. Industry publications and case studies: Numerous industry publications and case studies highlight successful implementations of High Performance HMIs, providing real-world examples and lessons learned.

3. Understanding and implementing High Performance HMI is crucial for various stakeholders in industrial automation:

3.1. HMI designers and developers: Professionals responsible for creating HMIs should be well-versed in best practices to design interfaces that are intuitive and effective.

3.2. Operators and technicians: Those who interact with HMIs on a daily basis need to understand the benefits of High Performance HMIs to fully utilize their capabilities and contribute to continuous improvement.

3.3. Safety engineers: Consideration should be given not only to safety measures in safety equipment and safety logic, but also to a well-designed human machine interface that reduces the risk of errors.

3.4. Plant managers and supervisors: These individuals oversee operations and can drive the adoption of High Performance HMIs to improve efficiency and productivity.

3.5. Training and development teams: Providing adequate training on the use and benefits of High Performance HMIs is essential for successful implementation.

4. Implementing High Performance HMI should be considered in the following scenarios:

4.1. Designing new systems: When developing new automation systems, integrating High Performance HMI principles from the outset ensures a robust and user-friendly interface.

4.2. Upgrading existing systems: Retrofitting older systems with High Performance HMIs can significantly enhance their usability and safety, providing immediate benefits.

4.3. Addressing safety and performance issues: If existing HMIs are contributing to safety incidents or inefficiencies, it's crucial to redesign them using High Performance HMI principles.

4.4. Standardization efforts: Organizations aiming to standardize their HMI practices across multiple sites or systems should adopt High Performance HMI guidelines to achieve consistency and efficiency.

5. Learn more on my blog: www.radim-automation.com
For those interested in diving deeper into the world of High Performance HMI, my blog offers a wealth of information, including detailed articles and practical tips. Stay tuned for insights that can help you design and implement HMIs that truly enhance operator performance and safety.

© Radim-Automation, 2020–2025. All rights reserved.
Sharing of this article is permitted with proper attribution (link to the original page).

Related previous articles:

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• Graphic designer
• Make backups, make small changes and test a lot
• Code formatting
• Maintain order in the program code
• Keep the documentation up to date throughout the project
• Talk to operators
• Clear signals
• Design considerations for effective HMIS
• Knowledge gained from a completed project is priceless
• Machine modularization
• Are there also any disadvantages?
• Think critically!
• Design machines with a focus on user's abilities and needs
• Learn from your journey!
• Project leader
• Why do automation projects fail?
• Who will operate?
• Functional and intuitive HMI
• HMI and PLC applications should grow together
• Is the way really the goal?
• Do you really want to start with this?
• More than just start and stop
• Safety first!
• Do the right things and do them right!
• Don't make it worse!
• Introduce the terminology and standardize it!
• Realize every good idea ASAP!
• Industrial evolution - Listen to your customers and follow new trends!
• What does the customer need?
• Don't disappoint your customer!
• Ask questions!
• Focus on target!
• Think on paper!
• Don't hide any problem!
• Check the result!
• Keep it simple!
• Don't leave a work package half-finished!
• Success is not a matter of coincidence
• Choose the right tool!
• Development is evolution
• Transparency and reliability
• From an idea to a consistent system

Related next articles:

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Comment#: 00001

Date: 2024-07-19

User: Radim

"For almost thirty years, industrial processes have been controlled by people looking at computer screens. The displays used should provide the operator with accurate information, as well as assist in both normal plant operation and the handling of abnormal situations.
This goal is rarely achieved. In fact, poor Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) have been identified several times as contributing factors to major industrial accidents. Many of the paradigms commonly used in industrial display design yield far from optimum results.
There has never been a comprehensive and detailed refeence work covering the proper design of process control displays - until now. The High Performance HMI Handbook provides the background, the principles, and the detailed best practices for display design.
The HMI is the tool by wich modern processes are operated. Without proper HMI design, safe an dprofitable operations are much less likely. The High Performance HMI Handbook is highly relevant to any organization concerned with industrial operations, automation, safety, and reliability. The proper principles are now in one place and available to all."

- Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, Eddie Habibi. Plant Automation Services (2008). The High Performance HMI Handbook.

Comment#: 00002

Date: 2024-07-22

User: Radim

"The need for ISA-101 came from the experience and feedback obtained from various industries concerning the use and implementation of many 'bad' HMIs. There are several key elements that routinely were blamed for the poor design of the HMI. Data was now abundant and it began to overload the operator and the graphic displays. The resolution of the displays kept getting better, and overuse of 'fancy' three-dimensional objects and animation and color littered the screens of control rooms across the globe. Operators were inundated with hundreds of alarms with no sense of priority or purpose. Sadly, poor design sometimes had more fatal consequences in the form of major accidents and catastrophes."

- https://control.com/technical-articles/going-gray/

Comment#: 00003

Date: 2024-07-23

User: Radim

"High-Performance HMI is the industry answer for a standardized, easy to use, and more productive HMI graphics system to implement and in some cases, replace a poorly designed HMI.
As we know, operator control of processes is done using a graphical representation of the process, known as an HMI, or Human Machine Interface.

A properly designed HMI:
A properly designed HMI will support a smooth and stable operation of the process as well as notify the operator of an abnormal condition. However, this isn’t always the case.
Many HMIs were poorly designed and implemented, leading to situations that can compromise safety, quality, and profitability.

Many current HMIs make use of
– a broad spectrum of colors,
– unnecessary graphics,
– visual distractions, and
– lack of overall situational awareness.
These, in turn, can result in negative consequences.
Some of these consequences can include poor operating procedures, such as running by the alarms, where an operator is only responding to alarms and not understanding the root cause of the alarm conditions.
In other cases, a poorly designed HMI will result in avoidable upsets and increase the likelihood of less than the optimum response to an abnormal situation.
In the worst cases, a poorly designed HMI has been identified as a contributing factor in some industrial accidents.

HMI design requirements:
Let’s talk about how we got here. Early HMIs were simple depictions of the P&ID of the process that they were controlling and monitoring. This was mostly from the limitations of the computing and graphics power of the times.
As computing power and graphics processors advanced, so did the mindset that a highly complex, data-filled, and visually striking HMI should follow.
We see flickering flames to represent a flare, moving rail cars in loading bays, some have gone as far as to take digital photos of the actual process floor and overlay data on the HMI screens!
Add this mindset to the thousands of systems integrators, and we end up with an industry with no standard displays. Even identical processes can have vastly different HMI screens, depending on who implemented them and what the customer thought that they wanted.
There are HMIs all around the world with
– inconsistent navigation,
– difficult to understand data being presented,
– improper alarm depictions, and
– a lack of display methodologies
presenting the state of the operating equipment.

ISA-101 HMI design standard:
Let’s move away from these HMIs and learn about the High-Performance HMI.
In 2003, the International Society of Automation, or ISA, tasked a group of end-users, operators, and engineers to start working on a standard.
In 2015, twelve years later, they published the ISA-101 HMI Design Standard. It is the set of guidelines, principles, and philosophies for developing graphics on a process HMI. This standard is meant to create
– a more functional,
– easy to understand, and
– information-driven
operator interface.

Proper use of color:
Here we are going to cover the basic concepts of High-Performance HMI. One concept is the proper use of color. Moving away from the intense and colorful graphics, the High-Performance HMI is developed in grayscale, with color intended to be the attention-getter.
Gone are the days of red and green to indicate running or not running. In a grayscale screen, the use of color is meant to indicate an abnormal situation very quickly. It has been shown that the new use of color alone has resulted in a 48% improvement in detecting abnormal situations before alarms occur.
A grayscale screen with no color present means a normal operating plant with no alarms. A quick glance by an operator can confirm this and productivity can increase as the operators do not have to spend time studying a screen to look for abnormal situations.

Use of information over data:
Another concept is the use of information over data. Many HMIs will have dozens or more data points visible on the screen, but nothing for an operator to determine what that data means.
A pressure indicator could read 900 psi, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? By utilizing an indicator of normal range with a process variable, the operator can make a quick decision to take action to correct a situation that is trending away from normal.

High-performance HMI trends:
Speaking of trends, we now are seeing embedded or always visible trends on important process variables. By making these trends always visible, the operator can see a quick overview of historical data and evaluate for any necessary process adjustments before a product runs out of specification or a tank overflows, both time consuming and costly mistakes that can now be avoided.

Keeping the screen simple:
A very important concept in High-Performance HMI is keeping the screen simple and uncluttered. A simple depiction of a vessel with a valve and pump is all that is necessary. Along with that are easy to find navigation buttons that will take the operator to the next step in the overall process.

High-performance HMI colors:
There is no need to show bulkhead fittings, flanges, or non-essential 3D pipe objects. Instead, an ISA valve and pump, using a line to depict process flow are the standard.
When depicting the status of a pump or valve, instead of red and green for running or not running on a pump or open and closed on a valve, High-Performance HMI will use a dark gray status for a pump that is stopped and white for a pump that is running. For a pump that does not send feedback to SCADA, it will be depicted as medium gray.

High-performance HMI display hierarchy:
Proper display hierarchy is critical to a High-Performance HMI. By creating a hierarchical system of displays, the operators can have overall situational awareness, and the ability to drill down to very specific data points when necessary.
There are four levels of hierarchy in the High-Performance HMI:

1) Overall situational awareness
Level 1 is used for overall situational awareness. An operator can see the entire process at a very high level from this screen.

2) More detailed view
Level 2 is a screen that an operator can access to view a smaller and more detailed view than Level 1. Level 2 will call a sub-system or process in greater detail than Level 1.

3) Equipment details
Level 3 is the equipment details screen, such as a pump or a valve. It will include even more detailed data on that particular process.

4) Diagnostics
Finally, Level 4 is the diagnostics screen. This will give the operator access to very detailed information on a processing device and is accessed for troubleshooting purposes.

High-Performance HMI is still a moving target and is still subject to the preferences of the stakeholders. However, it has been shown that when presented with the concepts of High-Performance HMI, operators are eager and excited to implement it into their system.
While all systems are different, utilizing a more standardized model will vastly improve productivity, quality, and safety."

- https://www.realpars.com/blog/high-performance-hmi

Comment#: 00004

Date: 2024-08-05

User: Radim

"Some characteristics and contents of High Perfomance displays are as follows:
- Gray backgrounds are used to minimize glare, along with a generally low-contrast depiction.
- No gratuitous animation, such as spinning agitators or pumps, moving conveyors, and splashing liquids and sprayers. Animation should be limited andonly used to highlight abnormal situations.
- Depiction of process values is made in the context of information, rather than as simple numbers on a screen.
- Important information and key performance indicators have embedded trends.
- There is very limited use of color. Alarm colors are used only to display alarms and nothing else.
- Equipment is depicted in a simple 2-D low-contrast manner, rather than brightly colored 3-D vessels with shadowing.
- Layout is generally consistent with the operator's mental model of the process.
- Navigation methods are logical and consistent.
- A hierarchical structure supports progressive exposure of detailed information.
- Display access requires a minimum number of operator keystroke actions.
- Techniques are used to minimize the possibility of operator mistakes, as well as provide validations and security measures.
- Display elements have consitent visual and color coding."

- Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, Eddie Habibi. Plant Automation Services (2008). The High Performance HMI Handbook. (Page 32)

Comment#: 00005

Date: 2024-08-05

User: Radim

"Poor Graphics have:
- No trends.
- Big flashing flames showing when a burner is on.
- Brightly colored process vessels rendered with 3-D shadowing, as well as 3D process lines and pumps.
- Spinning agitators and pumps, moving conveyors, splashing liquids and sprayers, other such animation elements.
- Detailed depiction of non-changing internal elements of equipment.
- Attempted color coding of process piping with their contents.
- Measurement units (psig, gpm, etc.) spelled out in big, bright text.
- Liquid levels in vessels displayed in bright colors the full width of the vessel.
- Lots of crossing lines.
- Alarm-related colors used for non-alarm related elements.
- Limited, haphazard navigation from screen to screen.
- Inconsistent color coding of various elements."

- Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, Eddie Habibi. Plant Automation Services (2008). The High Performance HMI Handbook. (Page 50)

Comment#: 00006

Date: 2025-01-20

User: Radim

"HMI Development Considerations for Situational Awareness:
John Krajewski from AVEVA walks us through an introduction to HMI development considerations for Situational Awareness. This brief video shows how System Platform & OMI have been specifically tailored to allow operators to glean maximum process information and ease alarm state recognition using modern techniques."

- https://industrial-software.com/training-support/educational-videos/hmi-development-considerations-for-situational-awareness/