“Human Machine Interface (HMI) Design:

the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and What Makes Them So)”

with Paul Gruhn
Training Manager at ICS Triplex (a Rockwell Company)

This is a past event and is preserved for historical reference.

Venue: The HESS Club

Planes crash, plants blow up, and people die because of poor HMI design. Many HMIs actually impede rather than assist operators. Many of the poor designs are holdovers due to the limitations of early control systems and the lack of knowledge of system designers. However, with the advent of newer and more powerful systems, these limitations no longer apply. Also, decades of research has identified better implementation methods. Unfortunately, change is difficult and people continue to follow poor design practices. In fact, some new designs are actually worse than older designs! Just as a computer is not a typewriter, new HMI designs should not mimic those of old. The problem is that many designers often simply don’t know any better. This presentation will review why certain HMI designs are poor (with many examples) and show how they can be improved.

Paul Gruhn is the Training Manager at ICS Triplex (a Rockwell Company) in Houston, Texas. Paul is an ISA Fellow, a member of the ISA 84 standard committee, the developer and instructor of ISA courses on safety systems, and co-author of the ISA textbook on the subject. He is a former President of the Houston Section and has held many other positions within ISA both locally and nationally. He has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Texas, and an ISA 84 Expert.

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