Intelligent Interface Design Research Articles

New Approach to SCADA System Screen Configuration Based on the Model of Oil and Gas Pipeline Network

INTRODUCTION： With the continuous progress of science and technology, the monitoring and control of oil and gas pipeline networks have become more and more critical; SCADA systems, as a kind of technology widely used in industrial control, play a key role. The screen configuration of the SCADA system is the core part of its user interface, which is directly related to the operator's mastery of the status of the pipeline network. In order to improve the monitoring efficiency and reduce the operation risk, this study is devoted to exploring a new method of SCADA system screen configuration based on the oil and gas pipeline network model.PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to develop an innovative SCADA system screen configuration method to present the operating status of the oil and gas pipeline network more intuitively and efficiently. The design based on the pipeline network model aims to enhance the operators' understanding of essential information, such as pipeline network topology, fluid flow, etc., so as to make monitoring and control more intelligent.METHODS: The study adopts a new method of SCADA system screen configuration based on the oil and gas pipeline network model. First, the topology, sensor data, and control nodes of the oil and gas pipeline network are comprehensively modelled. Then, through the design principle of human-computer interaction, the modelling results are integrated into the screen configuration of the SCADA system to realize the intuitive presentation of information. At the same time, advanced visualization technology is introduced so that the operators can understand the real-time changes in the pipe network status more clearly.RESULTS: After experimental verification, the new method shows significant advantages in oil and gas pipeline network monitoring. The operators can recognize the abnormalities of the pipeline network more quickly and accurately through the SCADA system screen configuration, which improves the efficiency of troubleshooting and treatment. The visualized interface design makes the operation more intuitive and reduces the possibility of operating errors, thus improving the safety and reliability of the pipeline network.CONCLUSION: The new method of SCADA system screen configuration based on the oil and gas pipeline network model has achieved significant results in improving monitoring efficiency and reducing operational risks. Through a more intuitive and intelligent interface design, operators can have a more comprehensive understanding of the operating status of the pipeline network, which provides practical support for rapid response and decision-making. This approach introduces new ideas to the field of oil and gas pipeline network monitoring, which is of positive significance for improving the overall performance of the system. Future work can be carried out to optimize the interface design further and expand the applicable scenarios.

Designing information fusion for the encoding of visual–spatial information

In a simulated aircraft navigation task, a fusion technique known as triangulation was used to improve the accuracy and onscreen availability of location information from two separate radars. Three experiments investigated whether the reduced cognitive processing required to extract information from the fused environment led to impoverished retention of visual–spatial information. Experienced pilots and students completed various simulated flight missions and were required to make a number of location estimates. Following a retention interval, memory for locations was assessed. Experiment 1 demonstrated, in an applied setting, that the retention of fused information was problematic and Experiment 2 replicated this finding under laboratory conditions. Experiment 3 successfully improved the retention of fused information by limiting its availability within the interface, which it is argued, shifted participants' strategies from over-reliance on the display as an external memory source to more memory-dependent interaction. These results are discussed within the context of intelligent interface design and effective human–machine interaction.

Assistant agents for the world wide web intelligent interface design challenges

The development of ‘intelligent’ or ‘adaptive’ user interfaces has been a strong research theme in Human–Computer Interaction for many years, with the terms often used interchangeably. In this article we will argue that seeing these terms as interchangeable can be misleading and can have implications for the expectations of systems both from the designer’s and user’s perspectives. We will suggest that the emphasis at the interface should be on adaptation, leaving intelligent behaviour to the user. The article argues that realistic expectations of available interaction information must be maintained when specifying the behaviour of an adaptive interface, such as the one containing agents. This article illustrates the process of the design and implementation of a set of software agents which act as Web Assistants, aiding the user in browsing the world wide web (WWW): issues in specifying the agents’ functionality and adaptation characteristics; issues in designing the adaptation and inference rules required for each agent and implementing and integrating them within a user interface. The process raises both architectural and implementation issues which lead to conclusions drawn at the end of the article, concerning adaptivity versus intelligence and considering specifically the quality of interaction information available and the need to maintain realistic expectations on the part of the designers of adaptive systems.

Bridging the Information Transfer Gap: Measuring Goodness of Information Fit

The ability to determine, a priori, how well an interface design meets the information needs of a user—that is, to ‘bridge the information transfer gap’—is a critical component of any intelligent interface design system. Yet most current approaches either sidestep the problem of computationally measuring ‘goodness of fit’ by compiling design knowledge into a set of pattern matching rules or, at best, use a very limited set of parameters in scoring. We describe a formal representation for capturing the information needs associated with user tasks and the information conveying capabilities of interface elements. A multifaceted scoring technique, using this representation, is presented for assessing a design's goodness of fit against current user requirements. The hallmarks of this approach are the explicit representation of the goals of good user interface design, evaluation of a proposed design against these goals and a computational approach to performing tradeoffs among these goals when incompatible. Finally, we report on the implementation and user acceptance of this design in an adaptive interface application for military attack/scout helicopters.

Knowledge as Design: A Methodology for Overcoming Knowledge Acquisition Bottlenecks in Intelligent Interface Design

This paper documents the historical perspective of ‘knowledge as design’ as a natural human philosophy which necessarily resulted in user centered design praxis. A revival of this philosophy is called for in the presentation of the advanced knowledge and design acquisition methodology. The application of this methodology for overcoming bottleneck problems and alleviating brittleness in the Pilot's Associate is described and evaluated. The paper discusses three specific techniques designed to capture these perspectives: IDEF modeling, concept mapping, and design storyboarding. An integrative structure combining these techniques is proposed as an interactive way to let users, as well as other design team members, assimilate, progressively deepen, and combine knowledge for the purpose of developing intelligent systems and human-machine interface designs. Results indicate that pilots were able to successfully reveal their own comprehension of an air-to-ground mission and transform conceptual knowledge into actual designs for an intelligent pilot-vehicle interface.

Intelligent Interface Design: An Empirical Assessment of Knowledge Presentation in Expert Systems

This research evaluates intelligent interface requirements for knowledge presentation in an expert system used for diagnostic problem solving. In a field study, interactions between employee expertise, knowledge presentation format (procedural vs. declarative), question type (requiring abstract vs. concrete knowledge organization), and task uncertainty are examined for employee problem-solving and decision-making performance (speed and accuracy). Also evaluated are confidence in system recommendations and lines-of-reasoning, as well as user satisfaction with the system interface. The study provides findings that are discussed within the context of intelligent interface requirements for organizational information systems. The results show that high-skill users perform significantly faster and more accurately when solving the problems and have self-reported confidence ratings that are higher than those of low-skill users. The expert system, however, has a greater impact on improving performance for low-skill users than for high-skill users. A relationship is found between skill level and task uncertainty indicating that different skill-level users require different presentation formats paralleling their conceptual representations of the problem. The interaction between skill level and knowledge organization is confirmed with results showing that low-skill users perform faster than high-skill users on questions requiring concrete knowledge organization; whereas high-skill users perform better when presented with questions requiring abstract knowledge organization.