Course content

This course provides you with a comprehensive understanding of human factors for control room design. It emphasizes the importance of human-centered design to meet the challenges of automation and remote control. Participants will explore the theoretical foundations of human factors and best practices for designing safety-critical user interfaces and control rooms.

The course covers key topics such as:

• Human factors principles
• Human-centered design for safety and usability
• Standards relevant to design of safety-critical systems
• Addressing design-related errors for minimizing risk in highly automated systems
• Prototyping and evaluating user interfaces
• Understanding and designing for workload, situational awareness, and user needs

Through interactive seminars and project-based exercises, participants will gain practical experience applying these concepts to real-world projects. Some of the examples used in teaching come from the maritime sector.

Learning outcome

Upon completion of the course, the candidate will be able to:

Knowledge:

• Understand human factors principles and their application in control room design.
• Recognize the importance of human-centered design to ensure efficient operations in safety-critical domains.

Skills:

• Apply knowledge of human factors and ergonomic principles in human-centered design of safety-critical operations.
• Develop and evaluate prototypes of user interfaces and control systems.
• Apply basic methods in risk assessment.
• Evaluate cognitive load, situational awareness, and quality of use using quantitative and qualitative methods

General competencies:

• Analyze design choices for their impacts on human operators.
• Communicate design insights and safety recommendations effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
• Advocate for human-centered approaches in the development and deployment of technologies.

Learning methods and activities

The course is seminar-based, combining lectures, discussions and practical activities.

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

Participants are recommended to have a basic understanding of safety-critical systems and knowledge of engineering design principles.

Required previous knowledge

Admission requirement is twofold:

1. Completion of a degree (180 credits)

2. Minimum two years relevant work experience

You must document employment with a certificate from your employer describing the type of job and work tasks, full-time equivalent percentage, and duration.

If you do not have a bachelor's degree or equivalent completed education of at least 180 credits, you can request an assessment of prior learning of your admission criteria.

Course materials

• Selected works on human factors and safety-critical systems

• Relevant standards and guidelines for human-centered design of safety-critical systems

A detailed list of course materials will be available at the start of the course.