Control Room Design

We have advised on and assessed many types of control rooms in Australia and Asia over the past twenty-five years, covering a range of industries and applications. Using data and methods from ergonomics (which means “Fitting things to people”), we help ensure the best outcomes in console design, equipment layout, seating, storage, cable management, lighting, vision, displays and interactions.

Ergonomics in control room design addresses issues of who operates and supervises processes, their relevant attributes (size, shape), when and how they use displays, controls and equipment in times of normal, emergency, start-up and maintenance modes. Ergonomics gives important insights into how people actually see, move, understand and sense their surroundings and how they manage and respond to information, alarms or the abnormal. It assists with fatigue control, vigilance, shift design, surveillance, and health. It provides a structured method to analyse tasks and operator relationships, and is a powerful tool in developing control rooms since it considers the breadth of human behaviour, size, strength, abilities and limits.

We have experience in a broad range of control room environments including oil and gas, mining, emergency services, air traffic control, security, education, casinos, and prisons.