The human factors evaluation program of a control room: The French EPR approach

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain how a human factors evaluation program has been constructed over the last 10 years in the French energy company (Electricité de France [EDF]). This program evaluation is conducted by a human factors team from EDF Research and Development (R&D), specialized in ergonomics and involved in the EPR Project for the operating means and the control room design. Of course, other kinds of experts have been associated, such as designers, future end users, and current end users of control rooms. This article is focused on the methodology developed for this evaluation program. The test protocols, the characteristics of the sample, the data collection, and the data analysis are described to understand the qualitative approach performed and their interest for the French EPR. An example of an evaluation step, based on the simulation of the future activity, is described and discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.