Towards a design pattern language to assist the design of alarm visualizations for operating control systems

Abstract

With the growing emphasis on visualization as a mechanism for analyzing and exploring large and complex data sets, visualization research has recognized the need of reusing prior design knowledge instead of starting from scratch. This fact is especially relevant in designing control systems in which alarm visualizations are key artifacts for human operators to maintain an awareness of the state of the process under control. In this context, there is a plethora of design material in the form of design rules that collect design knowledge about known ways to design alarm visualizations. However, these design rules can be too abstract, not comprehensive enough, and loosely coupled, being difficult to be interpreted and applied by non-experienced designers. Aiming at overcoming this situation, this paper proposes a design pattern language as a fitting approach to disseminate reusable alarm visualization design knowledge. The final aim is to provide designers with an easy access to the existing body of knowledge of recognized alarm visualization design solutions for operating control systems.